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Moving from one Toronto home to another can either be daunting or a hassle-free endeavor – depending entirely on the amount of planning you put into it. The best way to ensure that your move goes smoothly is to plan it smartly. By “planning smartly” we mean setting up timelines and goals for each stage of the process. It is only with meticulous planning and prep that you will be able to achieve a stress-free move.
 
Once you have sold your home and you are anticipating moving into your brand new Toronto home, it is time to start planning. Make a list of all those items that need to be done before you leave your old residence. We’ve compiled a brief checklist of things you should plan for before you move:
 
2-3 month before:
Find movers
Sort your stuff into piles to give away, keep or sell
 
4 to 6 Weeks before moving
Set-up mail forwarding
Get boxes and moving supplies and begin packing
2 to 3 Weeks before moving
Get phone service set up at new home
Arrange for utilities at new home
Change address on driver’s licence
Get files and prescriptions from doctor
Change addresses on subscritions, clubs, associations
Alert family and friends on change of email address if applicable
 
2 to 7 days before moving
Pack a suitcase that you will be traveling with
Pack essentials
Clean premises
 
Day of move
Supervise movers
Walk through home to ensure nothing is missing
 
The more you do before your move date, the better off you’ll be when the big day arrives.

Downsizing from your large Toronto home to a smaller place is a very personal decision that will be driven by several factors including your short and long-term goals, your financial situation and what you want your lifestyle to be.
 
The hardest part when downsizing is letting go of the past and the memories built in your family home. Naturally after building a life and raising a family in a certain place, cutting those ties will be a difficult thing to do. If you were used to hosting large family gathering during the holidays, it will mean that those traditions will have to change. However, if you are prepared to make that shift, then downsizing can be very liberating.
 
If you want to travel or just have more free time for yourself, then moving to a smaller place is an easy decision – especially if you trade in for a condo complex with full amenities. Even if you trade in for a smaller house with less property and maintenance costs will free up your time to do other things.
 
If you are now on a fixed income and your taxes and the maintenance costs on your big home keep going up and you are unsure of how you will sustain it long term, then selling and moving to a smaller townhome or condo will liberate your cash flow and even give you some investment money.

The other option would be to sell your big place and to rent – yes, rent! Contrary to the mantra of only investing in real estate, if you have a significant gain from the sale of your house, then investing it with a reputable wealth management company can provide you with a steady income in interest while preserving your capital and freeing you up from maintenance and worries about taxes.
 
Most people find downsizing a hard decision to make, but once made, it is often cited as one of the best decisions that they have gone with.

If you are wondering when you should move into a bigger Toronto house, the answer is actually not that complicated: when you feel ready. I know – this is much easier said than done. Understanding whether you are ready or not depends on several factors:
 
Your after tax/deductions salary
The appreciation in your current property
The area you want to move to
What you want in a larger home
Whether your current living situation is sustainable
 
Your after tax/deductions salary
The first item on this list is probably the most important one. If your take-home pay has not changed since you first bought your home, then you have to properly evaluate whether you would be able to realistic finance a larger property. If you have plenty of room left over at the end of the month for saving and spending, then you might be able to do it, but the only way to really determine whether you can support a larger home is put the numbers done and to project what your living expenses would be. Find out how much of a mortgage you would have to carry for a larger home, find out what the taxes would be, look into the utilities and maintenance costs and put all of these on your projected budget. If you can sustain the increase in maintenance and carrying costs, then you might be ready to move to a bigger house.
 
The appreciation in your current property
If you current property has increased dramatically in value, then even if your salary hasn’t increased a large amount, the gain can be applied to a larger home to bring down the mortgage you would have to take out on it – making it more manageable and feasible to move to a larger place.
 
The area you want to move to
If the property values in the area you want to move to have increased beyond what you can support financially (even with an increase in your own property), then you might want to reconsider moving or you might want to choose a different area. To ensure an easy and stress-free move, it is critical that you choose a property that is financially sustainable. The last thing you would want it to be house-poor.
 
What you want in a larger home
If you want your next home to have all the bells and whistles and be an executive-style property, then you should have the salary to sustain it, the increase in property value to give you the deposit you need and be found in an area that is affordable for you. However, if what you want is relatively modest and you are willing to put in some work to personalize it, then you can probably find something that will get you into a larger home sooner.
 
Whether your currently living situation is sustainable
The last factor on our list is also quite critical. If you are living in a two bedroom condo with three kids and another on the way, then you might need a larger place sooner than a family that is already in a three-bedroom home but want an ensuite or finished basement.
 
In the end, only you can determine whether you are ready to move to a bigger place. However, we hope that our list of things to look for has been of help.

If you are like most Toronto homeowners, at one point you will likely find yourself thinking about moving to a large home. However, given the current high price of real estate in the GTA, this is easier said than done. It is understandable for people to wonder how they will ever be able to climb the house ladder if they don’t earn enough to finance the large deposits. There is a simple way of moving up this seemingly unscalable climb if you are on the outside – the trick is to simply get in the door. Really.
 
As long as you are able to put together the deposit for your first home, then the rest will be easier. Once you have one property, you can use the appreciation value in that home towards financing a larger one.
 
For instance: if you purchase a condo for $200,000 and you put a $40,000 deposit on it your mortgage is $160,000. In a few years the condo will appreciate in value to about $320,000. Assuming that you have paid toward your mortgage you should have reduced your mortgage to about $145,000 and you should realize a gain about about $160,000 after closing costs (realtor, notary, moving charges, etc…) . The $160,000 can now be used as a 25% deposit on a home worth $600,000 or a 35% deposit on a home worth $450,000 – both values purchase you a much bigger place than the initial condo you started out with.
 
By trading up every few years, you can realize your dreams of larger home ownership regardless of what you start out with. Assuming that your salary will rise as your work experience and careers grow, sustaining a larger home will become easier. On the other hand, if you are happy in a smaller place, then you can use the profit from your sale to buy something in a less expensive, up-and-coming area, thereby further reducing your mortgage.
 
Regardless of how you play the game, real estate investment is usually a solid financial vehicle.

If you are a first-time Toronto home buyer, you must be wondering how to finance your first place. With the cost of renting nearly on par with actually buying a home, saving for a downpayment can be challenging. Since you need to put down a minimum of 5% for a high-ratio mortgage, you’ll need to figure out based on your income, ability to save and desire to own property and your timeline for getting into your own place, then it’s a matter of building a strategy.
 
The best way to determine what you can afford and how quickly you can raise a downpayment for your first place is by creating a realistic budget and projecting how much you can save every month and how much that will total in one year. Next you have to figure out if you want your first place to be a condo or a single family dwelling as that will definitely impact the price of the property you will buy and how much you will need to save for the down payment.
 
Several factors will affect how much your first property will cost – property type, location and condition. Generally the further out from the city, the lower the cost. Condos will be less expensive than townhouses, which in turn are less costly than detached homes. Resale properties also tend to be more affordable than new ones.
 
If you want to move into your own place as soon as possible, then set your house-hunting budget at a modest amount – say something under $300K. It will mean a down payment of $15K. If you can only save $5000 a year, then it will take you 3 years to gather the money. If you can save more, then it will be less. However, keep in mind that you will also need to save up the closing costs, which tend to run another $5,000-$15, 000 due to notary fees, welcome taxes, back taxes, insurance, etc…
 
Financing your first home is always the toughest part – but after that moving up is simple as you can draw on the equity of your existing property to fund your next home. As long as you are disciplined and have a goal in mind, you can make your dreams of home-ownership a reality.

Now that you know what you want from a new Toronto home, the next thing you need before hitting the market, is finding your mortgage comfort zone. Your comfort zone is what you can easily pay every month without fear of stretching your budget too far. Determining this comfort zone is crucial to buying a home that is as much as you can handle and not more. Too many people find what they think of as their dream home, make an offer and move-in, only to them realize that they are now house-poor. They can pay their mortgage, but that’s it. They can’t afford any extras.
 
So, how do you find out just how much you can comfortably afford? It’s not hard. You just have to create a realistic budget projection based on your after tax take-home pay and all of your fixed expenses. Create an excel sheet where you list all of your monthly income. Only include your after-tax salary. Although banks will approve you at your before tax salary, that gives a false picture of what you can afford. It is always best to work with money you actually have in-hand.
 
Once you have listed your monthly income, next list all of your fixed expenses – these include anything that you cannot change such as rent/mortgage, insurance, debt repayment, car loans, utilities. After that list your moveable expenses such as food, gas, entertainment, restaurants, clothing, etc… You will quickly see what your spending picture is. The key to projecting a realistic budget is to estimate how much your new mortgage would cost every month and by how much your insurance, maintenance and utility bills will increase and include those numbers, as you will then get a much more accurate idea of what your extra overhead will be and how that will impact your monthly bottom line.
 
To find out how much a mortgage will cost, you can use any of the mortgage calculators that are offered online by the big banks. They are relatively accurate and will give you a solid idea of how much you can be expected to pay at different mortgage amounts and at different rates.
 
If you go into your next Toronto home purchase clearly cognizant of what it entails, then you can hit the market with confidence knowing that you can fully support the home you eventually buy.