The winners and losers of the absolutely outrageous, viciously competitive, record-breaking market
For buyers and sellers and those who simply consider real estate a spectator sport, this was the nutty year when the average price of a detached house hit a million. And you’re lucky if those seven figures buy a rickety bungalow next to the tracks. Open houses now require bouncers to control the mobs, buyers eye one another like competitors in a boxing ring, and every week there’s another story of a bidding war that stretched all night and made the seller a killing.
In the following pages, we present a portrait of the manic market. We surveyed the city’s top agents to find the pockets where the fight to own a house is fiercest, and gathered stories from people who’ve wandered into the real estate trenches and barely survived.
Don’t tell downtowners this, but Etobicoke is technically part of Toronto. And for prospective homebuyers looking for deals on large lots and easy access to downtown (as well as out of town, via the airport and the nearby 400-series highways), the cradle of Ford Nation has become an attractive option. It seems especially true of Twyford Road, a popular street in the upmarket Princess Anne Manor ’hood, which is walking distance from the picturesque Glen Agar park, a couple of golf courses and a handful of elementary schools. Twyford strikes a nice balance between the busier thoroughfares in and around The Manor (like The Kingsway and Princess Margaret Boulevard), and the area’s quieter nooks (like Kingsfold Court and Blair Athol Crescent, where houses are sold privately to upsizing Manor-dwellers). “Most of my clients are people from downtown,” says realtor Ana Santos. “They’re tired of being on top of their neighbours in a 35-foot lot with a one-car garage.” Downtown, you’re lucky to get a renovated townhouse for just over a million dollars. On Twyford, it gets you 80-by-135-foot lots.
In March, this detached bungalow, walking distance from the neighbourhood’s schools, was listed for $1,188,000 and sold for $1,250,000.
In February, this two-storey detached with 6,600 square feet of total living space, a quartz kitchen island and a 101-bottle wine fridge was listed for $2,499,000 and sold for $2,475,000.
In May, this renovated sidesplit property—four bedrooms, three baths, with a finished basement—was listed for $1,099,000 and sold for $1,375,000, $276,000 over asking.
Week by week, walking along Queen West from Dufferin to Sorauren, you can practically see the 99-cent shops shutter and reopen as hip restaurants before your eyes. At the same time, young couples are fighting for houses that have all the appeal of an Annex Victorian but at a lower price point. This is especially true of the housing stock on Melbourne, where Keller Williams realtor Mike Gryspeerdt broke the million-dollar sale ceiling with a semi. Over 50 hopefuls snaked out the door at the open house, drawn by the deep and wide lot as well the house’s proximity to the Drake and Gladstone hotel-bar-party compounds. Rather than flippers, the area is bringing in end-users: buyers willing to pay a premium to make a place their own, and whose love for the property makes the list price academic. Re/Max agent Nicholas Bohr encourages clients to hand-write letters to sellers to forge a personal connection and gain an advantage over competing buyers. “I’ll also google a seller,” he says, “and see if they went to the same university as the buyer to try to create synergy.”
In June, this two-storey detached with four bedrooms was listed for $889,000 and sold for $1 million.
In February, this two-storey semi-detached, split into two large three-bedroom apartments, was listed for $599,000 and sold for $721,000.
In March, this semi with a south-facing garden, a new furnace and a greenhouse was listed for $899,000 and sold for $1,008,000, $109,000 over asking.
One phrase keeps popping up when you comb through listings of recent sales on Manning: “as is.” Those who want a downtown semi or detached house in a great area, with access to trendy shopping and restaurants, all for under $1 million, can still get it on Manning. But it’ll be as is, and they’ll need to fight for it. The street, one of the last unpolished strips near Trinity Bellwoods Park, is especially attractive to investors and house-flippers. One two-and-a-half-storey multi-unit semi—which came with three fridges and three stoves, all tossed in as is—sold for an astonishing $258,898 over the $649,990 list price. Sometimes, the bigger the mess, the fiercer the bidding, as places requiring more substantial overhauls tend to scare away dabbling flippers and attract more serious contractors willing to pay top dollar. But not everything on the street needs a total overhaul: one two-storey townhouse just north of Queen, a stone’s throw from Trinity Bellwoods, sold for $803,000. With new windows, and a new roof and furnace, the place didn’t require the sort of gutting and remodelling common on the street.
In April, this two-storey townhouse divided into three units was listed for $815,000 and sold for $885,000.
In late 2013, this fixer-upper two-storey semi was dramatically undervalued at $339,000, and sold for $735,000.
In May, this “as is” townhouse was listed for $399,000 and sold for $541,000.
The mayor and small business owners complained, but the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way has proven successful for the strip, especially the section nearest Bathurst. St. Clair has attracted new businesses like the lunch counter Baker and Scone, which offers 40 different varieties of scones, and brought more traffic to trendy restaurants like the Stockyards, where there’s a nightly lineup for takeout fried chicken. The most competitive street to buy on is the stretch of Wychwood running north from St. Clair, where semis regularly break a million. Buyers like how the street name evokes the prestigious community to the south and are desperate to live within walking distance to the nearby farmers’ market at Wychwood Barns and excellent schools (including Humewood Community School, St. Alphonsus Catholic and Vaughan Road Academy, which offers the International Baccalaureate program).
In June, this three-storey detached house with five bedrooms and four baths was listed for $949,000 and sold for $1,100,000.
In March, this detached two-storey house fitted with premium appliances was listed for $899,000 and sold for $975,000.
In May, this three-storey semi-detached house, with new stainless steel appliances and framed by a beautifully landscaped yard, was listed for $875,000 and sold for $1,020,000.
Buyers in the multimillion-dollar price range are often too genteel for bidding wars. But when it comes to Cortleigh Boulevard, a leafy patch in Benzes-and-Botox Lytton Park, the gloves come off. It’s one of those rare streets between the north-south arteries of Avenue and Yonge that’s not overrun with traffic. The houses, many of which sport old-timey stone filigree on their exteriors and contain nanny suites, are set well off the street, making it feel nearly suburban for a street so close to downtown. It’s a short drive to the establishment private schools and walking distance from prestigious (by TDSB standards) John Ross Robertson Public School, where students do extremely well on EQAO tests.
In May, this two-and-a-half-storey family home with a gourmet kitchen, south-facing garden, four bedrooms and four baths was listed for $1,895,000 and sold for $1,929,000.
In April, this detached three-storey drew 19 bids on its already whopping $1,895,000 list price and eventually sold for $2.3 million.
In late 2013, an “as-is” house was listed for $999,000 and sold for $1,225,000. The buyers built a new house in its place.
Bessborough is the kind of placid Leaside street that has always been in demand. Houses, many with extra-wide yards and centre-hall plans, rarely go on sale, and when they do there’s intense demand, with the average property going a hundred thousand or more over asking. Hopefuls put in bully bids and draft letters to owners of nice houses encouraging them to sell. (Agents also do a lot of door knocking, to the same end.) Some lots are so spacious, developers try to subdivide them (one such proposal was recently met with fiery opposition). Open houses on the street draw 50-plus potential buyers in one afternoon. “People call it ‘stupid street,’ because people do stupid things to live there,” says agent Patrick Rocca, whose own house is on Bessborough. “But I paid the highest price at the time,” he says. “So if anything, I’m the stupidest one.”
In May, this four-bedroom, three-bath detached home on a rambling 38-foot lot was listed for $1,339,000 and sold for $1,477,100. That’s $138,100 over asking.
In May, this red-brick detached, recently renovated to the tune of over $200,000, was listed for $1,299,000 and sold for $1,530,000. That’s a full $231,000 over asking.
In May, this 2,000-square-foot detached two-storey house, with original stained glass windows and an elaborate garden, was listed for $1,299,000 and sold for $1,396,000.
The under-a-million neighbourhoods are where the most furious bidding wars play out—especially on streets like Riverdale’s Hamilton. Ramshackle aluminum-sided bungalows, cheap enough to rip down and start fresh, offer some of the best bargains close to downtown. Buyers see a pocket in transition now that Bridgepoint Health has replaced the old Don Jail, and the infamous Jilly’s strip club at Queen and Broadview has closed, likely to be redeveloped as a Gladstone-type hotel. For fans of hootenannies and hoedowns, there’s also the nearby Boots and Bourbon Saloon, which set up shop in the former site of the seedier Blue Moon Pub on Queen. In 2014, the biggest sales on the street have closed around $100,000 over asking.
In May, this rental property was listed for $699,000. The house received seven bids and eventually sold for $806,000. “I accepted offers the day after the Jilly’s sale was announced,” the seller says. “The timing couldn’t have been better.”
In late 2013, this oversized detached bungalow, with a huge rear deck and a basement rental unit, was listed for $749,900 and sold for $747,900.
In April, this two-storey semi was listed for $749,000 and sold for $845,000. It last sold a year ago for $545,000.
Cabbagetown’s rows of pretty, fastidiously preserved victorians are eerily calm despite being so close to the downtown core. Wellesley is one of the most idyllic streets in the neighbourhood, so whenever a house goes on the market, it’s swarmed and the subject of intense bidding wars. Chestnut Park sales rep Kara Reed booked 30 showings over a weekend for a semi, which ended up selling for a couple hundred thousand over its asking price. The most prized properties are on the eastern stretch, where Wellesley dead-ends at a park of mature trees and the Toronto Necropolis. One bungalow on Wellesley Cottages, a miniscule side street/alley running behind Wellesley proper, went for $246,000 over its million-plus asking in June.
In May, this immaculately renovated Victorian with two parking spaces, 10-foot ceilings and built-in speakers was listed for $1,358,000 and sold for $1,600,000.
In January, this lavish rebuild of a Victorian-era home (complete with a media room and a second-floor study) was listed for $2,369,000 and sold for $2,400,000.
In July, this semi-detached, two-and-a-half-storey house was listed for $899,000 and sold for $1,040,000.
Maybe it’s the proximity to the all-you-can-gorge buffets of the Gerrard India Bazaar. Maybe it’s the increasingly elusive under-a-million price tags. Or maybe it’s all the coach houses tucked behind so many of the homes—which make great rental properties. Most likely it’s all these things. As conspicuous as all the For Sale signs lining Hiawatha are the building notices, with some lots currently undergoing total tear-downs and rebuilds—a sure sign that the property itself is just as valuable, if not more so, than the hundred-year-old home sitting on top. One three-storey detached home sold for $795,000—nearly $100,000 over asking. It had been previously sold only six months before, and the seller netted a tidy $100,000 without making many improvements. The street is especially lusted after by young families, who want the short walk to Greenwood Park and alternative TDSB schools like Equinox Holistic.
In July, this semi-detached two-storey home was offered as is—“please do not enter the garage,” the listing noted, forebodingly. It was listed for $350,000 and sold for $557,500.
In June, this 100 year-old, two-storey, two-bedroom stucco-fronted “condo alternative” on a deep lot was listed for $429,000 and sold for $502,800.
In late 2013, this two-storey family home with a fenced-in front yard, back garden, and balcony adjoining the master bedroom was listed for $499,000 and sold for $612,000, kicking off a string of recent activity on the strip.
There are only 29 houses on Munro Park avenue, the most prestigious street in the Beach, and they rarely come up for sale—only three have gone on the market in the past two years. They’re generally passed down from generation to generation, old money–style, because no one wants to give up the view of the lake or the short stroll to the century-old Balmy Beach Club and its meticulously groomed lawn bowling green. The houses tend to be ornate, stucco and stone-fronted, many with early 20th-century period details like double-sashed windows and stained glass. Lots are massive for the Beach, with 50-foot frontages, and prices climb closer to the lake, often going for half a million or more over list. “It’s hands-down the most coveted street in the Beach,” says Mark Richards of Re/Max, who’s currently selling a renovated $4.3-million house on the street.
In 2013, this two-storey detached house sold for the asking price of $1,869,000 to a buyer who proceeded with a gut reno.
In July, this reno’d four-bedroom detached was listed for $4,295,000—a new high for the street. Unsold at our print deadline.
In late 2013, this detached two-storey home near the businesses on Queen was listed for $1,432,000 and sold for $1,385,000.
Tales from the Front: real estate horror stories from the buyers who lived them
I recently moved back to Canada from Germany with my partner, Boris, and our four-year-old daughter. We sublet an apartment while we looked for a house. We saw at least 100 west-end properties and lost out on five offers, sometimes by as much as $100,000. In June, we found a semi in Wallace-Emerson—it was rundown and an estate sale, but to us it felt like a miracle when the sellers accepted our offer of $667,000. Our inspector found water damage, asbestos, an old roof and bad wiring all over the place, so we dropped our price to $655,000 and asked for a mid-July closing. The sellers agreed, but added a condition of an extra 30 days if they didn’t get their will probated. Our agent told us that will probate is rarely a problem, but we were getting nervous: I was due to give birth to our second child in July, and we were supposed to be out of our apartment by the end of August. As the closing day approached, we heard the will probate would take at least three months. The sellers refused to rent us the empty house in the meantime, even when we offered to increase our deposit on the house sale. By the end of August, we gave up hope and signed a mutual release form. We’d already switched our daughter to the new school district and lost thousands on various fees. We’re renting another house while we continue to hunt.
My husband and I found a gorgeous Victorian we really liked in Parkdale. We ended up being one of five parties bidding. Our agent presented an offer of $1,003,000 on our behalf, and the top three bids all came fairly close. Our agent came back to us to see what we wanted to present as a new bid. In that time, one party dropped out. So it was us and one other party. We went up to $1,015,000 and submitted our offer. That’s when things took a turn: the selling agent struck a deal with the other party’s agent so that, rather than paying a five per cent fee, the new owners would only pay two and a half per cent. They’re supposed to tell the other party, so you can come up with a counter-offer, but by the time we found out, they’d signed a contract. Our agent said this is the first time he’d encountered this in his 20 years in real estate. We filed a complaint with the real estate council. It makes us wary about buying. You wonder what else is going on.
My fiancé and I put in a successful bid of $450,000 on a loft unit in a building on Dundas West. We’d been looking for a month, and we fell in love with its exposed brick and high ceilings, and that it was a corner unit with lots of windows. It had character, as they say. These kinds of deals are dependent on a status certificate getting approved by our lawyer. That’s when it all went south. Our lawyer said the certificate was one of the worst he’d seen. Turned out the conversion from factory to loft had been shoddily done: the basement flooded, the bricks needed repointing, the pipes had burst in the winter, and the roof was leaking. The condo board was suing the construction company, and the construction company was suing the condo board too. If we bought, we’d never be able to resell without these lawsuits affecting the price. We immediately cancelled our contract and ended up buying another place in Parkdale.
Just before the Canada Day weekend, my partner and I put in an offer of $745,000 on a house near Mount Pleasant and Eglinton, with a $35,000 deposit in escrow. The inspection revealed that the house still had knob-and-tube wiring, so we dropped our offer to $725,000. Two hours after our offer expired, the selling agent got back to us and asked for a better offer. When we declined, she said we’d forfeited our deposit to the sellers. We demanded it back, but her response was, “We shall see.” At this point, we were convinced she was crazy, so we called her broker, who made sure the cheque was signed back to us. For an entire day, we thought we’d lost $35,000. A week later, the agent re-listed the house for the exact amount we’d offered! We found the name of the seller and sent him an offer directly. Within four hours, the deal was done. His agent was still technically representing the homeowners, but we otherwise circumvented her.
When my partner and I started looking for a house, we hired an inspector before bidding on a place we didn’t get. It felt like a wasted $400. They are vague to cover their own rear-ends for liability. We decided not to bother with the inspection when we found a house we loved in Leslieville. We bought the place for $621,000, which was $42,000 over the list price. After taking possession, we found out we had to rewire the whole place—it was a mix of new wiring and knob-and-tube. While that was being done, we stored all our stuff in the basement, which was exactly when a sewage line, strangled by the roots of a maple tree, burst. The problems didn’t end: the roof leaked, the dishwasher leaked, and, oh yeah, the eavestroughs were duct-taped to the house. Right as we were moving in, the kitchen cupboards fell right off the wall and smashed to pieces. So far, we’ve spent at least $50,000 on repairs.
Come to New Toronto/Mimico. Beautiful houses near the water; very few bidding wars. Often much less than a million dollars. Easy to get downtown. Walking to restaurants and coffee shops….
pretty sure they got some of the images mixed up. that or they don’t know what a “bungalow” is.
Comparing the asking price to the sale price is not a very fair or objective way to present how hot a market is. A house was recently touted as being sold 50%-something over asking price in Bedford Park; What was reported, was that the real estate agent listed the house at some 700K; a house in that area hasn’t sold for 700K since 1998, ie. this is all a strategic move made by agents in order to get the highest possible price for their clients.
What benefit does TL get from stoking the real estate frenzy?
Shhhh….
LOL! That person who was “Betrayed by the Agent” is a classic example of why you should NOT act rashly when you’re angry. I understand that they were upset that they thought they weren’t going to get their deposit back. But it would be pretty impossible in this case. The offer expired and, thus, wasn’t valid/binding anymore. Pretty straightforward. It happens all the time and deposits get returned.
But the fact that they thought they circumvented the seller’s agent is a real proof of their ignorance. If the seller’s agent hasn’t found out already, she will and she will get her commission. The seller’s agent is legally entitled to her commission because the seller is in contract with her. They just made it easier for her to get the commission without much work. As for the them (the buyers) contacting the seller directly, they were also not legally allowed to if they were in contract with another agent. If they weren’t being represented by an agent from the beginning, good. But if they were at the time of the first offer, then they have to pay the commission from their own pocket.
So all in all, there’s more to be paid. SMH. So vengeance fail, bud. Getting yourself published here won’t help you win this case.
This is why the Toronto real estate market is getting really scary. Ignorant people who can “afford” to get a mortgage of $725,000.
It says in the article that the agent was a part of the deal, but they worked directly with the home owners. She still got her commission (but she was not involved in the negotiations). They were betrayed by the agent because she didn’t originally present their offer to the home buyers.
I’ve had this happen to me twice; the first time, like the guy in they story, I just went directly to the homeowner and we sat down and discussed everything. Turned out he was an agent and had given the listing to a guy who worked for him. Agent was kept in the deal at the end but did nothing but take me around the house the first time I was there.
The next time I wanted to put in an offer on a house and told the guy who had shown me the house what I wanted to offer. He wrote up what he thought I should offer. i took his copy, crossed out what he had written and made my changes, signed and initialed it and he was forced to present it. Buyer signed back immediately.
I think if i were to ever enter a bidding war, I’d knock on the door of the seller and introduce myself and let them know that I’m interested in the house. Your agent can’t contact the seller but there is nothing to stop you from doing it. That way the Seller knows that your interested and will look for your offer, if you’re not the highest, they will be sure to come back to you before they sign.
End of the day, agents have to do what they’re directed to do.
Just reading those prices makes me nervous about the size of those mortgages. I suppose we’re lucky to have purchased a great home during the last mini downturn a few years back. Our house is great but even then there is tons of regular maintenance any home needs that adds up. I can’t imagine how stressful something like a furnace repair (yes that happens) might be if we were carrying one of “today’s mortgages”. Though I suppose there is a chance that these buyers are in fact putting down half a million dollar down payments…
Oh! The joy of having to still pay off a mortgage when you’re in your 60s.
Happy payments.
Happy renting!
This is what happens when interest rates are historically too low for too long. It creates madness. Once interest rates climb (albeit slowly) upwards, this will magically stop.
Hilarious. I split time between Silicon Valley and Seattle. People in those cities complain about the cost of housing, but they are not fixated on it. Everything in Canada is about the housing market. Every second conversation I overhear in Vancouver is about housing. It is a fetish, a mania and an obsession.
People in Silicon Valley and Seattle spend more time talking about their jobs and career aspirations. That’s the difference between an economy that has jobs and opportunities, and one that is based solely on immigration and a housing bubble.
The stats are pretty clear that Canadians are in record levels of debt, most retirees have no assets apart from their homes, and that contributions to RRSPs are negligible. Family income in Vancouver is 73k; in the working class neighbourhoods in the north of Seattle near Boeing it is 120k USD. Median home price there is probably 350k. Hence, people can save for retirement, and they have disposable income.
But enjoy your housing fetish. Instead of jobs you have high priced homes. Salivate over these run down homes in a city that is losing its domestic culture and being increasingly run by TFWs.
Good point. Maintaining a house takes a fair bit of cash. What is worse is the costs associated with condos. Many condo developments deliberately undercharge residents maintenance fees for the first few years, and a lot of them avoid regular maintenance as a result. With modern Canadian ‘build quality’, this can mean shocking levels of repair are required within 5 years. Imagine having to fork out 75k extra for your unit when you have shot your wad to get it in the first place.
Not all of us who notice (along with the IMF, World Bank, Economist, DeutscheBank, Goldman, Capital Economics, Robert Schiller, etc) that Canada has a very obvious housing bubble are renters.
I own two properties, thankfully in the USA and not Canada.
Advertising. Did you see the story of the head of the real estate board who objected to a media member asking if realtor’s fees don’t hurt affordability?
He said “who pays for you”, referring to the media. Plain and simple, the RE industry is a major client of the media, and hence calls a lot of shots.
Here’s my story:
My Wife are and make $200,000 in Ottawa and bought a $265,000 5 bedroom house on a 45 X 150 lot in 2010 with $120,000 down. I’m 35 and have a mortage of $90,000 or so.
Oh, and we both have defined benefit pensions.
If you’re buying a million dollars for a disgusting 17 foot semi in Toronto, I have no words to express how big of an idiot you are.
Signed,
Living the Dream
No one dreams of living in Ottawa.
I couldn’t agree with you more Nick… Who wants to come to this Saturday’s Open House in Mimico? Get a unique home so close to the lake and downtown for much less – http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?PropertyId=14873325
Right and how far do you commute to work in your fossil fuel burning vehicle…do your dreams include your children wearing oxygen masks while you collect your federal pensions built on the backs of hard working canadians ? Even for Ottawa 225 for a five bedroom is cheap/next to impossible….i smell fecal matter from a male cow, you forgot to say its a suburb of ottawa
John,
I live in the Ottawa Equivalient of Etobicoke and it’s 15 minute drive from Parliament Hill. Ottawa Suburbs are extremely close to downtown.. Drive 35 minutes from Ottawa Centre and you’re in the country.
I bike 7 km to work and it’s a 6 minute drive in the winter.
I bought the house for $265,000 in 2010. It’s probably worth 290,000 now.
Still living the dream!
Well let me tell you about my dream now. I bought a 12 ft wide 2 bedroom semi in old toronto a 5 minute walk from rapid transit (which ottawa still doesn’t have) in 2012 for 380000 which in your words makes me crazy. I just sold for 560 this summer. That’s 180000 in 2 years. See if you can make that in napean. Ottawa doesn’t have an et obi come equivilant because it has nowhere near the density of toronto. Anyways I’m happy for you and you 100000 dollar a year job. But I just made 1.5 times that tax free at 30 years old. Who’s living the idiot now? Yep. You are. With your 25000 in equity over 4 years. Nobody wants to hear you brag about you and your wife being over paid civil servants btw. Especially when you really have nothing to brag about.
is it worth it–move out of Canada move to the states–best thing I ever did—yea tell me about the medical—it is much better than Canada—300 a month includes dental–for 2 kids and 2 adults—I am 74 I pay 450 month—out office rent is 70 cents a sq ft. at the office we pay 300 a month telephone with vontage–so move to Nevada–your kids will not go to university–whjy would a university take your kids when they can take Chinese kids who pay 30 thousand a year plus a university is to make money–why would you subject your kids to debt when they get loans—-you will pay mortages all your lives and when the dump is paid off you will get a reverse mortage–and the lender will grab you home—you have no hope–but then again you will vote for trudeau and have a kinder gentler Canada—and I do love Canada—but I could not afford to live in Canada—-frank and yea for ombama care
This is hard to get my mind around, but it reminds me of the housing boom and subsequent crash in California. Prices can only go so high for these dumps. I live in the US and my daughter recently moved to Florida. When I was visiting her, half the people I met were from Canada. Now I know why, warm temps and a beautiful home for 200K.
who gives a shit—I left Canada became and americian to get away from big mouths like you–you do not know whatmoney is baby live the americian dream frank
you are right I go the hell out of Canada I love Canada but you can not make any real money with the tax structure–living in the states is the best thing I ever did–if I stayed in Canada I would be broke–my kids would have large debts if they got into a university–too many Chinese but you can have a gentler kinder Canada–but I will take a richer USA for me and my family frank
Right you left canada to get away from big mouths like me. USA has no big mouth opinionated people. If the US is so awesome why are you on a toronto life website. Isn’t there a Detroit life you could be checking out at 2 am? Thanks for your two cents. You should probably just hang onto it though save it for when the Chinese come demanding the US pay back their debt back. each US citizen’s share of this debt is $55,965.33. $2.43 billion per day since September 30, 2012! For a total of how many trillion? What do they know about money. The only thing they have ever been good at is giving stupid arrogant people such as yourself a false sense of worth. Enjoy your mansion in Detroit!
We didn’t act rashly at all. At first we were frightened about losing our hard earned dollars. As new home owners we simply didn’t know if there was a loophole and that we were being played.
Once we consulted our agent and our lawyer we knew the process and dealt with it in a calm and composed manner. Our own agent stepped in and did his job well. The article also never states that commission was held. That would have been unethical, not to mention it wouldn’t have been our decision to make. What the article meant by “circumventing” was that we reached out directly to the home owners and locked down a deal without communicating with the agent, who was a major barrier.
Our agent knew we were reaching out to them and facilitated the remainder of the deal on our behalf once we had negotiated fair terms. Nothing illegal was done on our part. In the end the home owners were extremely kind, friendly and willing sellers. They ended up happy and so did we. We’re simply lamenting on the fact that this particular agent, despite having extensive experience, simply didn’t care.
As for the comment about affording the home. That really shows your own ignorance. It’s not germane to the article or the conversation and honestly sounds like you have a bone to pick.
Telling our story wasn’t about vengeance either, it was about letting other new home owners know what we went through while this donkey of an agent got their jollies. The moral of the story is that the agent acted in an uncouth manner that did not represent the client well. I’m sure the broker, OREA, CREA or TREB wouldn’t approve of the agent’s actions.
What we learned is, if you want to make something happen, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. If we didn’t communicate with the homeowners directly we wouldn’t be enjoying our new home.
“End of the day, agents have to do what they’re directed to do”. You nailed it with that comment. Buyers shouldn’t be afraid to do what needs to be done. This market is rough and as long as you know the rules and play by them, the sky’s the limit. Don’t let agents walk over you. At the end of the day YOU are paying their commission.
Yet you read Toronto Life? That kind of screams that you long for more than your city is providing you. But hey you have cheap housing and it’s only a 5-hour commute to all the great theater, restaurants, bars, and events that you read about.
People have every choice in the world where they live, yet people still choose to live in Toronto. I love the city, and will stretch myself as far as I need to, to purchase our next home if it means staying where we want to stay. We have a subway system, a booming downtown, and lively neighbourhoods all over the place. Those are things you don’t get in the areas that are ‘affordable’.
You people need to wake up. There aren’t going to be any rate increases. Know why? The banking cartel controls our government, and they want CHEAP MONEY. They want to inflate the currency in perpetuity because they get rich off of it, while the middle class struggles. It’s a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the rich who get access to cheap credit FIRST.
If you want to fix this, demand we go back on a gold/silver standard. Ask you grand parents about how much cheaper things used to be back then. Ask them about a time when only 1 parent had to work and could earn enough to buy 2 cars, a house, and have multiple children. Ask them what it was like to have ample leisure time and not worry about huge debt burdens. Ask them what it was like to buy a house with 2-3 times their annual salary. Ask them what it was like to have a pension that wasn’t under constant attack by the inflationist bankers.
As a former resident and 10 year renter in TO, I saw several inflated housing markets. Just before I left TO for good I was looking at my options for home ownership and they were pretty dismal at best: a tiny condo for $250,000+ or, more to my liking, a fixer-upper in Etobicoke (on the Lakeshore streetcar line), for $350,000+.
Instead, I married an American and now live in Florida where we bought a former crack house/rooming house/abandoned house (yes, all of those things in that order), in a historic district of Tampa for $35,000. This is not a typo. We now have our dream home for the cost of a modest down payment in TO. The market is so inflated as to be all but for the very rich and/or heavily leveraged. Ridiculous! How can anyone afford to buy in Toronto at these price points?
bought our first house when I was 21 and it was paid off in 6 years. this was 1981 when the house was bought and it was overpriced by 15,000 at 60,000. You read that right. How many times has my husband said, we never should have sold that house. We did in 2001 for 360,000 it sold a few months ago for 669,000 crazy crazy crazy~ but we rebuilt that home and the value we put into it is something that speaks volumes.
i bought a house in july for 675.00 its probably worth 710k now. suck Ottawa loser
Man, hold it!
In 2015 you’ll be millionaire.
Mimico just run out of houses under 1 million.
What’s the next stop?
C’mon man, we’re so much smarter than you.
Just read posts about RE on this site, people easily making 150-200k on houses in few years. Of course we like to discuss it, its great thing to have your house appreciating just right before retirement. So many plans to make, so many purchases to plan!
Hahahaha, half a million down.
Bhahahahaha!
Falls under the table.
No, that’s ahahahaha
Too funny.
Wipes the tears.
Half a million, yeah.
When you get into million mortage, you’ll have no choice but to love it. Plus it takes time to pay it back, you know. But who cares, in few years they gonna flip it for + 50% over asking
My boyfriend and I have been looking for a home anywhere from riverdale to the beaches since June of this year. About 40 viewings, 7 offers, 5 home inspections and 3 or 4 bidding wars later — we are still looking. Hoping this madness ends sometime soon or other buyers give up for the winter. lolll really wanted a home before christmas! it’s up to fate now. Love Toronto and know it’s worth the wait.
My boyfriend and I have been looking for a home anywhere from riverdale to the beaches since June of this year. About 40 viewings, 7 offers, 5 home inspections and 3 or 4 bidding wars later — we are still looking. Hoping this madness ends sometime soon or other buyers give up for the winter. lolll really wanted a home before christmas! it’s up to fate now. Love Toronto and know it’s worth the wait
Or maybe the people buying these homes just have way more money than you?
Ha ha ! Pour dodi. My house was paid off when I was 45, three years ago. Do you know many Canadians who pay off their mortgage while in their 40s? I have an excellent job. So does my wife. It’s about the choices you make. We don’t live in a monster home cause we chose to! We have lots of cash to spend elsewhere (maybe buy a cottage, travel more and help my son who intends to study medicine).
Oh, and if you want financial advice, I’m available!
Lots of posturing coming from you Urlo. Just saying, you have no idea what the financial situation is of people buying these homes. They may very well be paying entirely in cash.
Jealousy is a terrible thing.