What Cityecho focuses on
Cityecho is built around one kind of decision: buying or selling a single-family home in Coquitlam or Port Coquitlam. That is a narrower focus than most real estate sites carry, and the reason is that the useful knowledge in this work is local to the point of being municipal.
Zoning, what can be built on a lot, the charges a city applies to new construction, which corridors are designated for more density, how a municipality treats a secondary suite or a carriage house: all of that is decided city by city, and it changes. Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam sit next to each other and answer several of those questions differently.
A search that spans the whole Lower Mainland has to stay general to cover the ground. A search focused on two cities can go to the actual bylaw and the actual permit history.
- Detached homes in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam as the primary focus
- Area guides covering Burnaby, Vancouver East, Vancouver's Westside, Port Moody, Richmond and North Vancouver
- Buyers and sellers, including people doing both at once
- Written guides and articles that name their sources so you can check them
The rules this work runs under
Michael Lee is licensed with eXp Realty, and his MLS member identifier is V97542. Both matter more than they look. In British Columbia the duties owed to a client are owed by the brokerage together with its related licensees, so the brokerage is the party on the other side of any agreement you sign. The member identifier is what ties a specific licensee to specific listings in the board's data.
Once you are a client, section 30 of the Real Estate Services Rules sets out ten duties that apply whether or not anybody mentions them: act in your best interests, follow your lawful instructions, stay within the authority you give, advise you to get independent professional advice on matters outside that expertise, keep your information confidential, disclose all known material information about the services, communicate every offer to you in a timely, objective and unbiased way, use reasonable efforts to discover relevant facts about a property you are considering, avoid conflicts of interest, and disclose any conflict promptly and in writing in a separate document.
Before any of that begins, a licensee has to give you the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services form and go through it with you. It states whether you are being treated as a client or as a non-client. Signing it is optional and only records that you received it.
How a first conversation usually goes
It starts with what you are trying to do rather than with a description of services. If you are buying, that means the areas you are considering, the type of home, your rough range, your timing, and whether a lender has already looked at your situation. If you are selling, it means the address, what work has been done, anything you know is not working, and when you would want to move.
Nothing is signed at that point. A market evaluation, a property viewing and a conversation about your options all happen before any agreement exists, and a buyer agreement or a listing agreement is a separate document and a separate decision made later.
The part worth asking about early is the boundary. A real estate licensee is one of five or six people in a transaction. A lawyer or notary registers the transfer and produces the statement of what you owe. An inspector reports on condition. A lender decides what you can borrow and approves the specific property. An insurer has to agree to cover the home. An appraiser gives a lender an independent value. Knowing which questions belong to which person saves weeks.
What is on this site, and how to use it
The site has four parts, and they are meant to be used in a particular order.
The home search reads from the board's listing feed. Every property shows its MLS number and the full name of the listing brokerage, written out rather than shortened, because showing MLS data publicly comes with a condition that the listing brokerage is credited. Quote the MLS number when you ask about a home and it removes any doubt about which property you mean.
The home buying guide runs in five chapters, from preparing a search through checking a neighbourhood, reviewing a strata home, viewing a house, and comparing homes against each other. The Market Journal covers narrower questions as they come up, with the sources listed at the end of each article. The area guides describe what the housing stock in a given city actually looks like, with the municipal information checked against the city.
The home comparison tool exists for the point at which two properties are both plausible and the decision has stalled. You supply the priorities and the ratings, and it weights them, which mostly serves to show you which trade-off you have been avoiding.
On sources, and why the articles list them
Every article and guide on this site that states a rule, a threshold or a tax figure names the source it came from and the date it was checked. That is a deliberate choice and it has a cost: it means some questions get answered with a narrower answer than a reader wanted, and it means figures have to be rechecked rather than reused.
The reason is that the numbers move. Property transfer tax thresholds changed on April 1, 2024. The Home Buyer Rescission Period did not exist before January 3, 2023. An assessed value describes the previous July 1 rather than today. Real estate writing that states these as settled facts without a date goes wrong quietly, and a reader has no way to tell when it happened.
So the standard on this site is that a figure carries its source and its date, and anything that cannot be checked is described as an observation rather than presented as a statistic.
Recent writing by Michael
Every article in the Market Journal is written by Michael Lee and lists its own sources at the end.
Buying With Family or Friends in BC: The Ownership Structure Decides Everything Later
Two or more people buying one home in BC choose between joint tenancy and tenancy in common at the moment of registration, and that one line on the title decides who inherits a share, whether the shares can be unequal, and how hard it is for one owner to leave. Sort it out before the offer, because changing it later can trigger property transfer tax.
Michael Lee · 9 min read
Queensborough or the Quay: Two New Westminster Waterfronts, Two Different Buys
Both sit on the Fraser River and both are New Westminster. Queensborough is flat, newer townhomes on a diked island with no SkyTrain. The Quay is concrete towers a short walk from the Expo Line, in buildings old enough that the depreciation report decides the deal.
Michael Lee · 8 min read
Buried Oil Tanks on Metro Vancouver Lots: The Search, the Cost, and Who Pays
Homes built before the 1960s were often heated with oil, and when gas arrived many of those buried tanks were left in the ground. A tank scan takes about an hour on a detached lot. The owner on title when the contamination is found is the one who pays to clean it up.
Michael Lee · 8 min read
Frequently asked questions
Which brokerage is Michael Lee licensed with?
eXp Realty. In British Columbia the duties owed to a client under the Real Estate Services Rules are owed by the brokerage together with its related licensees, which makes the brokerage the party on the other side of any agreement you sign. Michael's MLS member identifier is V97542.
Which areas does Cityecho work in?
Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam are the focus, with detached homes as the primary property type. The area guides on this site also cover Burnaby, Vancouver East, Vancouver's Westside, Port Moody, Richmond and North Vancouver. If you are looking somewhere else in the Lower Mainland, say where in your enquiry and you will get a direct answer about whether it is a fit.
Do I have to sign anything to have a first conversation?
No. A conversation, a market evaluation and a property viewing all happen before any agreement exists. What has to happen before a licensee provides trading services to you is the Disclosure of Representation in Trading Services form, which explains whether you are being treated as a client or a non-client, and signing that form is optional.
What is the best way to get in touch?
Phone or email both work, and the contact form reaches the same place. Whichever you use, a specific message gets a specific answer: if you are asking about a particular home, include its MLS number, and if you are asking about selling, include the address and your rough timing.
Does Cityecho help with presale condos?
Presale purchases come with their own set of questions, from deposit schedules to the disclosure statement to what happens between contract and completion, and several articles on this site cover them. The focus of the practice is detached homes in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, so say what you are considering in your enquiry and you will get a straight answer about fit.
Why do the articles keep telling me to check with a lawyer or a lender?
Because one of the ten duties a licensee owes a client is to advise the client to get independent professional advice on matters outside the licensee's expertise. It is a boundary written into the rules rather than a way of avoiding a question. Legal questions go to a lawyer or notary, borrowing questions to a lender or mortgage broker, condition questions to an inspector, and formal value questions to an appraiser.
Where can I see the sources behind Michael Lee's articles?
Every article in the Market Journal is written by Michael Lee and lists its own sources at the end of the page. Dated figures in the journal name the data they come from, so a reader can open each source and check a number before relying on it for a decision about a home.
Is Cityecho a brokerage?
Cityecho is the real estate website of Michael Lee, a licensee with eXp Realty in British Columbia, and the brokerage is eXp Realty. Under the Real Estate Services Rules the brokerage, together with its related licensees, owes the duties to a client. Michael's MLS member identifier is V97542.
Sources
The rules described on this page were checked against the sources below on September 17, 2026.