Equity Mapping.
Three precise numbers before any shopping. Net sale value, true available equity, real next-home ceiling.
Selling your current home and buying the next one in the same season is the highest-stakes transaction most families ever attempt. Most agents treat it as two separate deals. The Move-Up Protocol is the five-step framework that runs them as one orchestrated move — Equity Mapping, Catchment Lock, Parallel Motion, Bridge Strategy, Soft Landing — so the sale and the buy line up, the family negotiates from strength on both sides, and nobody sleeps on a couch.
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What is the Coquitlam Move-Up Protocol?
The five-step process Craig runs every move-up file through. Equity Mapping (three precise numbers before any shopping). Catchment Lock (SD43 school first, then the streets). Parallel Motion (list and shop simultaneously, not in series). Bridge Strategy (pre-approved bridge financing and a 30–90 day overlap plan). Soft Landing (move-day logistics and a 30-day post-close touchpoint). Most agents treat a move-up as two deals. The Protocol treats it as one orchestrated move — families negotiate from strength on both sides, never desperate on either.
Competitors have letters after their name. The Move-Up Protocol is a written process. Here's why the process matters: letters are earned once; a process is delivered every time. You can't explain letters to your family. You can explain a five-step process. The naming exists so you can hold me accountable to each step on your specific file — not so I sound clever in marketing copy.
Five steps. Each with a specific deliverable. Detail on each follows below.
Three precise numbers before any shopping. Net sale value, true available equity, real next-home ceiling.
Pick the SD43 school first. Then the streets. Wrong-catchment buyers pay 8–14% more at resale.
List and shop simultaneously. Target 7–14 day simultaneous close. Never desperate on either side.
30–90 day overlap plan, pre-approved bridge financing, rent-back terms, storage contingency.
Move-day logistics, school transition, 30-day post-close touchpoint, neighbourhood handoff.
Before we look at a single listing, we establish three numbers with precision:
What most families think it costs: thirty minutes with a calculator. What it actually costs: two meetings, a mortgage-broker coordination call, a full comp pull on the last 90 days of sold data in your neighbourhood, about six hours of my time. What they get: a single sheet with three numbers. Those three numbers govern every decision from here. They settle the most common family argument in a move-up — "Can we afford the $2M house or do we have to settle for $1.7M?" — because the sheet answers it definitively.
Most move-up families shop the house first and hope the school works. That's backwards and it produces either a reluctant private-school tuition bill or a painful mid-year school switch. We flip the order.
Before any house hunting starts, we nail the SD43 elementary catchment you're committed to, the secondary school that feeds it, and your family's non-negotiables on cross-boundary — Lougheed, Coquitlam-proper vs. Burke Mountain vs. Westwood Plateau, whether Anmore is open if the price right-sizes.
Why this matters more in Coquitlam than anywhere else: SD43 catchment lines are among the most consequential in Metro Vancouver for resale value. A detached home in one catchment sells for 8–14% less than an identical home three blocks over in a different one. Move-up families who don't know this buy the cheaper block, then fight with the resale buyer five years later who does know.
Here's where I diverge from the one-transaction agent by the widest margin. Most agents say: "List first. Once it's under contract, we'll start looking." That's the two-deal pattern. It creates every problem downstream.
The counterintuitive outcome: parallel-motion families negotiate from a stronger position on both sides. Never desperate on either. A family who has already sold but hasn't bought is a desperate buyer. A family who has bought but hasn't sold is a desperate seller. Parallel Motion is neither.
Even with Parallel Motion, sometimes the windows don't perfectly line up. A great buy surfaces two weeks before the sell closes. A sell closes three weeks before the buy is ready. This is the most predictable failure point in a move-up, and the one-transaction agent treats it as "the mortgage broker's problem."
It's not. It's an orchestration problem, and we plan for it in Step 1.
Why families cry at the bridge stage in a one-transaction deal: they find out in week 2 of the gap that their bridge loan was declined, their rent-back extension was denied, and their stuff is in a storage facility they chose in panic. Every piece of that was preventable 60 days earlier.
The one-transaction agent's involvement ends at funding. Mine continues through move day plus thirty days.
Why this matters beyond the deal: nine of my last ten referrals came from Soft Landing, not from the transaction itself. People forget what you sold them for. They don't forget that you showed up at week four with a list of the three best painters in their new neighbourhood.
5.0 stars across 32+ verified Google reviews. Three below from Tri-Cities move-up families who ran the Protocol.
“We received seven offers, and Craig held firm on our priorities: no subject to sale and achieving our price. When we re-listed in January, it sold in just three days to buyers he had been nurturing — at the price we wanted.”Jim Turnbull
“Craig sold my property in just 6 days. After receiving one offer, he quickly reconnected with all the other realtors who had viewed the property, and before I knew it, we had multiple offers — all over asking price.”Heather Fox
“Craig coordinated our sale and our move-up purchase as one operation. We never felt rushed on either side. He had a plan for every possible gap before we needed one.”Gerry & Aline Howitson
The five-step process I run every Coquitlam move-up file through: Equity Mapping (three precise numbers before any shopping), Catchment Lock (SD43 school first, then the streets), Parallel Motion (list and shop simultaneously, not in series), Bridge Strategy (pre-approved bridge financing and a 30–90 day overlap plan), and Soft Landing (move-day logistics and a 30-day post-close touchpoint). The framework exists so a dependent sale-and-buy reads as one orchestrated move, not two separate scrambles.
Three numbers before any house shopping starts. 1) Today's net sale value — a comp-backed range, not a Zestimate. 2) True available equity after sale — sale price minus mortgage payout, commission, legal, staging, and the three things the inspector will catch. 3) Real next-home ceiling — PTT, closing costs, and the overlap month's double-carry included. Deliverable: a one-sheet, signed by both spouses, posted on the fridge.
Picking the SD43 school catchment before any house shopping. Most move-up families shop the house first and hope the school works — that produces either a private-school tuition bill or a painful mid-year switch. SD43 catchment lines are among the most consequential in Metro Vancouver for resale: a detached home in one catchment commonly sells for 8–14% less than an identical home three blocks over in a different one.
Listing and shopping simultaneously, not in series. Most agents say "list first, then look once it's under contract." That's the two-deal pattern and it creates every downstream problem. Parallel Motion: list prep and buyer search start the same week. Listing goes live the same week you've seen 4–6 target properties. Subject-to-sale offers become strategic, not desperate. Target simultaneous-close window: 7–14 days, not 30.
The 30–90 day overlap plan, established in Step 1, not improvised when the gap shows up. Four components: pre-approved bridge financing through a local broker (paperwork in draft); a known short-term rental pre-identified in the target catchment; pre-agreed rent-back terms (often cheaper and less disruptive than a bridge loan); and a furniture-and-storage contingency for gaps of 3+ weeks. Every gap scenario has a named response.
Move-day logistics plus 30 days of follow-through. The one-transaction agent ends at funding; I continue through move day plus 30 days. Move-day sequence (movers booked 60 days in advance). School transition (warm handoff to new school admin if needed). 30-day post-close touchpoint (I show up in week 4 with a punch list and contractor recommendations). Neighbourhood handoff (introductions, coffee spot, trailhead). Nine of my last ten referrals came from Soft Landing, not from the transaction itself.
Letters after a name are credentials earned once. A process is a promise delivered every time. You can't explain letters to your spouse over dinner. You can explain a five-step process. The name is the moat — other agents can copy the steps but they can't copy the naming. The protocol exists so move-up families can hold me accountable to it on every file.
Book a free 20-minute Move-Up Fit Call. You tell me your current address, your target catchment, and your timeline. I tell you whether the math works right now. If it doesn't, I tell you to wait — and what would need to change for it to work in 6 or 12 months. No obligation. The call ends with a written one-page plan within 24 hours.
If this is how you want your next move run, the first step is a 20-minute Move-Up Fit Call. You tell me your current address, your target catchment, and your timeline. I tell you if the math works right now. If it doesn't, I tell you to wait.
5.0 across 32+ Google reviews Top 1% Team — Greater Vancouver REALTORS® 47+ years in the Tri-Cities
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