What to budget for when buying a home

For Financial Literacy Month, every week we're breaking down a different component of managing your money. And today, we're looking at the extra costs of buying a home. Beverly Wilkes is a financial literacy coach and joins us now. Hi there, Bev. Hello. So, buying a home is probably one of the biggest expenses you'll ever make. And there are costs to it before and after, not just the mortgage alone. Exactly, exactly. So, let's get into the ones that are before. Okay, we actually have a board for this. We do. Perfect. So the first one, home inspection. This is really looking for hidden defects. This could run you about $750 to $1,000. That's something you need to consider. The second thing is a property survey. Sometimes a lender or a bank just wants to be sure that they want to validate the market value of the home that you're purchasing. That could run you between $500 and $900. So have to keep that in mind. And then of course, there's a notary fees, super important. They're really there to make sure of the legality and security of the property that you're buying. And that could run you up to $1,500 and more. And then, of course, there's other things like taxes. And if you need to have some mortgage insurance or some life insurance, consider those fees as well. Yeah, all things good advice there to consider before taking the dive into buying a home. Once you get the keys, though, there are more costs involved, quite possibly. We have another board for you. Exactly. So moving and connection fees. Moving is very important. Pick up the phone, call a few moving companies and ask them. Give them the number of kilometers between your new place and your old place, how many boxes you think you're going to have, and start getting some quotes. That could help you determine how much you could really afford. And then there's some connection fees as well. If you get to reconnect your utilities, like your internet or your phone, call and say, how much are those fees to reconnect? Super important. And then of course, the welcome tax or land transfer tax. That's a nice big formula that the city uses and it provides you with a nice... Bill, about two to three weeks after you move in. So you've got to be ready for that. Yeah, and then there's property taxes, condo fees, potentially if you move into a condo. So much to deal with. So how should we be tackling this? I mean, let's say we're considering buying a home. When should we start thinking about maybe putting a little more money away? Right away. A couple hundred bucks, every couple of pays would be great. Just start putting a little bit of money away so that when you get in, You're not stuck at the last minute thinking, oops, there's a new bill and you don't have it. And then you're going to get into credit card debt or some other debt to pay for it. And we don't want that. Yeah, clearly it's not just the mortgage you're going to be paying, but all of those things add up at the end of the month. Next week, we're going to be talking about what exactly? We are talking about how do you get out of debt, especially high interest credit card debt. Ah, excellent. Very good topic. As we head towards RRSP season too, it'll be interesting to compare, Are there some loans perhaps that you can get to pay down your RSP? Okay, Bev, nice to see you. Thank you so much. My pleasure.