5 mistakes first-time buyers make in Prince George

I have worked with a lot of first-time buyers in Prince George over the years. The process trips people up in predictable ways. Not because buyers are not smart, but because nobody teaches you this stuff, and the first time you do it, you are learning and making a significant financial decision at the same time.

Here are the mistakes I see most often, and what to do differently.

1. Starting to look at homes before getting pre-approved

This is the most common one, and it causes real problems.

A pre-approval is not just paperwork. It tells you what you can actually borrow, what your monthly payment looks like at current rates, and whether your situation has any wrinkles that need sorting out before you are ready to buy. Banks look at income, debt, credit history, down payment source, and employment stability. Any one of those things can come back with a result that changes your plans.

When buyers start touring homes before getting pre-approved, a few things tend to go wrong. They fall in love with homes at a price point they cannot close on. They waste time with sellers who want to see pre-approval before accepting an offer. And sometimes they get the pre-approval and find out something needs to be fixed first, which means starting the home search over months later.

In Prince George's current market, well-priced homes in the $400,000 to $550,000 range can go under contract in two to four weeks. If you are not pre-approved, you cannot move when you need to. You will watch the home you wanted go to someone who was ready.

The pre-approval process takes a week or two at most with a good mortgage broker. Do it before you go to a single open house.

2. Underestimating closing costs

Most first-time buyers budget carefully for their down payment and then get blindsided by what comes due on possession day. Closing costs in BC are real, and on a Prince George home in the $490,000 range, you are looking at an additional $7,000 to $20,000 on top of your down payment.

Here is where those costs come from.

Legal fees for a residential purchase typically run $1,000 to $1,800. Property transfer tax in BC is 1% on the first $200,000 and 2% on the portion from $200,000 to $2,000,000. On a $490,000 home, that works out to $7,800. First-time buyers get a full exemption on homes up to $835,000, which is one of the more meaningful benefits in BC right now. If this is your first home, that exemption saves you $7,800 in cash.

Title insurance runs $200 to $400. Home inspection is $400 to $600 for a thorough inspection, and you should not skip it. Moving costs vary widely but budget $1,000 to $3,000 for a local move, more if you are coming from out of town. And there are usually small adjustments for property tax and utilities that show up on your statement of adjustments.

Know what these numbers are before you finalize your budget. The down payment is not the only cash you need available on possession day.

3. Skipping the home inspection, or not using it properly

Some buyers, when they hear that a property is getting multiple offers, decide to waive the inspection condition to make their offer more appealing. In Prince George's current market, this is almost never necessary. We are not in a situation where every home gets five competing offers in 48 hours. There is usually room to include a reasonable inspection condition without losing the home.

Even in cases where competition is real, I would rather help you structure an offer that includes an inspection than recommend waiving it entirely. The downside risk of buying a home with a hidden structural issue, a failing furnace, or moisture problems behind finished walls is not worth the advantage you gain by skipping the inspection. A bad purchase on a home that needs $40,000 in repairs you did not know about is a much worse outcome than losing one offer.

The other mistake people make with inspections is not using them properly. An inspection report is not a pass or fail. It is a detailed snapshot of the home's condition. Good inspectors find things in every home. The question is whether what they find is material. A 20-year-old furnace that is still working fine is different from a 20-year-old furnace that is cracked and needs immediate replacement. Learn to read the report, ask the inspector questions while you are there, and focus on the things that actually matter rather than the long list of minor items that accumulate in any older home.

4. Not knowing what they actually want before they start

This one is subtle but it costs people a lot of time and sometimes leads to bad decisions.

Buyers who start the process without a clear picture of their priorities tend to look at too many homes. They see a rancher in VLA, then a two-storey in Hart Highlands, then a townhome in Heritage. Each one has things they like. Nothing quite fits. They get fatigued. Then a home comes along that is fine but not quite right, and they make an offer out of exhaustion rather than conviction.

Before you start touring, get specific about a few things. Do you need a garage, or is a carport fine? What is the minimum number of bedrooms? Does the lot size matter? What is your real commute limit? Are you willing to do cosmetic updates, or do you want something you can move into without painting or replacing flooring?

These questions have no wrong answers. But having clear answers lets you filter meaningfully instead of seeing everything. You will make a better decision with a shortlist of genuinely good matches than by touring every available property and hoping one jumps out.

The school catchment question is one that families often underestimate. In Prince George, catchment boundaries matter. A few blocks in the wrong direction can change which elementary school your kids attend. If school placement is a priority, verify the catchment for any specific address before getting attached to it.

5. Not budgeting for the first year of ownership

The month after you move in is when people realize homeownership has ongoing costs that renting did not. Property taxes in Prince George for an average detached home typically run $3,500 to $5,000 per year, paid in July unless you set up a monthly prepayment plan. Home insurance costs roughly $1,500 to $2,500 per year depending on the home. And then there are the things that break.

Northern BC winters are hard on homes. Furnaces, hot water heaters, and pipes all have finite lifespans, and when they fail, it tends to be at the worst time. Experienced homeowners set aside 1% to 2% of the home's value per year for maintenance and repairs. On a $490,000 home, that is $4,900 to $9,800 per year. Most years you will not spend that much. Some years you will spend more. Having the reserve means a broken furnace in January is an inconvenience rather than a crisis.

Buyers who stretch their full purchasing power sometimes find that the monthly mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance, and utilities leave very little room. Running your actual monthly numbers before you commit to a price range is not pessimistic, it is just responsible. The home that costs $30,000 less but leaves you with real breathing room every month is often the better choice long-term, even if it is not the one you fell in love with first.

The bottom line

None of these mistakes are permanent. People recover from all of them. But going in with a clear plan, a pre-approval, a realistic budget for the full cost of purchase, and a good sense of what you actually want will make the process faster, less stressful, and more likely to end with a home you are genuinely happy to own.

If you are earlier in the process and want to talk through any of this before you start, that is what I am here for. No pressure, just a conversation to help you get oriented before you start making real decisions.