Buying your first home in BC

Get the financing settled before you look, not after

A pre-qualification is an opinion. A pre-approval is a lender actually reviewing income, debts and credit and committing to an amount, usually held for a set period. The difference matters the first time a property attracts competition, because an offer without financing already arranged is at an obvious disadvantage against one that has it.

Two things to settle at the same time: whether the rate is held during that period, and what the lender will do about the specific kind of property you are looking at. Lenders treat older condos, small units, leasehold, co-op, manufactured homes on rented pads and acreage differently from a standard detached house, and finding that out after an accepted offer is the most common way a first purchase collapses.

The costs that are not the price

Property transfer tax is payable on completion and is the largest of them; there is a first-time buyer exemption with a value threshold and a phase-out, and the calculator on this site works it out for a specific price.

Beyond that: legal or notary fees, title insurance, the home inspection, an appraisal if the lender orders one, adjustments for property taxes and any strata fees already paid, moving costs, and the mandatory mortgage default insurance premium if the down payment is under the conventional threshold. On a strata purchase, budget for the document package as well.

The practical rule is to have those costs available in cash on top of the down payment, because none of them can be financed into the mortgage except the default-insurance premium.

Subjects are the protection, and they are negotiable

A typical offer is subject to financing, inspection, and — on a strata — review of the strata documents, for a defined number of days. Removing a subject is a decision that the thing it protected against has been checked, not a formality.

In competitive situations buyers are sometimes advised to shorten or waive subjects. That is a real trade-off with a real cost: waiving financing means committing without a lender’s final approval, and waiving inspection means accepting the condition of the building unseen. It is a defensible choice in some circumstances and a serious one in all of them.

The order things actually happen in

Financing pre-approval, then viewing, then offer with subjects, then inspection and document review during the subject period, then subject removal, then deposit, then the conveyancing period, then completion, possession and adjustment dates — which are usually different days and are worth understanding before you plan a move.

Before you rely on any of this

This is general information about how things work in British Columbia, not advice about your situation, and it is not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules, thresholds and programs change. Anything that turns on a current figure or a statutory period should be confirmed against the primary source or with the relevant professional before you act on it.