Seller tips

REALTOR® commission in British Columbia is negotiated between a seller and the brokerage they hire, written into the listing agreement, and settled out of the sale proceeds when the sale completes. There is no standard rate anywhere in the province, including here in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC and across the Fraser Valley.

That last sentence is the part most articles skip, and it's the part that matters. What follows is the structure: where the number lives, how it moves between two brokerages, who the money really comes from, and what to ask before you sign.

There is no standard rate, and the regulator says so

Every REALTOR® in British Columbia is licensed under the Real Estate Services Act and regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA). BCFSA's Consumer Guide to Remuneration opens with the question readers arrive with — is there a standard commission that I have to pay when I list my home? — and answers it in one word: No. Its full answer: "While some brokerages may have a commission that all real estate professionals at the brokerage charge, any commission amount can be negotiated between you, your real estate professional and brokerage."

So there is no rate to look up. If you've seen a figure presented online as the going rate in British Columbia or the Fraser Valley, it didn't come from BCFSA, the Real Estate Services Act, or the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, because none of them publish one. There is no standard rate, and anyone quoting you one as standard is telling you something that isn't true.

And disagreement is a normal outcome, not a complaint. BCFSA is direct about it: "If you and your real estate professional are unable to agree on the amount of commission being earned by your real estate professional's brokerage, either party can decide that the agency relationship is not possible." Both sides get to walk. On its page on understanding your listing agreement, BCFSA adds the regulator's own position: "Commissions are not set or approved by BCFSA."

Where the number actually lives

The fee isn't a rate card. It's a term in a contract. BCFSA describes a listing agreement, also called a service agreement, as "a legally binding contract between you and the real estate brokerage that your agent is licensed with." Signing it means working exclusively with that brokerage for a specified time, and your REALTOR® takes on a legal duty to act in your best interest.

BCFSA lists what the agreement should specify: the property, the sale price, the date it takes effect, and its expiry date. Alongside those:

• the commission you agree to pay to the brokerage;

• the percentage of that commission, if any, that will be shared with a buyer's agent;

• the circumstances in which you agree to pay the commission; and

• what happens if you or the brokerage want to end the agreement before the expiry date.

Read that list again as a seller. Only the first line is about price. The other three are about when you owe it, who else it goes to, and how you get out — and those produce the surprises.

Note who the contract is with. BCFSA's Consumer Guide to Agency explains that most brokerages here operate under designated agency: you contract with the brokerage, a named real estate professional represents you, and the brokerage earns the commission.

How it gets shared between two brokerages

Most residential sales in the Fraser Valley involve two brokerages — the one that listed the home and the one that brought the buyer — and the mechanism runs through the seller's listing agreement. The seller negotiates a total amount with the listing brokerage, and within that agreement a portion may be designated for the brokerage representing the buyer. BCFSA's Consumer Guide to Disclosures puts it this way: "part of that amount may go to pay a professional representing the buyer. The amount you are paying to your real estate professional and any amount that gets shared with a buyer's professional is completely negotiable."

I'm deliberately not describing a split, because there isn't one to describe. Both halves are negotiated, and how the fee is expressed is part of what gets agreed.

Who pays, honestly

You'll often read that in British Columbia the buyer pays nothing. That's close enough to be useful and imprecise enough to mislead.

What's accurate: the obligation sits in the seller's listing agreement. A buyer on a typical residential purchase usually doesn't write a separate cheque for their agent, because the seller has already agreed that a portion of the total flows to the buyer's brokerage.

What's imprecise: the money comes out of the purchase price the buyer pays. BCFSA lists the commission a seller agreed to pay first among the costs that come with selling a home, alongside legal or notary fees for the title transfer, GST on the commission, any lender prepayment penalty, and the seller's share of property taxes. On the completion date, BCFSA says, legal ownership transfers from seller to buyer in exchange for the purchase price. Those costs, commission included, come off what the seller receives.

So the seller negotiates it and owes it; the buyer funds the transaction that pays it. Both are true, and a seller who knows both is better placed at the table. BCFSA is also explicit that any time a real estate professional represents you, "they must disclose all remuneration they are earning from any third party including the seller."

The BC rule with no equivalent south of the border

British Columbia prohibits something you may have seen suggested elsewhere: a REALTOR® cannot be paid based on the difference between the list price and what a buyer ultimately pays. BCFSA is unambiguous — real estate professionals "are prohibited from charging you a commission based on the difference between the list price, and the ultimate price a buyer pays," a prohibition that "serves to protect you by eliminating the perception that your real estate professional recommends listing your home below market value so they can increase the amount they will earn."

The other piece of BC machinery is the Disclosure to Sellers of Expected Remuneration form, one of BCFSA's mandatory disclosure forms. A REALTOR® must give it to a seller when presenting an offer to purchase. It converts whatever was agreed in the listing contract into a dollar figure for that specific offer, recalculated on a counter. That form, not a blog post and not an average, is the answer to "how much will this actually be." BCFSA notes it doesn't include your lawyer or notary fees.

What the fee buys, and how you can check

A listing fee pays for work that mostly happens before an offer exists: pricing strategy against real competing inventory, preparing the home, building and running the marketing, managing showings and the feedback from them, negotiating the offer, then managing subjects and deadlines to completion. A seller can't see most of it, and is asked to take the marketing on faith.

Here's what I'd want if I were the one paying it. While your home is listed with me, you get a weekly homeowner report — impressions and engagement, what the marketing actually produced that week, not a note saying it's going well. Most agents can't show a seller their campaign numbers. I can, and I send the report whether the week was strong or flat. That changes what the fee conversation is about. You stop being asked to trust that the marketing is working and start being able to check, week by week, and the adjustments come off what the numbers say rather than off a hunch. My job is to guide you and answer your questions so you feel confident in the decision you make. That's much easier when you and I are reading the same page.

What to ask before you sign

BCFSA's advice is to review every term, ask about anything unclear, and get legal advice before signing if something is still uncertain. These are worth asking whoever you hire.

What's included, what isn't, and for how long? Photography, floor plans, staging, paid advertising, print, open houses — get specifics rather than the word "marketing", and note the expiry date, because you're working exclusively with that brokerage until then.

What happens if it doesn't sell? Sellers skip this one. BCFSA warns about it under the heading Don't Get Taken by Surprise: even if you accept no offer, "it is possible (although rare) that you could be required to pay the agent the agreed-upon commission," because some listing agreements stipulate that a seller must pay if a full-price offer has been submitted. BCFSA also notes cases where a seller had to pay although the buyer couldn't complete and the deal collapsed. Read the clause.

What if I want out early, or want to change it later? BCFSA states your contract's terms determine whether commission is payable after you terminate, and that the structure can be renegotiated mid-listing if the services change and both sides agree — though neither party has to agree, and the original terms continue if none is reached.

And on the rate itself, ask plainly. You can usually negotiate many provisions, and your agent can explain what changing a term would mean. One worth knowing: certain terms are required before a property can be posted on the MLS® System, and changing one of those can mean it can't be listed there.

The written agreements that carry all of this

One form comes before all of it. BCFSA states the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services must be completed any time a real estate professional takes on a client, sets out the duties you're owed and how to complain, and must be signed before they can provide any real estate services. Those duties come from the Real Estate Services Act: acting in your best interests, maintaining confidentiality, disclosing all known material information, communicating all offers in a timely, objective and unbiased manner, and disclosing conflicts of interest promptly. The listing agreement then carries the fee, and the Disclosure to Sellers of Expected Remuneration turns it into a dollar figure once an offer arrives. If any of the three is handled casually, that tells you more about a REALTOR® than the number they quoted.

Why this matters more in a slower market

Market context, with its date. According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's August 2026 statistics package, the Fraser Valley sales-to-active-listings ratio was 10%, against a band of 12% to 20% generally considered balanced, on 941 MLS® sales that month, up 1% year over year, with prices down across every zone and property type the board reports.

That doesn't tell you what to pay anyone. It does mean the work between listing and offer carries more weight than when homes sell themselves — which is the argument for judging a fee by what it produces rather than by the number on it.

If you're weighing a move, start with Cloverdale, Surrey, BC homes for sale. And if you'd like to talk through what listing would look like — including the fee, in plain terms — reach me at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a REALTOR® charge in BC?

There is no standard rate, and I'm not going to invent one. BCFSA, the regulator for every real estate licensee in British Columbia, answers this in its Consumer Guide to Remuneration: there is no standard commission you have to pay when you list your home, and any commission amount can be negotiated between you, your real estate professional and their brokerage. BCFSA adds that commissions are not set or approved by BCFSA and vary by brokerage. Anyone quoting you a figure as the standard BC rate is telling you something that isn't true. Ask the REALTOR® you're considering what they charge and what it includes, and see it in the listing agreement before you sign.

Is real estate commission negotiable in British Columbia?

Yes. BCFSA states that any commission amount can be negotiated between the seller, the real estate professional and the brokerage, and that the amount shared with a buyer's professional is completely negotiable as well. BCFSA is equally clear about the other side of it: if you and the brokerage can't agree, that is not a violation, and either party can decide the agency relationship isn't possible. A commission can also be renegotiated mid-listing if the services change and both parties agree, though neither side is obliged to accept a change.

Who pays the REALTOR® — the buyer or the seller?

The obligation sits with the seller. It's negotiated in the seller's listing agreement, and a portion may be designated for the brokerage representing the buyer. BCFSA lists the commission a seller agreed to pay among the costs that come with selling a home, alongside legal and notary fees, GST on the commission, mortgage prepayment penalties and the seller's share of property taxes. The buyer normally doesn't write a separate cheque for it, which is why people say the buyer pays nothing — but the money comes out of the purchase price the buyer pays and off what the seller receives on completion.

Can my REALTOR® keep anything I get above the list price?

No. BCFSA states that real estate professionals are prohibited from charging a commission based on the difference between the list price and the ultimate price a buyer pays. BCFSA explains the reason: it protects sellers by eliminating any perception that a real estate professional would recommend listing a home below market value in order to increase what they earn. This is a British Columbia consumer-protection rule, and one of the places where advice imported from American sources will lead a BC seller wrong.

If I cancel my listing agreement, do I still owe commission?

That depends on what your contract says, and BCFSA puts it exactly that way: the terms outlined in your contract specify whether commission is payable after terminating a service agreement, and your real estate professional is expected to explain those terms before you sign. BCFSA also flags two situations sellers don't expect — some listing agreements stipulate that commission is payable if a full-price offer has been submitted even where the seller accepted nothing, and there have been cases where a seller had to pay although the buyer couldn't complete. If anything is unclear, BCFSA's advice is to get legal advice first.

Related Reading

• Why Isn't My House Selling? A Fraser Valley, BC Reality Check

• Multiple Offers on Your Home: How It Actually Works in BC

• The Property Disclosure Statement: What You're Signing in BC

• Should I Sell First or Buy First? A Fraser Valley, BC Guide

• Right Sizing Your Home in BC: When the House Is Bigger Than the Life

About the Author

Talking about her own fee in plain language is something Caroline Jeklin would rather do early than late. A REALTOR® with Royal LePage Wolstencroft Realty, she has been licensed since 2021 and works out of Cloverdale, Surrey, BC across the Fraser Valley. She has been part of 57 transactions between 2021 and 2026 (as of August 2026), on properties from $302,000 to $4,200,000, and received the Royal LePage President's Gold Award in 2025, placing her in the top 6 to 10% of agents in her local marketplace. Her sellers get a weekly homeowner report on impressions and engagement while their home is listed. Read more about Caroline Jeklin, or reach her at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

The Property Disclosure Statement is voluntary. In British Columbia there is no prescribed form for disclosing property information, and nothing requires a seller in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC — or anywhere in the province — to complete one. Most writing on the subject implies the opposite, and that is the first thing worth correcting.

Here is what the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) publishes on its Material Latent Defects page for sellers: "While there are no prescribed forms in B.C. to disclose property information, a common way to do this is through a property disclosure statement. This is a voluntary form completed by the seller that provides information about the condition of the property being sold."

Voluntary. Near-universal on Fraser Valley listings, expected by buyers — and voluntary. That distinction separates two things people fold together: the form, and the duty. The form is optional. The duty to disclose certain defects is not, and it doesn't disappear because you left the form blank.

The Form Is Optional. The Duty Is Not.

BCFSA is direct about this. Sellers have a duty at common law to disclose latent defects about their property to a buyer. That duty comes from the law, not from a piece of paper, and declining the form does nothing to it.

A seller who doesn't want to make representations can complete a "Property No Disclosure Statement" instead. BCFSA describes what that costs you plainly: it "may put you at risk of potential litigation in the future if latent defects are discovered that you knew about and failed to disclose at the point of sale," and "may also be more difficult to sell your property, as buyers will question why no disclosure is being provided."

The second consequence surprises sellers. BCFSA's Material Latent Defects Guidelines for licensees state that "a client's decision to provide no disclosure does not absolve you of your duty to disclose a material latent defect." Your REALTOR® has an independent obligation, and declining the form doesn't switch it off. So the honest framing isn't "you have to fill this in." The form is a choice, and both choices carry consequences.

Patent Defects and Material Latent Defects

BC law distinguishes between defects you can find by looking and defects you can't, and the mandatory disclosure duty attaches to the second kind.

A patent defect is one you can find by looking — the stained ceiling tile, the fence on its last year, the cracked driveway. That is why the inspection subject exists in a BC contract, and why "a satisfactory professional building inspection" is the first condition BCFSA lists among those a buyer might place on an offer.

A material latent defect is defined in the Real Estate Services Rules, B.C. Reg. 209/2021, section 59(1), as "a material defect that cannot be discerned through a reasonable inspection of the property." The definition lists four categories:

• one that renders the property dangerous or potentially dangerous to occupants, unfit for habitation, or unfit for a purpose a party has made known;

• one that would involve great expense to remedy;

• a circumstance a local government or other local authority has given notice must or should be remedied;

• a lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits.

BCFSA's own examples include high levels of radon, a basement that leaks when it rains, structural damage, building envelope failure, underground storage tanks, problems with drinking water, and un-remediated damage from illegal use of the property. Electrical or gas work completed without appropriate permits and inspections also qualifies.

Read That Fourth Category Again

"A lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits" is in the definition itself. Unpermitted work is a material latent defect by definition — not a judgment call about how serious it is.

BCFSA's list of cases where licensees failed to disclose includes a covered deck built without the required municipal permit, unauthorized accommodation on the property, a former gas station that needed an environmental study, and a capital cost assessment relating to sewer service.

Unauthorized accommodation is on that list. In a market like Cloverdale, Surrey, BC and Langley Township, BC, where basement suites, coach houses and finished-later additions are ordinary, that's where this comes up most. A suite never permitted by the City of Surrey isn't a grey area here — it's a listed example.

The Duty That Sits on Your REALTOR®

Section 59(2) of the Rules says a licensee providing trading services to a seller "must disclose to all other parties to the trade, promptly and before any agreement for the acquisition or disposition of the real estate is entered into, any material latent defect in the real estate that is known to the licensee." Note the direction: it runs to the other side of the deal, not to their own client.

Section 59(3) closes the escape route: if a client instructs a licensee to withhold that disclosure, the licensee "must refuse to provide further trading services to or on behalf of that client in respect of the trade in real estate."

BCFSA adds one more thing that catches sellers off guard. A material latent defect discovered by the licensee — including through a home inspection commissioned by a buyer who then walks away — must also be disclosed to potential buyers considering an offer. A collapsed deal can permanently change what has to be disclosed on the next one.

What the PDS Actually Does in a BC Transaction

Section 59(4) of the Rules says the licensee's disclosure "is not required under subsection (2) if the party has already received written disclosure of the material latent defect from the client who is disposing of the real estate." BCFSA puts it plainly: "If your client has already made the disclosure in writing to the other parties, perhaps by way of a Property Disclosure Statement ('PDS'), there is no obligation to provide additional disclosure."

So the PDS is the usual vehicle for that written disclosure — and where it has been made, the licensee's separate duty is already satisfied. That's more accurate than "the PDS is the seller's legal disclosure document."

There's also a rule about where the disclosure lives. BCFSA's Disclosure Information states that material latent defects "must be disclosed in writing and the disclosure must be separate from any service agreement or agreement giving effect to a trade in real estate." Its Guidelines say the same about consumers disclosing themselves, and note that most sellers use a PDS to achieve it. A contract of purchase and sale is an agreement giving effect to a trade — the excluded class. The disclosure has to be its own piece of paper.

A great deal is written about what happens legally when a PDS is then incorporated into the contract by a clause saying it forms part of it. I'm not going to tell you, because that turns on the wording of the documents in front of you, and it's a question for a lawyer or notary — not for a REALTOR® and not for a blog post. The sourced part is the regulator's rule about where the disclosure must be made: a separate document.

The same goes for the answer options on the form and how a seller should complete any particular line. People ask what each choice means. That, too, is a question for a lawyer or notary, with the form in hand.

Stigmas Are Not Material Latent Defects

This one is rarely covered and comes up more than you'd think.

Under the heading "Stigmas Are Not Material Latent Defects," BCFSA lists residential examples: a sexual offender reported to live in the neighbourhood, a former resident suspected of being an organized crime gang member, a death on the property, a robbery or vandalism, or reports that the property is haunted. These, BCFSA says, do not specifically affect the physical condition, appearance or function of the property itself, and so they sit outside the material latent defect duty.

BCFSA sets out a process instead. When asked about a possible stigma, and if the seller instructs them to, the listing licensee may answer the question, or advise the buyer or the buyer's agent that they have been instructed not to answer. If they answer, BCFSA expects them to "use reasonable care and skill to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information" they provide.

The buyer-side takeaway is short: ask. BCFSA's direction to buyers' licensees is that if a client asks about something that concerns them, the licensee must make the appropriate inquiries. Nobody is obliged to volunteer a stigma.

Accuracy Matters More Than Completeness

BCFSA points to a Court of Appeal decision in which a seller, a former real estate licensee, failed to disclose an unpermitted addition on a Property Disclosure Statement where there was evidence the seller knew about it — offered as a demonstration of why the form has to be completed accurately. Its guidance to sellers is that completing the statement accurately and to the best of your knowledge is best practice and in all parties' interests. More boxes ticked isn't the goal — honest ones are.

Where I Send These Questions

I'll say this the way I say it at kitchen tables in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC: if I don't have the answer, I will find out for you. On disclosure, finding out usually means finding the right person rather than the right paragraph, and I'd rather say so than perform certainty I don't have.

What I can do is prepare properly. I'll pull the permit history, read what the file says, and flag the items a buyer's side will ask about — the finished basement, the deck, the furnace nobody has paperwork for. If a real question remains about what belongs on the form, it goes to a lawyer or notary before the listing goes live, not after an offer is in. Being your resource means knowing where my line is.

If You're Buying

BCFSA tells buyers' licensees they should advise clients that they are best protected by requesting the seller complete a PDS — as distinguished from the "Property No Disclosure Statement" — as a condition of their offer, and its Offers to Sellers guidance lists exactly that among the things a purchase might be made subject to.

And it treats a "No Disclosure" form as a signal, not a formality: BCFSA advises licensees to read it as an indication that there is a defect requiring further due diligence to discover, and to have the buyer ask their lender whether it is enough to support their financing application. Your subject to financing and the absence of a disclosure statement are connected.

None of it replaces an inspection. A patent defect is one you find by looking, and the inspection subject is how you look.

If you're at the stage of reading disclosure statements rather than reading about them, browse Cloverdale, Surrey, BC homes for sale and bring the questions to me.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a Property Disclosure Statement required in British Columbia?

No. BCFSA states that there are no prescribed forms in B.C. to disclose property information, and that the property disclosure statement is a voluntary form completed by the seller. It is common, and buyers expect it, but no rule compels a seller to complete one. What is not voluntary is the underlying duty: sellers have a duty at common law to disclose latent defects, and a licensee has a separate duty under the Real Estate Services Rules to disclose material latent defects known to them.

What is a material latent defect in BC?

Section 59(1) of the Real Estate Services Rules defines it as a material defect that cannot be discerned through a reasonable inspection of the property. The definition includes a defect that renders the property dangerous or potentially dangerous to occupants, unfit for habitation, or unfit for a purpose the party has made known; a defect involving great expense to remedy; a circumstance a local government or other local authority has given notice must or should be remedied; and a lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits.

Does unpermitted work have to be disclosed in BC?

A lack of appropriate municipal building and other permits sits inside the definition of a material latent defect in section 59(1) of the Real Estate Services Rules, and BCFSA's examples of failures to disclose include a covered deck built without the required permit and unauthorized accommodation on a property. Whether a specific item on your own property must be disclosed is a legal question. BCFSA's guidance tells sellers who are unsure to speak to their licensee or seek independent legal advice.

What happens if a seller refuses to complete a disclosure statement?

They can complete a "Property No Disclosure Statement" instead. BCFSA warns this may put a seller at risk of potential litigation if latent defects are later discovered that they knew about and failed to disclose at the point of sale, and may make the property harder to sell because buyers will question why no disclosure is being provided. It also does not remove the licensee's duty — BCFSA states that a client's decision to provide no disclosure does not absolve the licensee of the duty to disclose a material latent defect.

Does a death or a stigma have to be disclosed in BC?

BCFSA is explicit that stigmas are not material latent defects. Its residential examples include a death on the property, a reported haunting, a robbery or vandalism, and a sexual offender reported to live in the neighbourhood — circumstances that do not specifically affect the physical condition, appearance or function of the property. If a buyer asks and the seller permits it, the listing licensee may answer, or may say they have been instructed not to answer, and any answer given must be accurate and complete. A buyer who cares about a stigma has to raise it.

Can the Property Disclosure Statement be part of the contract of purchase and sale?

BCFSA's rule is about where the disclosure lives: material latent defects must be disclosed in writing, and that disclosure must be separate from any service agreement or agreement giving effect to a trade in real estate. A contract of purchase and sale is an agreement giving effect to a trade, so the disclosure has to be its own document. What changes legally if a clause then incorporates that document into the contract is a contract-law question for a lawyer or notary, not a REALTOR®.

Related Reading

• Subjects Explained: What "Subject Removal" Actually Means in BC

• Multiple Offers on Your Home: How It Actually Works in BC

• Suites and Coach Houses: Surrey, Langley Township and City, BC

• Which Strata Documents Actually Matter When You Buy in BC

• Why Isn't My House Selling? A Fraser Valley, BC Reality Check

About the Author

Licensed since 2021 and based in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC, Caroline Jeklin is a REALTOR® with Royal LePage Wolstencroft Realty. She has been part of 57 transactions across the Fraser Valley, ranging from $302,000 to $4,200,000 (2021–2026, as of August 2026). Going through a disclosure statement line by line before a listing goes live — and sending the genuinely legal questions to a lawyer or notary rather than guessing — is a standard part of how she prepares a home for market. Learn more about Caroline Jeklin, or reach her at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

In British Columbia, a seller looking at more than one offer has four choices and is obliged to take none of them. The rules shaping what happens next come from the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), and they surprise sellers in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC regularly — starting with what the competing buyers are and aren't entitled to know.

Most of what circulates online about competing offers is American, and that version is genuinely different. What follows is the process as BCFSA describes it, what it requires versus what it recommends, and where the sourced answer runs out.

Start With the Honest Part: This Market Is Not Producing Many of Them

Before any of the mechanics, a piece of context that a lot of real estate writing quietly leaves out.

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) reported a sales-to-active-listings ratio of 10% for August 2026, against a band of 12–20% FVREB describes as balanced. Total MLS® sales were 941, down 14% from July, with prices lower in every reporting zone and every property type. That is a buyer-favouring market, and it is the one a seller in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC is listing into this season.

Multiple offers still happen in it. They are simply far less common than a few years ago, and they attach to a specific property a lot of buyers want rather than to a general condition of the market. Any article treating competing offers as the normal outcome of listing right now is selling urgency. The process is still worth understanding, because if competition does arrive on your home it will probably arrive once, and you will have to decide quickly with real money attached.

What the Rules Require, and What They Only Recommend

This distinction runs through the topic, and getting it backwards is how sellers end up with confident but wrong expectations. BCFSA's offer guidance for real estate professionals uses "should" a great deal, and those passages are the regulator's stated expectation of good practice, not statutory prohibitions. BCFSA's own framing is explicit: while many boards have similar rules, its guidelines are "the minimum requirements," and licensees are reminded to know their board's procedures. Board rules sit on top of BCFSA's floor.

Here is what BCFSA's guidance on offers sets out.

Written offers get presented. If more than one written offer on a property is made before the seller accepts one, all written offers are to be presented to the seller. BCFSA gives one exception: specific written instructions from the seller, on the listing, not to present particular types of offers. Note where this attaches — to written offers.

A seller finds out how many are coming before seeing any. BCFSA directs the listing licensee to tell the seller how many offers may be presented before presenting the first, so there is no suggestion of accepting or countering before all have been seen. Where the order is in question, BCFSA states offers should be presented in the order received.

One counter-offer at a time is a recommendation, and a strong one. Because countering more than one offer at a time is "problematic and a potential source of lawsuits," BCFSA recommends only one be countered at a time. A recommendation rather than a rule — and countering two people at once on the same house is a bad idea for reasons easy to picture.

And a caution aimed at hot listings. BCFSA advises extreme care when multiple offers over list price arrive after short market exposure. A seller may consider refusing all of them and inviting fresh offers — while being made aware, BCFSA says, that some or all may not come back.

The Sentence the Whole Topic Turns On

Sellers usually ask this first: can I tell the other buyers what I'm holding, so they go higher?

BCFSA's stated restriction is narrow. A listing licensee may not disclose the terms of an offer or counter-offer from one potential buyer to another without the prior consent of the seller, preferably in writing. The default is non-disclosure, and disclosure becomes possible on the seller's instruction — not at the licensee's discretion, and not because a competing buyer asked.

Two things sit on top of that. If a seller has agreed with a buyer to keep that buyer's price and terms confidential, no information may be disclosed at all. And BCFSA notes some boards have bylaws prohibiting disclosure of the price and terms of a competing offer, so the answer can depend on the board your listing sits with — worth asking your REALTOR® before offers arrive rather than after.

Where the sourced answer runs out is on how many offers there are. BCFSA's restriction concerns the terms of an offer being disclosed to another buyer; it contains no express rule on disclosing the number of competing offers, and I won't invent one. The defensible statement is BCFSA's own: terms are not disclosed without the seller's consent, anything further is the seller's call, and board bylaws may narrow it.

From the Buyer's Side, the Answer Is Cleaner

BCFSA's consumer guidance, Offers to Sellers, addresses this directly, and it is the most useful passage in the topic.

Sellers do not have to disclose that there are other offers competing against yours. BCFSA then says it is always a good idea to have your licensee ask the seller or the seller's agent whether an offer you want to submit will be in competition — and:

"A seller is not permitted to lie. They can only answer truthfully, or advise you that they do not want to share that information with you."

That sentence gives a buyer three things at once: an action, which is to ask; a realistic expectation, that they may decline; and a protection, that whatever they do say has to be true. Sellers should understand it too, because it defines the boundary they work inside.

BCFSA is equally blunt about what a competing buyer is not owed. When a seller receives multiple offers, they do not need to go back to each buyer and say what the other offers are for. They may simply choose the one they consider best and reject yours, BCFSA says, "with no chance for you to improve it." No guaranteed second round.

"I Offered Asking, So They Have to Sell to Me" Is Wrong

This is the most common misconception in the subject, held by buyers and sellers in equal measure, and it is squarely answered. Listing a property for sale, in BCFSA's words, is "an invitation from the seller for buyers to make offers." The seller is not obligated to sell even if a buyer makes a full-price, unconditional offer. And separately: the first or highest offer does not bind or limit the seller from considering any other offer first.

So a full-price offer is not an acceptance trigger, and neither is being first through the door or the biggest number on the table. A seller weighing a slightly lower offer with clean dates against a higher one loaded with conditions is making an ordinary decision, not a suspicious one. BCFSA states plainly that clients are the ultimate decision makers, and that a seller decides how and when offers will be negotiated and whether they are accepted, rejected, ignored or countered.

Ignored is a real option, and it catches people out. A seller who sees no reasonable way to reach agreement may simply not respond, BCFSA says. Your offer carries a deadline, and when it passes, it is as if the offer had been rejected.

A counter-offer also burns the original. If a seller changes anything at all on your offer, BCFSA states the seller has rejected it and is making a new offer back to you. If you then decline the counter or change your mind, the seller has no option of returning to your original offer. Worth sitting with before countering a good offer over something small.

Escalation Clauses: Why the American Playbook Fails Here

Anyone who has read much American real estate content has met the escalation clause — the offer that automatically beats any rival bid by a set increment. Buyers arrive in British Columbia asking for one. The BC term is a referential purchase price clause, which BCFSA describes as a means by which a buyer tries to establish a purchase price by reference to prices contained in competing offers — piggybacking on the next highest genuine offer acceptable to the seller.

BCFSA's guidance points to the B.C. Court of Appeal decision in The Bank of Nova Scotia and Yoshikuni Lumber, which held that an offer by one bidder dependent for its definition on the offers of others is invalid and unacceptable, "as being inconsistent with and potentially destructive of the very tendering process in which it is submitted." That is BCFSA's statement of the law, in a tendering context, and it should not be stretched further than the regulator does.

The takeaway for a seller: if an offer arrives whose price is defined by what somebody else offered, that is not a straightforward document, and the person to review it is a lawyer or notary — not your REALTOR®, and not a blog post. For a buyer: the instinct is fine, but the mechanism does not travel across the border. A clean, well-priced offer does.

Who Is Actually in the Room

Offer presentation in British Columbia is less dramatic than television suggests. Where more than one offer is presented, BCFSA states the listing licensee will allow only the licensee or licensees who introduced the offer being dealt with at that time to be present — nobody sits in on somebody else's offer. BCFSA also sees nothing wrong with that licensee attending to explain the offer, unless the client instructs otherwise.

On whether buyers learn they are competing at all: BCFSA's guidance for licensees says that unless otherwise instructed by the seller, the listing real estate professional should ensure any other representative involved knows there will be competitive offers. Read alongside the consumer page, that is consistent — the usual practice is that buyers are told, but the seller can direct otherwise and a buyer has no entitlement to be told. Which is exactly why BCFSA tells buyers to ask.

One more piece catches sellers already under contract: BCFSA states written offers received before the completion date of an existing sale must still be presented, and that a seller wishing to consider a subsequent offer should be advised to seek legal advice.

What "Maximized Negotiation" Actually Looks Like on My Side of It

A client, Melissa Oliver, wrote afterward that I "knew the market, advertised well, and maximized negotiation," and that having me in her corner "is like having a trusted friend looking out for your interests." I have thought about that middle phrase more than the compliment deserves, because negotiation is the part sellers imagine as a performance and almost never is one. What did the work on that sale was ordinary and early: pricing that brought people through the door, marketing that reached past the buyers already watching, and then, when an offer arrived, walking through its actual terms against what the market was doing that month rather than reacting to the number at the top of the page. I don't negotiate at a seller and report back. I make sure they can see exactly what they're choosing between, including the option of choosing none of it.

Where This Leaves You

If you are selling in British Columbia, the summary is short. All written offers reach you. You are told how many are coming before you see the first. You decide — accept, reject, ignore or counter — and nothing about a full-price offer takes that away. What competing buyers get told about each other's terms is your call, within BCFSA's restriction and whatever your board's bylaws add, and worth deciding deliberately rather than in the moment.

If you are buying: ask whether you are in competition, accept that you may not get an answer, and know the answer you do get cannot be a lie. Then make the offer you can live with, because there may be no second round.

None of this is legal advice, or a substitute for having a contract read by someone qualified — what a clause commits you to is a question for a lawyer or a notary. What the process looks like, and how to prepare before an offer is on your kitchen table, is a conversation I am glad to have with no obligation attached. If you are weighing whether your home would draw that kind of attention, the current Cloverdale, Surrey, BC homes for sale are the most direct picture of what your buyers are comparing you against.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to be told if my offer is competing with other offers in BC?

No. BCFSA's consumer guidance states that sellers do not have to disclose that there are other offers competing against yours. BCFSA recommends instead that you have your real estate licensee ask the seller or the seller's agent whether your offer will be in competition. In BCFSA's words, "A seller is not permitted to lie. They can only answer truthfully, or advise you that they do not want to share that information with you."

Can a seller in British Columbia refuse a full-price offer?

Yes. BCFSA describes listing a property for sale as an invitation from the seller for buyers to make offers, and states the seller is not obligated to sell even if a buyer makes a full-price, unconditional offer. The first or highest offer does not bind the seller either.

Are escalation clauses allowed in British Columbia?

The BC term is a referential purchase price clause — an offer whose price is defined by reference to prices in competing offers. BCFSA's guidance points to the B.C. Court of Appeal decision in The Bank of Nova Scotia and Yoshikuni Lumber, which held that an offer dependent for its definition on the offers of others is invalid and unacceptable. If a clause like that appears in an offer on your home, a lawyer or notary is the right person to review it.

Does a listing REALTOR® have to present every offer to the seller in BC?

BCFSA's guidance states that where more than one written offer is made before the seller has accepted one, all written offers are to be presented, with one exception: specific written instructions from the seller, on the listing, not to present particular types of offers. That is the regulator's stated expectation of practice rather than a statute, and BCFSA describes its offer guidelines as minimum requirements a board's own procedures may build on.

If a seller counters my offer, can they change their mind and accept the original?

No. BCFSA states that if a seller changes anything at all on your original offer, the seller is considered to have rejected it and to be making a new offer back to you. If that counter-offer is unacceptable to you, the seller has no option of returning to your original offer and accepting it. Worth weighing before countering an offer you were mostly happy with.

Are multiple offers common in the Fraser Valley right now?

Far less common than a few years ago. FVREB reported a sales-to-active-listings ratio of 10% for August 2026, below the 12–20% band FVREB describes as balanced, on 941 MLS® sales — up 1% year over year, with prices lower in every zone and property type. Competing offers still happen, generally on a property a lot of buyers want, but a seller should plan around a considered single offer rather than a bidding contest.

Related Reading

• Why Isn't My House Selling? A Fraser Valley, BC Reality Check

• What Does a REALTOR® Cost in BC, and Who Actually Pays?

• The Property Disclosure Statement: What You're Signing in BC

• Should I Sell First or Buy First? A Fraser Valley, BC Guide

• Subjects Explained: What "Subject Removal" Actually Means in BC

About the Author

Competing offers are the part of selling people rehearse long before it happens, which is why Caroline Jeklin would rather walk a seller through the process early than explain it under a deadline. A REALTOR® with Royal LePage Wolstencroft Realty, she has been part of 57 transactions since being licensed in 2021 (2021–2026, as of August 2026), working with buyers and sellers from $302,000 to $4,200,000 across Cloverdale, Surrey, BC and Langley Township, BC. In 2025 she received the Royal LePage President's Gold Award, placing her in the top 6–10% of agents in her local marketplace. There is more about her background and how she works on her site, and she can be reached at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

Right sizing a home in British Columbia is a decision about how you want to live, not a calculation about square footage. Plenty of people in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC ask whether to sell once the kids have gone, and a fair number of them shouldn't. This post is about telling the difference honestly.

The uncomfortable part first: there's an industry built on the hesitation you're feeling, and some of it isn't on your side. Search this question and you'll find companies offering to buy your house quickly, for cash, pitched squarely at people who feel stuck. You are not stuck. You have a house, no deadline, and every reason to take your time.

The Question Isn't Really About Square Footage

"The house is too big" is almost never the whole sentence. Nobody sells a home because a room is empty. They sell because the empty room started to mean something — the life the house was built around moved on, and the house didn't.

That's why this sits differently than a move-up purchase. A family that needs a fourth bedroom has a constraint you can write on a napkin. A couple in their sixties in a four-bedroom home in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC has no constraint at all. The stairs are fine, for now. The yard is a lot, but it's manageable. What they have is a question about the next fifteen years, and those don't answer themselves with a listing.

What I Hear First, and It Isn't About Space

When someone tells me the house is too big, I've learned to wait before I answer, because the second sentence is usually the real one. What most empty nesters I sit down with want is to find a rancher instead, and maybe a side suite — if the kids need to come back, they're there. That's the actual requirement. It isn't fewer square feet; it's a home where the door stays open. Once we name it that way, the whole search changes shape. A rancher with a suite is a completely different property than a small apartment, and looking for the wrong one is how people talk themselves out of the idea entirely.

So before anything else: write down what you're protecting, not what you're shedding. Usually it's a room the kids can stay in at Christmas, somewhere to put a grandchild down for a nap, or the ability to help one of them out for a year if things go sideways. Those are findable requirements — and completely invisible if the conversation starts at "how much is my house worth."

What Right Sizing Actually Solves

When it works, it isn't because the new place is smaller. It's because four or five specific frictions go away at once.

Less house to look after

A detached home on a full lot is a standing set of obligations — a roof, gutters, a furnace, a lawn, a driveway to clear. None of it is hard at fifty-five. Some of it is genuinely hard at seventy-five, and most people would rather choose the moment than have it chosen for them. It's the most common honest reason I hear, and it has nothing to do with money.

Single-level living, before you need it

Stairs are the one thing you can't renovate out of a two-storey home. A rancher, or a ground-floor unit, takes a future problem off the board. The people who move for this reason usually do it about a decade before anyone would say they had to, which is exactly why it goes smoothly.

Releasing equity that's currently sitting in drywall

A family home in the Fraser Valley bought decades ago holds value that does nothing until the house is sold. Right sizing converts some of it. What that means for your retirement, taxes and income is not my department — capital gains, pensions and estate questions belong with an accountant, a lawyer or a notary, and what you can carry belongs with a mortgage broker. I can tell you what homes are selling for; I'd be doing you a disservice if I told you what to do with the difference.

A location that suits the next fifteen years

The house you bought was chosen for a school catchment, a commute and a yard. None of those matter now. What matters might be a walkable grocery run, being twenty minutes from a hospital, or being closer to one of your kids — a genuinely different set of criteria than the one you used last time, and the part most people haven't consciously updated.

What It Costs, Honestly

Here's the side the "we buy houses" ads leave out.

Moving is disruptive, and this move more than most. You're not packing three years of accumulation. You're packing thirty. Sorting a family home is physically hard and emotionally harder, and it takes longer than anyone plans for. The sorting, not the selling, is the part that wears people out.

The house carries meaning, and that meaning is not irrational. Kids were raised in it. There's a doorframe with pencil marks. For many people the house is the physical record of the thing they're proudest of. That's a legitimate reason to stay, and I'd rather a client name it out loud than talk themselves past it.

A smaller home in a good area is not automatically cheaper per square foot. This surprises people more than anything else. You aren't buying floor area — you're buying a location, a building, and maintenance somebody else arranges. A well-located rancher or townhouse can cost more per square foot than the larger, older house you're selling. Strata properties also carry monthly strata fees, plus bylaws under British Columbia's Strata Property Act governing things a detached owner never thinks about — pets, rentals, alterations. Read them before you fall for a unit, not after.

If a suite is part of the plan, the rules are municipal and not optional. What's permitted for a secondary suite or coach house depends on the property, the zoning and the municipality — the City of Surrey and Langley Township, BC don't have identical rules — and a listing describing a suite is not the same as a legal, permitted one. Confirm with the municipality what a specific address allows. And if the arrangement is genuinely multi-generational — one of your kids on title, or contributing to the purchase — that's a conversation for a lawyer or notary and a mortgage broker, ahead of a REALTOR®.

The Market, as of August 2026 — You'd Be Trading at Both Ends

This is where I'd usually be expected to tell you the timing is good. I'm not going to, because it depends which end you're looking at.

According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's August 2026 statistics package, the Fraser Valley sales-to-active-listings ratio sat at 10%, below the 12–20% band FVREB describes as balanced. There were 941 MLS® sales across the board that month, up 1% year over year, and benchmark prices were down in every reporting zone and every property type. Those are buyer-favouring conditions.

What that means for you is that you'd be on both sides of the same market. In the FVREB Cloverdale, Surrey, BC zone, the August 2026 MLS® HPI detached benchmark was $1,339,700, down 6.3% year over year; the townhouse benchmark was $757,200, down 6.4%. The house you'd be selling is worth less than a year ago — and so is the home you'd be buying, by a slightly wider margin in that segment.

The gap between those two benchmarks is $582,500. That's a benchmark comparison, not your proceeds — your actual number depends on your specific home, what you buy and the costs of the transaction, and it isn't something anyone should quote you from a table.

Two things follow, and neither is advice.

First, a soft market is harder on the selling side and easier on the buying side, and someone doing both at once feels both. That's different from a first-time buyer's position, where the conditions point one way.

Second — and I'd underline this one — a market reading describes a month; it is not a reason to do anything. FVREB publishes days on market, sales-to-list ratio and months of supply for the board as a whole, not by zone, so anyone quoting you a zone-level figure for those in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC is quoting something that doesn't exist. If you're not otherwise ready to move, the ratio doesn't make you ready.

What One of These Moves Actually Looked Like

I worked with a couple making exactly this move — out of a house and into a townhouse. LeeAnn Lebert wrote about it afterwards in a review:

"She took the time to truly understand our needs and preferences, listening carefully to what mattered most to us... Caroline's dedication and attention to detail were exceptional."

I'm including that for one reason, not as a compliment. The work in a right-sizing move is almost entirely in the first conversation — what has to be true about the next home, what can't be given up, who has to be able to stay. When that part is rushed the search wanders, nothing feels right, and people conclude the idea was a mistake when actually the brief was wrong. That's why my first meeting with sellers here is mostly questions.

Good Reasons to Stay, and They're Common

I'd rather write this section than have you skip it.

The house works and you just noticed the quiet. The first year after the last child leaves is a strange one. If nothing about the home is difficult and the feeling arrived on a specific date, wait a year.

You use more of it than you think. Count the rooms you were in this week. If one you'd called wasted is where somebody works, exercises, sews or keeps the thing that makes their hobby possible, it isn't wasted.

Your kids are genuinely still in and out. Some households have adult children back for stretches — between leases, between jobs, finishing school. If that's your reality rather than your hope, a move that removes that capacity solves a problem you don't have.

You're comparing yourself to people who moved. Friends who did this and are happy aren't evidence about your house. They had their own reasons; you have your own stairs, street and neighbours.

The move you'd want isn't available right now. If the requirement is a rancher with a suite in a specific area and nothing matching it exists this month, wait for one rather than accept something that doesn't do the job. Nobody should sell a home they like to buy a home they've settled for.

How to Actually Decide

Not a checklist to pass — four questions, in order.

1. What am I protecting? Write it as a requirement about the next home — a guest room, a suite, one level, a street you can walk. If you can't write it, you're not ready to search yet.

2. What's driving the timing? Maintenance, stairs, location, money, or a feeling. Each of those has a different answer, and only some of them are solved by moving.

3. Who do I need to talk to before a REALTOR®? Usually an accountant or a lawyer, and a mortgage broker. Getting the financial and legal picture before you look at homes means you're never deciding under pressure later.

4. What does the version I'd actually be happy in look like? If you can describe it in a sentence, we can go and see whether it exists. If it doesn't, staying and waiting is a strategy, not a failure.

When you want to see what's genuinely out there — ranchers, townhouses, homes with a legal suite — it's worth looking at current Cloverdale, Surrey, BC homes for sale before deciding anything. Looking commits you to nothing, and a real listing tells you more about whether the idea appeals than any amount of thinking about it does.

And if you want to talk it through with someone who has no stake in you moving this year, I'm happy to be that conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

The kids have moved out — should we sell the house?

Only if a smaller or simpler home solves something specific. Empty rooms on their own are not a reason. The people who genuinely benefit are the ones who can name what's driving it — stairs they'd rather not climb in fifteen years, a yard and roof that eat their weekends, a location chosen for a school they no longer need, or equity they want doing something else. If none of that is true and the house still works, staying is a completely reasonable answer.

What does right sizing actually mean if it isn't about square footage?

It means matching the home to the life you have now rather than the one you had. In practice, what most empty nesters in British Columbia are looking for isn't a small home — it's a single-level home, often a rancher, sometimes with a side suite so an adult child can come back if they need to. That's usually a different property than the one they'd have described at the start, and it's why the requirement matters more than the square footage.

Is a smaller home in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC always cheaper?

Cheaper in total, usually. Cheaper per square foot, often not. You're buying location, a newer or lower-maintenance building, and in a strata, maintenance somebody else arranges — and those cost money. Strata properties also carry monthly strata fees and bylaws under British Columbia's Strata Property Act covering pets, rentals and alterations. What the numbers mean for your own finances is a question for a mortgage broker and an accountant, not for a REALTOR®.

What was the Fraser Valley market doing for someone selling one home and buying another?

As of August 2026, the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board reported a sales-to-active-listings ratio of 10%, below the 12–20% band FVREB considers balanced, with 941 MLS® sales for the month — up 1% year over year — and benchmark prices down in every zone and every property type. Those conditions favour buyers. Anyone selling one home and buying another is trading at both ends of the same market, so the effect works in both directions rather than only one.

Can we keep room for our kids to come back if we move to something smaller?

Often, yes, and it's the most common thing people in this position are protecting. A rancher with a guest room, or a home with a legal secondary suite, keeps that door open without keeping the whole house. What's permitted for a suite or coach house depends on the property's zoning and the municipality — the City of Surrey and Langley Township, BC don't have identical rules — so confirm what a specific address allows with the municipality. If an adult child would be on title or contributing to the purchase, that's a conversation for a lawyer or notary and a mortgage broker before you shop.

If we sell a detached home and buy a townhouse, how much does that free up?

Less than the benchmark gap suggests, and the honest answer is that nobody can tell you without seeing your home. For scale only: FVREB's August 2026 MLS® HPI benchmarks for the Cloverdale, Surrey, BC zone put detached at $1,339,700 and townhouse at $757,200. A benchmark is a modelled figure for a representative property, not your proceeds — what you actually free up depends on your specific home, what you buy, and the costs of selling and purchasing. Those two segments also moved at different rates over the year, detached down 6.3% and townhouses down 6.4%, so the gap is not fixed either.

Related Reading

• Why Isn't My House Selling? A Fraser Valley, BC Reality Check

• Should I Sell First or Buy First? A Fraser Valley, BC Guide

• What Does a REALTOR® Cost in BC, and Who Actually Pays?

• The Property Disclosure Statement: What You're Signing in BC

• Suites and Coach Houses: Surrey, Langley Township and City, BC

About the Author

Sellers deciding whether the family home still fits are among the conversations Caroline Jeklin takes slowest, because the requirement is usually not the one the caller opens with. She is a REALTOR® with Royal LePage Wolstencroft Realty, licensed in 2021 and based in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC, working with buyers and sellers across the Fraser Valley including Langley Township, BC. She has been part of 57 transactions with clients from $302,000 to $4,200,000 (2021–2026, as of August 2026). In 2025 she received the Royal LePage President's Gold Award, placing her in the top 6–10% of agents in her local marketplace. Read more about Caroline Jeklin, or reach her at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

There is no single right answer here, and anyone who hands you one without asking about your situation is guessing. In British Columbia, whether you sell first or buy first comes down to two things: what the Fraser Valley market is doing the month you move, and how much uncertainty your household can genuinely live with.

Both of those change. The sequencing that was obvious in the multiple-offer market of a few years ago is not the sequencing that fits the market the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB) reported in August 2026. So rather than pick a side for you, this covers what each path protects you from, what each costs, and the British Columbia contract mechanism built for households that need both transactions to touch.

Selling First: What It Protects You From, and What It Costs

Selling first means you list your current home, accept an offer, and only then go shopping seriously.

What it protects you from is the number. Once your home is sold and the buyer's conditions are removed, you know your actual proceeds — not an estimate from a home evaluation, not a hopeful list price, but the real figure on a signed Contract of Purchase and Sale. Every decision after that is made against a known budget instead of a projected one, and you aren't making an offer that depends on something that hasn't happened yet.

It also makes you a stronger buyer. The BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) puts it plainly in its guidance for buyers: fewer subject clauses generally signal a more serious buyer, because every subject asks the seller to hold their home off the market while you work through it. When you've already sold, that particular ask disappears from your offer.

What it costs you is certainty about where you land. You have a completion date coming and may not yet have found the next home. In a market with more inventory that's a smaller problem than it sounds, but it's still the thing that keeps people awake. The fallbacks are ordinary: negotiate a longer window before completing, arrange interim housing, or store your belongings and move twice. None are catastrophes. All are inconvenient, and one of them costs money.

Buying First: What It Protects You From, and What It Costs

Buying first means you find and secure the next home, then sell.

What it protects you from is having to settle. If your requirements are specific — a rancher, a legal suite, a particular school catchment, a shop out back, single-level living — the pool of homes that fit may be small, and the right one may not be listed on the week your sale completes. Buying first lets you move when the right property appears rather than when the calendar says so. It also means one move instead of two, and no interim housing.

What it costs you is that your sale becomes the uncertain part. You have committed to a purchase against proceeds you haven't realized yet. If your home takes longer to sell than you expected, or sells for less than you planned around, the gap between the two transactions is yours to manage. That pressure also tends to travel into your listing: a seller with a firm completion date on a purchase is a seller who negotiates from a weaker position, and buyers are good at sensing it.

Some buyers ask their lender about ways to bridge a gap between two transactions. That's a real conversation, but it's a mortgage question, not a REALTOR® one — the person who can answer it for your circumstances is a mortgage broker or your lender.

The Subject-to-Sale Condition: How British Columbia Links the Two

British Columbia has a specific contract mechanism for the household that needs both transactions to work: a condition making the purchase subject to the sale of the buyer's existing property.

BCFSA lists "the sale of your present home" among the items a buyer might make an offer subject to, alongside a satisfactory building inspection, arranging financing, and a review of strata documentation. Two points in its consumer guidance surprise people.

The first: a contract with subjects in it is already binding. In BCFSA's words, the purpose of a subject clause — also called a condition precedent — is to set out a specific condition that must be fulfilled before the sale can go through, "although the contract is legally binding once it is signed by both parties." Signing is the commitment. The subject is the escape hatch that only opens under defined circumstances.

The second: subjects are not free options. BCFSA is direct that when you place subject clauses on an offer, you are required to use every reasonable effort to see the conditions are satisfied, and that subject clauses are "not 'escape' clauses that allow you to avoid your legal responsibilities in the contract." For a subject-to-sale condition, that means genuinely marketing and pricing your home to sell, not listing it optimistically and waiting for the deadline to release you. If you cannot meet the conditions after making every reasonable effort, BCFSA notes the contract ends and there is no legal obligation to complete. Once conditions are fulfilled, written notification goes to the seller removing the subjects — that written notice is the moment the deal becomes unconditional.

BCFSA's own advice is that subject clauses must be carefully and precisely worded, that you'd be wise to get professional help composing them, and that it remains your responsibility to be sure they mean what you intend. For what a specific clause commits you to, a lawyer or notary is the right person to ask.

How Sellers Actually Read a Subject-to-Sale Offer

Whether you can write a subject-to-sale offer isn't really the question — you can. The question is how it lands on the other side of the table.

A seller comparing offers is comparing certainty as much as price, and an offer conditional on a property that hasn't sold yet asks that seller to wait on a second transaction they cannot see, price or influence. BCFSA frames it from the seller's chair explicitly: the buyer is, in effect, asking the seller to take the home off the market during the period while the conditions are being fulfilled. That's why a subject-to-sale offer often needs to be stronger elsewhere — on price, on dates, on the length of the condition period — to compete with a cleaner one.

Sellers also have a documented answer to it. BCFSA describes it this way: a seller may wish to accept an offer containing subject clauses yet still be free to consider other offers until the conditions are removed, and may ask for a clause requiring the buyer to remove all subject conditions within a specified time period if the seller receives another attractive offer. If the buyer cannot, the conditional contract comes to an end. So a subject-to-sale purchase can be secure one day and back in play the next, on someone else's timing — a reason to understand what you're holding, not a reason to avoid it.

Completion and Possession Dates: The Levers That Line Two Deals Up

The dates are where a two-transaction move is actually engineered, and British Columbia uses two distinct ones that get flattened together far too often.

BCFSA sets them out clearly. The completion date is the day stated in the Contract of Purchase and Sale on which legal ownership transfers in exchange for the purchase price. The possession date is the day the buyer can move in or take control of the property. And, in BCFSA's words, "the completion and possession dates are not necessarily on the same day."

That gap is a tool. Sequencing the completion of your sale and of your purchase, and setting possession dates that give you room to physically move, is how a household avoids the two worst outcomes — owning nothing and owning two things. Dates are negotiable terms like price, and in a market where sellers are competing for buyers they often have the most give in them. If a single-move transition matters more to you than the last dollar, say so early.

What the August 2026 Fraser Valley Market Means for This Choice

The sequencing question resolves differently depending on which side of the market is under pressure — and as of the most recent reporting month, the Fraser Valley favours buyers.

FVREB's August 2026 statistics package reports a sales-to-active-listings ratio of 10% across the Fraser Valley, against a balanced range of 12–20%. There were 941 MLS® sales in the month, down 14% from July, and benchmark prices were down in every reporting zone and every property type. In Cloverdale, Surrey, BC, the detached benchmark sat at $1,339,700, down 6.3% over the year — the mildest decline in the table, though still a decline.

What that means for sequencing, plainly:

• Buying is the easier half right now. More active listings and fewer sales mean more choice and less pressure at the point of purchase. The scenario people fear about selling first — sold, with nothing to look at — is a smaller risk in a market with this much inventory than it was when the ratio was running hot.

• Selling is the harder half. That cuts both ways. Sell first and you carry uncertainty for a while, but you resolve the harder transaction before committing to anything. Buy first and you commit to the easy half while leaving the hard half open-ended.

• A subject-to-sale offer is more likely to be entertained than in a seller's market — a seller with limited interest has more reason to consider a conditional offer than one fielding several. That changes the odds, not the mechanics.

FVREB publishes days on market, sales-to-list ratio and months of supply board-wide, not by zone, so I won't dress up a board-wide figure as a Cloverdale, Surrey, BC one. What the ratio does tell you: at 11%, preparation and pricing decide how long the selling half takes, and a plan that assumes a fast sale is a plan with a hole in it.

What This Actually Looked Like for One Family

I've walked a household through both sides of this at once, and it is the hardest version of the job. Kam Basran described it afterward better than I could: "She helped us sell our home and find a new one in a pretty tough market. Selling our home in a buyer's market felt stressful, but she pulled through for us and made it happen." The word I'd underline there is stressful, because it was — and pretending otherwise would have helped nobody. What made it work wasn't a clever manoeuvre. It was deciding early which side of the move they most needed protected, keeping the dates flexible enough to be useful, and telling them plainly where things stood every week rather than only when there was good news to report. Anxiety in a move usually comes from not knowing, not from the market itself.

How to Decide, Without Guessing

Start with the question that settles it: which risk would keep you up at night — owning two homes, or owning none for a stretch? Most people know immediately, and once it's said out loud the rest of the plan follows.

Then get concrete. Know what your current home is realistically worth in this market before you shop, not after. Know how specific your requirements are, because the more specific they are the more buying first earns its risk. Know what flexibility you genuinely have on dates and interim housing — that flexibility is what makes either path survivable. And if financing an overlap is part of the picture, take that to a mortgage broker before you make any offer.

It also helps to see what's actually available while you weigh it — current Cloverdale, Surrey, BC homes for sale is a reasonable place to start, because whether the homes that fit you exist right now changes the answer more than any general rule does. To talk it through against your own numbers, call 604-319-5052 or email caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it better to sell first or buy first in British Columbia?

Neither is universally better. It depends on market conditions when you move and on how much uncertainty your household can carry. Selling first gives you a known budget and a stronger position as a buyer, at the cost of possibly needing interim housing. Buying first guarantees where you land, at the cost of leaving your sale open-ended. In the Fraser Valley as of August 2026, buying is the easier half of the move and selling the harder one.

What is a subject-to-sale condition in a BC Contract of Purchase and Sale?

It's a condition that makes a purchase dependent on the buyer selling their existing property. The BC Financial Services Authority lists "the sale of your present home" among the items a buyer might make an offer subject to. Two things matter: the contract is legally binding once both parties sign, even with subjects in it, and BCFSA states subject clauses are not escape clauses — a buyer placing subjects on an offer must use every reasonable effort to see the conditions are satisfied. BCFSA advises getting professional help composing them.

Why do some sellers turn down an offer that's subject to the sale of the buyer's home?

Because it asks them to trade certainty for a second transaction they can't see or control. As BCFSA puts it, a buyer with subject clauses is in effect asking the seller to take the home off the market while the conditions are worked through. When the condition is the sale of another property, the seller is waiting on an entirely separate deal. That's why such an offer usually needs to be stronger on price or dates to compete with a cleaner one.

What happens if my home doesn't sell before the deadline in a subject-to-sale condition?

If the conditions aren't satisfied after every reasonable effort, BCFSA states the contract ends and there is no legal obligation to complete the purchase. Separately, a seller may have negotiated a clause requiring you to remove all subject conditions within a specified time period if they receive another attractive offer — and BCFSA notes that if you cannot, the conditional contract comes to an end. A lawyer or notary is the right person to review what a specific clause commits you to.

Can my completion and possession dates line up so I only move once?

Often, yes — those dates are the main tool for it. In British Columbia the completion date is when legal ownership transfers in exchange for the purchase price, and the possession date is when the buyer can move in or take control of the property. BCFSA is explicit that the two are not necessarily on the same day. Sequencing the completions of your sale and your purchase, and setting possession dates with room in them, is how households avoid both owning two properties and owning none.

Who should I talk to about covering a gap between buying and selling?

A mortgage broker or your lender. Whether there's a way to bridge the period between one transaction completing and the other is a financing question that depends on your circumstances, your lender's requirements and your property, and it isn't something a REALTOR® should answer for you. I'll flag when a gap looks likely in your plan and help build the dates around it, but any financing arrangement is a conversation for the professional licensed to have it.

Related Reading

• Why Isn't My House Selling? A Fraser Valley, BC Reality Check

• Multiple Offers on Your Home: How It Actually Works in BC

• The Property Disclosure Statement: What You're Signing in BC

• Right Sizing Your Home in BC: When the House Is Bigger Than the Life

• Subjects Explained: What "Subject Removal" Actually Means in BC

About the Author

Moving twice in one transaction is a different job than buying or selling on its own, and it's the version Caroline Jeklin gets asked about most. A REALTOR® with Royal LePage Wolstencroft Realty, she has been part of 57 transactions across the Fraser Valley since being licensed in 2021 (2021–2026, as of August 2026), working with buyers and sellers from $302,000 to $4,200,000. She has lived and worked in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC for over 20 years, and works across Langley Township, BC and the wider Fraser Valley. In 2025 she received the Royal LePage President's Gold Award, placing her in the top 6–10% of agents in her local marketplace. More about her background is on her about page, and she can be reached directly at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.

A home sitting unsold for weeks in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC, or anywhere in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, usually comes down to five things: the market, the price, the exposure, the presentation, and the agent relationship. As of August 2026, the market is carrying more of that weight than most sellers expect. That's where to start.

Most articles on this question skip straight to your house. Declutter. Repaint. Fix the photos. Some of that advice is fine, and I'll get to it. But leading with it quietly tells you the problem is you, and in the Fraser Valley right now that's often not true. So let's do this in the order a diagnosis actually works: widest cause first, narrowest cause last.

Start with the market, because the market is doing a lot of this

Here is the condition your home is listed into, with a date attached.

According to the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board's August 2026 statistics package, the Fraser Valley sales-to-active-listings ratio was 10%. A ratio between 12% and 20% is generally considered balanced. Below that band, there are more homes for sale than there are buyers to absorb them — which is another way of saying the buyer sets the pace, and the buyer knows it.

The rest of the August 2026 numbers point the same direction:

• 941 MLS® sales across the Fraser Valley in the month, up 1% year over year

• Benchmark prices down in every reporting zone and every property type the board publishes

• Cloverdale, Surrey, BC detached benchmark: $1,339,700, down 6.3% year over year

• Cloverdale, Surrey, BC townhouse: $757,200, down 6.4%, and apartment: $505,700, down 11.3%

• Fraser Valley Board detached benchmark: $1,319,600, down 8.3%

Read those together and a pattern shows up. Fewer buyers are transacting, more homes compete for each one, and every segment is priced lower than a year ago. A home that would have sold in ten days eighteen months ago can sit for weeks now without anything being wrong with it.

I'll be careful with that, because "it's the market" is also the most convenient excuse in this business. It isn't a complete answer, and a REALTOR® who stops there isn't doing the job. But it is the correct first line of the diagnosis, and a seller who doesn't know these numbers is being asked to interpret silence with no context for it.

One thing I won't do is hand you a local days-on-market figure. FVREB publishes days on market, sales-to-list ratio and months of supply board-wide only — not by zone. There is no published Cloverdale, Surrey, BC days-on-market number, and if you find one on an agent's website, it wasn't sourced. I'd rather tell you the number doesn't exist than invent one that sounds reassuring.

The one genuinely encouraging number

Cloverdale, Surrey, BC detached is holding up better than the zones around it. Down 6.3% year over year, against Surrey-Central's 8.8%, South Surrey and White Rock's 7.5%, and the Fraser Valley Board's 8.3% — a meaningfully smaller decline than every neighbouring zone, as of August 2026. Detached in FVREB's Langley zone, which covers both Langley Township, BC and Langley City, BC, sits at $1,479,400, down 7.1%.

That doesn't make your listing sell. It does mean that if you're in a Cloverdale, Surrey, BC detached home, the ground under you has moved less than the headlines about British Columbia real estate suggest.

Then price — and this part usually is yours

Now the harder half of the conversation.

In a market at a 10% sales-to-active-listings ratio, price is not one factor among many. It decides whether buyers ever shortlist your home at all. Everything else — photos, staging, marketing — shapes how a buyer feels once they're looking.

The two most common pricing problems I see are not "greedy sellers." They're both honest mistakes.

The first is anchoring to a number from a different market. A neighbour sold for a certain figure in 2022. A REALTOR® gave you an opinion of value last spring. With benchmark prices down across every Fraser Valley zone and property type as of August 2026, a price that was defensible a year ago can be uncompetitive today — and nothing about that reflects on you or your home.

The second is pricing against the wrong comparables. Sellers usually compare against what's listed. Buyers compare against what's selling. Those two sets can drift a long way apart in a slower market, because unsold listings pile up at aspirational prices and stay visible. If the active listings around you have all been sitting for months, they're not evidence of what your home is worth — they're evidence of what isn't working.

There is no percentage rule for what to do about it. You'll see "reduce by 3–7%" repeated on real estate blogs. That figure isn't sourced to anything and isn't a rule anywhere in British Columbia, and applying a blog's arithmetic to your property is a poor substitute for reading your actual competing inventory and your actual showing feedback. Whether the right move is a price change, repositioning, or something else depends on numbers specific to your home.

What I'd ask you to notice is the shape of the feedback. Lots of showings and no offers is usually a condition, layout or expectation problem. Very few showings at all is almost always a price or exposure problem. Those two situations look identical from your side of the front door, and they have completely different fixes.

Exposure: can you actually see what your listing is doing?

This is the part of the diagnosis most sellers are never given any evidence about.

You're told the home is "being marketed." There are social posts. There's a listing on the MLS®. Then, weeks in, you're asked to lower your price — based on what, exactly? Usually a feeling. That's an uncomfortable place to make a five- or six-figure decision from.

While your home is listed with me, you get a weekly homeowner report showing exactly what the marketing behind it is doing — impressions, engagement, how many people are actually seeing the listing and interacting with it. Most agents cannot show a seller their campaign numbers. I can, every week, for as long as the listing is live. The reason I do it isn't transparency for its own sake. It's that when we sit down in week four and talk about what to change, I want us both looking at the same data. If a home is getting strong impressions and weak engagement, that's a photo, headline or price-perception problem. If it's getting almost no impressions at all, the marketing is the problem and it would be unfair to ask you to solve it with a price cut.

That's the real argument for measuring a listing: without the numbers, every diagnosis after week two is guesswork, and the seller is the one who pays for a wrong guess.

A few exposure questions worth asking your own REALTOR®, whoever that is:

• Is the listing on the MLS® and syndicated to the major consumer portals, with every photo rendering?

• Does the photo set include the yard, the layout and the storage — not just the kitchen?

• Is there paid promotion behind it, and can you see what it has delivered?

• Is showing feedback being written down and shared with you?

If the answer to the last two is a shrug, that's a finding.

Presentation: what a buyer sees in the first eight seconds

By the time a buyer walks through your door, they've already made a preliminary decision from a phone screen. So presentation problems in 2026 are mostly photo problems.

The recurring ones I see on stalled Fraser Valley listings: too few photos, poor light, no floor plan, a cover image that isn't the home's best feature, and rooms shot with the furniture where the owner lives rather than where the room looks its size. None of that needs renovation. All of it is fixable in a week.

In person, the things that change buyer behaviour are less dramatic than television suggests. Light — every blind open, every bulb matching. Smell, which is the one thing sellers genuinely can't self-assess, so ask someone who doesn't live there. And space that reads as usable: a packed garage tells a buyer the home doesn't have enough storage, whether or not that's true.

And be honest about deferred items. A visible roof issue or a moisture stain doesn't just cost you the repair — it costs you the buyer's confidence in everything they can't see. Where buyers have options, unresolved doubt is expensive.

On the paperwork side: in British Columbia, most residential sellers complete a Property Disclosure Statement, answering questions about the property to the best of their knowledge. It is not a warranty and not an inspection, but buyers and their REALTORS® read it closely. How you complete it is a question for your REALTOR® and, where anything is unclear, a real estate lawyer or notary — not something to work out from an article.

The agent relationship, last but not never

I've put this last deliberately. Changing REALTORS® is the most disruptive fix available and the one reached for first, and often enough the previous agent priced correctly and simply listed into a 10% ratio.

But there are real signals. You haven't heard from your agent in two weeks. You've never been shown a written comparative market analysis. You can't get an answer about what marketing has actually run. Showing feedback isn't reaching you. Or the only strategy you've been offered, twice, is a price reduction with no analysis attached to it.

Every REALTOR® in British Columbia is licensed and regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), and BCFSA requires your REALTOR® to review the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services form with you. That form sets out the duties they owe you as a client, including acting in your best interests and keeping you informed. If you don't feel informed, that isn't you being demanding.

Practically: your listing contract is with a brokerage, not an individual, and the terms for ending it early are in that contract. Read it, and if you want a change, the conversation starts with your agent and then their managing broker. Commission is negotiable in British Columbia and is not fixed by anyone — it's part of the listing agreement, and a fair thing to discuss openly when you're reassessing.

The order I'd actually work through it

If your Fraser Valley home has been listed for weeks with no offers, this is the sequence I'd use:

1. Get dated market context for your zone and property type — not a national headline.

2. Separate the two symptoms. Showings without offers, or no showings at all? Different causes.

3. Look at the campaign data. If nobody can show you impressions, that gap is part of the answer.

4. Re-run the comparables against solds, not the unsold listings sitting around you.

5. Fix the cheap, fast things — photos, light, decluttering, a floor plan — before touching price.

6. Then decide on price, with the data in front of you rather than out of fatigue.

If you're weighing what your home is competing against, it helps to look at the actual inventory a buyer is looking at — you can browse current Cloverdale, Surrey, BC homes for sale and see the competition the same way they do.

And if you want a second read on a stalled listing, I'm happy to give you an honest one — including the possibility that your price is fine and the market simply is what it is. You can reach me at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com, or start with a home evaluation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should it take to sell a house in the Fraser Valley right now?

I can't give you a credible local figure, and I'd be cautious about anyone who does. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board publishes days on market board-wide only — not by zone — so there is no published Cloverdale, Surrey, BC or Langley Township, BC days-on-market number to quote. What I can tell you is the condition: as of August 2026, the Fraser Valley sales-to-active-listings ratio was 10%, against a balanced band of 12% to 20%, on 941 MLS® sales, up 1% year over year. In a market at that ratio, longer timelines are normal rather than a sign something is wrong with your home.

Is it my price, or is it the market?

Usually some of both, and the useful way to tell them apart is the shape of the activity. If your home is getting showings but no offers, price is rarely the only issue — it's more often condition, layout, or a gap between what the photos promised and what the buyer walked into. If your home is getting almost no showings at all, that points at price or exposure, because buyers are filtering you out before they ever see the inside. Those two situations feel identical from the seller's side and have completely different fixes, which is why I'd want to see the campaign data before recommending anything.

Can I see how many people have actually viewed my listing?

You should be able to, and with my listings you do. While your home is listed, you get a weekly homeowner report showing impressions and engagement — how many people are seeing the listing and what they're doing with it. Most agents cannot show a seller their campaign numbers. It matters because it turns the week-four conversation from a feeling into a diagnosis: strong impressions with weak engagement is a photo or price-perception issue, while almost no impressions at all is a marketing issue, and those two should not be answered with the same price reduction.

Should I take my home off the market and relist later?

It's a legitimate option and not automatically the right one. Relisting can reset how the listing presents to buyers, and it also means time off market, continued carrying costs, and a market on the other side you can't see in advance — as of August 2026, prices in the Fraser Valley were down across every zone and every property type the board reports, so waiting is not risk-free either. What your listing contract says about pausing or cancelling is in the contract itself, and that's a conversation with your REALTOR® and their brokerage before it's a decision.

Do I have to lower my price by a set percentage?

No, and there is no such rule in British Columbia. You'll see figures like "reduce by 3 to 7%" repeated on real estate blogs — that number isn't sourced to any board, regulator or piece of legislation, and applying a stranger's percentage to your specific property is not a substitute for looking at your actual competing inventory and your actual showing feedback. The right move might be a price change, or repositioning the marketing, or improving the photo set first. It depends on numbers specific to your home.

Can I switch REALTORS® if my home isn't selling?

Your listing agreement is a contract with a brokerage, and the terms for ending it early are set out in that contract, so start by reading it. Every REALTOR® in British Columbia is licensed and regulated by the BC Financial Services Authority, and the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services form your REALTOR® reviews with you sets out the duties they owe you as a client — including keeping you informed. If you're not being kept informed, raising it directly with your agent, and then with their managing broker if that doesn't resolve it, is the appropriate route. Commission is negotiable in British Columbia and is a fair thing to revisit openly at the same time.

Related Reading

• What Does a REALTOR® Cost in BC, and Who Actually Pays?

• Multiple Offers on Your Home: How It Actually Works in BC

• The Property Disclosure Statement: What You're Signing in BC

• Should I Sell First or Buy First? A Fraser Valley, BC Guide

• Right Sizing Your Home in BC: When the House Is Bigger Than the Life

About the Author

Caroline Jeklin works with Fraser Valley homeowners from her base in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC, where she has been licensed since 2021 with Royal LePage Wolstencroft Realty. She has been part of 57 transactions between 2021 and 2026 (as of August 2026), and was awarded the Royal LePage President's Gold Award in 2025, placing her in the top 6 to 10% of agents in her local marketplace. Sellers with a stalled listing are a regular part of her week, and the weekly homeowner reports she sends on her own listings exist so those conversations start with data rather than guesswork. Read more about Caroline Jeklin, or reach her at 604-319-5052 or caroline@carolinejeklin.com.