[Andy M]

Re: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230110

Ok, turns out she didn't get Hamilton or Edmonton. We were hoping for Edmonton at the end because my father's health isn't doing well but I guess I'll have to just be a frequent flyer now. As such, with so little time and so much pressure, I'm turning to E90Post again for your help in my housing search again. First of all, thank you to everyone who's PM'ed me about Hamilton including other people in my situation (soon-to-be married to a medical resident).

Anyway now we're looking into Toronto. I would prefer to live in Markham or Vaughan but for the first 5 years, we'll need to live much closer to the hospital until she's done her residency.

Our budget is <$500,000 and it would be best if close to either Mt. Sinai Hospital or St. Michael's or Sunnybrook. (i.e. within 15 mins of driving)

...and before you even need to ask, good parking IS a requirement. I would prefer to have a garage because I like to do a lot of car work myself like changing my own tires.

In terms of what we're open to, I would prefer a nice house in a good area first but given the locations, looks as though it might be hard to find. Next possibilities is a townhouse style condo or apartment style condo (with nice big parking spots or something that will guarantee that my parking stall neighbor won't come back late at night drunk and park 1" from the driver side door so I am forced to crawl through the passenger side just so I can get the car out to get to work...as you can tell, I've had bad experiences with apartments). An issue I see with the apartment too is that I plan on having the E90 as my summer car and buying a cheap beater as my winter car.

We have no idea what are good areas in Toronto and we have a lot of MLS listings we've gone through but it seems everything near the areas where we want to live is expensive and some of them we don't even know if they're a good area or not.

Anyway thanks for all your help!

[jpsum]

Originally Posted by Andy M

Re: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230110

Ok, turns out she didn't get Hamilton or Edmonton. We were hoping for Edmonton at the end because my father's health isn't doing well but I guess I'll have to just be a frequent flyer now. As such, with so little time and so much pressure, I'm turning to E90Post again for your help in my housing search again. First of all, thank you to everyone who's PM'ed me about Hamilton including other people in my situation (soon-to-be married to a medical resident).

Anyway now we're looking into Toronto. I would prefer to live in Markham or Vaughan but for the first 5 years, we'll need to live much closer to the hospital until she's done her residency.

Our budget is <$500,000 and it would be best if close to either Mt. Sinai Hospital or St. Michael's or Sunnybrook. (i.e. within 15 mins of driving)

...and before you even need to ask, good parking IS a requirement. I would prefer to have a garage because I like to do a lot of car work myself like changing my own tires.

In terms of what we're open to, I would prefer a nice house in a good area first but given the locations, looks as though it might be hard to find. Next possibilities is a townhouse style condo or apartment style condo (with nice big parking spots or something that will guarantee that my parking stall neighbor won't come back late at night drunk and park 1" from the driver side door so I am forced to crawl through the passenger side just so I can get the car out to get to work...as you can tell, I've had bad experiences with apartments). An issue I see with the apartment too is that I plan on having the E90 as my summer car and buying a cheap beater as my winter car.

We have no idea what are good areas in Toronto and we have a lot of MLS listings we've gone through but it seems everything near the areas where we want to live is expensive and some of them we don't even know if they're a good area or not.

Anyway thanks for all your help!

Markham is like a mini chinatown... LOL. Are you chinese?

[ctgazer]

hey andy, umm markham or vaughan isnt going to be within 15 minutes of driving to any of those hospitals you listed.

mt. sinai is in downtown ~ would have to live downtown to be within that 15 minute (ttc) commute. driving within downtown would be more, given traffic, one way streets, and absurb advanced left turn signals.

st. mikes is downtown too. all the hospitals downtown are pretty much within walking distance from each other. you got sick kids, mt sinai's, toronto gen, st. mikes. to be within 15 mins of these, you're most likely looking at a condo which has underground where you could change your own tires.

sunnybrook womens hospital ~ this is located about a third of the way uptown between markham and downtown. you can find smallish older houses in the area for around $500k. its a quiet community not far from anything (subway to go downtown, highway to go wherever, yonge st...for whatever!) best of all, you're close to bmw parkview

[shagkie]

Markham and Vaughn are nice places to live, houses are decent size with lots of garage and driveway space. You're not going to find much houses with garage and driveway downtown for $500K. If want to be within 15 minutes to the hospitals then you'll have to live downtown. Driving from Markham/Vaughn in the morning down to Toronto is definitely not fun.

[MRQturbo]

for that budget....and since you want to live downtown...it will get you a really nice condo...

[BMdblU]

a downtown condo is your best bet .. 500k won't get you much in the city

[who's ur daddy?]

Suburban living for garage space FTW!

Suburban living for the commute FTL!

If you could find a downtown house in that budget, it's going to have a really really small garage, if at all. Condos usually have policies against you doing maintenance work in the underground parking, so your tinkering may be limited.

[MOAB]

Originally Posted by MRQturbo

for that budget....and since you want to live downtown...it will get you a really nice condo...

if your definition of nice is 1000 sq. ft....

[Andy M]

Yeah, I'm completely floored about how expensive TO is.


That's $400,000! Seriously?!

Yeah I know Markham (and yes I'm Chinese too..and no it's more like a mini-Hong Kong in Markham), Vaughan, even Scarborough are pretty far away from all the downtown hospitals but that'll be in five years time when she's no longer a resident and has her own fixed schedule. So basically even if we got a downtown condo, it's temporary for 5 years (still almost cheaper to buy than to rent for 5 years though).

Another alternative is to find a place to live along the TTC Subway which I suppose would make the commute to downtown much better? I think though I will be stuck buying an apartment condo. Now I need to find one with three car stalls (at least two underground). And hopefully big parking stalls at least. I would guess that townhouse condos are pretty expensive too. Thanks for all the replies so far!

[SGxi]

I think there are some new condos in Downtown that has private garages?

[jpsum]

The condos by the CN tower has a underground gargage. I worked in toronto for a year and my boss used to have a pimping apartment there. View of the lake, CN tower, and the stadium!

[Hedges]

Whoops just realized you wanted to purchase! Try out Concord Condo's downtown near the stadium! They are one of my clients too!

[MMOTION]

Hey Andy,

I have to agree with everyone else who's posted that your best bet with that budget and location preferences, would have to be a condo downtown. I just bought a house in the Richmondhill/Markham area, and unless you want to deal with the morning commute every morning, a nice condo downtown would be most ideal for you.

My mom is a broker for Century 21 and my sister specifically specializes in condos in the Toronto area. Let me know if you need any help and I can surely get you in contact with them.

[Andy M]

Thanks guys. Yeah looks like a downtown condo is what I'm going with. This will be for about 4 to 5 years anyway and renting looks pricey ($1200 to $1500/mo so that's $90,000 right there that we won't get back).

I would be definitely interested in any downtown condo with a private garage. That would be really good actually, especially since we'll have two or three cars (I'll have two cars - my BMW and a beater for winters and she MIGHT have a car too).

Once she's done residency and we're both making 6 figure incomes, if we don't want to commute, we'll consider a house in Toronto since it looks like it'll actually take $800,000 to $1 million to buy a "nice" house (i.e. new) in Toronto. I'm still just absolutely astounded by how expensive Toronto is!

[BMdblU]

Curious, why do you have awd if you have a winter beater?

[Mishka_L]

Hi Andy and everyone else in here

I'm Michelle, Gabe's sister. I think I met some of you on Saturday's meet-up in Commerce Gate.

Anyhow, Gabe told me that you (Andy) needed some help in finding a home. I'm a realtor myself and I actually specialize in the downtown area near those hospitals you mentioned. If you need any assistance, you can contact me anytime. Gabe tells me that you are moving to Toronto. If your ever here before your actual move, don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be happy to help.

Nice meeting some of u guys at the meet on Saturday

[MMOTION]

Originally Posted by Mishka_L

Hi Andy and everyone else in here

I'm Michelle, Gabe's sister. I think I met some of you on Saturday's meet-up in Commerce Gate.

Anyhow, Gabe told me that you (Andy) needed some help in finding a home. I'm a realtor myself and I actually specialize in the downtown area near those hospitals you mentioned. If you need any assistance, you can contact me anytime. Gabe tells me that you are moving to Toronto. If your ever here before your actual move, don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be happy to help.

Nice meeting some of u guys at the meet on Saturday

you finally decide to post here. lol

btw, she's the one with the E90 AW 325xi not dropped on 19" staggered rims. and i think she's still peeved that Jaime bought the hartge lip that she wanted. =)

[SGxi]

Originally Posted by MMOTION

you finally decide to post here. lol

btw, she's the one with the E90 AW 325xi not dropped on 19" staggered rims. and i think she's still peeved that Jaime bought the hartge lip that she wanted. =)

Watch this forum closely, I think GregL maybe parting out soon when his lease is up (in 7 months I think), he has a Hartage lip on a stock bumper that he may conside trading with another xi when his lease is up.

[nospleeny]

I would suggest you look for somewhere SUB $400000 unless you're buying right away since houses over 400k will be charged HST starting next year. 400-500 is prorated then 500 is full HST.

I live in Etobicoke all my life and I can't imagine living anywhere else. Traffic sucks everywhere else compared to Etobicoke but there really isn't a whole lot around here. You need to drive to get anywhere.

If you prefer living in the Chinese community, Richmond Hill and Markham are your best bets (for new and upcoming asian communities). No offense to anybody... but for established asian communities, try Scarborough, but recently higher crime than the prior mentioned cities. (or at least what's reported in the news)

[Soni]

living Downtown FTW!! I bought a over 1600 sqft Loft for less than $500,000 2 years ago!! parking space is very wide in the building. Many members has been in my building and chime in the parking space. in addition, there is a 24 hrs Metro supermarkt on the ground floor. I am just 2 block from Eaton center, Dundas Square. Walking distance to Air Canada center, 10 mins walk to St Lawrance Market....

[Mishka_L]

Originally Posted by MMOTION

you finally decide to post here. lol

btw, she's the one with the E90 AW 325xi not dropped on 19" staggered rims. and i think she's still peeved that Jaime bought the hartge lip that she wanted. =)

LOL! No not peeved ... more like jealous that he got it.

I can't really remember everyone I met that day ... can't even remember names since it was so quick and then I was outta there. Hopefully one of these days i'll meet some of the members again.

ANDY >> Don't worry i'll take care of you if your looking for a place. Just remember to contact me whenever you get the chance. I can send you some listings via email so that you can view them at the comfort of your own home.

[MMOTION]

Originally Posted by Soni

living Downtown FTW!! I bought a over 1600 sqft Loft for less than $500,000 2 years ago!! parking space is very wide in the building. Many members has been in my building and chime in the parking space. in addition, there is a 24 hrs Metro supermarkt on the ground floor. I am just 2 block from Eaton center, Dundas Square. Walking distance to Air Canada center, 10 mins walk to St Lawrance Market....

Hey Soni which condo are you at? 1600sq/ft is baller!!! PH?