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Some Life Updates
2 months ago
[ Silberry.ca | DeviantArt | Instagram | Tumblr | Kofi ] Hi, all!
How is everyone? Hope you're all doing well.
I had some big life updates happen in the last while and I just wanted to write about it as a log for me. I'd bought a condo back in May 2022 and thought things were going splendidly. Really beautiful place in downtown with high ceilings and a little over 1500 sqft of space and a block away from the lake. Big windows with lots of natural light - seemed like a perfect place for me to be. But as time went on, the building management changed over and became really greedy, always finding excuses to charge the condo owners more and more payments for things that seemed unnecessary. It got to the point where it became a pattern of things needing to be "updated/fixed/renovated" that really seemed perfectly fine to anyone living there. Every time they never gave us a choice not to spend our strata money on these repairs (example, lobby area "needed" to be renovated to update the look but it was perfectly fine) and it was always very little turnaround to make payments. We kept shelling out sometimes hundreds or thousands per unit every few months - it was really stressful.
Among other things, I started realizing it wasn't going to be my forever home. I learned that while on paper it sounded like an ideal location for many people, it wasn't the place for me. Turns out I didn't care for downtown that much and much preferred the more suburb-y area my parents were in, I worked too much to be able to take time to go down to the lake, building regulations stated I couldn't have a large dog, and my love for the place started to sour over time as more and more things kept accumulating. At one point, I couldn't renovate the place without going through a bunch of red tape and when you asked for something simple like window cleaning (couldn't clean it myself the way the windows were / is also technically the building's responsibility) it often never happened for months and months.
Without going into too much detail, in 2023 I had to leave my job in order to undergo major life saving surgery with decently long recovery time. That year I also got a new Husky/Shepherd puppy after having lived 14 years since my last one passed. She lives at my parents' place. They're old and aren't the best at being pet owners (short patience) so it was my responsibility to take care of her the best I could. She became one more reason for me to finally bite the bullet and decide it was time to sell my condo.
The selling journey started in May 2024. I originally had been nervous but hopeful. There was a decent amount of interest in the place but the period of time I entered the market to sell was at unfortunately at a really bad time. The market soon after became saturated with other units (albeit significantly smaller and very expensive), but it made selling very difficult. I had some offers come in but they were extremely lowballed ones that weren't worth accepting. Time passed and then a certain president in the US got elected and absolutely tanked the housing market up here. Nobody wanted to buy - absolutely nobody. They were scared of making big purchases given the uncertainties around the way the world economy had become with him in power. I went through a period of time where I was quite sad and depressed about it all. Things felt like they were closing in on me given that work had dried up for a long time now and funds were running low.
It wasn't until recently, a little over a year after I'd originally listed my place, that I finally had someone bite. Finally, FINALLY after ~six months of nobody viewing the place let alone putting in an offer, someone appeared. They also lowballed me really badly. I mean like they offered below what I'd bought the place for which was very frustrating. With some time and several counter offers later, I managed to very, VERY stressfully get the price up to somewhere that was acceptable but still not really what I wanted to sell at ideally (I didn't have a choice any more. By this time the place had become suffocating over my mental health). I decided the loss was worth it over eating mortgage payments for an indefinite/unknown amount of time into the future. It officially sold and keys handed over to the new owner on July 7th. There were some hiccups at the lawyer's office getting me my money but it all got sorted and worked out in the end. This entire buying/selling this condo was a hugely stressful experience and I kind of wonder if I'd ever buy a place again. Haha.
I'm now back home with my parents taking care of my pupper. No more apartments or condos for me - if I ever buy another place it'll be like a half duplex or whole home if I can (though doubtful). I really hope work turns around and picks back up again because it really, really sucked having a mortgage without any work for as long as I had to experience all of that. I wouldn't wish those levels of stress on anyone. ><
Anyways, I just wanted to get this all out somewhere and FAs always been a little comfy spot for me to do it, so here you are.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. <3
(*Also note I'll be opening icons at a marked down rate in a future journal at $50 USD instead of $75 USD if anyone is interested!)
♥ Sil
How is everyone? Hope you're all doing well.
I had some big life updates happen in the last while and I just wanted to write about it as a log for me. I'd bought a condo back in May 2022 and thought things were going splendidly. Really beautiful place in downtown with high ceilings and a little over 1500 sqft of space and a block away from the lake. Big windows with lots of natural light - seemed like a perfect place for me to be. But as time went on, the building management changed over and became really greedy, always finding excuses to charge the condo owners more and more payments for things that seemed unnecessary. It got to the point where it became a pattern of things needing to be "updated/fixed/renovated" that really seemed perfectly fine to anyone living there. Every time they never gave us a choice not to spend our strata money on these repairs (example, lobby area "needed" to be renovated to update the look but it was perfectly fine) and it was always very little turnaround to make payments. We kept shelling out sometimes hundreds or thousands per unit every few months - it was really stressful.
Among other things, I started realizing it wasn't going to be my forever home. I learned that while on paper it sounded like an ideal location for many people, it wasn't the place for me. Turns out I didn't care for downtown that much and much preferred the more suburb-y area my parents were in, I worked too much to be able to take time to go down to the lake, building regulations stated I couldn't have a large dog, and my love for the place started to sour over time as more and more things kept accumulating. At one point, I couldn't renovate the place without going through a bunch of red tape and when you asked for something simple like window cleaning (couldn't clean it myself the way the windows were / is also technically the building's responsibility) it often never happened for months and months.
Without going into too much detail, in 2023 I had to leave my job in order to undergo major life saving surgery with decently long recovery time. That year I also got a new Husky/Shepherd puppy after having lived 14 years since my last one passed. She lives at my parents' place. They're old and aren't the best at being pet owners (short patience) so it was my responsibility to take care of her the best I could. She became one more reason for me to finally bite the bullet and decide it was time to sell my condo.
The selling journey started in May 2024. I originally had been nervous but hopeful. There was a decent amount of interest in the place but the period of time I entered the market to sell was at unfortunately at a really bad time. The market soon after became saturated with other units (albeit significantly smaller and very expensive), but it made selling very difficult. I had some offers come in but they were extremely lowballed ones that weren't worth accepting. Time passed and then a certain president in the US got elected and absolutely tanked the housing market up here. Nobody wanted to buy - absolutely nobody. They were scared of making big purchases given the uncertainties around the way the world economy had become with him in power. I went through a period of time where I was quite sad and depressed about it all. Things felt like they were closing in on me given that work had dried up for a long time now and funds were running low.
It wasn't until recently, a little over a year after I'd originally listed my place, that I finally had someone bite. Finally, FINALLY after ~six months of nobody viewing the place let alone putting in an offer, someone appeared. They also lowballed me really badly. I mean like they offered below what I'd bought the place for which was very frustrating. With some time and several counter offers later, I managed to very, VERY stressfully get the price up to somewhere that was acceptable but still not really what I wanted to sell at ideally (I didn't have a choice any more. By this time the place had become suffocating over my mental health). I decided the loss was worth it over eating mortgage payments for an indefinite/unknown amount of time into the future. It officially sold and keys handed over to the new owner on July 7th. There were some hiccups at the lawyer's office getting me my money but it all got sorted and worked out in the end. This entire buying/selling this condo was a hugely stressful experience and I kind of wonder if I'd ever buy a place again. Haha.
I'm now back home with my parents taking care of my pupper. No more apartments or condos for me - if I ever buy another place it'll be like a half duplex or whole home if I can (though doubtful). I really hope work turns around and picks back up again because it really, really sucked having a mortgage without any work for as long as I had to experience all of that. I wouldn't wish those levels of stress on anyone. ><
Anyways, I just wanted to get this all out somewhere and FAs always been a little comfy spot for me to do it, so here you are.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. <3
(*Also note I'll be opening icons at a marked down rate in a future journal at $50 USD instead of $75 USD if anyone is interested!)
♥ Sil
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owning your place can be stressful, but i think if you actually owned the whole living area and building, you might have better control and better mental health experience instead of having to pay out so much to other people. i wish you the best in finding a comfortable place you can call your own.