Relocation services for British Columbia, Canada

How home buying works

One of the first things that everyone considers is; where am I going to live? Buying a home is a really important step when immigrating and one you will want to get right.

If you are coming from Britain, you will find the system of buying and selling houses in BC a lot simpler. Chances are you have been through the overly messy system in place in England and Wales at some time in your life and may well still shudder at the memories! (Those in Scotland have a much easier time.)

In BC, house buying is much easier, on everyone. All houses for sale are listed by real estate agents (called realtors) and put on the internet on the MLS system. (Multiple Listings System). The public are able to search on line at www.mls.ca or a local sites such as www.realtylink.ca .

MLS is Canada wide and searching it is a bit more long winded. Realtylink is the system set up by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. See our external links on the right for real estate board links all over BC.

As a licensed realtor and a recent arrival in BC, Sue is ideally placed to help you with your house buying. This site contains a wealth of information on buying a home in BC. For those of you who are closer to moving, go to www.VancouverForHomes.com where we have even more stuff for you to browse through, including MLS listings.

Realtors v Estate Agents

Unlike Britain, real estate agents (called realtors) in BC must be licensed. This ensures they have completed mandatory courses of study and an examination. The course involves learning the laws relating to real estate purchase.

A house build, nearing completion.Before their licence is granted, they must be sponsored by a company and undergo background checks. Real estate sales are governed by The Real Estate Act, which sets the sales procedures which must be followed in BC. As well the British Columbia Real Estate Association sets professional standards for agents.

All houses for sale are listed in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). These are available online and you can search them yourself. Realtors have access to more information from the MLS, such as the full sales history of a house, prices asked and achieved. As a result your realtor should be able to give you good advice on the price of a house and what to offer or ask.

We believe this is much better than the situation in the UK where anyone can set themselves up as an Estate Agent and there is no central registry of houses for sale.

The buying process

In an ideal world the system works like this:

Engage a realtor

Choose a realtor to represent you. Note that this is free to the buyer. The realtor is paid a commission by the selling agent.

The realtor has access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and will be able to provide you with a list of properties that meet your requirements.

The realtor will take you on a tour of properties. You will probably want to see a lot of places at first so that you get to understand the kinds of properties available and the differences between areas. Ask questions and expect your realtor to find answers for you. A good realtor will learn what is important to you and show you properties that are suitable.

Making an offer

The buying process is governed by law. You may have been used to an informal approach in the UK, where you tell the estate agent that you want to make an offer. In BC this is a formal process.

Your realtor will draw up a formal written document containing the details of your offer. This includes:

• the price
• date of completion
• date of possession
• subject clauses

You should expect your realtor to advise on price since they represent you. You can set whatever completion and possession dates you want, though these are subject to negotiation.

The subject clauses are amongst the most important elements. They are optional clauses and can be anything you want. Usual subjects are:

• inspection
• financing

You can, however, include any subject you want. For example if you want a room painted, or the yard fenced, then include these as subjects. If it is a buyer’s market then the seller may well agree to these terms. Again your realtor will advise you on what is likely to be acceptable.

Your realtor meets with the listing realtor and the seller and presents the offer to them. Sometimes, when the market is “hot”, as it has been recently, the seller will ask for sealed bids at a certain time.

The seller can either; accept your offer; reject it or make a counter offer. This goes on until there is an acceptance (or realization that your paltry offer is going nowhere).

Your offer is accepted

After your offer is accepted you usually have about 5 - 7 days to do “due diligence”. This is the period where you satisfy yourself that you want to go ahead with the purchase.

Usually this involves:

• arranging finance
• getting a building inspection
• land registry searches

A condo ia a popular purchase
in urban areas. Many are
bought for investment purposes.Your realtor will walk you through the land registry searches and explain any items on that. If you are buying a condo, then there will be strata council minutes to read.

At the end of that time, if everything is in place, you “remove the subjects” and sign a binding contract with the seller. You will pay a deposit at this point. The amount of the deposit is negotiable.

Unlike the process in most of the UK, you now know that the house will be yours on the date you agreed.

Completion

You will need to use the services of a lawyer or notary public to draw up the final account, ensure title is transferred, mortgages registered on title and monies transferred to the seller.

Finally you get the keys to the house and it is yours.

As the system is so different, it is important to use the services of a licensed realtor in order to ensure you have the full facts about the property available to you. Even if you think you can “do it all yourself”, the realtor has information on the property available though their MLX software system that the public does not see. Plus they know the steps to a house purchase and can guide you through it (and remove most of the stress.)

See our article on closing costs.

Who represents you?

Realtors work within a legal relationship called agency. It is important to know who represents whom when buying and selling.

Seller’s Agent or “listing agent”

The listing agent has signed up with the vendor and only represents the interests of the guy selling the house, (called their Principal.) This means they must have:

• Undivided loyalty – must protect their negotiating position
• Must obey lawful instructions
• To keep confidences and exercise reasonable care
• Account for all money and property

Buyer’s Agent

Once you sign up with a realtor to act for you as a buyers agent, she or he acts for you alone and cannot divulge anything about you to another realtor. This protects your negotiating position when you come to make an offer.

Realtors are also bound by the Personal Information and Privacy Act and have to tell you who they are going to share your information with.

Dual Agency

This may happen when as a buyer you want to buy one of your realtor’s own listings or when the buyer’s agent and seller’s agent work for the same company. The agent agrees to treat each party with impartiality and is limited in the information they can pass to each party. As there is potential for conflict of interest, so all parties must agree to this arrangement in writing.

In all cases, you should read and sign the British Columbia Real Estate Association’s leaflet “Working with a real estate agent”

This is just a brief summary, if you have specific questions you can email sue@relocation2BC.com and we will do our best to help you!