Getting Ready to Buy a Home in Nova Scotia

BUYER RESOURCE CENTRE

Understand the financial, practical and planning steps that can help you prepare before you begin searching for a home.

Buying a home often starts well before the first showing. Understanding your budget, talking with a lender, planning for the costs beyond the purchase price and thinking carefully about what you need from your next home can make the search much more focused.

These guides cover the questions worth considering before you start looking seriously at properties in Nova Scotia—and help explain when a lender, mortgage broker or other professional should be involved.

Start With These Guides

These guides will help you build a strong foundation before you start your home search.

How to Prepare to Buy a Home in Nova Scotia

A practical starting point for understanding your budget, financing, priorities and the steps to take before you begin searching for a home.

Getting Pre-Approved for a Mortgage: What Buyers Should Know

Understand what mortgage pre-approval means, what information a lender may consider and why pre-approval is an important step before you start seriously looking at homes.

How Much Does It Really Cost to Buy a Home in Nova Scotia?

Look beyond the purchase price at closing costs, property taxes, insurance and other expenses Nova Scotia home buyers should plan for.

Before You Start Looking at Homes

Buying a home usually starts before you ever walk through the door of a property. Taking some time to understand your finances, priorities and timeline can help you focus your search and avoid discovering important limitations after you have already found a home you love.

You don't need to have every detail figured out before you begin, but there are a few things worth thinking about early.

Understand Your Budget

The purchase price is only part of the cost of buying a home. Consider the funds you'll need for your down payment, closing costs and other expenses, as well as what you're comfortable spending each month after you become a homeowner.

Know Where Your Financing Stands

A mortgage pre-approval can give you a better understanding of your potential price range, but it isn't a guarantee that every property you find will qualify for financing. The property itself can matter too.

Think Beyond Your Wish List

Bedrooms, bathrooms and location are important, but so are the things that affect how you'll actually live in the home. Consider your commute, ongoing costs, future plans, maintenance expectations and which compromises you're willing—or unwilling—to make.

What do I need from my next home—and what can I realistically afford to own?

Know What You're Looking For Before the Search Begins

It’s easy to start a home search with a list of bedrooms, bathrooms and preferred locations. But the right home also needs to fit your lifestyle, finances and plans for the years ahead.

Before you begin comparing individual properties, it can help to separate the things you truly need from the things you would simply like to have.

What Matters Most

Priorities & Compromises

Think About How You’ll Use the Home

Consider what your day-to-day life actually requires. The amount of space you need, commute times, accessibility, pets, hobbies, working from home and plans for children or extended family can all influence which properties make sense.

Needs, Wants & Deal Breakers

NEEDS Things the property realistically must have for it to work for you.

WANTS Features you would value, but could compromise on for the right property.

DEAL BREAKERS Things that would make a property unsuitable regardless of its other advantages.

Consider the Property, Not Just the House

Lot size, maintenance, outbuildings, municipal services, wells and septic systems, road access and the surrounding area can be just as important as what is inside the home.

Get the Financial Pieces in Place

Talk to a Lender or Mortgage Broker Early

A lender or mortgage broker can help you understand the financing options that may be available to you and what information will be needed when you apply for a mortgage.

Getting pre-approved can provide a useful starting point for your home search, but a pre-approval isn't the same as final mortgage approval. Your finances still need to qualify when you make an offer, and the property you choose may also affect the lender's decision.

BEFORE YOU START SHOPPING

  • The funds available for your down payment
  • The price range you may qualify for
  • A monthly payment you're comfortable carrying
  • Money needed for closing costs
  • Other debts and financial commitments
  • Whether buying depends on selling another property

Remember: The maximum amount you can borrow doesn't necessarily have to be the amount you choose to spend.

Want to understand mortgage pre-approval in more detail?
Getting Pre-Approved for a Mortgage: What Buyers Should Know →

Buying a Home When You Have One to Sell

Think About the Timing Early

Before beginning your search, it can be helpful to understand what would happen if you found the right home before your current property sold—or if your home sold before you found somewhere to move.

Your REALTOR®, lender or mortgage broker and lawyer may each have a role in helping you understand the practical and financial implications of those different scenarios.

BUYING & SELLING AT THE SAME TIME

Questions worth considering:

  • Do you need the proceeds from your current home to purchase the next one?
  • Could you qualify to own both properties temporarily?
  • What happens if the two closing dates don't line up?
  • Would bridge financing be an option in your situation?
  • How could a sale-of-buyer-property condition affect an offer?
  • Where would you live if you sold before finding your next home?

Planning both transactions early can give you more options when the right property comes along.

When Are You Ready to Start Looking?

  • A realistic idea of what you're comfortable spending
  • A conversation with a lender or mortgage broker about financing
  • An understanding of the money you'll need beyond your down payment
  • A general idea of where you want to live
  • A clearer picture of your needs, wants and deal breakers
  • A plan for your current home if you need to sell
  • An understanding of who will represent you during the purchase

Once the financial and practical groundwork is in place, the next step is deciding where you want to live and what type of property will work for you.

Explore More Buyer Resources

Continue Exploring

Getting prepared is the first part of buying a home. Continue to the next part of the Buyer Resource Centre to explore how location, lifestyle and property type can help shape your home search—or return to the main guide to explore another topic.