Living in a condo by definition means you are used to sharing walls with your neighbours, however when you are buying a house most people still have the image in their head of the stand alone detached house with a big yard and white picket fence. This type of property is completely out of reach for most people shopping for a house in Toronto’s best neighbourhoods, and so the great debate rages on: do you go with a semi and get more house, or do you go with a detached house and get less?
This is one of several videos in my series about “How to Sell Your Condo and Buy a House“. Check out my Youtube Channel for the entire series.
Detached housing is sort of like the Holy Grail of Toronto Real Estate. Everyone seeks after it, very few find it in their price range, and any new housing that has been built in the city in the last decade is almost exclusively attached housing.
Given the choice, no one would choose to share a wall with another person or family, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying and living in an attached property, even if your budget is $1M or more.
If you are looking at buying a semi or a row house, try asking the neighbours on the street how the houses are when it comes to noise transfer. Before you buy the house, try visiting at different times of the day and listen carefully to see if you can hear anything from the other side of the wall.
Being attached on one or both sides certainly has some advantages, like a major savings in energy consumption, however, there are certainly some potential issues too.
One of my clients who owns a row house downtown recently had a very expensive repair because squirrels were entering into one of his adjoining neighbours houses and running back and forth in between the floor joists in the ceilings. A problem caused by a hole in the roof of one of his neighbours cost him thousands of dollars.
If you are thinking about selling your condo and buying a house this year, I’d love to help. For more information contact me.
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