Dallas King

How I look at a house

When I walk into a house, I am looking at it from the lens of, if I was buying this place for myself. That is the whole method. It is not complicated and it is not a service I bolt on. It is just the only way I know how to do it.

I'm not scared of an old home, and my clients don't need to be either. They do need to be aware about what buying an old home means.

Most of the houses worth buying in Victoria have something going on. A roof partway through its life, knob and tube somewhere in a wall, a basement that is not quite the grade you would want if you were hoping to put a suite in it. None of that is automatically a reason to walk away. All of it is a reason to know before you sign.

So I ask what you are picturing for the space first, before I give you my opinion on it, because your plan changes which problems actually matter. Then I point out what I would expect to spend money on, whether or not it kills the deal for you. If there is a specific technical blocker, I would rather name it than warn you vaguely. It is not that easy to add a suite if you are in a basement grade, and you should hear that from me early rather than from a designer later.

I still want you to get a home inspection. I am not a replacement for one and I do not pretend to be. What I can do is tell you what the work is likely to cost, because I spent twenty years in millwork and renovation before I ever sold a house.

What I actually do

Residential sales across the Victoria core and out through the Westshore and the Saanich Peninsula, which is the bulk of it.

Then the side most agents do not touch. Rezoning, subdivision, and land assembly, through Alora Developments Ltd. I will read a lot and tell you which of the realistic paths it supports, infill, a subdivision, a rezoning, or a piece of a larger assembly, and what each one would involve. What the legislation permits in general is one question. What a specific property will support is a different one, and it depends on lot size, servicing, setbacks, slope and tree bylaws. A municipal pre application meeting is what confirms it. Anyone who tells you the answer off a map is guessing.

I will also tell you when the answer is to leave the property alone. The entitlement to build is real in a lot of places right now. The economics of actually building are hard at the moment. Both of those things are true at once and you should hear both.

Why people end up working with me

Business has been heavy on the referral side, and I think that is because I make sure it is a good experience rather than because I am good at marketing. I am not talking somebody into something just for the sale. That is not how I operate and it is not what I want to be known for.

I was born here. I have been licensed with RE/MAX Generation for more than ten years, and I am a RE/MAX Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement recipient. Every transaction I close carries a donation to Children's Miracle Network and one to the office's local giving fund, which is a small thing, and it is one of the few claims I can make about myself with a document behind it.

That is kind of the overview.