looking after a friends place

It probably doesn't matter but I have a TN visa...my wife, daughter and new born are planning to spend a month or 3 in Washington starting in November while wait for some money to come through and we can buy our house in Victoria. In the meantime I will be rotating back to work in the Gulf...we are bringing 2 carloads of baby gear and stuff with us because we are house sitting for a friend who owns a house in Bellingham while we wait to be able to buy in Vic.

Can you tell me if we should expect any problems or if there are any potential issues we should be aware of? If we are there less than 6 months (which is the plan) I dont need to get TD visas for the family right? Essentially they are visiting as am I when not working...???

Why wouldn't you just get them TD visas anyway just to be sure? They're not that difficult to get, once you have your TN.

Unless they satisfy the requirements for tourist (ie. an established and available home outside US) they cannot enter US on visitor status, so would absolutely need TD.

Since you are "waiting to buy" in BC, I doubt that a POE officer would accept this as sufficient for visitor status.

TD is better, and as reba states, easy to get if your family is all Cdn.