Who's behind it
Tsawwassen.ca is run by 0900794 B.C. Ltd., a British Columbia company operating as Tsawwassen.ca. Pete Van Straaten runs it, and publishes Tsawwassen Monthly, the print guide that goes to every house in town.
The site promotes the real estate services of Mike Van Straaten, REALTOR® with the Delta Real Estate Team at RE/MAX City Realty (each office independently owned and operated). Mike and Pete are brothers. When you ask for help on the site, your request goes to Mike. So the site isn't neutral about which REALTOR® you call: we'd like it to be Mike, and we try to earn that by being useful first.
How the site makes money
- It's free to use. Homeowners and buyers never pay us anything.
- It promotes Mike's real estate services. The market reports, Pinpoints, guides and alerts are there partly so that, when you're ready to buy or sell, you think of Mike.
- Local businesses pay for a spot in Tsawwassen Monthly. That spot comes with a place on the site too (below).
That's all. No ad networks and no affiliate links. Apart from the one partner per trade, nobody pays to be listed or placed. And we never sell your information.
Tsawwassen Monthly partners
Local businesses pay a monthly fee for a spot in Tsawwassen Monthly: one business per trade. Their spot also puts them on the site, always marked as a paid partner:
- First on their trade's page in the local directory, with a gold outline and a "Recommended local … · Paid partner" label.
- First under "Who to call" for jobs in their trade.
- In the welcome package for new neighbours, and in "Who to call when you move in" in the Moving to Tsawwassen guide.
- On their trade's guides, as the recommended local business, with their offer for the month.
- Their own partner page, with the photos and words they choose.
"Recommended" means two things, and you should know both: they pay for the spot, and they passed our checks first. Every partner is local, licensed, well rated, and easy to reach. If neighbours tell us a partner let them down, we talk to them, and the spot can go to someone else.
We don't guarantee any business's work, prices, licences or insurance. Any deal you make is between you and them.
Partners never get your details from us. If you call one, it's because you chose to. Businesses can read the partner terms.
How businesses are ordered
- Apart from the one partner per trade, every business in the directory is listed for free. Nobody pays to be listed, moved up or left out.
- The rest are ordered by their Google rating, weighted by how many reviews they have. So a 5.0 from three reviews doesn't outrank a 4.8 from two hundred. Restaurants are ordered the same way.
- Short lists elsewhere, like "Who to call", show the partner (if there is one) and then the top-rated by the same measure.
- We leave a business out only for a reason like it has closed, doesn't serve Tsawwassen, or is in the wrong category. Paying, or not, never decides it.
Ratings and reviews
- Star ratings and review counts come from Google, as they were when we last checked. We don't edit them.
- The short quotes on a business's card and page are picked from its four- and five-star Google reviews and copied word for word, with “…” where we cut. The rating beside them counts every review.
- The reviews on Mike's pages are his own Google reviews with four or five stars and a written comment, shown with the reviewer's first name and initial. We leave out reviews from people he works with or is related to. His rating and review count include every review.
AI help
We use AI tools to help research and draft parts of the site: business write-ups in the directory, event listings, parts of our guides, the first draft of a Pinpoint, and illustrations such as event pictures and the house drawings in the welcome package. The drawings are artwork, not photos. Pete and Mike decide what the site covers. Automatic drafts can get things wrong; tell us and we'll fix it.
Estimates aren't appraisals
Pinpoints, price checks, home values and the calculators are estimates from recent sales and simple models. They're not appraisals and not financial advice. Our terms say more.
Questions
Something here unclear, or something on the site that doesn't match it? Email hello@tsawwassen.ca.
