The Smart Way to Buy a Home in Kelowna

By Nick Hazzi

Nick has been in the real estate industry for over 15 years and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. He is passionate about his clients and dedicated to ensuring they get the most out of real estate, providing value far beyond any sale.

Most people start their home search the wrong way. They get excited, jump online, start touring homes, and before they know it, they’re emotionally attached to something that doesn’t actually represent the best value for their money. Before we ever write an offer, you’re going to understand the market, know exactly what you’re looking for, and walk into every showing with a clear framework for evaluating what’s in front of you.

Step 1: Online market education. Before we look at a single home in person, we start online. We pull up recent sales that match your criteria and study them. What did they sell for? How long did they sit on the market? What was the typical discount from the asking price? And how often does what you’re looking for even come up?

For some buyers, the answer is encouraging. There’s plenty of choice, and they would have had three or four options in the last 90 days. For others, what they want only hits the market once every six months. That information changes how quickly you need to act when the right home appears, and knowing it upfront puts you in a completely different position than a buyer who’s guessing.

Step 2: In-person market education. Once we have that baseline, we go look at homes in person. Different styles, different locations, all within your criteria. The goal is to get familiar with what’s out there and start building two lists: your non-negotiables and your wish list.

Your initial priorities will change once you’ve walked through a few homes. That’s the point. We’re uncovering what actually matters to you versus what you thought mattered. Without an unlimited budget, you’re going to have to make some trade-offs. I’ve had clients with $500,000 budgets wanting $600,000 homes and clients with $5 million budgets wanting $6 million homes. Buying a home is a process of elimination, not selection. Your job is to find the best value that checks every non-negotiable box and as many wants as possible.

Step 3: Refined search and the round-robin. After one or two in-person education sessions, most buyers have a sharp picture of what they’re looking for. From there, we refine the search and look at everything on the market, both listed and off-market, including foreclosures, estate sales, and coming soon listings. Then we run what I call a round-robin tournament to find the best value.

Here’s where most buyers go wrong: they chase what’s prettiest. What’s trendy now won’t be in style 10 years from now. The real value of a home comes from the location, the lot, and the bones. You can always add paint, update finishes, and make it look the way you want. What you can’t change is a bad lot, a bad driveway, or a house that sits on a busy road. I always joke that it’s like the person everyone was most excited about in high school, and then you run into them years later and wonder what all the fuss was about. That’s the house that looks amazing today but sits on a busy road with a bad lot. It doesn’t age well. I never want a client to sacrifice long-term value for short-term style.

Step 4: Showings with a system. Once you transition from education to active showings, the approach stays disciplined. Your goal is to identify one clear high watermark, your favorite home so far, and compare everything else against it. A lot of buyers try to keep four or five homes in consideration at once, and that makes the decision harder, not easier. Distill it down to the best one and measure everything against that standard.

Step 5: Strategic offer and in-person negotiation. When you’ve found the right home, the offer needs to be more than just a number on a page. It should include specialty clauses that protect you and a strategy tailored to the specific sellers you’re negotiating with.

The most important part: present that offer in person, directly to the sellers. The mistake most agents make is communicating through the other agent, and that agent isn’t the one making the decision. If I asked you to relay everything in this video to a friend, the message would lose its impact. The same thing happens in a negotiation. Your agent can sell the dream to the other agent, and by the time it reaches the seller, it’s diluted. Getting in front of the actual decision-makers is what separates a good offer from a winning one.

If you’re thinking about buying in Kelowna, whether it’s now or down the road, I’d love to sit down and put together a game plan with you. Call me at 250-878-6416, email me at nick@vantagewestrealty.com, or visit vantagewestrealty.com, and let’s figure out the best strategy to get you into the right home at the right price.