I will get right to the point with this article - I hate bully offers. In fact I despise them, almost as mush as I despise the TV show 19 Kids And Counting or Teva style sandals. As an agent who spends alot of time working with buyers I wish they would just go away forever, or better yet be beaten and tarred and left in the mid day sun. Recently a colleague of mine had buyers interested in a [...]
Making an offer in a bidding war scenario (ie multiple competing offers) involves many moving parts (closing date, conditions etc), but in the end (with all things being equal) it usually comes down to the number. Coming up with the right number again involves several factors, but once we determine what our number is I always tell my clients the same thing - go with your best and get the deal done, and keep it simple - like the elegant [...]
Inevitably the question comes… “How many houses should I see before I buy one? How many houses should I see?” I hear this all the time, especially from first time buyers. There really is no right answer to the question – some buyers will offer on the first house they see, and other buyers take a more measured approach and need to see more. I have no problem with doing it either way, and I am happy to work with [...]
CityPlace has been a much maligned development in recent years. In many ways it has become a symbolic whipping boy for sentiments that people hold about the condo market as a whole - greedy overdevelopment, cookie-cutter product, shoddy construction, high vacancy rates and the evisceration of the city skyline. And to one degree or another CityPlace is guilty of all of those things. But you know what? The mighty chicken wing was long maligned too, shamefully neglected and cast off [...]
The other day I received a call from my good friend John, as always at the most erratic of times. This time it woke me out of a blissfully deep sleep, at 6:52 in the freakin’ am. Before I could even say hello I heard that unmistakeable voice – “What’s the deal with this community housing??” John is what you might call a serial entrepreneur. Rotund and sweaty, he is like Mark Ruffalo gone to seed, if those seeds were [...]
Harold The Jewelry Buyer wears many faces to the public – diamond and gold flogger, irrepressible (and disturbingly creepy) TV pitchman, and a central character in an underground diamond war that has to be read to be believed. Here is the link to The Star article covering the last point. Suspected Arson - Gold Wars But recently Harold has donned yet another cap – Real Estate Saviour! By now I am sure you have seen the ads, with Harold sitting [...]
The Perils of Dealing Direct One of the biggest mistakes a buyer can make is when they adopt the strategy of “going it alone”, which means they search for properties themselves (without the help of a hired Buyer Agent) and then negotiate directly with the listing agent when they find something they like. It’s a monumentally stupid and unproductive approach, so why would anybody do it you may ask? The wealth of information available online and the crazy bidding wars [...]
When speaking with buyers, particularly first time buyers with very fixed budgets, I am often asked if they should wait to make a purchase. Again and again I will hear statements like, “this market is overheated”, or “this can’t last forever” or (best of all) “prices HAVE to go down”. I wish this was true, for all the bargain seekers, but all evidence points to the contrary. With interest rates holding steady until 2015 at minimum, and more active buyers [...]
As I sit here writing this in the current ultra-competitive Toronto real estate market, I can say with considerable confidence that just about every buyer for a house in a reasonably desirable neighbourhood (hell, even in undesirable neighbourhoods) will find themselves in a multiple offer situation. Whether the current process is right or wrong is frankly beside the point – it simply is what it is. If you don’t like it you don’t have to take part, or you can [...]
BIRCH CLIFF Most people will tell you that the Birch Cliff neighbourhood in Toronto is a really wonderful area to set down some roots and raise a family. Birch Cliff Village, as it is fondly called, is situated in the southwest quadrant of old Scarborough, nestled along the Lake Ontario shore atop the Scarborough Bluffs. Offering great value, it’s not hard to see why people are flocking to this charming neighbourhood in search of their next home. Birch Cliff [...]