I am posting this blog on July 15th, in the year 2021, coming right at ya from my dining room table / office / virtual classroom. The date is relevant because tomorrow, July 16th, we will be entering Stage 3 in Ontario at long last. In the real estate world, social media has been ablaze with emotional and gushing posts from several agents about how they have been yearning to hold open houses again, and what a burden it has [...]
The scenario I am about to describe plays out all the time. You have finally decided it’s time to sell your beloved family home. You are ready to make that next move, whatever it might be, and you know the market is very strong. You are excited for this life change. In extremely hot markets there can be a tendency for some people to think houses “sell themselves”. You know, throw a sign up on a lawn, take some pictures [...]
Can anybody really believe we are more than a year into this pandemic, and things seem worse than ever before? With another lockdown in effect, schools and restaurants closed yet again, and vaccines rolling out at a glacial pace things seem grim, real grim. Like Armie Hammer’s current career grim. There have been many daily rituals that have kept me going over the past year, one of which is making sure I laugh out loud a few times a day. [...]
I find it fascinating to grab a beer with the veteran agents in our office, the agents 25 plus years in. They often speak wistfully of the “good old days”. That glorious time (for them) before computers when new listings were literally sheets in a book, fax machines were revolutionary and deals got done in bars with handshakes. With sadness they speak of this time, as they struggle to understand the direction our industry (and society) is heading in. I [...]
Overheard recently at Starbucks. Exasperated Buyer (loser of 8 bidding wars): I’ve had it. My wife is 7 months pregnant and I am sick of spending every Saturday with you. I want to bid $1.8 on the semi on Prust Ave. Well Meaning (but increasingly desperate) Agent: You mean the one listed at $1.2, with the leaky basement and knob and tube?? Exasperated Buyer (loser of 8 bidding wars): Yep, that’s the one. Well Meaning (but increasingly desperate) Agent: Ok. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]