House Hunting Updates: Condo Up for Sale
February 21, 2010 Posted by Tyler CruzI haven’t posted for nearly a week because I’ve been taking care of a few odds and ends away from the computer including continuing my house hunting.
There have been a number of interesting house hunting developments this past week, and things seem to be moving pretty fast. While I had been looking at houses online for the past few months, it was really more a type of dreaming than it was a reality.
It was only this past week or two when I actually decided to stop dreaming of selling my condo and buying a house, and actually took the steps to initiate the process.
Here are some of the recent developments:
Canadian Finance Minister Tightens Mortgages
The day after I made my House Hunting Updates post, the Canadian Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, announced some changes that are going to be put forth in April (16th, I think it was) that will basically make obtaining mortgages more difficult.
I asked my mortgage broker if this would affect me, but she didn’t seem too worried, mainly because I was already pre-approved. Plus, I’m putting down close to a 20% down payment so the new rules hopefully shouldn’t affect me.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will announce new rules Tuesday aimed at preventing homebuyers from getting into financial difficulty when mortgage rates rise, CBC News has confirmed.
“Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is set to impose new rules aimed at preventing homebuyers from getting in over their heads with mortgage debt.
Sources say the measures will discourage reckless real estate speculation, such as borrowing heavily for an investment property that is not the investor’s primary residence. Flaherty is also set to deter households from taking on more mortgage debt than they can afford to repay when interest rates rise, as they are expected to do later this year.
The finance minister is also expected to discourage people from raising cash by refinancing their homes with larger mortgages — again because they may not be able to make the payments at higher interest rates.
The Canadian Press reports that Flaherty will implement a debt affordability or income test that applicants must pass to qualify for mortgages insured by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
There has been speculation that Flaherty might raise the minimum down payment on a home — now five per cent — and lower the maximum amortization period for mortgages — currently 35 years.”
Source: CBC News
My Condo is Now On the Market
It’s futile and pointless to look at houses if my condo isn’t even for sale, so earlier this week I had an army of realtors (3) come to my place and I signed all the paperwork to put my condo on the market.
It’s now officially on the market and on MLS as well as my realtor’s and the Homes & Land website. But really, everyone just uses MLS these days…
I listed my place at $241,000, which is $1,000 lower than the other unit in my building, which is on the 1st floor, so I think that should give me an edge. It also shows that I’m a no BS seller as the other unit was originally listed at $249,000.
This is the first time I’ve ever sold a place so the process is new to me. I’m going to have to clean my place a lot more frequently now, to allow for short-notice viewings. I’m also going to have an open house if my Strata allows for it, which they may not.
It was just placed on MLS this morning though, so it will take a while to sell. The photos one of the realtors took of my place weren’t the best, so I will be cleaning my place in the next day or two and will take careful photos in order to best showcase my place.
I had to do a little bit of running around to get an extra set of keys which I keep at another house to give to the realtors, but really all I’m waiting for now is for somebody to put an offer in.
Engaging in Drive By’s
Yesterday I printed out a list of the houses on my favourites list and drove past several of them with the aid of my trendy GPS (which kept annoyingly falling down from my windshield!).
Even though I had already looked at them on Google Street View (God, could there be a better actual use for Google Street View than house hunting? I love it!), it really is a different experience to physically drive past them. You get a very good knowledge of what the neighbourhood is like, the views, traffic, etc.
I also realized something for the first time last night – I only looked at 4 houses, but all of them seemed to have been a bit too close to the other houses for my liking. I understand that the price range of the houses I’m looking at is not that much, but being fairly close to other houses almost makes me a bit claustrophobic.
But it was really neat to drive past the houses… it makes the whole process much more real. I’m not going to bother actually look at any in person until my place sells, as I think it’d just be a waste of everybody’s time.
Updated Favourites List
Here’s an updated list of some of the houses on my favourites list. House #1 on my previous list was just sold yesterday so that’s off the market. I won’t relist the other 3 I posted last time, so here are 4 others on my favourites list.
I currently have a total of 10 houses on my favourites list, with 19 on my ‘maybe’ list.
House #5:
This is by far the cheapest house on my list, but it’s pretty nice considering the price. I drove past this one last night and am not sure I like the neighbourhood… it’s kind of atop a little private hill in a little suburb area and faces a little forest of thin trees, which sounds good, but… I don’t know. I just got a bit of an eerie feeling, heh.
It’s 2,100 square feet though and on the low end of my price range though, so I could put in granite countertops and such.
House #6:
This house look ugly on the outside which is why I decided to use the yard shot, haha. This one is actually only a few blocks from house #4 above so I drove past it yesterday as well.
It’s right across from a tiny park for kids which I guess is good for resale, but I’m not sure if I’d like that as it’s just extra kid noise, but it’s probably not really a factor.
The kitchen is a bit outdated but it has a real nice office which would work well for me.
House #7:
This house is in a nice little suburban stretch of homes and has incredible mountain views. I drove past it last night at dusk which made it even more incredible. It’s a nice home, but I think it’s too small at 1,550 square feet.
House #8:
This home was only a block away from house #7 above and so I drove past it as well. It’s slightly bigger at 1,600 square feet, making it 50 square feet bigger, but it’s also $5,000 more expensive. And even at 1,600 square feet I think it might be too small. It’s a nice home though, but I think I need around 1,800+ square feet to feel like there’s enough room.
Remember, I work from home so I’m at home 90% of the time, so space is important to me.
Never Underestimate a Good Break
February 15, 2010 Posted by Tyler CruzThe past few days were a bit of a blur.
I have had pretty low energy lately which has made working difficult, and the other day I just did not feel like working at all so I decided to play some poker. After 3-4 hours of building my $200 up to nearly $800, I started to get bored of grinding it out and lost all of it shortly thereafter after moving up limits purely out of boredom. This is always what happens.
After that, I needed something to expend energy on, and since badminton just finished and wouldn’t be available for 4 days, I decided to reinstall good old Starcraft.
Starcraft has never failed to entertain me, and within minutes I was already immersed back into the 12-year-old best game of all time. I basically spent the past 3-4 days (how long it really was I can’t remember) playing Starcraft and sleeping. I did a fair bit of sleeping. In fact, just yesterday I slept for 10 hours, got up for 1-2 hours, then had a 2-hour nap! Then I went to bed only 8-9 hours later and slept for another 7-8 hours!
I did do a tiny bit of work during the past 3-4 days, but it was mainly just writing yesterday’s blog post, and since it was about buying a house it wasn’t too labour intensive to write.
A couple hours ago I uninstalled Starcraft (after losing several games in a row which frustrated me), watched a couple of episodes of Family Guy, and then went to my computer to get back to work.
I grabbed a Red Bull, worked on trimming down some of my unanswered e-mails, and am now writing this blog post.
It was probably the Red Bull, but as I started this blog post I felt real good. Reenergized.
Although to be honest, my eyes are starting to tire right now so I’m going to need to take a bit of a break after I finish this post.
Nevertheless, the effects of my little gaming marathon over the weekend are showing. I am once again interested and somewhat excited about working again. I have a new little project I’m going to be trying with affiliate marketing which I’m curious how it will turn out, and it will feel good to get caught up with the rest of my unanswered e-mails.
Even though I felt really lethargic and hazy over the past few days, I think that avoiding work for the most part was good for me. It was certainly needed.
For those of you who don’t do this for a living and work for yourself at home, you may not realize that this is usually a 7-day, 365-days-a-year job. I work every day, in some capacity. Even when I’m on a vacation I bring my laptop and my Blackberry.
After a while this can really accumulate and have an effect on you when you’re not getting those 2 full days off work that most people get by working a ‘real’ job.
House Hunting Updates
February 14, 2010 Posted by Tyler CruzA couple months ago I posted how I was tired of condo living and was ready to buy a house. I was serious about it and have been scouring the MLS nearly everyday since then, looking at what’s out there and what I can get in my price range.
I met up with my independent mortgage broker, the same one who I worked with when I bought my condo 3 years ago, to ask a bunch of questions as well as go through the process to get preapproved for a mortgage again.
Since I incorporated back in February of 2008, I’ve only been paying myself what I need to live comfortably and not a penny more in order to take advantage of the low corporate tax rate. However, this can create an issue when you want to request a loan from the bank. While my 2007 personal income was very high, my 2008 and 2009 (2009 being based on my T4) years were extremely low.
Since the banks here only take the previous 2 years into account when factoring how much they are comfortable lending you, I was originally not approved for as much as I’d like in order to get a half-decent house. They used to take the previous 3 years, but changed once the whole housing and economic crisis hit recently.
Fortunately, my mortgage broker was somehow able to get them to take my 2007 year into consideration which bumped up my preapproval amount pretty significantly. After factoring in all of the costs of buying a home including closing costs and all that jazz, I am able to afford a house in the $380-$390k range. Since there is always bargaining room, I am looking at homes up to the $425k range.
Location, Location, Location
I’ve been continuing to watch scores of House Hunters, Property Virgins, and My First Place episodes from HGTV to get into the home-buying mood, but sometimes it can work the other way around. It is absolutely insane how cheap houses are in some parts of the US, such as Georgia, Las Vegas, and Texas.
Here’s a video of John Chow and me looking at some houses in Las Vegas about a year and a half ago. Sorry for the shaky camera-work, I was looking at the house and not focusing on the video 
Then again, I’m a lot more fortunate than if I were to buy a place in London or New York. But that’s the thing… I don’t live in a big city yet it’s still expensive here. I guess that’s the price you pay for living on an island.
Closing Costs
The closing costs will suck. There’s CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) which is basically a mortgage insurance (although I’m putting down a pretty decent down payment so it won’t be too much), realtor fees, and a property transfer tax which is 1% on the first $200k and 2% thereafter. So if I were to buy a house at $390k the property transfer tax would be $5,800.
Combined, it all adds up, especially when it’s coming out of my pocket and can’t be tacked onto the mortgage.
Mortgage Penalty
There’s also the mortgage penalty to worry about. Since I was locked in at a fixed rate on my condo mortgage, it’s actually more beneficial for me to get out of it and pay a flat penalty payment since mortgage rates are so low right now.
For the house, I will be getting a variable rate mortgage at prime-1 with the option of locking it down at any time (should rates start to increase). The cost for this will be around $5,000 though, which just adds more money onto the whole process.
Putting my Condo up for Sale
Now that I have been preapproved for a new mortgage and thought things out a bit more, I think I’m ready to put my condo up for sale on the market. I used to work for a real estate company here as their web developer and designer, and they actually specialize and focus on condos, so I’m naturally using them as my agents.
I’ve already been giving the comparables of the other units in my building so I know how much they were listed at, and more importantly, sold for. I now know exactly how much I should list my place at now. I’ll make at least $20k profit from when I bought it 3 years ago, which isn’t too bad. When you look at things that way, it kind of pays for the interest of the mortgage I’ve been paying over the past few years, so it’s like getting a free loan.
Since there is another unit in my building for sale as well, it might bring on a bit of price competition. However, mine is on the second floor and theirs is in the first so hopefully buyers will understand the difference (security and views). The other unit is priced $2k below what I want to list mine at, so we’ll see how that does.
I have no idea how long it will take to sell my place, but I’m hoping not too long. We are currently holding the Winter Olympics in Vancouver on the mainland (I’m on Vancouver Island), so maybe that might help things.
Possible Candidates
Once I got my mortgage preapproval raised, it really increased the number of decent houses out there. Here are 4 houses that tickle my fancy – but there are actually a couple dozen which I’m still considering… I just didn’t have room for all of them here.
House #1:
This is one of my favourites. My main concern is that the kitchen is just a bit small with not a lot of counter space and not a lot of height (for my blender for example). Yes, I nitpick
House #2
Again, there isn’t a whole lot of counter space on this one, and the backyard needs a bit to grow a lawn, but otherwise I like it.
House #3
Nice ocean views but a bit of a weird layout, and a grassed backyard is unknown…
House #4
Pretty nice house, just needs a bit of colour and accents, and some granite countertops in the kitchen. Oh, and I don’t know if it has a grassed back yard which is a must…
Blog Updates: February 2010
February 12, 2010 Posted by Tyler CruzIt’s already been over another 2 months since I last gave an update on how I’ve been evolving my blog.
In these "Blog Update" posts I list any notable improvements, modifications, or milestones related to my blog such as new plugins installed, design changes, or new features. However, I try to only list things here that I haven’t already announced or touched on in other posts.
You may wonder why I make these Blog Update posts, where I mention very small or seemingly unimportant improvements and modifications. Well, while they may not seem too notable by themselves, over time these small things can (and do) make a big impact. The key is to keep looking over your blog or site with a very critical eye and to constantly try improving it.
By simply making small improvements here and there, my blog has evolved by leaps and bounds since its genesis four years ago. So, maybe you’ll pick up an idea or two by reading my blog updates. Feel free to search for my past Blog Update posts to get even more ideas on how you can improve your blog.
New RSS Record
A few days ago, on February 10th, I set a new RSS record of 2,456. During my last Blog Update post on November 17th 2009, my RSS was 2,345 (a new high at that time), so it has only grown by 110 during the past 3 months – roughly +1 per day.
But, it is a new record so I like to acknowledge it anyway.
I’m continuing to fall behind most of my online blogging colleagues (their growth > my growth):
- ZacJohnson.com: 9,264
- WinningTheWeb.com: 5,502
- JonathanVolk.com: 3,766
This isn’t too surprising though. It’s been a week since my last post and I just haven’t been posting very frequently lately. This is mostly due to having too many projects going on these days.
I’ll try to make a conscious attempt to ramp up the frequency of my posts though.
Special Modifications
While the amount of comment spam has always seemed to be on a steady increase the larger this blog grew, I started to receive a ton of spam from one particular user (spambot) in particular a couple months ago.
The spammed comments were made under the guise of “mary” with a URL I will not name here as to not reward their spammed efforts. Now, all of her spam was correctly being identified by Akismet and being placed in the Spam folder, but I was getting around 100 of her comments a day which clogged the Spam folder, making it a real chore to weed out any legitimate and incorrectly identified comments.
If I didn’t check the Spam filter in a week then I’d have over a thousand of her comments messing up the place.
I asked John Chow if “mary” had been comment spamming his blog as well, but he said no.
However, he reminded me that I could use .htaccess to simply deny its IP from visiting my blog.
Instead of simply denying the IP, I came up with a slight variation. I find this method to be more effective since it allows me to redirect the spammer to a page with a custom error message. This way, if a legitimate user is somehow accidentally blacklisted, they still have the opportunity to notify me of the mistake instead of simply seeing a 403 – Forbidden status error.
So now when ‘mary’ (or any user with a blacklisted IP) tries to visit my blog, they are redirected to http://www.tylercruz.com/spammer.html
To do this, I added the following code to the very top of my header.php file:
<?php
// This section blocks chronic spambots by specific IP or IP range, so that they don’t fill up the Akismet spam filter
// Code for multiple IPs: $block = array("xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx", "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx");
$block = array("112.65.19.126"); # comment spambot: "mary" of nobacklinksforyou.comif (in_array ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], $block)) {
// Used to display a custom error in the case of potential legitimate users being blocked accidentally
header("Location: http://www.tylercruz.com/spammer.html");
exit();
}
?>
Feel free to use my little modification if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
WordPress & Plugin Upgrades
As always, WordPress and the various plugins I use are constantly coming out with new versions, and I try to keep up with them the best I can.
Upgraded WordPress from v2.8.6 to v2.9.1
I always like to keep up-to-date with the latest WordPress versions to help protect myself from any security or bug exploits. Therefore, I upgraded WordPress from v2.8.6 to v2.9 which was the “Carmen” major release, and then again from v2.9 to v2.9.1.
I still do all the WordPress updates manually (as opposed to the automatic upgrading) as I trust that method better and also have to modify a few other files by hand each time as well due to certain special tweaks and modifications.
One of the inevitable downsides that occurs when a new version of WordPress is released is that all your plugins suddenly have new updates as well. When you’re updating everything manually and keep records and backups of everything, this can be quite the nuisance… especially when you have over a dozen plugins to maintain.
Upgraded WordPress Exploit Scanner from v0.7 to v0.93
I installed this plugin a few months ago and wrote about it in my previous Blog Update post. I also wrote how 0.7 version caused the plugin to stop working for me. I was therefore hopeful that the 0.93 version would fix those bugs, but unfortunately it didn’t…
You can download the plugin here, and read the thread in which people are having issues with it here.
Upgraded Kimili Flash Embed plugin from v2.0.3 to v2.1.1
I upgraded the Kimili Flash Embed plugin from v2.0.3 to v2.1.1. This is a pretty useful plugin which allows you to embed Flash inside your posts. This is great if you need to add Camtasia videos or Flash games to your posts, for example.
You can download the plugin here.
Advertising Changes
I recently increased the price of my Top Sitewide 728×90 Leaderboard banner slot from $300/month to $325/month simply because I value my traffic quality and don’t mind substituting my own affiliate/referral banners if it’s not sold.
It was just purchased a couple days ago so I need to put the new banner up and mark it as sold out again!
Guest Bloggers Needed
I’m always looking for more guest bloggers to occasionally submit posts on my blog. Why do I want guest posters? It’s simple really: there are times when I’m too busy to write a new post and could really use a guest post to fill in the gap. Since I try to post every day, having a few guest posts on file for when I need them is very useful.
I’m looking for good writers who can write about affiliate marketing, making money online, blogging, marketing, or web development and the articles/posts must be written specifically and exclusively for TylerCruz.com.
In return, you’ll have your name attached to each post which can be linked to your own website. This is not so much for backlinks as it is to gain a bit of exposure and traffic. I’m also fine with you writing a small blurb (1-2 sentences) plugging your own blog within the actual post, either at the very beginning or end.
In addition to having over 2,400 targeted RSS subscribers reading your posts, you’ll also get the benefit of receiving a lot of feedback from readers with the knowledge that you’re writing to a large targeted audience. And, of course, you’ll be helping me out as well 
The way it currently works is once a guest blogger submits a draft, and when I don’t have time to write a blog post, I then publish the draft into a post on the site.
If you’re interested, please contact me with a sample post or two. Please understand that I’m looking for fairly long, well-written posts that I think my readers will enjoy.
If I think your writing style and post-length is suitable for my blog, I’ll upgrade your account to Contributor status within WordPress, so that you can submit a post whenever you’re willing.
