What a girl wants...but maybe doesn't need

When we started looking for a house, we sat down and made a list of "needs" vs. "wants".

Some of our original "needs" included:

• parking
• three bedrooms
• two bathrooms
• tall basement ceilings
• The Beach or High Park neighbourhood 

Well, once we actually started looking at houses, we quickly realized that to get into the pricey Toronto housing market (especially near The Beach, which was our ideal neighbourhood),  towards the beginning of spring 2010 when houses were selling like hotcakes with up to 10 bidders each, we may have to modify our list of "needs".

As a first time homebuyer, this was one of the hardest things to do. Especially as two people who had grown up in the suburbs, where these "needs" were part of every house. Luckily we stumbled upon a great real estate agent who crushed our dreams and brought us back down to reality;)

Just kidding, no dreams were crushed, but she did help us realize that some of the things we thought we "needed", we actually could live without.

So we ended up with three out of five things on that original list (no parking and only one bathroom), but with a house we love in our dream neighbourhood. And there's actually perks to some of those "wants" we had to go without, I get good exercise walking up our hilly street after parking the car a street over, and nothing makes you closer as a couple than one of you fogging up the mirrors with the shower while the other tries to put on makeup in the mirror;)

To those who are beginning their search for their first home, I still think it was a good idea to make a lists of "needs" vs "wants", but make sure you are prepared to redo that list after your first trip out with your real estate agent!