I'm also in Victoria, although the last time we bought was 5 years ago. Our criteria were:
1. Biking distance to work
2. New enough not to be a death trap in the event the big one hits
3. Not a fixer, because DH and I would end up divorced.
4. Move in ready suite with no stairs for MIL
In retrospect I'd also add, not in a subdivision that's still growing. Our home is and the value has remained stagnant due to steady inventory of even newer homes.
So figure out what neighbourhoods you want to live in and how much you want to spend. That should narrow the pool considerably.
In this market, I'd look seriously at homes listed either directly by owner, or by one of the discount realty firms. Your realtor likely won't show you those homes because he gets stuck with a lower commission. I'd also comb through the MLS listings yourself (in addition to what your realtor picks out) because many of them don't list suites properly. Our house, for example, didn't have the "suite" checkbox ticked in the MLS database and therefore didn't come up on our lazy realtor's search. We found it on our own.