Mary-Kathryn Mackenzie, Kingston, ON

When my husband and I went to purchase our first home we had no idea what we were doing. We didn't know what to look for, we didn't know the questions to ask and we didn't know who to ask for help. We thought "we are buying a house, how hard can it be??" We found out the hard way, it can be a very difficult task!
Our first home quickly became "the money pit" disaster. Immediately after moving in we had numerous and very expensive problems arise that we had to fix. We didn't have the budget for all of the necessary projects, the house kept us up at night. It was basically a total disaster. After we borrowed and begged and managed to fix all of the problems with the home, we had no money left to stay there and we were forced to sell it at a loss. Not the best way to start out!
After this experience, we rented for a couple of years until we were able to pay off the debt we acquired with the house and save up enough for a new down payment. At the time I was working in health care and after my own personal experience I decided I would be more helpful educating others in their Real Estate Transactions than I was at my health care job.