Today I had a meeting with a real estate agent that was recommended to me by a friend in Korea who purchased a house with this agent. The agent was really very helpful and informative. I talked with him for about two hours and really learned a lot about my options and the whole process as well as the various fees involved in buying a home.
The real estate agent also recommended that i talk to a mortgage broker in addition to talking to my bank about getting a loan for the home we would like to buy.I’ve got an appointment with the mortgage broker he recommended for tomorrow afternoon at 2pm. Today, I dropped by my bank and met with the man in charge of mortgages and after a few phones calls, due to him being slightly unfamiliar with the process for people returning from abroad it, it seems like we will be able to afford a home in the 290,000 to 300,000 range.
In talking with real estate agent earlier I found that this means we’ll be moving into a townhome, which makes a good starter house. Overall, I’m feeling really great about the progress made so far on this trip.
After thirteen hours and four movies I landed in Toronto last night. Getting through immigration and picking up my bag went really smoothly as did finding the shuttle to my hotel. Turns out that my hotel was in the middle of nowhere – it’s at the intersection of two highways with a couple of strip malls and another hotel. I was incredibly parched and ended up having to buy water from the vending machine at $2 for a bottle – freaking expensive, but not as bad as Pearson Airport.
I didn’t sleep so well despite not really sleeping on the airplane, but did manage to get about 4-5 hours before waking up at 3:30am. Took the shuttle to the airport at 7, checked in and made a beeline to starbucks for some much needed java. Tried to get online, but Pearson airport charges travelers $10 to use wifi! Really shouldn’t that be a basic amenity of the airport – Incheon has free wifi as does Bangkok (as far as my memory serves). Needless to say I didn’t pay for that and just watched another movie (Rocka Rolla – pretty good). I also wanted to buy water, but the damn stores at the airport were charging $2.7 for a bottle of water. Way to gouge people.
Anyhow I got on the plane to Ottawa and the flight was really fast – only 40 minutes. landed picked up my bag and got my rental car strait away. Got myself a Hyundai Accent – will take a picture later – with a GPS. I hadn’t ever used a gps before but figured it would be useful since I don’t know where anything in Ottawa is. It’s been great, found the university residence, a shopping mall all without a problem. The only thing that’s driving me nuts is that the GPS uses miles and not kilometres – don’t they know that Canada moved to the metric system 30 years ago?
Overall so far the city is very pretty and tomorrow after I talk to the real estate agent I’ve arranged to meet I’ll take some pictures and drive around. I did try to buy a prepaid sim card for my phone but it won’t work. Maybe my phone is locked – oh well I don’t really need it except to make about 3 calls.
I’m now sitting in front of gate eight at Incheon international airport waiting for my flight to board – I’ve got about 50 minutes to wait. We drove out to the airport and found parking without a problem. The drive was easy and fast (speed) though a little long (about one hour). I checked in and then had a quick bite to eat before saying good bye to the wife and the kids as well as the wife’s neice.
It’s going to be really strange traveling without the family. This is the first time since we got married that I’ve traveled outside of Korea without the clan in toe. I’ve done a little domestic travel alone, but that’s not the same thing – very easy to stay in touch and was only a couple of nights.
We have a travel pillow at home which I forgot to bring with me. When I asked how much it was at the store here, I wasn’t about to pay us$20 for that when you can buy them at the department store for about $8-$10 – hopefully I don’t get too much of a cramped neck on the flight. Will see if I can find a cheap one somewhere in Ottawa for the return flight. 13 or 14 hours is a real long time to be stuck in a chair and trying to sleep.
Next post coming from Canada.
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