Step One: The Consultation, Before Any Homes

The first conversation is not about listings. It is about the household: the timeline, who is moving and why, what the money actually looks like, and what has to be true for the move to work.

Michael John Lau, a REALTOR® with the Kaizen Real Estate Team, among the most active real estate teams in Markham and York Region, starts here because a search built on an unexamined budget wastes months. It is also where the honest conversation about whether to buy at all belongs.

Step Two: Financing, Before Touring

A pre-approval converts a search from theory into a number. It also surfaces problems while there is still time to fix them.

What a buyer is qualifying against in 2026

• The stress test: you qualify at the greater of your contract rate plus 2%, or 5.25%. Every current rate exceeds 3.25%, so contract plus 2% applies.
• Debt service ratios: principal, interest, taxes and heat generally within about 39% of gross household income, and all debt payments within about 44%. Half of any condominium fee counts. Strong credit is generally needed for those upper limits.
• Credit: an insured mortgage needs a minimum around 600, with 680 the practical threshold for the best ratios.
• Down payment: 5% on the first $500,000, 10% from there to $1.5 million, and 20% on the entire price at or above $1.5 million.

That last line matters enormously in Markham, and it is covered in the down payment guide. The related pieces are how much you need to earn and what credit score you need.

A practical note on rate shopping: multiple credit inquiries for the same purpose within roughly two weeks are generally counted as one, so comparing lenders in a short window is not penalised.

Step Three: Build the Search Properly

A custom search with real-time alerts, tuned to the actual criteria rather than a price band and a bedroom count.

The criteria worth defining before looking:

• Commute, measured at your real times. Not a map estimate. A shift worker and an office worker experience the same address completely differently.
• What cannot be changed. Lot, street, orientation, ceiling height, what backs onto the property. Everything else is renovation.
• The ten-year picture. Children get older and leave; parents get older and need accessible space. Those curves move in opposite directions.
• Whether income matters. If the plan involves a legal basement unit, ceiling height decides whether it is possible at all, and that changes the search entirely.

Step Four: Neighbourhood Education

This is where local knowledge earns its keep, because the differences between Markham communities are not visible in a listing.

Berczy Village, Wismer Commons, Unionville, Cornell, Markham Village, Milliken, Thornhill and Angus Glen differ on housing age and type, lot size, commute, walkability, community facilities and price by several hundred thousand dollars. A buyer who tours across four of them without a framework is comparing things that are not comparable.

One warning that matters in fast-growing Markham

Never buy on the assumption of a specific school without calling that school directly.

The York Region District School Board says so in its own words: due to rapid population growth in some communities, it may be necessary for some new students to temporarily attend a school other than the one normally designated for their community. The board advises new residents to check with the local school to verify where their children will attend.

Catchments are set around each school's capacity and projected enrolment, and they change. A listing that names a school is describing today, not necessarily September.

Step Five: Showings

Touring is data collection, not shopping. The job is to build a reliable sense of what the money buys in each community, so that when the right property appears the buyer recognises it immediately rather than needing three weeks to decide.

The team publishes a 24-hour response commitment: every enquiry, update and question is tracked and answered within a day, and showing feedback is put in writing.

Step Six: Valuation, Before the Offer

The listing price is a question, not an answer.

Markham has been selling at 98% of list price, which means asking prices and sale prices are close on average but not identical, and the variation by property and community is what matters. Sold prices in Ontario sit behind a brokerage login and are not publicly searchable, so a buyer cannot check this themselves.

That is why the sold comparables conversation happens before an offer rather than after a buyer has anchored on a number somebody else chose.

Step Seven: Offer Strategy

Price is one term among several. Deposit, closing date, conditions and their timelines all carry weight, and in a competing-offer situation the non-price terms frequently decide the outcome.

What TRESA changed, and what it did not

Since 1 December 2023, a listing brokerage must tell every person submitting a written offer how many competing written offers exist. A seller may also direct, in writing, that the content of competing offers be disclosed, in whole or in part. Disclosure must never identify who made an offer.

Ontario did not ban blind bidding. It remains the default, and openness is an option the seller elects. A buyer should ask which regime applies before writing.

The rule unrepresented buyers discover too late

If a buyer approaches a listing agent directly without their own representation, that agent is a self-represented party arrangement, and under TRESA the agent is prohibited from providing services, opinions or advice related to the transaction. They owe honesty and fair dealing and nothing more. They cannot help draft the offer, advise on price, or advise on conditions.

Buyers sometimes assume going direct saves money. What it removes is advice, at the moment advice is worth the most.

Steps Eight and Nine: Inspection and Conditions

An accepted offer is not a purchase. The conditional period is where most deals are lost, and the work is keeping it moving: coordinating the inspection, reading what the report actually says against what it implies, tracking financing, reviewing a status certificate on a condominium, and hitting every deadline.

On disclosure, buyers should understand the Ontario position. A seller must disclose known latent defects that render a property unsafe or uninhabitable. Patent defects, visible on reasonable inspection, do not have to be disclosed. That is why the inspection matters.

Steps Ten and Eleven: Closing and After

Coordination with the lawyer, the lender and the other side, then the parts nobody warns a first-time buyer about: keys release once the transaction registers, which is often later in the day than people plan for; utilities need arranging in advance; and there are costs beyond the down payment.

Post-closing support is the part that separates a transaction from a relationship. Contractors, questions in year three, and an honest answer when someone asks what the home is worth now.

What It Costs a Buyer

On a resale purchase in Ontario, buyer representation is generally paid from the seller's proceeds, so most buyers pay no fee directly. Buyers do pay land transfer tax, legal fees, the inspection, title insurance and adjustments.

Two Markham-specific points worth knowing:

• Markham has no municipal land transfer tax. A Markham buyer pays only the provincial amount. Toronto is currently the only Ontario municipality with its own.
• Ontario's first-time buyer land transfer tax refund is up to $4,000, which covers the tax on the first $368,000 of price, and unlike the HST rebates it does apply to resale homes.

Arrangements differ on new construction and in some other situations, and should be confirmed in writing at the outset rather than assumed.

What the Team Brings

The Kaizen Real Estate Team works across Markham and York Region, with eXp ICON Agent recognition in both 2024 and 2025. Michael John Lau has been licensed since 2015.

One structural point worth asking any brokerage about: whether it operates under designated representation or the older brokerage model. Under designated representation a named individual represents you and only that person may access your confidential information, and a colleague representing the other side does not create multiple representation. It is a fair question at a first meeting.

Next Steps

• See how buyer representation works — the full process, step by step.
• First-time buyer programmes — what exists and who qualifies.
• Run the mortgage calculator — before you tour, not after.