-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Toronto-Age
- Thread starter EvilMario
- Start date
- Status
crazy monkey
Banned
Billen said:37 year old Swede with a family here. Damnit, I'd like to move to Canada in a couple of years.
Sweden is a nice country !!
crazy monkey
Banned
Billen said:It certainly is, but I'd really like to live in Canada for a while.
you would love it here. Just make sure about employment. It is some time hard to find job for new immigrant. Also if you are coming to Toronto prepared to be multiculturalized.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
You have a family, right?Billen said:I'm from southern Sweden. People from all over here aswell.
But yeah, the employment could pose to be a problem I suppose. Just another IT worker specializing on deployment related stuff.
I've heard amazing stuff about the Swedish education system there. Don't expect anything near as good here.
Jobs are a huge problem right now despite what media outlets are saying. Part-time/seasonal/shit full time jobs like mine are easy to come by. Careers are more different. Still, you got experience in IT and you speak another language, so it may be easier for you here.
cloudwalking
300chf ain't shit to me
EvilMario said:
i did come across this page but i figured it was just some sort of rule to prevent canadian residents from crossing the border and buying all their groceries/clothes/gas in the us all of the time. i doubt they will bother us much though, i mean my father-in-law doesn't even speak english and he'll be driving, heh.
Billen said:37 year old Swede with a family here. Damnit, I'd like to move to Canada in a couple of years.
sometimes i think it would be fun to go back to canada and work there... but i think i'm a fully integrated swiss now
i haven't lived in canada since i was 12 and haven't been back there since i was 17... i am fully prepared to experience a culture shock next month when i get to my own country!J Tourettes
Banned
Tagging as once I've completed my electrician training, Canada (specifically Toronto) is one of the places I'll be considering emigrating too.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
J Tourettes said:
Yeah we have a surprising need for tradesmen here. You should be good to go!
J Tourettes
Banned
Kuro Madoushi said:
Thanks, saw that when I was doing some reading the other day. One of the main reasons for the career change is to make it easier to emigrate and to set up on my own. Can't wait to get out of the UK.
J Tourettes said:
I'm an electrician in Toronto, what discipline are you getting your license in?
To be recognized in every province of Canada you have to pass your "Red Seal Trade" qualification test with 70% or greater. To be able to write there a certain prerequisites you have to meet (going through three terms of trade school and meeting specific hour requirements). I have no idea how they credit people licensed from abroad. There are three recognized disciplines across all of Canada: Construction, Industrial, and High Voltage electricians.
You can find more information here, http://www.red-seal.ca/s.2.1rch@-eng.jsp
Since people are talking a bit about finding apartments to rent and whatnot, would anyone know much about buying a condo?
My girlfriend and I are saving up so we can buy our own place together in the next year or two, but honestly we've only been going off our own estimates of what it would cost to buy a decently nice place. We've been assuming that a decent condo, depending on the area, would cost around 160-200,000, but I honestly don't know much about this stuff. Working with that estimate, we've been aiming to save up enough so as to reduce monthly payments down to something like what we would be paying if we were just renting instead of owning.
We've been leaning towards a condo instead of a house because of the idea that it might be cheaper and we could eventually possibly sell it to help us move into an actual house, or maybe sublet (I think that's the word) after paying the condo off for hopefully some extra money/income. I don't know how these things actually work though so I'm betting there's some restrictions or something that would prevent us from doing that (or make it not worth it).
So does anyone know what areas in/around Toronto have nice condos for reasonable prices? Is it better to just save up for a house instead? I feel divided as I have one friend who bought a condo with her husband and said that they plan to sell it eventually and move into a house, and another friend who with her husband just went straight into buying a house.
My girlfriend and I just don't want to rent as we feel it's like throwing money into a bottomless pit. We're really aching for a place of our own though. We both currently work downtown, but while my girlfriend will likely work downtown for the rest of her career, unless I get stuck in something like where I am now (God I hope not), then I'll likely eventually be working in an area away from downtown Toronto (e.g. Scarborough, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Pickering, etc.). We currently live in Scarborough.
My girlfriend and I are saving up so we can buy our own place together in the next year or two, but honestly we've only been going off our own estimates of what it would cost to buy a decently nice place. We've been assuming that a decent condo, depending on the area, would cost around 160-200,000, but I honestly don't know much about this stuff. Working with that estimate, we've been aiming to save up enough so as to reduce monthly payments down to something like what we would be paying if we were just renting instead of owning.
We've been leaning towards a condo instead of a house because of the idea that it might be cheaper and we could eventually possibly sell it to help us move into an actual house, or maybe sublet (I think that's the word) after paying the condo off for hopefully some extra money/income. I don't know how these things actually work though so I'm betting there's some restrictions or something that would prevent us from doing that (or make it not worth it).
So does anyone know what areas in/around Toronto have nice condos for reasonable prices? Is it better to just save up for a house instead? I feel divided as I have one friend who bought a condo with her husband and said that they plan to sell it eventually and move into a house, and another friend who with her husband just went straight into buying a house.
My girlfriend and I just don't want to rent as we feel it's like throwing money into a bottomless pit. We're really aching for a place of our own though. We both currently work downtown, but while my girlfriend will likely work downtown for the rest of her career, unless I get stuck in something like where I am now (God I hope not), then I'll likely eventually be working in an area away from downtown Toronto (e.g. Scarborough, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Pickering, etc.). We currently live in Scarborough.
He'd have to get a Canadian company to sponsor him and he'd be given a provisional 309a license. Once he's here then he'd have to take the CofQ and get 70% to pass. The company I used to work for did this for one guy from the UK. He failed the CofQ the first time by 3% then passed on his second attempt. I think the provisional license is good for up to a year but I'm not 100% sure.havok666 said:
Firestorm said:
Looks like a lot of events for kids..
http://www.toronto.com/eventResult?q=familyday11
Zips said:
I'll start off my saying this; most people view a condo like your friends. A first time investment that will be sold later and you'll upgrade (larger condo, or a house). If you're looking in the 200,000k range, you can surely find some 1 bedroom condos on the fringe of the city (Swansea here has some older condos in that range), but if you want to actually live downtown it'll cost quite a bit more. Maintenance fees on some newer buildings I've seen tend to be insane as well. I'll let someone else talk to you about condos though, but I mostly hate them.
For houses, there are some deals to be had in the city for smaller 2 bedroom bungalows (250-325k), but not as many as there once was. You'll mostly find these in three locations.
South Etobicoke (west of Humber), Weston Rd (from St Clair, north. The further north, the cheaper), and the East end, generally around Victoria Park and Danforth.
A lot of young buyers like you will buy one of these said bungalows, and then attempt to rent the basement. Being a landlord in this town is no cake walk, but it can definitely help supplement your income and give you flexibility. No bank will approve you for more though because you intend to do this.
My wife and I are also looking to buy in the next three years, or so. We prefer to pay for most of it up front, which we are lucky enough (and smart enough to save) to do.
Zips said:
Renting isn't that bad.
BTW, where are you looking that condos are 160-200K?
Condo ownership carries three basic costs:
Mortgage
Property Taxes
Condo fees
A 200K mortgage at current 5 year fixed rates (big 5 posted is 5.44, you can get 3.95 if you push today) amortized over 30 years (the longest you can go with the new rules) works out to be 945.00/mth.
This is assuming you have the 20% downpayment you need to avoid CMHC mortgage insurance, which would otherwise add at least 2.4% to the size of your mortgage.
Property taxes can vary of course, and condo fees are all over the place - and condo fees can increase every year, as the fees are based on the status of the condo corps reserve fund.
All in all a small 1 bedroom condo in Toronto can easily carry for as much as 1500 a month, or not much different from rent.
The decision making has to be based on your plans.
You have to determine if paying interest on a mortgage + tying up 40K (20% downpayment of a 200K mortgage) + being at the mercy of condo fees and prop taxes and the costs of selling to move (legal fees, mortgage discharge fees, real estate fees, etc.) are worth more than renting, having freedom to move around, and generally lower carrying costs allowing you to save additional capital and deploy it in more effective investments.
Also keep in mind that if you rent out a condo, rent is 100% taxable as income, although as a rental property the INTEREST on your mortgage would be a tax deduction, as would the property tax and most of the condo fees. However if it is a rental property, any capital gain on the property would also be taxable as well. Generally I think a canadian blue chip dividend stock or dividend income fund is better than a rental property, it's tax advantaged, way more liquid, and has a lower risk to both capital and income (your rental property can get trashed by a bad tenant and Bell Canada is more likely to pay its "rent" every quarter than some shlub renting your property...but hey, people still think you can't lose in real estate, right?)
We don't plan on moving downtown and living there as it's too expensive.
Like I said, the 160-200,000 number is just an estimate based off what very little I know about the field. I've seen a couple places advertised within that range, and my friend that bought a condo in Richmond Hill said hers cost something like 180,000 (if I recall correctly).
We would probably end up selling the condo, rather than renting it out. Renting it out has just been a bit of a dream I've had of having some stable secondary source of income. I really have no idea about investments or how to get started with them, though I'd really like to find out how as I feel like I'm missing out on some good potential income there as well.
We're not really interested in moving around much. My concern with settling into a (relatively) fixed position is just that right now I don't know where my long-term job position(s) will be.
The lower carrying costs that you mention Fatghost as being an advantage of renting is a good point, but part of the reason we haven't rented a place together is because at home we aren't subject to any/most of those and have felt that our desire to have our own place is not justification enough for the expense of renting, lower as it may be compared to owning a condo or house.
By my estimates, my girlfriend and I will roughly have a combined 60k in savings by the end of this year. About a half year after that would put us near 75-80k. Basically the three options I've been considering are:
A) Use the money to buy a condo. Live there for probably 5-10 years before moving into a house.
B) Save up further and then put that higher amount towards a house (my friend that bought a $300,000 house put around $100,000 towards it as their downpayment)
C) Split the savings pile into two piles - one for continued saving, and the other to put towards investments (problem with this option being my total lack of knowledge on investments, how to get started with them and how not to lose my money in them) - delaying any purchase of our own place yet further, but possibly/probably(?) putting us on sounder financial footing for now and into the future.
One thing I probably badly need is knowledge of where I can find good sources of information on these things (investment and ownership - the assorted fees that come with it, responsibilities, etc.).
Thanks for the information you've already offered!
Like I said, the 160-200,000 number is just an estimate based off what very little I know about the field. I've seen a couple places advertised within that range, and my friend that bought a condo in Richmond Hill said hers cost something like 180,000 (if I recall correctly).
We would probably end up selling the condo, rather than renting it out. Renting it out has just been a bit of a dream I've had of having some stable secondary source of income. I really have no idea about investments or how to get started with them, though I'd really like to find out how as I feel like I'm missing out on some good potential income there as well.
We're not really interested in moving around much. My concern with settling into a (relatively) fixed position is just that right now I don't know where my long-term job position(s) will be.
The lower carrying costs that you mention Fatghost as being an advantage of renting is a good point, but part of the reason we haven't rented a place together is because at home we aren't subject to any/most of those and have felt that our desire to have our own place is not justification enough for the expense of renting, lower as it may be compared to owning a condo or house.
By my estimates, my girlfriend and I will roughly have a combined 60k in savings by the end of this year. About a half year after that would put us near 75-80k. Basically the three options I've been considering are:
A) Use the money to buy a condo. Live there for probably 5-10 years before moving into a house.
B) Save up further and then put that higher amount towards a house (my friend that bought a $300,000 house put around $100,000 towards it as their downpayment)
C) Split the savings pile into two piles - one for continued saving, and the other to put towards investments (problem with this option being my total lack of knowledge on investments, how to get started with them and how not to lose my money in them) - delaying any purchase of our own place yet further, but possibly/probably(?) putting us on sounder financial footing for now and into the future.
One thing I probably badly need is knowledge of where I can find good sources of information on these things (investment and ownership - the assorted fees that come with it, responsibilities, etc.).
Thanks for the information you've already offered!
Zips said:
Richmond Hill is a nice area but you should look into the property tax and condo fee aspect: you may find that a downtown condo while costing more on the mortgage side is cheaper on the property tax side, and it may be cheaper in other ways (not needing a car/gas/parking, etc). Richmond Hill/Markham/Newmarket/Aurora have higher property tax rates than downtown Toronto. They are also more limited condo markets and the majority of homes are actual houses, which limits your potential pool of buyers when you want to sell your condo down the road.
Lots of people are more comfortable with real estate investments because real estate is easier to grasp as a concept than say, stock ownership or mutual fund participation. Another "advantage" of real estate is because it is highly illiquid, you can't just google a quote and find out how your investment has made or lost money in the past 4 minutes like you can with stocks, so you're less likely to panic on a 10% correction.
The downside is that real estate is in fact quite illiquid. It also has a high carrying cost: you're paying your mortgage, prop taxes and condo fees every month whether you are getting any rent or not. Further, the rental market is so cheap now that it's pretty hard to get a property that generates enough rent to cover the cash flow needs of the property unless you've sunk a lot of capital into the property on a down payment. You have to consider the economic costs of putting that same capital into another investment instead and figuring the relative merits of that.
Finally, rental properties are very often not stable sources of secondary income. Lots of properties have difficulties keeping rented, as often people rent short term while waiting to purchase something for themselves, or, if they are not financially capable of paying a mortgage, they often are late or miss rent payments. And landlords have costs in seeking rents owed to them, so it's not always smooth sailing. And that doesn't even take into account potential damage to the property itself. Essentially like all investments, rental properties carry risks and you should do a lot of investigation and analysis before taking the investment on.
So here is a potential scenario. Say you work for a large company. Say this company has offices in Montreal or Vancouver or New York or Hawaii. Say a position at those offices becomes available and you are asked to do it (or apply for it yourself). Do you think you'll always want to be in the GTA? A big advantage to renting is the ease of leaving. Selling a home is a higher stress, higher cost affair compared to ending a lease.
Are you two living together yet then? It's a big step, and one that shouldn't be burdened with the extra burden of joint property ownership. I'd recommend you rent together first just to make sure the living together thing is going to work out, even if it is just a short term rent like for a few months in the summer.
Also, enjoy living at home, it's a great set up, as you guys have saved a lot of money (which is awesome). Why not try to continue that? At the pace you guys are going at, why not try to get enough cash together to buy a place without a mortgage? You'd be decades ahead financially if you do that.
Keep in mind that housing prices in an area tend to move together. ie: a 200K condo you buy today might be worth 300K in 10 years, but the 4 bedroom house that cost 300K today will be worth 450K in 10 years, which basically means the growth in equity in your condo doesn't get you any closer to that 4 bedroom house you think you might want down the road.
Good idea, but why stop at 100K? Try to save up for the whole thing! A typical mortgage at todays rates tends to add 150% of the purchase price of the house to the total cost (ie: mortgaging a 200K purchase for 25 years usually means you will pay about 500K for the property in total).
This is a good idea too, the earlier you start saving and investing the more money you'll have down the road, provided you have a sound investment strategy and know what you are doing.
The best place to get information is from a financial planner at one of the big 5 banks. They don't work on commission, and they don't charge a fee for service, so they can give you advice to start looking at your options. If you have time and the inclination, taking the Canadian Securities Course at CSI.ca can give you a good grounding on how investments work, it costs 1000 bucks though, but it's the requirement to have a securities license in Ontario so you'd have a solid start if you want to do your own investing.
Firestorm said:
There's a few companies bidding to give us service. To me I'm both for and against it. For one, being stuck on a train full of people screaming over one another on their cells would gett annoying really really fast, but the other side of me wants to be connected at all times incase of an emergency, etc.
Knowing this city though, and the cell phone providers will probably implement an extra charge for us per month and probably call it the underground service and charge $29.95....
J Tourettes
Banned
havok666 said:
Thanks. Once I've finished I'll be a fully qualified domestic electrician (not sure what category that'd come under of the three mentioned by you, construction maybe?), can take other exams/courses at a later date for industrial/commercial.
J Tourettes
Banned
Firestorm said:
Cell coverage on the subway? That still seems to be a long way off for London.
crazy monkey
Banned
J Tourettes said:
I usually never say this even though it is CG your avatar is horrific and quite distracting.
Although most of the skytrain line is above ground in Vancouver, the new line made for the Olympics is mostly underground and we have service.J Tourettes said:
Its just I was trying to meet a friend in a city I'm not familiar with and I couldn't even contact her while in transit aside from the few bits above ground.
I think the situations a phone is useful in outweigh the annoyances of teenage girls. And let's be honest, 90% of the time people use text-based communication and the other 10% are usually hilarious conversations between crazy people!
I don't think they'd be able to charge a fee but hey, it IS Rogers / Bell / Telus...
lunarworks
Member
Please no. The last thing I want is to be stuck in a closed environment with a one-sided cellphone conversation being screamed in Hindi.Firestorm said:
Kos Luftar
Member
Anyone in Toronto-Age forgot to show up for a court date for a speeding ticket? What can I do to reschedule, should I just say I didn't receive the notification? (actually did get but I got the court date letter beginning of last year and totally forgot about it)
You failed to show so you were automatically convicted. You'll have to apply for your case to be re-opened.Kos Luftar said:
http://www.toronto.ca/court_services/faq.htm
I've been on transit for at least two hours a day every day for the past 4 years back home on smaller train cars. It's not as bad as you think. Then again, I usually have headphones on and the homeless people screaming crazy shit are usually more distracting than anyone on a phone ever could be.lunarworks said:
Kos Luftar said:
lol
just pay yer damned ticket.
(but double lol at "should I just lie and say I didn't receive the notification?" Sure, try that. Let me know how it works out for ya, haha. dumbass)
edit: is your username also your username for twitter? And is your twitter name your real name? (since your twitter doppleganger is in the GTA) If so: screencap taken of you admitting to receiving the notification, and will be mailed to court. kthx bye. lol
What are you, a cop?Boogie said:lol
just pay yer damned ticket.
(but double lol at "should I just lie and say I didn't receive the notification?" Sure, try that. Let me know how it works out for ya, haha. dumbass)
edit: is your username also your username for twitter? And is your twitter name your real name? (since your twitter doppleganger is in the GTA) If so: screencap taken of you admitting to receiving the notification, and will be mailed to court. kthx bye. lol
crazy monkey
Banned
rcmp invading life everywhere.Fuzzy said:What are you, a cop?
The OpenMedia Day of Action against Usage-Based Billing is this Saturday. Starts at 1PM but I'll be getting into Toronto at 11 (probably closer to 10:30 since Greyhound usually gets there faster by skipping most stops).
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164597696921562&index=1
Anyone wanna do a mini-GAF meetup of sorts? Lunch somewhere then we can head down to Queen's Park and what I think is going to happen is we split into smaller groups to hand out stuff and spread the message around town. We can do a GAF group!
Wouldn't mind meeting some of you folks.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164597696921562&index=1
Anyone wanna do a mini-GAF meetup of sorts? Lunch somewhere then we can head down to Queen's Park and what I think is going to happen is we split into smaller groups to hand out stuff and spread the message around town. We can do a GAF group!
Wouldn't mind meeting some of you folks.
- Status