Purchasing a home requires more than just the buyer and seller. To ensure expert advice, as well as a smooth and professionally supervised process you will need the assistance of a variety of professionals with expertise in various fields.

Since the early 1990s, the use of mortgage brokers - technically independant mortgage agents/advisors who work for a registered Mortgage Broker, has gained great popularity as most of Canada's banks began to use this channel to acquire mortgage clients, while at the same time we saw the emergence of several new lenders in the mortgage market introducing innovative distribution methods and a variety of mortgage product offerings previously unavailable. Many of these new 'wholesale' lenders (as commonly referred to) didn't have the expensive branch networks and large overheads in place with the existing dominant mortgage lenders. Instead they relied solely on third parties and benefited from a business model that allowed them to pay third parties on a production only basis - providing the ultimate cost outsourcing.

Finding a home to purchase is a big job and a realtor can make it a lot easier by doing a good deal of the searching for you.

The role of the realtor is to screen available properties, identify those that most closely meet your requirements and arrange to view them with you. Ideally, your realtor is more than a sales agent. He or she should serve as a resource to provide valuable advice and help you make an informed purchase decision.

Your lawyer makes sure that the property you purchase is legally yours and comes with no strings attached.

When you buy property you are not just buying the land and building, you are also buying the legal rights of ownership so you need to be certain that no other party has a claim to them. Your lawyer will confirm that there are no legal obstacles to your purchase and help it proceed smoothly.

The financial backer in your real estate venture.

In today's mortgage market it pays to shop around because there are many lenders and different financing options available. You can research this yourself, or use a Mortgage Broker to help you. As the party providing the funding, the lender will want to be sure that you are a worthy credit risk and that the mortgage you are requesting corresponds to the value of the property you intend to purchase.

Appraisers assess property value for the lender.

When you purchase a property it's important for the lender to be satisfied that the price reflects the property' s true market value. An appraiser is an officially accredited valuator who is hired to conduct an inspection of the property for the lender to assess and certify its value.

The Home Inspector acts as your extra pair of eyes, able to see things about a property that may not be visible to you.

If you are buying a resale home, it's always advisable to have it checked by a Home Inspector as a condition of purchase. This individual (not requiring provincial licensing in most cases) will inspect the property for major deficiencies, which may not always be apparent. The results are presented in a written Home Inspection Report.

Your information resource when you buy a newly constructed home from a builder.

Should you decide to purchase a newly constructed home from a Builder, then you will probably deal with a builder's representative who arranges the sale of new homes to the buying public.