Bayview Avenue runs the length of Richmond Hill north to south, parallel to and east of Yonge Street. Elgin Mills Road crosses the city east to west, north of Major Mackenzie Drive and south of Stouffville Road. Where they meet sits in the eastern half of the city, in its northern half.

People search for this intersection as though it were a neighbourhood. It is not. It is a point where several different residential communities meet, and a listing described as being "at Bayview and Elgin Mills" could sit in any of them. That matters more than it sounds, because those communities differ in era, housing type and, critically, in school attendance area.

So the useful question is never "what is Bayview and Elgin Mills like." It is "which side of it is this property on, and what follows from that." The rest of this guide answers the second question.

Buses. Both corridors are served by York Region Transit, with service running along Bayview and along Elgin Mills, including express service on the Bayview corridor. Route numbers, stop locations and frequencies change, so check YRT directly for the routes that would actually serve your address and the hours you would actually travel.

GO rail. Richmond Hill GO, on the Richmond Hill line, is the nearest station, roughly a couple of kilometres from the intersection. The important thing to understand about the Richmond Hill line is that its service pattern has historically not been equivalent to the busier corridors elsewhere in the region. Do not assume it works like the Stouffville or Barrie lines. Go to GO Transit's own schedules, look at the departures for the hours you would travel in both directions, and check the parking situation at the station before you decide anything.

Driving. Elgin Mills Road running east is the connection to Highway 404, which is the practical route for most drivers heading south or east from here. Highway 7 and Highway 407 are to the south. If you drive west or into Toronto rather than south, this part of the city works less well than the western half, and that is the honest trade-off of the eastern side.

The thing to actually do. Take the trip once, on a weekday, at your hour, in both directions, before you offer. Drive or walk to the stop as you would, make the connection you would make, and get to where you actually work. One morning of that tells you more than this entire section. The buyers who skip it are the ones who move again within three years.

This is the most common reason families search for an intersection by name, and it is the question most likely to be answered incorrectly by everything else they read.

Two boards, two separate maps, one address. York Region District School Board and York Catholic District School Board draw their boundaries independently, with separate trustees and separate locator tools, and the two sets of lines do not match each other. A single address sits in two different attendance areas. If both systems are on your list, that is two checks rather than one. Worth knowing too that at the secondary level in Ontario, Catholic high schools are open to all resident students regardless of faith, which means families who ruled the Catholic system out have been searching with fewer options than they actually have.

Boundaries do not follow the arterials, and they move. A boundary line can run between two streets that both describe themselves as being at Bayview and Elgin Mills. Attendance areas are also reviewed as enrolment shifts. Confirm the current assignment for the specific property address, using each board's own locator, before you write an offer. A listing description is not proof, and neither is what the previous owner believed.

Some programs are not tied to your address at all. Regional programs, including International Baccalaureate streams, admit by application from across a board rather than by home address. Being inside an attendance boundary secures the regular program at that school and not a seat in a regional one, and living outside a boundary does not disqualify an applicant. If a particular program is the goal, get the current process, entry grade and timeline from the board a year or more ahead. Our guide to St. Robert Catholic High School covers how that works in practice.

No school names or rankings appear here. Naming schools on a page about an intersection would imply an attendance area that may not apply to the address you are looking at, which is exactly the error this section exists to prevent. Rankings lean on standardized test results, move year to year, and at a school with a selective regional program reflect the intake as well as the teaching. Check the boards directly, then visit.

1. Which way the unit faces, and what it faces. Facing an arterial is a different proposition from facing a courtyard, in noise, in light and in what the next buyer will pay. Visit at the hour you would be home, and once in the evening.

2. The status certificate. The corporation's financial position, the reserve fund and the most recent study, the common expenses for the unit and any arrears, any special assessment levied or contemplated, any legal proceedings, and the declaration, by-laws and rules. Your lawyer reads it, and a status certificate review condition is what gives them the chance.

3. What the fee covers, specifically. Which utilities are included and which you will pay yourself. Two buildings a few streets apart can differ completely, and a lower fee covering less is not the better deal. Compare total monthly carrying cost rather than the fee alone.

4. The rules, read before conditions are removed rather than after you move in. Pets, rentals, what you may do with a balcony, parking and storage, and what alterations need approval.

5. The real transit position for that building, checked with YRT and GO directly for the hours you would travel, not inferred from a map.

6. Who buys it from you. The resale pool for an apartment is not the pool for a townhouse, and the two respond differently to changing conditions. Our Richmond Hill condo buyer guide covers the whole process.

1. Treating the intersection as a neighbourhood. Several different communities meet here and they are not interchangeable.

2. Assuming the school boundary from the intersection. Boundaries do not follow the arterials and they change. Check the address with both boards.

3. Viewing only at midday on a weekend. An arterial at eleven on a Sunday tells you nothing about an arterial at eight on a Tuesday.

4. Assuming the Richmond Hill GO line works like the others. Check the actual departures for your hours in both directions before you rely on it.

5. Assuming freehold means no monthly fee. In communities of this vintage it frequently does not.

6. Comparing a property against sales from the other side of the intersection. Different community, possibly different boundary, different buyer. The comparison will mislead you in both directions.