What I Ask Every Buyer Before We Start Looking at Houses

Start with what you actually need, not what you want

Before we talk about neighbourhoods or price, I ask buyers to get concrete about how they actually live. How many bedrooms do you need, not want? Do you have kids, how many, and what ages? Are they in school now, or will they be soon? A family with a toddler and a family expecting a third child in two years are shopping for different houses, even if their budget is identical. Vague answers here — "something with enough space" — lead to wasted showings later, because neither of us has a real filter to apply.

Know your financing before you know your price range

Whether you're looking at a house, a condo, or a townhouse, you need a clear, current picture of what you can actually borrow before we start touring anything. That means talking to a mortgage broker or a bank's lending team and getting a realistic read based on your income, your existing assets, and where your down payment is coming from. This isn't a formality — it's the single biggest filter on your search, and skipping it is how buyers fall in love with homes they can't actually close on.

If a house isn't within reach on that budget, a condo is the obvious fallback — meaningfully cheaper, but with real trade-offs: smaller living space, and for many buyers, a highrise lifestyle that doesn't suit how they want to live. That's where a townhouse often becomes the practical middle ground, particularly for working professionals who can't stretch to a detached house but want more than a condo offers.

Good to know: A townhouse combines a house's practical advantages — your own small patch of land, a front and back yard — with a condo's more attainable price point. You give up some square footage compared to a detached house, but for buyers who want outdoor space and a reasonably self-contained home without a house-sized mortgage, it's often the best-functioning option on the table, not just a compromise.

Picking a city and a neighbourhood is a negotiation, not a guess

Once your financing and property type are clear, the next conversation is where. This is where an experienced agent earns their fee the most directly: instead of you spending weekends driving between Richmond, Burnaby, Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Surrey trying to get a feel for each one, I can take what I know about your budget and priorities and narrow that list to two or three areas worth your actual time. I've sold across all of these markets, in houses, condos, and townhouses alike, and that cross-market experience is exactly what lets me build you a shortlist instead of handing you a map and a weekend.

Some buyers prefer to look entirely on their own first, without an agent at all — no pressure, no sense of being pushed toward a decision. I understand the appeal, and a good, reputable agent shouldn't be pushing you anyway. But I've seen this go wrong often enough that I don't recommend it: buyers who are confident in their own judgment are exactly the ones most likely to miss something a second set of experienced eyes would have caught, on everything from a property's real condition to whether the price actually holds up against comparables. Getting professional input early, before you're emotionally attached to a specific house, avoids far more expensive mistakes than it costs in flexibility.

School catchment decisions go deeper than "good school"

For buyers with kids, school catchment is rarely a simple checkbox. Are you planning for elementary or secondary? Public or private? Does your child need or want a specific program, like AP or IB, that isn't offered at every school? And just as importantly, how does the catchment you're considering actually work with your commute, not just your child's? These questions need to be worked through with someone who knows the catchments block by block, because the difference between two addresses three streets apart can be a different elementary school entirely.

Your life stage changes the calculus

Not every buyer is optimizing for school catchments. Empty nesters and retirees are often looking for the opposite: a quieter, lower-maintenance environment suited to how they want to live now, whether that's downsizing from a house into a condo or moving somewhere with better long-term accessibility. Growing families sometimes do the reverse, trading a condo for a house as soon as the budget allows. Both are legitimate, well-reasoned searches — they just need a different set of priorities from day one, which is exactly why the first conversation with your agent should be about your actual situation, not a generic buyer profile.

No property is ever 100% perfect — and that's worth accepting early

Buying a home is a serious decision with a lot of moving parts, and it's rarely going to check every single box. A property that satisfies all of your criteria perfectly is both hard to find and, when it does exist, priced accordingly. In practice, almost every home has something you'd change. The goal isn't perfection — it's a property that meets the large majority of what actually matters to you, at a price and on terms that make sense, and that's a balance an experienced agent can help you find much faster than searching alone.

A note on community and safety

One factor buyers sometimes underweight is the community itself — not just the house. The age distribution of residents, the mix of occupations and income levels, and the general sense of safety in a neighbourhood all shape daily life in ways a floor plan can't show you. Living somewhere that doesn't feel safe or stable affects more than your comfort — it touches your day-to-day satisfaction, your work, your family, and in the most serious cases, your safety itself. I'd rather talk through a neighbourhood's character honestly with you upfront than let you find out the hard way after closing.

Quick take

• Agent: experienced & the right fit for you
• Finances: confirmed before touring, not during
• Area: narrowed by an agent's experience, not guessed
• Judgment: your own, plus a second, experienced opinion

What to weigh together

• Property size & location — city and specific area
• School catchment fit
• Transit — distance to SkyTrain and bus stops
• Nearby shopping and amenities
• Community safety profile

This post reflects general practice and opinion based on professional experience, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Confirm financing details with a licensed mortgage professional and legal matters with a lawyer or notary.