Stage 1 of 10
Getting ready
Find out what you can actually carry before you look at a single listing, because what you can carry and what a lender will approve are two different numbers and only one of them is yours.
This stage has nothing to do with houses. It is about three figures: how much cash you have, what a lender will lend you, and what monthly payment you can live with without giving up everything else. The third number is the one that matters and it is the one nobody calculates. A lender approves you against ratios; your life has other bills in it.
Your progress in this stage
0 of 6 ticked, 0% weighted. 4 critical tasks are still outstanding.
Weighted, not counted: a critical task is worth 5 optional ones.
Outstanding, and each one can cost you the deal
- Work out what you can carry, not what you can borrow · You
- Pull your own credit report and fix errors · You
- Count the down payment, including withdrawal timelines · You
- Budget the closing costs, not just the down payment · You
Work backwards from closing
Closing day is the only fixed date in a purchase. Give it to us and every outstanding task in this stage gets the date it has to be started by, using the slow end of each stage's range.
Anything from Aug 28, 2026 onwards. A closing sooner than a week away is not something a lawyer and a lender can complete.
Critical
Skipping one of these can cost you the house, the deposit, or five figures.
- CriticalYou1 day
Run your income, debts and down payment through an affordability calculation that applies the stress test. Then subtract the life you intend to keep living. The gap between the two numbers is the one you will feel every month for twenty-five years.
- CriticalYou30 days
Get your report from both Equifax and TransUnion. Errors are common and take weeks to correct, which is weeks you do not have once you are in an offer. Checking your own report is a soft inquiry and does not affect your score.
- CriticalYou21 days
Money in an FHSA or RRSP is money you have, but not money you have this week. Home Buyers' Plan withdrawals and RRSP transfers take time, and a lender needs a 90-day history of the funds. Start the paperwork before you need it.
- CriticalYou1 day
Land transfer tax, legal fees, the PST on mortgage insurance, title insurance and adjustments are cash on closing day and they are not small. Total them against your own price and municipality in the closing cost tool, which separates the lines set by statute from the ones that are still a quote you have to go and get. No percentage of the price is a substitute for that total.
Important
Skipping one costs money or leverage, not the deal.
- ImportantYou7 days
Two years of T4s and notices of assessment, recent pay stubs, a letter of employment, 90 days of statements for every account holding down payment funds, and a full list of debts with balances and payments. Self-employed buyers need two years of T1 generals and business financials.
- ImportantYou2 days
Include the money that does not build equity: interest, property tax, maintenance, insurance, land transfer tax amortized over how long you will stay. The costs of buying and of selling are certain and are paid once each; the appreciation you are counting on is neither, and nothing in this app forecasts it. Over a short stay that asymmetry is the whole comparison.
What goes wrong at this stage
Each of these is common and each one costs money or a house. The consequence is stated in dollars or in what you lose, because a warning without a number is a warning people skip.
Treating a pre-approval amount as a budget.
A lender's ratios will approve a payment several hundred dollars a month above what you can comfortably carry. You do not default, you just spend the next ten years unable to save, travel or absorb a bad month.
Instead: Set your own maximum monthly payment first, then work backwards to a price. Shop at that price, not at the approval.
Saving exactly the down payment and nothing more.
You are short on closing day by the whole of your closing costs, which is a number the closing cost tool will give you against your own price and municipality before you set a savings target. Being short on closing day means breaching the agreement, and the deposit is the least of what you can lose.
Instead: Save the down payment plus your calculated closing costs plus a reserve. Run the closing-cost calculator before you set your savings target.
Financing a car or opening a line of credit while shopping.
A new monthly obligation cuts your qualifying amount by roughly a hundred times the payment. A $500 car payment can remove $80,000 of buying power and lenders re-check before funding.
Instead: Take on no new credit from pre-approval until the day after closing. Do not even let a dealership run your credit.
Depositing a family gift with no documentation.
Underwriting cannot verify the funds, financing falls through in the last week, and if you have already waived conditions you lose the deposit and can be sued for the seller's loss.
Instead: Get a signed gift letter stating the money is a gift and not a loan, and have it in the account with a clean 90-day trail before you make an offer.
What you sign and receive
A document marked binding commits you. Once it is signed you cannot change your mind without losing money, and in Ontario a resale purchase has no cooling-off period at all.
Your credit report
The record lenders price you against. You are entitled to it free from both bureaus, and you can dispute anything on it.
You are finished with this stage when
- You know your down payment to the dollar, including what is in an RRSP or FHSA and how long it takes to withdraw.
- You have pulled your own credit report and corrected anything wrong on it.
- You have a monthly payment you have chosen, not one a calculator suggested.
- You know your cash to close, not just your down payment.