Project Listings Across Greater Vancouver

Search Project Listings by Building, Not Only by Address

Project listings attach a home to something larger, either a named development it belongs to or a renovation the next owner is expected to finish, and the two need completely different homework.

Where the listing names a development, use that name to compare. Homes in the same building share an envelope, a boiler, an elevator and a strata budget, so what happened to one unit tells you a great deal about the rest. Ask your realtor to pull how other homes in that development have traded, then request the depreciation report, the bylaws and several years of minutes rather than only the current financial statement.

Read the minutes for the expensive words: rainscreen, membrane, piping, elevator modernisation and special levy. A building partway through remediation can still be a sound purchase, but you want the schedule and the funding plan before you name a price.

Price the Work Before You Remove Subjects

Where the listing means a home needing work, treat the renovation as part of the purchase price rather than something to sort out later. Bring a contractor through during the subject period, not after, and ask for a written range covering the items you can see and a contingency for the ones you cannot.

Pull the permit history from the municipality and compare it against what has been built. Unpermitted additions, closed-in carports and basement suites without approval become your problem at completion, and they affect insurance and financing as well. Ask the listing agent what is included, whether any work is mid-stream, and whether materials already purchased convey with the home. Then speak with your mortgage professional early, since lenders treat a home requiring major work differently from one ready to occupy.