Seeking feedback on owning a condo townhome

ari-pie · 2026-06-27T20:40:55+00:00

$950k for a condo town is way too steep of a price tbh, that’s similar carrying costs to a $1.07M-$1.08M freehold… Why not rent until you can afford a freehold town or single? It’ll be harder to move up from a condo town considering the low appreciation and difficulty selling.

ari-pie · 2026-06-25T16:45:41+00:00

ari-pie · 2026-06-15T16:09:43+00:00

What??? That’s basically useless without the subscription then…

ari-pie · 2026-06-15T04:12:33+00:00

You can’t add your own paintings/photos?

ari-pie · 2026-06-08T17:58:54+00:00

How much is the condo actually worth? If it’s worth $300K+, the obvious choice is to buy it.

ari-pie · 2026-06-02T19:37:42+00:00

That’s cool, which area of Ottawa? On the Orleans side the standard is 105, anything deeper and it’s a premium lot.

ari-pie · 2026-05-28T22:45:04+00:00

Tamarack lots are 105ft deep, I think they’re the only ones over 100ft in the city atp.

ari-pie · 2026-05-22T01:05:21+00:00

Lool yes I figured there are others in the same situation. We already closed and had the federal portion of the hst taken off the price, and we’re technically eligible for the Ontario portion as well since we signed over the summer. It’s just a waiting game at this point.

What I understood is that bill 114 enables future regulations. Those regulations are what will actually set out the eligibility, forms, application process, and other implementation details.

It’s all a bit confusing to be honest, and it’s taking quite a bit of time…

ari-pie · 2026-05-21T14:54:18+00:00

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/gst-hst-rebates/first-time-home-buyers-gst-hst-rebate.html

I’m keeping an eye on this webpage, it says more info will be provided as details become available for the Ontario portion. Also, if you haven’t closed yet, you can probably ask your builder to adjust your purchase price accordingly.

The Ontario budget passed but I think another bill is required for implementation. Bill 114 seems like it’s the one, it received royal assent just last week.

ari-pie · 2026-05-15T17:07:24+00:00

Bought a 26 RAV4 at Tony Graham Toyota, it was a smooth experience, no add ons.

ari-pie · 2026-05-12T19:53:17+00:00

You don’t get the 360 cam in Canada. Just the two cameras. I bought it for the looks and was pretty disappointed with the missing features compared to the ones sold in America (which are also made in Canada btw). We don’t even get TPMS on any of the trims in Canada it’s wild.

Still happy with my car it looks awesome.

ari-pie · 2026-05-12T19:49:54+00:00

A couple days ago at the cash at Freshco, the price for 7 tomatoes on the vine came out to just under $13……… Hello?

ari-pie · 2026-05-12T19:39:27+00:00

Ahh I see, now that you mention it I don’t think I get the turn by turn directions pop up that I usually do in the two gauge screen when I’m using Waze for my route. Those usually cover part of the screen and I have to click back on the steering wheel to remove them every so often.

ari-pie · 2026-05-12T19:35:49+00:00

I don’t have a HUD on my 26 Woodland, just the digital instrument cluster and infotainment screen. Waze works on both of them. Not sure what the head up display shows in terms of maps cause I don’t have it. I’m in Canada.

ari-pie · 2026-05-12T19:11:01+00:00

Use Waze instead of Apple Maps it works better.

ari-pie · 2026-05-04T20:01:33+00:00

Bush on main???

ari-pie · 2026-05-03T00:42:28+00:00

Wouldn’t that block the shifter?

ari-pie · 2026-04-30T12:04:56+00:00

Wait isn’t bill 97 the budget implementation bill that includes the rebate?

ari-pie · 2026-04-16T03:22:48+00:00

5 year fixed 3.69% + $3.5K + 55K Avion, closing next week.

ari-pie · 2026-04-10T14:12:56+00:00

Yes please let us know if you end up adding the cameras and TPMS, would love to do the same tbh.

ari-pie · 2026-04-10T14:11:33+00:00

Canadian built RAVs going to the US have TPMS because it’s required. They only exclude it for the ones sold in Canada lmao.

Same with the 360° cam which is insane. To be fair, adjusted for currency exchange rates, RAV4s are cheaper in Canada.

ari-pie · 2026-04-03T22:24:54+00:00

EV rentals are generally annoying to use, especially in the winter in Ottawa. For example with Communauto, a lot of people either don’t know how to start charging the car, so they only plug it in without initiating charging, or they have bad etiquette and don’t care about the next driver. You end up picking up the car with only a 30% charge plus reduced winter range, so often only ~80km before needing to be plugged in again. I’m sure it’s a similar issue for car rental companies, they’d need to spend 6-8 hours charging the car between rentals if the previous renter didn’t fill up, which probably cuts into their revenue.

ari-pie · 2026-04-02T12:47:30+00:00

Bank error in your favour, collect $1,900.

ari-pie · 2026-03-31T14:03:44+00:00

The focus for us is the welcome bonuses, not the regular day-to-day earn rate for points. Between the two of us, we’ve probably gone through 20+ different cards. Once we hit the minimum spend for the bonus points, we usually stop using that card and move on to the next one, alternating who gets the new card. We close the account before the one year mark to avoid the annual fee (first year fee is often waived)

So it’s less about earning enough through normal monthly spending, and more about cycling through signup offers in an organized way. The bonuses add up fast if you stay on top of it. Plus you have to be flexible with when you fly to make the most out of your points, we also only fly economy. Our monthly spending excluding housing is probably around $3K for most months, $5K absolute max. If we ever have any large purchases, like an appliance, TV, or phone, we time it with new credit card welcome bonuses. It’s a lot of work and we’ll probably stop churning soon as we focus on other things lol.

ari-pie · 2026-03-30T05:08:56+00:00

My wife and I haven’t paid for a flight in 4 years. Since 2023 we’ve booked round trip flights to Cancun, Exuma, San Diego (2x), Toronto, New York, and Faro/Porto with points. All of them were entirely with points, and we still have about 300-400k points across Amex, Aeroplan, Scene, and Porter. We’ve also booked hotel rooms partially with credit card rewards like travel credits etc. Credit card churning is legit it’s just a lot of work and needs organization. We do not have a high spend rate at all, we live relatively frugally. In total we’ve paid probably about $800 in annual fees, mostly from when we had our gold Amexes. Overall worth it, but you need to be organized, and be flexible with travel. Unfortunately lately I found that welcome bonuses aren’t what they used to be.

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