A young couple from Saint-Jérôme needed four jobs to raise the necessary down payment, including an additional $3,500 a few days before the notarial deed, to buy their first house in the Laurentians.
Yan Pinsonneault-Richer and Alexandra Sousa Tavares worked hard to raise a down payment of $23,500 with the goal of purchasing an intergenerational home for $470,000.
In addition to their job as accountants in an insurance company, the two lovers opened their own accounting office in 2020. Despite a tight budget due to their student debts, they achieved their goal.
“It was a dream to have my first house because I had always lived in apartments,” emphasizes Yan Pinsonneault-Richer.
“We went back to school in our thirties. If we don’t do this (to have better salaries and company), with current house prices, we can’t have a house. This is the reality of today.”
After living in an affordable apartment, Yan and Alexandra have to deal with an increase of nearly $2,000 per month for housing.
“It’s fortunate that we will be able to count on the income from the studio in the basement,” emphasizes Alexandra. Luckily, we were able to negotiate a rate of 5.32% instead of 7%.
“When we saw houses costing $600,000 with this rate, we almost delayed our project by a year.”
A curve ball
A few days before their file was formalized at the notary, their mortgage lender threw them a curve ball. An additional down payment of $3,500 to obtain final approval.
“The first analyst considered our business revenues including those for 2023,” added Mr. Pinsonneault-Richer. The second did not want to consider everything.
“We had to redo our entire paperwork because the numbers had changed. With the time remaining before the notary, we had no choice but to accept. Otherwise, we would have had to postpone everything.”
Aside from their student debts which amount to a few tens of thousands of dollars, they did not understand the decision of their financial institution to increase their down payment to 5.6%.
“The qualification rates are so high,” emphasizes Yan. There is a financial institution with which we could not have qualified due to our student debts.”
Not a buyer’s market
It was his wife Alexandra who closed the deal with the seller who had put his house on the market himself.
“When we looked at houses, we still saw several with multiple offers,” says Alexandra Sousa Tavares. I didn’t feel it was a buyer’s market. The sellers still have the big end of the stick.”
And they finally found a house built in 1978 that will need some love in the coming years. It was the price to pay to have the place necessary to develop their relationship and their family.