This is the whole sequence, in order, with what actually happens at each stage and roughly how long it takes. Buying a home in Mississauga covers what it costs and which conditions protect you — this page is the path from deciding to buy to getting the keys.

1. Get pre-approved, properly

A pre-approval tells you your ceiling and shows a seller you are serious. It is not a mortgage: the lender has approved you, not the property, and it can still fall through on an appraisal.

Ask your lender or mortgage broker for the rate hold period, whether the approval survives a change in the market, and what documents they will want again at closing. Run your own figures alongside theirs with my mortgage calculator. Allow a few days to a week.

2. Decide what you are actually optimising for

Almost every buyer is trading three things against each other: space, location and condition. You rarely get all three at one price. Being honest with yourself early about which one you will give up saves months of looking at properties that were never going to work.

Commute is the one people underestimate. Drive it, at the hour you would actually be driving it, before you fall in love with a house.

3. Search, and go and see things

Photographs are marketing. Go in person, and go more than once if you are serious — a second visit at a different time of day tells you about traffic, light and noise that the first one hid.

If you would rather I set the search up and bring you what fits, tell me what you are looking for.

4. The offer

An Agreement of Purchase and Sale sets out price, deposit, closing date, conditions, what is included, and an irrevocable period — the deadline by which the seller must respond before the offer expires.

Price is only one of those. A firm offer with a closing date that suits the seller can beat a higher conditional one, and knowing which lever matters to this particular seller is most of the negotiation.

We go through the comparables before we decide the number, so you know what you are bidding against rather than guessing.

5. Conditions, and their deadlines

Financing, inspection and, for a condo, the status certificate. Each runs on its own clock, usually five to ten business days. A missed deadline waives the condition by default — it does not extend it.

Why home inspections are crucial for every buyer covers what an inspector will and will not find.

6. Between conditions and closing

Your deposit is normally due within 24 hours of acceptance, by certified cheque or wire, and it is held in the listing brokerage’s trust account. Retain a real estate lawyer now, not the week before closing — they search title, arrange title insurance and prepare the closing documents.

Most of this stage is paperwork between lawyers. What still goes wrong at this point is usually a financing detail that was never fully settled at the start.

7. Final walkthrough and closing

Shortly before closing you walk through again, checking the property is in the condition you agreed, that the inclusions are still there, and that nothing has broken since. On closing day the lawyers exchange funds and documents, and you get the keys.

Start anywhere

• Work out your number — mortgage calculator
• Tell me what you are looking for — perfect home finder
• What it costs, and what protects you — buying a home in Mississauga
• Ask me a question — no obligation