Chatelaine Earn Spend Save: The savvy guide to a richer, smarter, debt-free life

Chapter 6. MORTGAGE SWEET MORTGAGE

It's 4:45 in the afternoon and Laisha's day is winding down at work, so she stashes her files away and hops online to peruse MLS home listings. That's when she spots it—a three-storey red-brick home with a loft and backyard landscaping to die for. She quickly sends her husband the link and within minutes he shoots back a message: "Let's check it out."

The house is missing a fireplace and a gourmet kitchen—two "must haves" on Laisha's list—but it's still a gorgeous home, helped by its new paint job and luxe furniture. And after their initial walkthrough, the couple is impressed.

"Downtown houses like this don't come on the market very often. You'll want to jump on it," advises the new agent they'd found when calling the real estate company about the house.

But bells are ringing for Laisha. For starters, there's no real play space for the kids, so all their toys will have to be stored in the living room or in their bedrooms. And in order to reach the stairs to the loft where the couple wants their home office, they'll have to walk through the third bedroom. In the end, the prime location wins them over, and now they're living with the decision to buy.

"I should have checked in with my gut," says Laisha five years later. "If we had just taken our time, done some more research, and questioned everything our agent said, I'm sure we would be in a much more appropriate house for our family now. It turned out there were a lot of other similar houses in this ...