The island life is calling your name! You’re excited about the prospect of moving to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and before you know it, you’re browsing the Nanaimo MLS and bookmarking all your dream properties. Before you start redecorating and daydreaming of the good life here, there are a few things I want you to know!

Today I’m tackling the crucial topics that can make or break your home search journey. What are the vital steps to take before you go searching the MLS for your dream Nanaimo home?

Firstly, know the difference between a mortgage pre-qualification and a mortgage pre-approval. And if you’re serious, don’t delay in getting in touch with a mortgage specialist to get the process started. You may have plugged in some numbers online to see what you pre-qualify for, but without an expert weighing things like your gross-debt service ratio (a measure of housing costs versus a borrower's gross income.) you won’t truly know how much house you can afford. Most importantly it will put you in a stronger position when making an offer. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Once you’re pre-approved don’t make any big financial decisions that can affect your financing like applying for extra credit or making a big purchase like a car. 

Second, I strongly encourage you to find a realtor in Nanaimo whom you trust and who knows the area well. I might be biased because I am a realtor but having been through the process before I was licenced I can’t imagine having gone through it without one. We were living on the mainland and although we had the ability to come to the Island to view homes, sometimes we needed to act quickly and having an agent who represented us gave us peace of mind that we wouldn’t miss out on anything that came on the market. There are lots of other reasons choosing the right realtor is important and I’ve covered this in some of my other blog posts.

Next, DO NOT start seriously looking until you’ve established the type of home you’re looking for. I’m not talking about a list of criteria, I’ll cover that a little later. I’m talking about whether is this a starter home, or your forever home? It’s okay to buy a home with the notion that you won’t live there forever and that you can gradually make your way to your dream property. 

This is important because it will streamline the process of weeding out homes you don’t want so much more by setting realistic expectations during your search. 

Do you think you will be in this home 0-6 years? That’s your starter home and you may have to overlook the fact that your yard is smaller or maybe it’s not in your most desirable location.

Nanaimo is always coming up with new listings in the 500-700k price range that could use some TLC but would make for a great entry to the market. If you’re truly worried about location, you can check out this blog post next!

If you’re thinking longer term, over 10 years… start considering what that means for you. 10 years might mean you're raising your kids there for a good chunk of time so location becomes even more important. I also covered this topic about my top picks for family-friendly neighbourhoods to help!

If you’re thinking you’ll be in your home 20+ years then you really will considering dream home/forever home status and what are my must-haves? Which brings me to my next topic…

Making a clear list of must-haves and wants is going to streamline your home search and help you make informed decisions. Your must-haves are things that you know you can’t live without, usually size and number of bedrooms for example. If you say you MUST HAVE 3 bedrooms but would like 4… put that on your “want” list. Better yet, make a list of absolute deal-breakers too! If you know you need to be close to transit and there isn’t a bus stop in sight of the home you’re looking at… make it easy and click NEXT!

Now, lastly... Establish your timeline. It’s okay to be in the Nanaimo MLS once you’ve done the above and you begin to narrow down on homes that you like but this won’t do you any good if you have no clue when you can buy!

Some things to consider are: Are you renting? If so are you month-to-month or in a lease that you may have to break if you buy before it’s finished?

Do you have a home you have to sell first? Have you even started that process? Be realistic here… you may think your home is worth a certain amount of money and will sell quickly but the real estate market is super volatile. Nothing is for sure and if you’re relying on that home sale to buy your next it’s better to have the process well underway so that you can make a solid offer once the time comes. It’s possible to write offers with the condition that your first home needs to be sold, but wouldn’t you rather go into it with all your ducks in a row? How heartbreaking would it be to be so close to owning the home you want in Nanaimo only to lose it because your house didn’t sell as fast or for as much as you wanted?

Besides this, the home-buying process itself isn’t always a fast one. With a pre-approval process that can take up to 2 weeks, a home search that can take on average up to 2 months and then being under contract before closing between 30 and 60 days… your home purchase can realistically be months away and you will need to exercise patience. 

Lucky for you, I’ve helped people through this before and come from my own relocation experience, so get in touch if you want to chat about moving to Nanaimo and the surrounding areas! 

So you’ve decided to live the good life on Canada’s West Coast and move to Beautiful British Columbia. If you’re moving from out of province you’ll want to stay tuned as I’m going to cover some of the things you’ll encounter that you might not expect!

The first thing on everyone’s mind of course is home prices. When looking at big cities, Toronto’s home prices are actually higher than Vancouver and Vancouver Island. BC does still have some of the most expensive real estate in the country which you will feel the most coming from a province like Alberta with much more affordable housing costs. So, before you get swept away by the idea of moving to the west coast be prepared so you don’t have sticker shock. 

Another thing someone moving from Alberta might find alarming is what we in BC call Property Transfer Tax. In Ontario, this is called Land Transfer Tax and is broken down as follows:

0.5% on amounts up to and including $55,000. 

1.0% on amounts exceeding $55,000, up to and including $250,000. 

1.5% on amounts exceeding $250,000, up to and including $400,000. 

2.0% on amounts exceeding $400,000. 

If you’re purchasing in the city of Toronto, that will be charged again at 

0.5% of total property value up to and including $55,000.00

1% of total property value over $55,000.01 to $400,000.00  

2% of total property value over $400,000.00 

In BC, this is called property transfer tax and like in Ontario is the responsibility of the buyer to pay, charged at completion when the title is transfered. The property transfer tax rate in BC is as follows:

1% of the fair market value up to and including $200,000

2% of the fair market value greater than $200,000 and up to and including $2,000,000

3% of the fair market value greater than $2,000,000

If you are a first-time home buyer in BC and purchasing a home as your primary residence for under $500K you could qualify to be exempt or partially exempt from paying this amount but make sure to check with your mortgage broker and realtor.

So as mentioned before, if you’re moving from Alberta you will have to factor this into your closing costs as Alberta only has The Land Transfer Registration Fee paid which costs: 

a base of $50 and an additional $2 for every $5000 of property value and the Mortgage Registration Fee also costs a base of $50 and an additional $1.5 but for the mortgage amount.

So let’s break that down for a moment.

On the purchase of a $600,000 home in Ontario, your land transfer tax will be $8475, and an additional $8475 if buying in the city of Toronto. So you could be paying as much as $16,950

In BC on a $600,000 purchase you’re looking at $10K in Property Transfer Tax.

And in Alberta your Land Transfer tax on a $600,000 home with a $30K mortgage down payment is only $511.

Dual Agency

Dual agency is when a real estate agent can act both as the buying and selling agent for the same property. As of June 2018, BC no longer allows for dual agency unless under very narrow and strict exceptions. The reasoning is the difficulty of acting in both parties' best interests when acting for both sides. In a real estate transaction, the client (you) enters into Agency with the Realtor's brokerage and the brokerage assigns the realtor as the designated agent. So you can still have two agents in the same office take part in the same transaction.

BC is the only province to have banned dual agency and all other provinces allow it although most require written consent.

Recission Period

Something that came into effect on January 1st, 2023 was the BC rescission or “cooling-off” period, where home buyers have up to 3 business days not including weekends and holidays to rescind their offer for any reason but must pay 0.25% of the purchase price. and cannot be waved. This came in at a time when the market was crazy and people were making subject-free offers so the government added this layer of consumer protection. Make sure you ask your realtor everything you need to know when writing up an offer on a home and how this works!