Home-buying decision tools
Understand the home before you commit to it.
A listing tells you what a home costs to buy. It does not tell you what it costs to live in, whether it fits how you actually live, or what it will ask of you in five years. HomeClarity is being built for that gap.
The first tool works today. The full HomeFit Report is in development — early access is not open yet.
- Real monthly cost Mortgage, tax, insurance, fees, utilities, reserve
- Hidden ownership costs Age of systems, deferred repairs, fee history
- Lifestyle fit How the space matches how you actually live
- Maintenance burden Time and money this home will ask of you
- Commute strain The trip you will make five days a week
- Layout suitability Room flow, storage, work and quiet space
- Accessibility Stairs, thresholds, bathrooms, future needs
- Future stress risks What changes if your life changes
Ends with the questions to ask, not a score to obey.
The gap
Listings sell the house. Calculators price the loan. Neither one is the decision.
Between the listing photos and the mortgage pre-approval there is a set of questions nobody hands you, and they are the ones people regret not asking.
The monthly number is not the monthly number
A mortgage calculator answers one question: what the loan costs. Property tax, insurance, condo fees, utilities and the repairs that arrive on their own schedule are all still ahead of you.
Fit is invisible in photographs
Wide-angle rooms, staged furniture and a sunny Saturday viewing tell you almost nothing about storage, noise, light in November, or whether two people can work from home in it.
Maintenance is a second job you did not apply for
Roofs, furnaces, windows and appliances all have a lifespan. A home where four of them are near the end is a different purchase than the same home where they are new.
Stress compounds quietly
A long commute, a layout that fights you, or stairs you will struggle with later are not line items. They are the reasons people move again sooner than they planned.
Accessibility and family needs come last, if at all
Thresholds, bathroom access, bedroom placement and sensory load matter enormously to some buyers and are almost never in a listing.
The professionals can only answer what you ask
Brokers, inspectors and lawyers are good at their jobs. Buyers who arrive with specific questions get materially more out of them than buyers who arrive with none.
What HomeClarity is
A clear read on a specific home, in the terms you actually live in.
HomeClarity is a small family of decision tools for buyers. You bring a home you are considering and honest answers about your own life. It gives you back the real cost, the places this home fits and the places it does not, the burden it is likely to carry, and a specific list of things to ask before you make an offer.
It is deliberately not a search engine. There is no listing feed here and there never will be. Finding homes is a solved problem. Deciding about one is not.
How it works
- 1
Enter the property details yourself
Price, taxes, fees, age of the major systems, whatever the listing and the viewing gave you. No account, and no connection to any listing service.
- 2
Answer questions about your life, not your credit
How you work, who lives with you, what you can maintain, what you can tolerate, what changes in the next five years.
- 3
Review cost, fit and risk side by side
Clear indicators with the assumptions shown, so you can disagree with any one of them and see what changes.
- 4
Leave with questions and next steps
The output is a prepared buyer: specific things to ask the seller, the agent, the inspector, the broker and the condo board.
The tools
One is working. The rest are honestly labelled.
This list is what is actually being built, in the order it is being built. Nothing here is available as a paid product, and nothing here requires an account.
Real Cost of Homeownership Checker
Enter a price and your own assumptions, and see the full monthly cost next to the mortgage payment alone. Runs entirely in your browser.
HomeFit Report
The flagship. One structured read on a specific home across cost, fit, burden and risk, ending in the questions to ask before you make an offer.
First Home Readiness Score
For renters and first-time buyers deciding whether now is the right time, and what has to be true first.
Hidden Cost Questions
A prepared question set for viewings, listing agents, inspectors and condo documents, so the expensive surprises surface before closing.
Move or Renovate?
For owners weighing the cost, disruption and outcome of changing their home against the cost of changing homes.
Working now — no account, no sign-up
Real Cost of Homeownership Checker
The first HomeClarity tool, and the smallest useful piece of the HomeFit Report. Change any assumption and watch the real number move. Every figure below is an estimate built from what you enter.
What to do with this number
- Compare it to what you pay for housing today — not to your mortgage pre-approval maximum.
- Ask the seller or listing agent for the last twelve months of actual utility and tax bills.
- For a condo, ask for the reserve fund study and the last two years of fee increases before you rely on today's fee.
- Bring this breakdown to your mortgage broker and ask which figures they would change and why.
Who it's for
Built for the buyer, not the transaction.
First-time buyers
You have a pre-approval number and no idea whether it is a good idea.
Overwhelmed buyers
You have seen twenty homes, and the decision has stopped feeling like a decision.
Renters considering ownership
You want the real comparison, including the costs renting hides from you.
Families upsizing or downsizing
The house has to fit a life that is actively changing shape.
Accessibility-aware buyers
Stairs, thresholds, bathrooms and future needs are not a footnote for you.
Realtors and buyer educators
Later. A prepared buyer makes for a better first conversation. That work comes after the consumer tools are solid.
Boundaries
What this is not.
Being clear about the edges is part of being useful. HomeClarity is a preparation tool. It does not replace anyone you should be talking to.
- This is not mortgage approval, pre-approval, or a lending decision.
- This is not legal, tax, appraisal, insurance, or investment advice.
- This is not a property valuation and does not estimate market value.
- This is not a listing service and does not connect to MLS, REALTOR.ca, or any listing platform.
- It makes no claims about neighbourhood safety or school quality.
- Every figure depends entirely on the assumptions you enter.
- It is designed to help you ask better questions and prepare for professional conversations.
- Nothing you type into the tool on this site leaves your browser.
Where things stand
The first tool is live. The rest is being built in the open.
Early access is not open yet, and there is no waitlist to join — no form, no email capture, no tracking on this site. The website is live because the product foundation is real and worth showing while the rest is built.
If you build, sell, teach or advise around home buying and want to talk about where this is going, the fastest route is directly to me.
Follow the build