Went for a coffee, came home with a condo

By Jody White on December 8, 2010
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

You can plan all you like, but sometimes you're just along for the ride.

John Lennon once quipped that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. After what happened to me last week, I couldn’t agree more.

I had planned to use all the fantastic advice provided by our MoneySense experts in my quest to buy a condo and blog about it. We’ve written dozens on articles on buying, selling and renting real estate, finding the right insurance, movers and even dealing with taxes. Why not put all that advice into action and share the results with our readers?

So I found three real estate agents to interview and set up meetings with them. I knew exactly what I was looking for and I had all the questions drawn up. But I never got to ask them. The day of my first meeting, a friend of mine sent me a listing in the neighbourhood I was looking in, so instead of meeting the agent at a coffee shop we went to take a look at the place.

One hour later, I put in an offer. Forty-eight hours later, I bought it.

So much for my plan.

Instead of a meticulous approach to finding the perfect condo, I went with an agent I had known for 20 minutes and bought the first place I saw. If you think I’m an idiot for doing so, I don’t blame you at all.

However, the place is located exactly where I want to be, cost less than I was planning to spend and is a rare find in an area dominated by large family homes. Plus, I spent a few months last winter looking at condos at the height of the real estate market madness and I saw enough to know what I didn’t want.

Most importantly, I recognized that it would probably be a long while until a similar opportunity presented itself. So I struck while the iron was hot, and I’m glad I did.

Now all I have to do is decide on a mortgage. I wonder if John Lennon has any musings on that.