With 2022 now in the rear view mirror, many people are uttering good riddance and breathing a sigh of relief. While 2022 did deliver the soaring heights of Andor (in my opinion the best Star Wars series by far) and the Depp vs Heard trial, it also began with yet another lockdown and ended with $10 romaine lettuce, much to the chagrin of beleaguered caesar salad lovers everywhere. The question that naturally (and inevitably) comes up then, is what to [...]
It's that glorious Fall time of the year again, when the only Halloween candy that remains are those crappy rockets, Mariah Carey is preparing for her annual “Yes I’m Still Alive Tour”, and the Hallmark Christmas movies are already in heavy rotation. What a time to be alive. Mid November also signals that we are rapidly approaching the end of the Fall real estate market, and with that in mind I want to take a dive in and share what [...]
Social media bombards us with an artificial view of the world. Everything is always perfect, and everybody's skin is always creamy smooth and acne free (don’t get me started on those ridiculous filters that literally make people look like cartoons). We get a never ending barrage of people sitting on a beach “living their best life”. The real estate social media world tends to be similar. We see posts about glowing customer testimonials, happy sold over asking stories, motivational quotes [...]
Like the oversized, hideously ugly pimple faced punk terrorizing the schoolyard and stealing milk money, bullies have always been present. Likewise, during just about my entire time in the real estate industry, bullies (ie bully offers) have been wreaking equal havoc and crushing would be buyer’s dreams and wallets. It seemed this would never change, and I even wrote an entry on the bully offer way back in 2015 in the infancy of this humble blog. In case you missed [...]
With the kids back to school, and the social media deluge of first day photos mercifully over (who started that trend anyway?), we are entering the time of the year when the real estate market typically awakens after the sleepy summer months. I stress typically because recent times have been anything but atypical, but I’m writing this entry with an eye on both the past 12 months and the 12 months to come. Looking both ways is making me dizzy, [...]
Some quick cuts and random thoughts from the cottage dock, as we sit in the dog days of August with the Fall market and sub zero temperature rapidly looming. The Real Estate Market Has Hit Rock Bottom Like the hopeless alcoholic chugging cough syrup at 7 am in the Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot, I believe the real estate market has hit rock bottom. The average GTA price came in at $1.074,000 for July, down from the peak of $1,334,000 [...]
For most of the past decade, real estate stories on the sale side have been nothing but an endless party. Wild tales of out of control bidding wars, sales stratospherically over the asking price, houses selling within an hour, and 20 plus offers on even the shittiest of properties. 2022 rolled in and the party raged on, only weekend long bender harder. We were drinking it up and boy did it taste good. The Ides of March brought record prices. [...]
In life we spend so much time, effort and mental real estate chasing elusive “opportunities”. Some opportunities are relatively easy to identify and define - think of a career advancement or promotion, or an athlete getting called up to the big team. Other opportunities are much more elusive, or “unicorn like”. Think of hitting on the next big crypto project, or the Chess Club Captain scoring with the Prom Queen in high school. Without a doubt, however, the biggest “unicorn” [...]
“Wrong way on a one-way track.” - The legendary Soul Asylum. One of the most surprising developments of the Pandemic has been the unstoppable price growth of GTA real estate. Imagine fire on a gasoline trail with some kerosene thrown in for good measure, and that’s how fast prices have gone up. With the benefit of hindsight we now know why and how we got here, but I can tell you that on the ground level this unprecedented price growth [...]
In this entry I want to explore one of the more treacly, and in some instances controversial, practices in real estate. I’m referring, of course, to the good old letter to the seller from the hopeful buyer. These letters almost always are essentially the same (and I’ve read dozens of them). A nice couple gives a bit of background information about themselves and their jobs, rave about how much they love the house, and then conclude by saying how excited [...]