1. 4 Signals It Might be Time to
Buy (vs. Rent) Your Home

2. To rent or to buy: what used to be a given that you
would buy a home as soon as you could afford to
has become an agonizing conundrum for many a
would-be homebuyer, in the face of the housing
market’s big bust and slow recovery. Low prices
seem to create a wide-open window of
opportunity, but they also create the concern that
prices will keep falling after closing. And that Catch-
22 has hundreds of thousands of buyers-to-be stuck
on the fence.

3. Mortgage rates are going up. Home prices have
been low for the last several years. During this
same time frame, interest rates have also been
low – this one-two punch has created record-
high affordability for the last four years
running, causing buyers to believe
this window of opportunity
won’t be closing anytime
soon.

4. Rents are going up. Rental rates in many areas
are also on the rise super-tight lending
guidelines have stopped even some who would
like to buy homes from doing so. As a
result, rental homes are in high demand and
rents are rising.

5. Your income and career are stable for the
foreseeable future. The smartest homebuyers look
to their lives, not just the market, for signals about
when the time is right to buy. Home - buying is a
long, long-term endeavor these days. The goal is to
be able to commit to staying in the same
place, geographically-speaking, for 7 to 10 years
before you buy. Most lenders will require that
you’ve been at your job – or in the same general
field of work – for at least two years before you buy.
But that’s the bare minimum – beyond that, you
don’t want to be barely beginning a career in which
you think you may need to move sooner than
that, nor do you want to buy when you’re advanced
in your career, but in an industry which is dying or
downsizing the workforce in your region.

6. You can reasonably predict the home you’ll need in the
years to come. Since successful homeownership requires
that you be ready to be in the place for a good number of
years, best practice is not just to buy a home with the
space and number of rooms you need right now –
rather, you should aim to buy the home you’ll need 5, 7
or even 10 years down the. You might be a newlywed
with no kids now, but you plan to have them in a few
years. Or maybe you’re a newly minted empty nester
right now, but can project that you’ll want to retire - and
might not want to climb two flights of stairs to get to and
from your bedroom - 10 years down the road. Before you
buy, you should be in a position to buy the home that
meets your future needs – not just your current ones; and
that requires that you have a reasonable idea of your life
vision and plan for the future.

7. With that said. . . buying a home is a massive
decision and includes multiple, long-term financial
and lifestyle obligations, so if one or more of these
signals are present for you, that doesn’t mean you
have the green light to run out and buy a home
tomorrow – rather, it’s a good sign you should begin
down that path, if you’re so inclined. You’ll still
need to do the work to make sure your personal
finances and holistic life picture are also in
alignment before you buy, as well of the work it
takes to ensure that your real estate and mortgage
decisions are sustainable and smart, over the long-
term.

8. Are you ready to buy your first home, move up
home or downsize home? Let us know.

9. Randy Bett
Investment Realtor/Author/Investor
Real Estate Professionals Inc.
Better Group Real Estate
202-5403 Crowchild Trail NW
Calgary, AB T3B 4Z1
Phone:403-774-7464 Ext:1
Fax:403-208-0082
Toll Free fax:888-711-6801

10. Randy Bett
www.BetterGroupRealEstate.ca