It was 6pm and we had just finished our goodbyes. Our daughter Freya was lured away by Grandma with promises of chocolate to avoid any tears. One last check. Tires, headlights, trailer and snacks… we were ready for the road. It was time to start our fourteen-hour drive alongside a bunny, two cats and two dogs. Excited and a little anxious we were ready for the next chapter in our lives, we were moving to Alberta..So why did we leave Vancouver for Alberta?.We are a growing family and we felt it was time we bought a home, so we began our search months ago. In looking throughout BC we quickly narrowed our search down to Chilliwack, Hope and Mission. We were hoping to find a house with a big yard while being relatively close to schools and grocery stores. It became clear to us quickly that any attempt to stay within a budget was out the window. It was all about how high we could push our maximum purchase price and how quickly we could act. On top of this, we realized quickly that we had to narrow down our needs and eliminate most of our wants..Suffice to say that I was not sleeping well thinking about buying in Vancouver. As a mortgage broker in a single-income household I was worried about the possibility of rising rates and declining income. We knew that if we got into financial trouble we were on our own and that family would not be able to help. Quite a few nights I lost sleep thinking about the real estate market values dropping due to rising interest rates and my income potentially vanishing at the same time. Having worked with well over a thousand homebuyers before I knew I was not alone..On top of our concerns, the market was against us, it kept rising, by the time we were in a position to write an offer, market had gone even crazier. Now we were forced to choose between stretching ourselves even further financially or purchasing a home that needed a daunting amount of work..One night my wife Karoliina and I were chatting and we decided to expand our search. We began to look up properties in Alberta. What a difference! The genie was out of the bottle..At first, we were a little nervous but as we started to research our options the trepidation vanished. We would save on property taxes, income taxes, sales tax, and fuel taxes The list of financial positives began to grow. Our friends and family kept bringing up the cold, the snow and the winters that Alberta offered. That didn’t deter us. It rains more than four times more in Vancouver than most of Alberta. Being overcast and rainy for months straight is hardly my idea of ideal weather. Ironically. everyone bringing up the winters had never spent a winter in Alberta. I had worked in the oil and gas industry for a couple of winters and knew what we would be getting into..We kept digging and discovered that the sun shines in Calgary an extra 400 hours when compared to Vancouver..Enough was enough. We were doing this..We felt sunshine, and snow was a far better choice than rain and gloom..We started looking at properties in Alberta. For less than half the price of a house 40 minutes out of Vancouver we could find a newer home on an acreage. Instead of a house in desperate need of work on a 5000 square foot lot we could find beautiful finished home on 200,000+ square foot properties..Balancing the property, home, location, and access to reliable internet was tricky and we learned as we went discovering the different types of rural internet available, well vs cistern water systems, and each county’s unique zoning bylaws. We eventually narrowed down our search and ultimately found the perfect property..We found the right home for ourselves, worked with a team of professionals to complete our due diligence and secured a mortgage. After waiving our conditions to inspection and financing we had to hurry up and wait. Our closing date was over two-months away and we had a lot to do. Finalizing our mortgage, securing home insurance, packing, planning the move, the list went on and on! The months blurred by and next thing we knew it was time to move. We had a lot of fun teasing our two-year-old, she was very confused and excited when mom and dad said we were all going to live at the dog park..Once the wait was over we jumped into our truck, waved goodbye to our family and set off for our new lives. We cannot believe how welcoming Alberta has been to us and we are excited to retire here one day!.Everyone back home keeps asking how we will survive the winters, I’ll have to get back to them on that one, but we just couldn’t justify the heating bill for a warm, raining winter in Vancouver!.Our future in Alberta looks sunny indeed.
