Step by Step Home Buying Process


Buying a condo or house in Vancouver can be a long and complex process, but there are certain steps you can follow to make it as smooth as possible. Our Home Buying Process will guide through all the important steps.

 

1) Working out your finances

Before stepping out to view properties, you will first want to know how much you can afford, what will your monthly payments be and what price range you should be looking in. Your financial institution will pre approve you as well as explain the many mortgage options that are available to you.


2) What am I looking for in my new home?

It is important to determine what your needs and wants are before you start looking at homes.

It is a good idea to make a list and use it as a starting point in determining where and what to start looking for.


3) Let’s view some properties

Whether is one, two or twenty, Gaetan will show you as many properties as it takes until he finds the right one for YOU. He will send you properties by email as soon as they become available…and don’t worry…if email doesn’t work, he can call, fax or drop them off.


4) You found a home you love

What’s it worth? Before we draft up an offer we need to determine value. We do this by comparing similar properties in the area that have sold and prepare what called a Comparative Market Analysis or a CMA. The CMA is an educated estimate of the properties value on what has sold.


5) Let’s make an offer

With the CMA complete, Gaetan will now help you make a decision on what would be a reasonable offer to present. The idea here is to find something that both you and the seller can agree on. Besides price, he will add certain conditions and/or clauses in the offer to protect your interests, such as:

Once the offer is presented to the seller one of 3 things will happen:
  1. The offer is accepted by seller with no changes or 
  2. The seller counter offers, making changes to the price, closing date, conditions etc or
  3. The offer is rejected.

Frequently, the offer is countered. It is not uncommon for the offer to be countered a few times before an offer is made.


6) The offer is accepted

Deposit

As a sign of good faith, the buyer provides to the seller a deposit either with the offer or within 24 hours of acceptance. This deposit is held by the listing brokerage in trust until closing. The deposit is usually 5% of the purchase price. The deposit is applied to the purchase price upon closing.

Fulfilling the conditions:

We will provide your mortgage representative with a copy of the offer so they can finalize the approval process.

The home inspection is usually about 3-4 hours depending of the size and condition of the home and can range in the price. The home inspector will thoroughly inspect the home with you checking all aspects, such the furnace, electrical, roof, foundation etc. It’s important to be there and ask any questions you may have. At the end they will provide you with a report outlining all its findings and recommendations.

Once all the conditions have been successfully fulfilled…no major problems with the home inspection, your financing is complete and if purchasing a condo the lawyer gives you the “good to go” on the status you will sign what is called a Waiver and the deal is now firm.

If by any chance things did not go according to plan with any of the conditions, not to worry, the offer becomes null and void and your deposit is returned in full.