Katelin and Alex discover Clayton Street

By Susan M Boyce
July 09, 2020

Katelin and Alex are enjoying their weekends a lot more since mid-May. That was when the couple DocuSigned the contract to purchase a home that ticked every box on their homebuying wishlist — a three-bedroom, corner townhouse at Clayton Street in Surrey.

“We’d been looking seriously for about six months,” Katelin says. “Initially, we thought we’d get a resale. But at the beginning of the year the market was really hot, and things were selling well above the list price. We put in an offer on one place for $25,000 over asking: it had 10 offers and sold for $75,000 over asking. It was so disheartening.”

Then their realtor suggested they take a look at Clayton Station. “We’d just seen a 13-year-old property sell for $625,000,” Katelin says. “At Clayton, we could get something brand new for $650,000. In the grand scheme of things, that extra $25,000 is nothing.”

“Most of the townhouses we’d seen were long and narrow with a tandem garage.” Alex grins. “I’m a car guy. I can’t work on cars in a tandem garage, so having a side-by-side was important. Plus it means the floor plans are far more open and spacious — way more options for configuring each part of the house.”

“Clayton Street has no wasted space either,” Katelin adds. “We’d seen a few developments where the bedrooms seemed like they’re just slightly larger than a closet. Not here. There’s a great feel to these homes.”

The couple agree that Covid actually helped in their buying process since it slowed the market. “We could take more time, and we weren’t running from open house to open house every weekend,” Katelin says.

“We were fortunate because both our jobs are considered essential services,” she says. “Banks were definitely more cautious about who they would lend to. We had to provide a lot more information than when we’d prequalified earlier including a letter explaining how we would pay our mortgage.”

The letter worked, and now Alex and Katelin are counting down the days till August 17th, the anticipated date of possession. “Finally, we’ll be able to just relax in our own home,” Katelin says. “We can’t wait.”

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