Sort your list into fixed and changeable before you look at another listing. Fixed means the lot, the orientation, the neighbourhood, the school catchment, the commute, the ceiling height and whether the basement can ever be developed. Changeable means paint, flooring, cabinets, fixtures and landscaping. Settling on a fixed item is what people regret. Settling on a changeable one is usually a discount you get paid to accept.
Waiting has a price tag you should name. New listings in Saskatoon are up 12.3 percent year over year, so inventory does keep arriving, but the benchmark is also up 2.8 percent over the same span, which means a year of waiting is a year of chasing. Set a limit in months and a limit in dollars rather than waiting indefinitely for a house that does not exist.
Keep your pre-approval live while you wait, because rate holds expire and a lapse at the wrong moment turns a good property into a missed one. When something close does appear, Joel Dyck values it on condition and comparables rather than on the asking price, so you know whether it is worth stretching for or worth passing on.