Thinking about buying your first home in Moncton? In this video I walk you through the six steps every first-time buyer needs to know, from getting pre-approved to understanding closing costs, using what today’s Greater Moncton market actually looks like on the ground.

The Full Walkthrough

1. Intro — The Six Steps in Order (0:00)

Buying your first home in Moncton feels like a hundred decisions at once. It’s not, it’s six steps, in order. Let’s walk through this together, so you know exactly what’s next. Here’s what I tell every first-time buyer I work with in Moncton, Dieppe, and Riverview: there are six steps, in order. Miss one and you’ll either overpay, or you’ll fall in love with a house you can’t close on. I’ve walked buyers through this more than 200 times over 16 years. Today, I’m walking you through it too. Let’s get started.

2. Step 1: Get Pre-Approved (Know Your Real Number) (0:40)

Step one is getting pre-approved. A lender looks at your income, your debts, and your down payment, and tells you the real number you can spend, not the number you hope you can spend. In Moncton right now, first-time buyers are generally landing between $350,000 and $425,000. That’s a range, not a target, your pre-approval tells you exactly where you sit inside it. This step takes a day or two. Skipping it costs you weeks, because you’ll tour homes you can’t afford and then have to reset your whole search. Get the pre-approval letter first, everything else moves faster once you have it.

3. Step 2: Write Your Needs List vs. Wants List (1:21)

Before you scroll one more listing, write two lists: what you need, and what you’d like. A wish list gets you nothing but disappointment, because no house has everything. A needs list, three bedrooms, a certain commute, a yard for the dog, tells your agent exactly what to filter for. This is where I come in. My job isn’t opening a door and handing you a listing sheet, it’s sitting with you, going through that list line by line, so we’re only looking at homes that actually fit your life.

4. Step 3: What to Actually Look for on a Showing (1:53)

Here’s what to actually look for when we’re touring a home. It’s not the paint colour. Let’s look at the age of the roof, the age of the furnace or mini-split, whether there’s water stains in the basement, and what the electrical panel looks like, breakers or fuses. A home can look perfect and still hide five figures worth of near-term repairs. I walk every showing with my buyers looking for these things first, because falling in love with a kitchen before you’ve checked how old the roof is is how people overpay.

5. Step 4: Writing an Offer With the Right Conditions (2:37)

When you find the right home, we write up an offer with conditions: financing, so your lender confirms the final numbers; an inspection, so a professional checks everything we couldn’t see on a walkthrough; and a New Brunswick review of the residential property disclosure statement, where the seller discloses known issues with the property. These conditions exist to protect you. This is the step where having someone who’s done this 200 times matters most, because these conditions have to be worded right or they don’t protect you at all.

6. Step 5: Closing Costs, the Number Buyers Forget (3:16)

Here’s the number that surprises almost every first-time buyer: closing costs. Legal fees, land transfer costs, and adjustments for property taxes already paid by the seller. Most buyers plan for their down payment and forget this second number entirely, and it shows up right before the keys do. Build it into your budget from day one, back in step one, not day 30.

7. Recap and Free Consultation Offer (3:56)

That’s the whole process: pre-approval, your real list, the walkthrough checklist, protected conditions, and the closing budget that includes the number people forget. If you’re a first-time buyer thinking about Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview, or Shediac, book a free 30-minute consult with me. We’ll go through your real number and your real list together, before you look at a single listing.