Buying
Understand the market before you bid on it.
First home or fifth, the expensive mistakes are the same: buying on emotion, misreading a strata, or removing subjects without the facts. The process below is built to prevent them.
Financing primer
The number that matters is the one a lender will give you.
Rates, amortization and the federal stress test determine what you can borrow; your down payment and closing costs determine what you can buy. Before any viewing, we make sure those two numbers are real, so you can move quickly when the right property appears.
- Pre-approval with a rate hold, not a pre-qualification
- Closing costs: property transfer tax, legal fees, adjustments, insurance
- Strata fees and their effect on qualification
- Programs for first-time buyers, where they apply
I work alongside your mortgage broker or bank, and can introduce you to one if you don’t have one yet.
Market pulse · September 2026
How much room you have to negotiate.
Buyers had the upper hand in most of the region this month. How much depends on the city, the home type and the price band.
16 of 31
markets favoured buyers
13 balanced, 2 favoured sellers, by city and home type.
97%
typical sale-to-list
Homes sold about 3% under their final asking price.
32 days
typical days on market
Median across the same markets, from listing to sale.
Source: SnapStats® (snap-stats.com), compiled from Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and Greater Vancouver REALTORS® MLS® data captured October 1, 2026. Figures cover September 2026 versus the previous month. Accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed by the source; not intended to solicit properties already listed for sale.
Run the numbers
What you can borrow, and what it costs to close.
Canadian stress-test rules and BC taxes, with every assumption shown.
The process
Six steps from brief to keys.
Define the brief
Needs, wants, deal-breakers and the life you are planning for, so the search is targeted rather than endless.
Financing first
A real pre-approval, a rate hold and a clear understanding of the stress test before you fall for a property.
Search with context
Listings read against neighbourhood data: what comparable homes sold for, how fast, and what buyers overpaid for.
Viewings that teach
Each showing is a data point. You learn what the market offers at your number before you commit to anything.
Offer and subjects
Price, subjects, dates and deposit structured for your situation, with the risk of each decision explained.
Due diligence and completion
Inspection, strata documents, financing confirmation and a clean completion with your lawyer or notary.
Buyer consultation
Tell me where you are in the process.
Whether you're months away or ready to write an offer, the first conversation is about your goals and your financing.
FAQ
Buyer questions, answered plainly.
Pre-qualification is an estimate based on what you tell a lender. Pre-approval is a lender reviewing your documents and committing to a rate hold, usually for 90 to 120 days. Only the second one means anything when you make an offer.
Conditions an offer depends on, typically financing, inspection, review of strata documents and sometimes the sale of your current home. They protect you while you confirm the property is what you expect. We remove them when you have the information, and not before.
The depreciation report, the contingency reserve fund balance, two years of minutes, any special levies, the bylaws on rentals, pets and age, and the Form B. I walk through each one with you.
The deposit is paid when subjects are removed and is typically around five percent of the purchase price in this market, held in trust. It is separate from your down payment, which is settled on completion.
In most residential transactions the seller's brokerage pays the buyer's agent from the listing commission. The terms are set out in a written agreement before we start, so there are no surprises.
Start a conversation
Thirty minutes, and you leave with a next step.
A consultation is a working session: where you are, what you're weighing and what the data says. You leave with a plan whether or not we end up working together.
Candid Real Estate Group · RE/MAX 2000 Realty