Calgary Answers · Buying · Showings

How Many Homesshould I view before buying?

There is no right number, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. The useful question is whether the last three showings taught you anything the first three did not.

Why there is no right number

We have had clients buy the second home they walked into and be entirely right to. We have had others view through most of a spring and be right to do that too. What separated them was not discipline — it was how well defined the target was and how much inventory matched it.

The signal to watch is not the count. It is whether you are still learning. When three consecutive showings tell you nothing new about the market, you already know enough to decide.

The two ways this goes wrong

Make the showings count instead

View in batches within the same week so you are comparing rather than recalling. Keep the list short and deliberately include one home you expect to dislike — it calibrates the others. Give real feedback after each one, because "it was fine" tells your REALTOR® nothing and "the ceiling height felt low and the yard faces the wrong way" tells them everything.

And if you have viewed a great many homes and written on none, ask for the uncomfortable conversation about whether the brief is achievable. What to look for at a showing →