Buyer guide
What to Look for During Home Showings
Kirby Chan, Broker, breaks down what buyers should focus on during home showings in Markham, beyond staging, finishes and first impressions.
Key takeaways
- Look past staging, finishes and first impressions
- Check neighbourhood fit, layout flow and natural light
- Watch for structural clues and the quality of renovations
About this video
Kirby Chan, Broker, of Kirby Chan & Co. Real Estate Team walks through what to pay attention to when viewing homes in Markham. The focus is on what sits beneath the staging and the first impression.
He covers neighbourhood fit, layout flow, natural light, structural clues and renovation quality. In a fast-moving market, knowing how to evaluate a home properly can help buyers avoid costly mistakes.
What to look at and what to ignore
Showings reward preparation. Finishes and staging are the easiest things to notice and the least expensive to change. The things that cost real money later are structural, mechanical and external: the age and condition of the roof, the furnace and the windows, how water moves away from the house and anything that looks recently covered up.
Take notes at the time rather than trusting your memory after five viewings. The Real Estate Council of Ontario publishes a buyer’s checklist that is worth reading before you start, because it sets out what you are entitled to ask and what your representative owes you.
Conditions are where the real checking happens
A viewing is a first impression. The verification happens during the condition period, which is why the conditions in an offer matter more than anything you notice on the day.
For a freehold home that usually means financing and inspection. For a condo it also means the status certificate, which the corporation must deliver within 10 days of the request and the fee, with your lawyer needing a few days after that to review it. Build roughly two weeks into the condition period for that rather than assuming it arrives immediately.
Our buyers page explains how we search and make offers in Markham and our post on status certificates covers what the document has to contain.
Not advice. This video and these notes are general information only. Nothing here is legal, tax, mortgage or investment advice.
Market data. Any figures mentioned reflect the period stated at the time of recording and may be out of date. Always confirm current figures before acting.
