TorontoRealtyBlog

I was literally writing this blog post in my head as the scene unfolded.

This story is about two things:

1) Good agents versus bad agents
2) Getting emotional when you can least afford it

Not everybody will agree with everything in this story, but what can I say?  Toronto real estate is not for the faint of heart…

How can I tell people not to get emotional in the Toronto real estate market?  It’s like telling me not to hurt myself at the gym as soon as I get back from whatever injury I was previously nursing.

It’s just going to happen.

But when you do get emotional, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons, you need to snap out of it quickly, or risk making a mistake.

And most importantly, your real estate agent need to be the one to spearhead that process.

As I said in the introduction, this story is about both emotion, and the idea of a “good agent” versus a bad one.  I could have lead with a title referring to either, but in the following story, the emotion was the precursor to the agent’s bad decision, and the whole scene was overshadowed by a competing agent’s good decision.

A listing of mine, for which I’ll change all the details in the following story, sold the other night.

This was not a brand-new listing, it was not under-listed, and there was no “offer night.”  That’s important to note, as it explains some of what went down.

On Wednesday afternoon, I received a call from a buyer’s agent saying she would likely be bringing an offer on the property.  We had been chatting back-and-forth, she was asking “the right questions,” and I knew that her client had been at the open house on both Saturday and Sunday, with her father, taking measurements and mapping out where she would put her furniture.

The offer came in around 3:00pm, and it had an 8:00pm irrevocable.

The irrevocable was very short, and so I told the agent, “I won’t be able to get back to you before 8:00pm, my client works late, and it’s just too quick.  But based on your offer, you know we’re signing this back, right?  So the ‘deadline’ doesn’t mean much here; I’ll get back to you around 10pm.”

All that was true, and it was fair.  Some deals happen faster than others, but there was no reason to give us a 5-hour irrevocable, on what wasn’t a fantastic offer.  If your offer is exceptional, and likely to at least meet the seller’s expectations, and hopefully exceed them, then by all means.  But in this case, it was odd, so I was up front about my time commitments, and that of the seller.

Around 6:30pm, another agent sent me a message saying she might have an offer as well.  I knew this agent, and I had worked with her before in the past, so when she said, “I’m probably going to have an offer,” I didn’t take it the same way as I do these days when a rookie agent has a good showing, gets all excited, calls to say he’ll have an offer, and then falls off the face of the earth.

I called my client and left a message, saying that we had an offer, and might have a second, and to call me when he was free at work.

At 7:30pm, the second agent registered her offer, and I called her to chat.

Her offer was around the same price as the first offer; neither were fantastic, and both really represented “starting prices.”

She was skiing in Mount Tremblant, but had the can-do attitude, and was ready to work.

I told her, “Your offer looks like a starting point, and that would be fine, if we weren’t in multiple offers.”

“I know,” she said.  “My client wanted to start out with this, and there’s room on the price, no doubt.  She loves the property, and she wants it.  How are you going to handle the offers?”

How are you going to handle the offers.  That’s a great question, and that’s key.

If you’re a new agent, take note.  You need to ask the question, and you need to listen to the answer.

“We have two offers,” I told her.  “Both represent starting offers, and I’d have done the same if I were in your position, and there weren’t multiple offers.  But we are where we are, now.  So let’s be fair.  Let’s have both agents to back to the two buyers, and ask them to put their best terms on paper.”

“That’s great, David,” she said.  “I’m so happy you’re on the other end of this deal.”

It’s not hyperbole, folks.  This is verbatim.  It sounds familiar to Monday’s blog post, and that’s not intentional here.  To echo some of the comments from Monday’s blog, this really is a relationship business.

“It won’t take me long to get back to you,” the agent said.  “My clients are out to dinner in Toronto, waiting patiently for my call.  I’m on my hotel-bed in Tremblant, with the laptop out.  Let me see what I can do about the price, the deposit, the closing date – I’ll get back to you.”

And that was that.

I got on the phone and called the second agent, exchanged pleasantries, and basically told her the same thing.

“So we have two offers now,” I said, “And I think the fairest way to handle this is to simply have both buyers put their best terms on paper, and we’ll reconvene shortly.  I’m not here to grind anybody; I’m a fair guy, and I feel bad that only one buyer can be succesful tonight, but that’s the way it goes.”

And I waited.

I waited for a response.

But there was an almost-deliberate-feeling pause, before she spoke up and said, “Our offer has expired.”

And folks, I knew exactly where this conversation was headed.

Didn’t I tell you at the onset that I was basically writing this blog in my head as it happened?

“Yes, I know,” I told her.  And again, I waited.

“Our offer…….you see……expired, at 8:00pm,” she explained.  “And it’s now 8:10pm,” she added.

“Yes, I know,” I told her.  “But I told you at 7:30pm that we had a second registered offer.”

“Whhell,” she said, with that overemphasis that stems from displeasure, “My client is a little hurt.”

Hurt?  Geez, I hope it wasn’t her signing-hand…

“She’s upset,” the agent explained.  “And she’s not prepared to do anything tonight.  We’re going to sleep on it, and we’ll come back to it tomorrow.”

Here’s where the emotion became quite apparent, but I speak not of just the buyer, but rather the agent too.

And as a result, I might add – immaturity, misguidance, and in my opinion, inexperience.

“I’m sorry she feels that way,” I told her.  “But we are where we are now – with two offers.  This house will be sold tonight, either to your buyer, or the competing agent’s buyer.”

Ignoring everything I just said, she asked, “Why didn’t we get a sign-back before the offer expired?”

“The offer expired at 8:00pm,” I told her.  “It was submitted after 3pm.  That was a short irrevocable, and I told you my client wouldn’t be able to work with the deadline, and not only that, the deadline was meaningless given you expected a sign-back.”

She then told me that I never communicated this to her, so I asked her to hold on, I went into my Outlook, and forwarded her an email:

3:29pm: “Hi Jane, my seller is teaching until 9:30pm and home thereafter.  We won’t be able to respond before 8:00pm, but I’ll do my best to get back to you tonight.  David.”

Once again, completely ignoring what I had just said, she told me, “My client is really sore.  She’s a first-time buyer, and this is certainly not what she expected.”

Expectations.  Wow.  If there’s one lesson to learn about expectations in the Toronto market – don’t have any.

“I can’t help that,” I told her.  “But what I can tell you is that we’re going to look at both the offers shortly, and the door is open for you to resubmit your offer.”

“Why would I do that?” she asked me.  “You didn’t choose to work with our offer the first time around!”

And this was when I began to realize that while some of the hurt was coming from the buyer, perhaps not all of it had originated there.

A good real estate agent checks his or her emotion at the door.  You can’t let the situation, or another agent, rattle your cage.

I can’t tell you how much sh!t I have to eat in a given week, when dealing with agents I don’t like, or who can’t do their job, or who are obnoxious for no reason.  But I keep calm, and I kill them with kindness.  You simply have to in this business, and in this market.

When a situation doesn’t go your way, you accept it – immediately.

And when your buyer, or seller, gets emotional, you calm them down.  You help them to see things the way they are, however they are.  The situation might not be what they want, but emotion causes buyers and sellers to make poor decisions.  An agent’s job is to keep them focused.

But here it seemed we had an agent that was encouraging, or fostering the emotional state that the buyer was in.

If I had to guess, I’d say they shared an equal amount of soreness at this point.

“I’m trying to help you here,” I told her.  “Your client was at the property, at both the Saturday open house, and the Sunday open house.  It seems like she really liked this place!”

“Oh she did!” she told me.  “She absolutely loves it.”

“Well then please go back to her, and see what she wants to do.” I said, since this was the only rational, logical thing for a buyer’s agent to do in this situation.

“I’ve already spoken to her,” she told me.  “And I know how she feels.”

She wouldn’t even make the call.  She wouldn’t even talk things over, with her emotional, confused, first-time buyer.  I couldn’t believe it.  I started to wonder who was making the decision here.

And then she added, “You could always sign our our offer back.”

Wow.  She was completely out to lunch.

An agent from Halton, 2-years into the business, running amuck in the Toronto market.  Go figure.

Remember when I said it was important to note that the other agent asked, “How are you going to be handling the offers?”

This is a buyer-agent recognizing the situation – that there are competing offers on the property, and that the listing agent is in the dominant position, with leverage, and asking how the listing agent is going to handle offers.

You, as the buyer agent, don’t try to dictate the process, as the Halton agent did by suggesting we “sign the offer back.”

The other agent resubmitted her offer, with better terms, and with a photo of her buyer-client, and a personal note.

She was a true professional, and she understood the situation.

And in the end, we accepted her offer.

Now some of the cynics reading this might suggest that it seems I simply want every agent to push, or force, or talk their buyer into offering a higher price, or that I’m arguing an agent must do anything to get the sale.

I can’t tell you how often I talk my buyers out of making offers.  An hour before the above story was going down, I had emailed one of my clients to tell her not to make an offer on a Mimico townhouse, because it seemed like she “wasn’t feeling it.”  Her heart wasn’t in it, she wasn’t all-in, and it seemed like she wanted to see what detached bungalows came up for sale.

So I told her that we should hold off making an offer, and if we found something we liked more – great!  If we didn’t, and the townhouse sat on the market for a month, perhaps the price would be lower, and it would be a more attractive buy.

The point of the preceding story is that we had a buyer who was in love with a property, was already mapping out her furniture, and who made an offer, only to find that the situation had changed – as it does all the time, in our market.  Either she, or her agent, or both of them, then decided that life had dealt them a terrible blow; an unfair one, and they were going to take their ball, and go home.

I understand the buyer being emotional, that’s a given.  But the agent?  It was embarrassing.

I honestly believe the agent cost her client a property that night, and I felt bad for the buyer.

The young buyer who actually did buy the house had a great agent, and one who, if the tables were turned, likely would have dealt with the circumstances as they arose, kept her head, and lead her buyer through it.

Think back to my story in Monday’s blog; the situation was almost identical.

We made an offer on a condo, and as our bad luck would have it, a second offer came in therafter.

What did I do?

Well, I didn’t stand around kicking imaginary pebbles, like a sad cartoon character, but rather I kept my buyer-client informed, guided them through the process, made the listing agent my new best friend, and got the deal done for my client.

The above story could be about emotion, or, it could be an advertisement for why not to hire an out-of-town agent with 2-years experience.  But I’ve seen experienced agents get emotional, and lose deals as a result too.

This market is a roller-coaster, and some people just don’t have the stomachs for it…

The post Check Your Emotions At The Front Door! appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

People.  Honestly.  They’re the worst.

I’m channelling my inner-Seinfeld with that quote, but seriously folks – I was just shocked by some of the people I met two weeks ago when I had a hot listing for sale, and I couldn’t believe how they approached both the price of the property, as well as the process surrounding the sale.

I’m constantly amazed at how a person can be so intelligent, yet have so little common sense.  And during the course of this listing, “those” people were lined up in droves.

You either “get it,” or you don’t.  And try explaining to somebody who doesn’t “get it,” and you’re wasting your time…

Remember the good old days of including a photo of your family, and a hand-written note with your offer?

Those days are almost gone, right?

Once upon a time, when prices were lower, and when the spread between the lowest and highest offers was smaller, those personal touches did have an effect.

I remember submitting an offer for a family member back in 2006, with a cute photo, and a note.  And although we weren’t the highest offer, we were in the top two – out of twelve.  And we were given a chance to improve our offer, and we won.

I’ll be the first person to suggest that no seller out there (save for the one that spawned a much-shared newspaper article a few years back) is going to take substantially less money for his or her home, because the buyers are nice.

But it certainly doesn’t hurt, and in some very unique cases, the home-owners might want to sell to you, and give you a second chance, or give your agent a push.

Whether those days have passed, or not, I don’t think a buyer should take the opposite approach, and go out of their way to be rude to everybody involved in the process.

The following story might be lost on some of you, but I see things through a different set of eyes: those of an agent.  I’m constantly amazed by buyers who are completely out of touch with market reality, whether it’s the price of real estate in 2018, or the process, and who fail to accept current market conditions for what they are.

Two weeks ago, I had a listing in North Toronto where the sellers were 90-years-old, and had been in the home for almost a half-century.

The sellers were going to be home for every showing, which ordinarily, as you know from reading this blog, I would never suggest, or allow.  But as we had expected 30+ showings in a week, and with the age of the sellers, it just wasn’t feasible for them to leave the property for an hour, several times per day, and we didn’t want to restrict showings by asking for 4-hour’s notice.

In the end, the sellers being home became an asset, as “Gramma,” as we’ll call her in this story, bonded with just about every single set of buyers that came through the door.

I’ll be honest – the interest level was far higher than expected, and although I figured builders could be all over this property due to the age, most of the buyers looked at the home as a classic gem, and planned to do a modest renovation, or even move right in after some minor repairs.

This house was charming, historical, and full of character.  I know that real estate agents say that about just about every property in Toronto, but you’ll have to take my word for it here.  And as a result, almost every buyer through was looking for the history and character that a house like this could provide, and they loved meeting the owners, and exchanging stories.

For the owners, who had been here for 49 years, this was like a Broadway play being acted out in front of them all day, every day.

They loved it.

Perhaps it’s cliche to say “old people love to chat,” but in this case, it’s an understatement.

“Gramma” got the down-low on every person that came through, and for the most part, it was a two-way street.

I think the word was out pretty quickly that there would be action on this home.

I’ll spare you the surprise – we had nine offers, and we would have had more, but one rescinded right before offer presentation, and several others just didn’t want to get involved.

Suffice it to say, I think most buyers through the house figured, with the sellers present, they should try to make that personal connection that might help them on offer night.  As a result, every time I came by the house to do a showing, or check up on the property, I found the sellers engaged in the middle of a story-exchange with the buyers.

Wow, did they talk.  Talk, talk, talk, all week long.

But these buyers were savvy!  They knew it was a small city, and you’re bound to know some of the same people.

One set of buyers came back with their parents, and their grandparents!  And the grandparents lived in the same condo that the sellers would be moving to.

Another set of buyers had a connection to the same vacation complex that the sellers frequented.

Another set of buyers knew the sellers’ friends from bridge.

Over and over, buyers paraded through, and spent an equal amount of time looking at the house, as they did chatting up the sellers.

I showed up one night and saw “Gramma” holding both hands of one young buyer, facing eachother, in a heartfelt moment.

Just about every buyer through, “got it,” and knew how to play the game.

Just about, as the story goes…

I received a cold call on the property, and I had arranged to meet the buyers there at 7:00pm one night.

The house was a revolving door of action, all week.  7pm most nights, there were 3-4 groups through.

So by 7:25pm, when I sent a text message to the cold-caller to ask where he was, he responded, “In the basement.”

Unbeknownst to me, this young couple had waltzed through the front door, didn’t look for “the agent,” being me, and took it upon themselves to walk through at their convenience.

Upon meeting them, and introducing myself, I was asked, “So what can you tell me?” by the 40’ish young gentleman, with his wife in tow.

I gave him the rundown of the home, the pros and cons, and each time I finished a sentence, he responded by essentially putting words in my mouth.

“The house was built in 1936,” I said, to which he replied, “So it clearly isn’t in good shape, right?  That’s going to affect the price?”

“There’s a beautiful ravine lot in the back,” I said, to which he replied, “So a lot of buyers looking to put in a pool won’t like it, you mean?”

Over, and over, and over.  I know this “type,” and hey – whatever floats your boat.  But in this market, and for this property, the attitude made no sense to me whatsoever.

He constantly disagreed with me at every turn, and feigned a real estate expertice that just wasn’t there.

Things went a bit off the rails when I told him that we’d be reviewing offers the following Tuesday.

“Offer date?” he said, with a deliberate throw-back of his head.  “You have an offer date?  Why?  This house isn’t worth even close to the asking price.”

I’ve mentioned on occasion that I don’t blow up, I don’t take bait, I don’t fight back, and I always take the high road.  I wasn’t going to argue with him, but I did engage him.

“Well,” I began, “We’ve had over 40 showings so far, I’ve had agents ask about bully offers, and if I had to guess, I’d say we’ll get our asking price, who knows – maybe more.”

“But an offer date?” he said.  “Nobody is doing offer dates anymore.  That time has passed.”

“Actually, just about every freehold house in Toronto has an offer date,” I told him.  “The market is alive and well again.”

“No, it’s not,” he said, so matter-of-factly that your average Joe would be convinced.

Not wanting to belabour the point, I simply said, “Well, I’ll know if I’m wrong, next Tuesday.”

He shrugged, and walked away, and continued to point out issues with the home.

As I said, I know the type.  He figures he can create this scenario whereby what he wants, and what he believes, could come true.

Meanwhile, there was a young lady in the kitchen with “Gramma,” laughing and sharing photos of her children.  Gramma was one minute from going upstairs to get a photo album…

I walked to the front door with Mr. 40-something and his wife as we finished our tour, and he asked about offer night.  He then added, “We don’t have an agent,” to which I said, “I know, I had asked your wife that when we spoke two days ago,” and amazingly he said, “Well…..heh….I mean, we would get one.  We know a couple of guys that will do the offer for us and just refund their commission.”

Now the reason I ask cold callers, “Are you working with an agent?” isn’t because I’m trying to pick them up as buyers, and the issue has nothing to do with commission – at least not for me.  It’s about clear and identifiable representation, and I’m not going to show somebody else’s client a home, because it puts me in a position I don’t want to be in.  It’s a clear conflict of interest.

In any event, I told Mr. 40’ish, “Your wife had told me last week that you didn’t have an agent, that’s why I’m showing you the home.  I have to ask, why didn’t you get your agent to show you the home?”

He replied, with an aggressive undertone, “Well, I obviously didn’t waste his time.”

And here’s where I really fail to this guy’s “strategy.”  He’s snuck into the house, he’s already gone through the house and criticized it, he’s made no effort to speak to the sellers, and now he’s effectively telling the listing agent, “I want to waste your time.”

I wasn’t hurt, and I wasn’t fussed about the wasted time.  I would have lived in that listing if I had to, but I just couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t see the error of his ways.

He went on to explain, “I’m a lawyer, you see, and if I make an offer, I’m going to put some pretty complex language in my offer regarding commission, so I don’t want you to be caught off guard.”

So now he was telling me I’m a moron as well.

I could have told you this guy was a lawyer from the moment I met him, and I’m not knocking lawyers – my father just retired after a 40-year career as a criminal lawyer.  My uncle is a lawyer.  My aunt is a Supreme Court justice.  But I knew this guy was a lawyer, and perhaps it explained why he was trying to create his own narrative.

That following weekend, an agent called me from a brokerage I had never heard of, and said he would have an offer on Tuesday for the property.  He said, “My buyer wants to be in the presentation room though, is that okay with you?”

It was an odd request.  Sometimes buyers will accompany their agent to the brokerage, but to be in the presentation?  I’ve never see that.

I asked the agent simply, “To what end?” and he replied, “He wants to explain his offer, maybe chat with the sellers a little bit.”  Right.  I read that as, “He want’s to present his own offer.”

My spidey-sense was tingling, and I thought of Mr. 40’ish, so I asked the agent, “Is your client’s name John Smith?”

Of course it was!

This young lawyer, who’s occupation is to make arguments, wanted to come into the presentation room with the sellers, and berate them with reasons why his offer was the best, why they should sell to him, and probably why they should take less money too.

In any event, offer day came, and we had nine offers.  We were shocked by the response, as we really didn’t intend to under-price the home, but as is the problem with all of the city right now – there’s just nothing on the market.

The first agent came in to present his offer, and he had with him a letter written by the buyers, complete with a family photo.

I handed it to “Gramma” to read, and she immediately started to cry.

So then I started to read the letter, and as she gently sobbed away, and as “Grampa’s” lip began to quiver, I got emotional as well.

I eventually handed the letter to their grandson to read, which he did.  By the end of it, “Gramma” was wiping away tears.

She remembered the buyers from both of their visits to the house.  I recall she looked up at the lady at one point and said, “How come you’re so tall……..and I’m so damn short?” while sitting at the kitchen table, knitting away, with people pouring through her home.

They had a good laugh, she explained, “You know…..I used to be a lot taller,” as any old-lady would, and she got to see the whole family on the second viewing when the kids were running rampant through the home.

Their offer was certainly in the mix, but it helped that the sellers liked them.

We went through a few more offers, and eventually in walked an agent I had never heard of, from a company I had never heard of, in an Ontario suburb.

He had a letter of his own, but this one would be very, very different.

The offer, and the letter, was from Mr. 40’ish.  And it began with something to the extent of:

“I would have liked to be sitting with you in person right now to present our offer, but unfortunately, your agent advised us this wasn’t possible, so we will have to rely on our agent to present our offer instead.”

Great start.

As I’m the one reading this, and his letter is already taking a swipe at me, again, I couldn’t understand what he was thinking.

The letter went on to talk a whole lot about the buyers themselves, and less about the sellers and their home.

Then came the clincher:

“Rather get enter into a prolonged negotiation with you, we’ve instructed our agent to make an unconditional offer at your full list price.”

Do you see the problem here?

We had nine offers.

The property sold for a quarter-million over asking.

And his offer was the lowest of the nine offers.

Now at this point, I may have already lost some of you.

Some of you might think this was just a guy, trying to do what was best for his family, or that he didn’t “need” to “over-bid” for the property.

But I don’t see it that way.  I see things in black and white, and I live in the reality of our Toronto market.

This young man decided that he was smarter than everybody else, and that he was going to talk his way through the process, and win.  That’s his legal background working its way into his personal life, and the competitive world of Toronto real estate.

But honestly, folks, he made a mistake at every possible juncture.

He called the listing agent and said he didn’t have an agent, when he did.

He walked into the house when the front door was open, rather than calling the agent, or ringing the doorbell, and saw nothing wrong with doing so.

He made no effort to connect with the sellers, let alone, say hello to them.

He belittled the house.

He insulted the listing agent, on multiple occasions.

He “hired” a bum agent who was completely unprepared and unqualified to present his offer, because he thought he could save money.

He asked to present his offer in person, which is something I have never seen done before.

He wrote a “me, me, me” letter to the sellers, in which he threw the listing agent under the bus for not allowing him direct access to the sellers.

He offered the list price, and tried to use some sort of reverse psychology in saying “I don’t want to negotiate, so here’s your list price,” to try to sway them.

He did everything wrong, at every possible opportunity.

And in the end, the nice “tall lady” got the house.  Her family had the highest offer once the process was completed, and the sellers saved their personal note, along with two others that were just beautiful.

Mr. 40’ish’s letter went in the recycling.

I’m not faulting Mr. 40’ish for not wanting to bid higher; that’s not what this is about.  I’ve re-read this post twice now, trying to see it from the perspective of your typical Toronto buyer, to see how the view might differ from that of an agent, and the one thing perhaps you might see, that I didn’t, is that I’m somehow blaming a buyer for not having a crystal ball, or not wanting to spend past their budget.

But this wasn’t about the sale price.

This was about the buyer, who just didn’t “get it.”

From start to finish, there was no common sense.  And while I don’t want to turn this into an advertisement for hiring buyer-agents, certainly if this guy had a buyer agent who had two wits about him, the agent would have told him to be a little more courteous, and perhaps that the list price up against eight competing offers, wasn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

There are a lot of buyers in this market who just don’t “get it.”

Buyers who want to create their own narrative, and who hope, pray, wish, and dream about and for market conditions that don’t at all reflect reality.

We can all dream, but most of us snap out of it, and get back to our lives.

Many buyers don’t.  And they’re left in the false reality they’ve created, forever.

I have other stories from this listing, and from the last couple of weeks, that underscore this idea of “getting it,” or failing to live in market reality.  Perhaps I’ll come back to it on Thursday…

The post Either You “Get It,” Or You Don’t appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

I know what you’re thinking – that this is somehow metaphoric, or there’s a catch.

But honestly folks, last spring, I got socked hard right in the jaw by flesh and bone, as I was in the middle of a multiple offer process.

Maybe the perpetrator isn’t who you’re hoping it is – for a better story.  I suppose if the listing agent and I got into a fight, TMZ might pick up the story.

But on an otherwise uneventful Friday, I’m sure you’ll get a chuckle out of this one…

If I was being metaphoric, I’d probably have said “punched in the stomach.”

The good ‘ole real estate “gut punch” that occurs during a tough loss, a bad beat, or any experience providing you with that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach.

But alas, I’m not being metaphoric, analaogous, symbolic, or even euphemistic.

Knuckles met my nose.

Flesh met my face.

Bone to the button; I was punched with a fist.

It was May of 2017, and I was presenting an offer on a west-end home, in person, at the brokerage.

The weather was nice, and we were past Daylight Saving’s Time, so I was sans-coat, walking freely in a suit on Bloor Street West.

Offer presentations were in person, and I believe there were four offers competing with mine.

The sellers were late arriving at the brokerage, so the other agents and myself waited in those under-sized, uncomfortable chairs that always adorn the foyer of a brokerage, where space is at a premium.

I presented second, and waited in my tiny chair for the other three agents to finish whispering the terms of their offer in a conference room with a sliding glass door, and no sound-proofing, before the listing agent came out and told us that they were “going to work with three offers.”

You all know what this means – we were being sent back to improve.

I try to put a positive spin on a situation like this by telling my clients that we went from having a 20% chance (1 in 5) to now having a 33% chance, as there were 3 offers left.  More to the point, my read wasn’t that we had the highest offer, so if anything, we were lucky to get this second chance.

I needed some space to call my client, partially because the brokerage had no sound-proofing, but also because it was such a nice May evening, so I went outside and dialed my clients.

Standing on the north side of Bloor Street West, I spoke to my buyers and told them where we stood.  There were five offers, now down to three, and I gave them my read on the situation.

I was slowly walking east, at what barely qualifies as a “pace,” as far as I knew, unassuming in nature.

Now, every area of the city has its riff-raff, but on Bloor Street West, you don’t see a lot of…..how would you call it…..rubbies?

Call me ignorant, and I don’t mean to group the homeless and the addicted into the same category, but often they go hand-in-hand.  I don’t like the term “bum,” but I also don’t know how to describe the man who I saw on the street as I stood out front of a real estate brokerage on Bloor West, as I quietly spoke on the phone with my clients.

Let’s just say the man was dirty, disheveled, drunk or high (or both), very unkept, uncoordinated and wobbly, loud, and out of his mind.

You all know the type; you’re just desperately trying not to think the worst.

But as I watched out of the corner of my eye, listening to my clients go over possible scenarios for the second bid they were about to submit, I saw people dodging this man like the plague.  A mother pushing a baby-stroller did a 90-degree turn to avoid his path and take the high part of the sidewalk.  A young couple coming out of Subway immediately threw their eyes to the ground as they passed him by.

That left me, alone, on the sidewalk with this gentleman, but I thought nothing of it.  I simply turned my back, and started slowly pacing as I spoke on the phone.

A few seconds later, I was startled as a loud, gurgling voice only feet away from me shouted, “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!”

I turned towards the voice, and it was the man – now heading toward me, screaming, essentially for no reason, other than the fact that he was a fantastic mess.

My client asked, “What was that?” and I simply replied, “Oh, it’s nothing, somebody out here on the street.”

For some odd reason, one that I’ll never quite understand, the man began charging toward me, screaming and swearing.  And all the while, my clients were on the phone, talking about how much they wanted to increase their offer.

I took the phone away from my ear, and turned to the man to say, “Go!  Just Go!” and I started walking faster in the other direction.

But he changed course, from east-bearing to west, and followed me.  All the while still swearing.

He made a charge toward me, and instinctively, I pushed him away with my left hand, while my right hand was on my phone.

And the result was a full yard sale.

Remember that term?  “Yard sale?”

When we were skiing as kids, and sitting up on the chairlift, you’d yell “yard sale” when somebody fell, and their skis, poles, gloves, and hat went flying.  It looked like a yard sale: a person sitting on the ground, with all their belongings surrounding them.  Just like your typical garage sale, street sale, or yard sale.

Fun times!

This time – the one in my story, was not so fun.

The man flew backwards like a hockey player taking a dive, as I barely touched him.  He fell off the curb, into the street, and I believe the term is “ass over tea-kettle.”

His legs flew up in the air, and his shoes fell off.  As did his hat.  As did the brown paper bag with the bottle that he was carrying.

It was a full yard sale, and he was the sole proprietor.

I told my client rather abruptly, “I’ll call you back,” and hung up the phone.  I started to walk away from the mess of a man, and that’s when a young woman on a bike screeched up, yelling, “Oh my God!”

I know.  I could feel her shock and awe.

The situation was a bit scary, to be quite honest.

She got off her bike, and said, “Oh my!  Oh my God!  What happened?”

I was a bit shaken up, but I said to her, “Don’t worry, I’m okay.”

And to my absolute amazement, in what could only further my thoughts about where society is headed today, she said, “How could you do that to a poor old man?”

Yep.

I honestly can’t make this stuff up.

I was like a cartoon with my eyes popping out of my head.  I said, “Pardon me?”

She said, “I saw you push this old man into the street!”

I couldn’t believe it.  And I also couldn’t believe that she immediately pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, like it was a gun in a holster, and held it up and started filming me.

Another societal trend.

“Really?” I asked.  “Is this really mankind’s first instinct in 2017?  You have to get this on tape?”

“You just assaulted that man for no reason,” she told me, still filming.

“That old man is a whack-job who was chasing me,” I told her.  “He’s a bum!  He’s a random drunk who was running up and down the street swearing at people!  Look at him!”

“I saw you push him!” she said.  “You didn’t need to do that.  There was no reason to do that,” she said.

I know she clearly missed the seconds leading up to my push, not to mention the last five minutes of this guy’s erratic behaviour.  But she just looked like the type of person I’d disagree with on a regular basis.  I’m not suggesting that I want to be like those in the United States who feel you should be legally permitted to empty the full magazine of an AR-15 at anybody that opens the door to your back-gate, but I’d also like to think that as an upstanding, tax-paying citizen of this fine city, extending my arm and pushing away somebody that might be looking to do me harm, or at the very least is spitting on my suit as he screamed obscenities and chased me, is warranted in the situation.

The young lady on the bike clearly didn’t agree.

“You could have done something!  You could have run as fast as you could, the other way, and avoided a physical confrontation,” she pleaded.

I sighed so loudly, the neighbours probably heard it.

But before I could respond to her…

…yes, it was just like that.

The homeless guy punched me in the face.

Standing on Bloor Street West at 7:30pm on a warm May evening, in a full suit, a homeless drunk punched me in the face.

And I never saw it coming!

I was arguing with the girl on the bike, who was still filming me, and I never saw the man approaching.

I think it’s funny, otherwise I wouldn’t be sharing.

I have a black belt in Karate, I fought in competitive tournaments for five years, and I even spent a few weeks training in Japan once.

And a homeless man somehow got the drop on me; he snuck up on upon me, and punched me in the face.

It’s funny.  Really, I think it is.

And in that moment, I was so shocked, I started to laugh!

The young lady said, “Oh so that is funny to you too?”

And then she started to cry.

As the saying goes, “Sh!t got weird.”

She sat down on the pavement, leaned against the brick wall, and put her head in her hands.

Unsure of what she was going to do with her video, and unsure as to whether she was going to have a complete breakdown on the sidewalk, I talked her down.  I told her that I was a real estate agent, a father, and a husband, and that at 37-years-old, I wasn’t looking to get in street fights with homeless people.  I apologized for her having to witness something that made her uncomfortable, or sad.

She began to describe how confused she was about the world today, and how there was no good left in it.  She regaled me with her own ideologies and goals for mankind.  Then I wondered if she was going to punch me too…

With a giant red cheek, I walked back to the brokerage, stepped inside, and just prayed that nobody had witnessed what had just transpired only twelve feet from those tiny lobby chairs.

My client called me back to say he would increase his price, I presented our second bid, and eventually was told that we had finished in second-place.

Second place out five offers; that’s a punch to the gut.

And in actual fact, it was worse than the punch to the face.

Because at least the latter one gave me a story to tell, and when I told it for the first time – at a family dinner in front of my wife’s cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, one of them aptly told me when the hysterical laughter had died down, “This could only ever happen to you.”

My new real estate slogan:

David Fleming: An Agent Who Will Take a Punch To The Face For You

Have a great weekend, everybody!

The post The Friday Funny: That Time I Was Punched In The Face During Multiple Offers appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

I sat down tonight to write a blog, and all I could think about was this past week.

It was a busy one.  Busier than usual.  And it kept me on my toes, and tired me out.

So with no real dedicated topic on my mind, and the effect of the last week burning a hole in my head, I figured – hey, that’s a topic in itself!

Let me explain the week that was, which I figure will accurately snapshot the current marketplace…

People often ask me, “How do you consistently come up with three ideas per week for a blog post?”

The truth is, I don’t really have an answer.

The response I give, along with a shrug, is “I dunno; I just do.”

And that really is the truth.  Something always seems to come to mind.

Don’t get me wrong – every day, I ask myself, “Is this the day you finally run out of things to write about?”  After eleven years, and 2,300 blog posts, I feel like one day I’ll just hit a wall, and never be able to come up with another topic.

So I was kind of sitting here, going through a list of old topics (I keep a list, but the ‘hot’ ideas find a way to the blog, whereas the top of the list always contains the same seven or eight topics from last month, or last year, that I’ll never put to print), and all I could think about was how nuts this past week was.

I started to think about, yet again, how I disagree with the sentiments out there that the market is cooling.  I met with a group this past week in from New York, and they kept pointing to all this negative data – on sales, on price, on listings, and I regaled them all with stories “from the trenches,” and argued that at least in the core of the 416, the market is red-hot.

I started to think about how if I could explain, in detail, just one week of my activity in this market, how it could truly sum up what type of market we’re in.

And then, came the idea for the blog: write about THAT!

So while the last week’s events are not representative of every agent, or every buyer/seller, or every segment of the market, I figured it would give you all a real snapshot of what the activity is like out there, in different areas, price points, and housing types.

Monday was a busy day.

Sometimes in this business, you know when the day is going to be busy, and sometimes you don’t.

You can always plan for that buyer client who is absolutely jet-set on making an offer on a property with a scheduled “offer night,” but what about buyers that aren’t “all-in?”

What happens when several buyers, all who said, “We’ll see,” end up saying “We’re in” all at the same time?

On Monday morning, I knew I would be making an offer on behalf of one young couple who were eyeing a North Toronto home.  Offers were scheduled for 7pm, we had our deposit cheque ready, our offer was registered, and after seeing the house during one evening the week before, and again at the open house, we were just about as “all-in” as one can be.

But before I could get to 7pm; way before, in fact, I heard from another couple who wanted to make an offer on a small rowhouse that had been languishing on the market.

When was the last time you saw a freehold on the market for 111 days?

This property was unique to say the least.  It was charming, filled with character, and historical – dating back to the 1880’s.  But it was tiny, and it had previously been tenanted, hence why it didn’t sell.  It was also terribly over-priced, and the seller had already turned down several offers.

Listed at $799,900, we came in at $700,000, just because we could.

I had another client in the mix who had been active in the hottest part of the market: the small 1-bedroom, downtown condo market.

1-bedroom units in King West are routinely selling for over $1,000/sqft, and after seeing a unit at 11 Charlotte Street sell for $1,150/sqft a few weeks ago, I felt like anything under $1,000/sqft was reasonably-priced.

She and I had been actively looking for 500’ish square feet, around $1,000/sqft, in a new building, with a good layout.  And while that sounds simple, trust me – it’s not.  A good layout in 480 square feet is a misnomer.  I just came from a shoebox at 111 Bathurst Street that has such a bad layout, it’s a glorified kitchen with a couch and bed.

So throughout Monday afternoon, I was periodically checking on the number of offers registered on a condo we were eyeing at 101 Peter Street, and by late-afternoon, there were none.

While this is all confusing in nature, let me summarize.  Offer #1 was on the North Toronto property.  Offer #2 was on the old rowhouse.  Offer #3, yet to be decided on, would be the condo at 101 Peter Street.  And all the while I was still monitoring new listings as they became available, preparing for upcoming listings and smashing handfuls of my special Bulk Barn mix into my pie-hole.

While monitoring new listings on Monday afternoon, I saw a dynamite new listing for a property in Cedarvale, listed just under $3,000,000, that was p-e-r-f-e-c-t for buyers of mine that had been looking for about six months.

Every buyer has specific criteria, but to what extent, is always yet to be determined.

These buyers weren’t picky, and they weren’t unreasonable.  They just wanted a certain type of property, and we really hadn’t seen anything out there yet – in between work commitments, weekends out of town, and “life” that gets in the way of seeing every property listed for sale, that was worth pursuing.

So here in the middle of offer mayhem, I had to get these clients out asap to see this hot new listing.

I know it’s crazy to suggest that a house, priced at $2,899,900, would sell in a matter of hours.  But in this case, I figured if we didn’t tie it up within 18-24 hours, there would be multiple offers.  The same thing happened with a house down the street only weeks earlier.  They were listed at $2.5M with no “offer date,” and it sold within 24 hours for $200K over list.

I sent one of my colleagues out with the buyers, and waited to hear back.

By now, there were still zero offers on 101 Peter Street, so my client decided to proceed with an offer.

We were in sign-back on Offer #2 – the small rowhouse.

And by 7:00pm, Offer #1 had been submitted.  Listed at $1.5M, we were at $1.7M, and there were eight offers in total.

My clients for the Cedarvale home were absolutely in love, so that quickly became Offer #4, and we scurried to try to tie up the property.  We submitted an offer by 9pm, with a 12pm irrevocable the next day, even though the listing agent was demanding a 24-hour irrevocable.  We just didn’t want him to shop our offer, and didn’t want to allow time for other offers to come in.

Low-and-behold, the condo at 101 Peter Street ended up with nine offers.  We submitted our offer at 7pm when there were only three offers, but six more were submitted.

Offer #1 on the North Toronto house was lost.  Eight offers, and it sold for $350,000 over asking.  That was $150,000 more than our bid.

Offer #2 on the small rowhouse was in another sign back, and would wait until Tuesday.

Offer #3 on the 101 Peter Street condo went nowhere.  $449,900 list, our $500,000 bid didn’t hold up, although interestingly, they terminated the listing the next day.

Offer #4 on the Cedarvale home would also wait until Tuesday.

Tuesday.

Yes, bring on Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon at 2:00pm, offers were being reviewed on an east-end house in which another set of buyer-clients were interested.

That 2:00pm offer time was great, since I had another offer presentation at 7:00pm, and most properties follow the same timeline!

By noon, Offer #2 on the small rowhouse was accepted, and here I had the first purchase of 7% under the list price in about eight years.  As I said, it was over-priced, and on the market for 111 days, but it’s very rare to see that sold of sale-to-list ratio.

Offer #4 was still in play.  We extended our irrevocable until 6:00pm, from 12:00pm, not by choice, but out of necessity.  12pm had passed, and the seller hadn’t chosen to work with the offer.  We re-submitted, and hoped that no competing offers came in.

At 2:00pm, I presented Offer #5 for the east-end house.

Listed at $850,000, we were at $976,000, up against twelve other offers.

Who said the market was slow, right?

The 2:00pm presentation time was a gift from God, as the day was really heating up.

And low-and-behold, a buyer that I did not expect to hear from, with whom I had toured a west-end property with on the weekend, reached out to say, “After much discussion, we’ve decided we will proceed with an offer tonight.”

That would eventually become Offer #7, but it’s okay – offers were by email, and had to be reviewed by the estate’s lawyer overnight.

By 5:30pm, there was good news, and bad news.

The good news was, Offer #4 was accepted.  This house was worth every penny of the $2,899,900 list price, probably more.

“Probably more,” he says.  I know, I know.  What a salesman, right?

But honestly folks, I was fully expecting the phone to ring, and hear the listing agent say, “Soooo……we have another offer registered.”

I can’t possibly tell you how many times that happens, and I had already told my clients for this house, “Be prepared.”

It didn’t happen, however, and we bought a house.  A true “forever house” for these guys, and I couldn’t be happier.

So that was the good news, but the bad news is, my young buyer-couple who had bid on the east-end 3-bedroom semi had lost.

Offer #5 went down in a blaze of glory.  $850,000 list, $976,000 bid – the property sold for $1,020,000.  There were thirteen offers in total.

I skipped past offer #6, did I not?

That was the offer to be presented at 7:00pm, which was for a gorgeous Victorian rowhouse in need of some serious updating.

listed at $799,900, we bid $1,005,000, against eleven other offers.

The wait was not long.  I enjoy working with this agent, as he represents one of perhaps a dozen listing agents in the core that I like, and naively or not, trust.

Alas, we were not successful with Offer #6.

Who would have thought that $205,000 over list – 25%, would get “soundly beat” by not one, but two other offers?

I don’t know the sale price yet, but I’m assuming it’s around $1,040,000.

Tuesday nights hopes were resting on Offer #7, for the west-end home.

Listed at $879,900, in what we know is the most difficult segment of the freehold market (as Offer #5 and Offer #6 demonstrate), we bid $1,066,000, against ten other offers.

And we waited.

We waited, overnight, which is the worst feeling a buyer can have.

All offers were submitted via email, and to be reviewed by the estate’s lawyer.  A decision would be made on Wednesday morning.

And how did we do?

Did our offer of (gasp!) less than $200,000 over the list price prevail?

No.  No, it did not.

The property sold for $1,101,000, and we had no regrets.  It needed a lot of work, and as is always the case, we came into this thinking $1,000,000 “and change” was a good price, realized that we would have to pay far more based on the strength of the market – and the fact that nobody gets “a good price” for a house like this, and eventually settled at $1,066,000.

Sometimes you wake up the next morning feeling sick, and sometimes you laugh it off.

This one was a laugher.

I rounded out Wednesday by promptly losing Offer #8 for a fantastically unspectacular, cookie-cutter condo, up against four other offers.  Listed at $579,900, we bid $601,000, and the listing is currently sold conditionally (imagine that – accepting a conditional offer in competition??), so I don’t know the price yet.

So that’s it, folks.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – eight bids on eight properties.

Two were successful.

And I wouldn’t be writing about this so openly if I thought this was a blight on me.  It’s the nature of the market.  You need to be active to succeed.

I told a colleague, “I was 2 for 8” this week, and he said, “Not bad eh?”

You’d think 2 for 8 is a poor performance in just about anything, but in the Toronto real estate market, especially in this hot spring market, it’s decent.

As I write this – Thursday night, I have an offer in on a “luxury” condo, but they don’t sell in the same manner, and there’s no rush, risk, or anxiety.

And we haven’t even got to Friday yet.

So what’s the take-away here?  That I’m bragging about being busy like most agents, who aren’t?

No, it’s simply that in the face of Toronto Star readers who write letters to the editor, complaining about pumping the tires of the Toronto real estate market, and coming up with conspiracy theories about how the Toronto Real Estate Board pays the media to be positive, I wanted to demonstrate what one week is like during the current market cycle.

This isn’t representative of the whole of Toronto.  I’m talking about the core of the 416.  Strip away 905, trim the fat from the 416 – and that is the area that’s red-hot.

The six properties that had multiple offers this week had 8, 9, 13, 12, 11, and 5 offers respectively.

That is the market I see out there today.

Maybe it will change come April, when listings should be plentiful.  But better weather and more listings also brings more buyers, so it might just be more of the same.

Here’s looking forward to a busy weekend ahead, with a ton of east-end showings, a stop at the Shangri-La, a quick jaunt into Leaside, and a tour of everything between Keele & Jane just to cap it off.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

The post The Week That Was… appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

Sure, why not – let’s continue the theme from last week!

On Friday, I told you tales of “the week that was,” and how things are starting to get very busy again in the freehold market here in the central core.

Some readers suggested that the sales figures don’t live with the stories I tell, so I thought today, I’d double down.

Except today, I’ll be telling stories from this past weekend about journeys with buyers both inside the central core, and outside as well…

Let’s start today’s blog with a little survey, shall we?

Last week, we started to see a lot of new inventory in certain segments of the market, specifically those where product had previously been lacking.

Was this:

a) A sign of things to come
b) Double the inventory, since no seller in their right mind would list before a long-weekend?

You decide.

But no matter how you slice it, we saw a lot of new listings in the sub-$1M freehold market last week, and I might say, anecdotally, more than triple what we saw the week before.

I speak, of course, about the central core of the 416.  Last Friday’s blog post prompted a discussion by the readers with respect to where the market strength is, and where we’re seeing weakness.  It was also prudent to look at the sales figures (both price as well as units), and determine in which areas those massive red percentages can be applied.

So let me tell you about my weekend, and the interactions I had with three buyer-clients, and perhaps this will either settle the debate, or fan the flames.

My work-weekend started early, with a 5pm appointment on Friday night to check out two houses with one set of my young buyer-clients.

The first was a semi-detached, 2-bed, 2-bath, with parking, and a finished basement, priced at $739,000.

We didn’t “love” the house on paper, but it was in the location that my clients desired.

In this market, I find that buyers are either primarily motivated by location, or property type.  That is to say they’re either set on a location, and they seek the most for their money in that pocket, or they’re set on the size/type/style of home, and they’ll take it where they can get it, for what they can afford.

These clients were set on the location, and thus this house, at $739,000, with an $875,000 target sale price, made a lot of sense.  This would keep them well under their max of $1,000,000 even.

Unfortunately, there was almost nothing we liked about the house, other than the price.

The house backed onto an apartment building, and while that’s not a deal-breaker, it could be seen from the front of the house, the living room, the kitchen, and standing on the back-deck made you feel like you could hear a conversation from one of the balconies on the other side of the fence.

The house was really small, and it was felt in every room.  The living room had space for two fewer people, the dining table was a round 4-top, the kitchen was 2/3 the size of what we felt would be acceptable, and the upstairs bedrooms were tight.

It was a “pass” through-and-through, and we moved on to the second house.

The second house was fantastic!  A semi-detached bungalow, but a great footprint.  25-foot wide lot, and a huge 138 feet deep.  2-car parking behind the house, and an incredible deck and backyard.

But it was only 2-bedrooms, and where my clients were in life, it surely wasn’t a 10-15 year home.

Perhaps at the right price, this house would work, but what is the right price for a house you know you’ll be moving out of sooner than you had anticipated?

I called the listing agent, somebody I knew well, and talked shop.

As I spoke to her, my phone beeped, and it was a message about a bully offer being registered on the first house – the 2-bed, 2-bath semi-with the apartment in the backyard!  How ironic.

The agent for this house told me that 13 buyer agents had already asked for a copy of the home inspection (a good indication of interest), and that a few people had “thrown out” the price figure that I had asked her about.

It was a tough house to price.  The buyer pool would be unique, and I jokingly told my clients that the likely buyer would be a single old-lady who wants to downsize to the house so she can read books and work on her painting.

After less 48 hours on the market, there were already about 50 Realtor business cards on the counter.

This house was going to sell for a big number, no doubt about it.

Later that night, I saw the sale price for the “first house” on our tour.  Listed at $739,000, it sold for $954,000, which was a weeeeee bit more than my $875,000 target.  It’s funny, because we didn’t like it at $875,000, but somebody else must have loved it at $954,000…

On Saturday morning, I took out another young couple, but this time it would be more than just two houses.

It would be ten.

Ten houses are what we call a a “tour” in our business, and I honestly haven’t done a tour like this in probably five or six years.

But that is what’s so fascinating about this market!  We actually had TEN houses to look at!

The 3-bedroom semi-detached market, on the east side, exploded last week with new listings.

The two toughest markets right now, as I see it, are:

1) 500 square foot, 1-bedroom condos in C01/C08
2) 3-bedroom semi’s under $1,000,000

And it’s the latter that we toured on Saturday.

Touring ten houses in three hours isn’t easy, but it’s made easier with a little preparation.

I told my clients to wear slip-on shoes, and that we’d be driving around in my car – so to drop theirs off somewhere, and meet me at the first house.  I sent them a PDF with a map and the ten listings, and told them to bring a clipboard and a pen – which they did.

House #1 was overly-staged, showed worse in person than in the photos, and had a “finished” basement that was good – for two guys sharing a loveseat as they watch the game.  It had no parking, and most houses on the street had parking pads, so street parking was next to impossible.  It was a pass.

House #2 was charming and traditional, which gave a great first impression.  But as we started to consider functionality, we realized that it wasn’t going to work.  There was no second bathroom with a shower (the 2-piece bath that was 28-inches from the dining table must have made for some memorable dinner parties…), and the parking pad was illegal.  It was a pass.

House #3 was commanding a huge premium because of the private driveway, but it was on a corner, with the driveway access on a very busy street.  It had the best basement rec-room of any house we’d seen, but the rest of the house wasn’t what we were looking for.  It was a pass.

House #4 had sold the previous evening via bully offer.

House #5 was incredibly disappointing.  I had targeted this one as the best option of the bunch, assuming that the work needed was minimal, since I loved the street and the footprint of the house – with great width!  But the photos, oh the photos!  They didn’t show how much work was needed, and unlike some other houses we’d seen with wide mutual driveways that led to parking at the back of the lot, this mutual driveway could barely fit a Model-T Ford.  It was a pass.

House #6 was the lone detached house we were seeing, but I didn’t like it at all.  My clients’ friends, who are also my clients, told them to add it to the list.  The house itself was decent, but it was past our geographic “boundary,” if you will.  They were having an early open house, and it was absolutely slammed.  Listed at $699,900, what do you expect?  It was a pass.

House #7 was absolutely incredible.  Listed at $999,900, we couldn’t figure out why it was still on the market after 14 days.  I told my clients that while you might think a house on the market for 14 days, listed at $999,900, was actually available for $999,900, it just wasn’t possible.  We were in love.  More on this in a moment…

House #8 was also incredible, but we were thinking about house #7, and just blew through this place.  This would have been our best option, if not for House #8, and had we seen it first, we’d have been in love with it too.  It wasn’t a pass, but was on the back-burner.

House #9 was the third incredible house in a row, and my clients remarked, “What a change from the morning, eh?”  It was true.  The house was smaller, with no parking, and it had “everything done,” so there was zero way to add value.  But if we could get it under our budget (which I didn’t think we could – this was a late addition to the tour, in a “We may as well add it” kind of way), we’d be all over it.

House #10 was where I first spoke to the agent from House #7.  And that was the highlight of the home.  It was in an A+ location, but it was a gut.  It would make a great home for somebody, just not for us.

So what’s the take-away from the tour?

We ended up making an offer on House #7, which I might come back to in a later blog post.

House #4, as mentioned, sold via bully offer.

House #3 got a bully offer on Saturday night, and promptly sold.

House #9 got a bully offer on Sunday morning, and two more followed.  I believe this was sold too.

Ten houses, and three bully offers.

And if you subtract House #7, which was 14 days on the market, and not holding back offers, we have nine houses with offer dates, and three that sold via bully.

That’s 33% of houses selling via bully offer, in a sample size for essentially the same product – semi-detached, 3-bedroom homes in a tight geographic area (save for the one detached).

Perhaps that’s the takeaway from this story, and combine it with Friday night’s experience, where one of the two houses sold via bully offer, and I think it offers an accurate snapshot of this particular segment of the market.

So what next?

What of my tour outside the central core?

Well, it couldn’t have possibly been more different…

Out in a popular pocket of Mississauga, my clients were looking for a detached, 4-bedroom home, on a decent lot, under $1,400,000.

We saw six houses, and there were about 14-15 in this pocket, which

House #1 – $1,249,000 – 4-bed, 3-bath, 2008-built, 38 x 131 foot lot, on the market 45 days.

House #2 – $1,269,000 – 4-bed, 4-bath, 2008-built, 40 x 110 foot lot, on the market 3 days.

House #3 – $1,278,000 – 4-bed, 4-bath, 2013-built, 36 x 89 foot lot, on the market 2 days.

House #4 – $1,359,000 – 4-bed, 5-bath, 2004-built, 40 x 148 foot lot, on the market 58 days.

House #5 – $1,359,900 – 4-bed, 5-bath, 2008-built, 45 x 85 foot lot, on the market 66 days.

House #6 – $1,449,000 – 4-bed, 5-bath, 2004-built, 40 x 110 foot lot, on the market 19 days.

So look at those ‘days on market,’ aka DOM.

45, 3, 2, 58, 66, and 19.

But wait…

House #2, which had been on the market only three days, had previously been listed for $1,299,900, on the market 33 days.

And house #5 had been on the market previously for 44 days, just for good measure.

There were another four houses priced between $1.2M and $1.4M that we could have added to our tour as well.

And this geographic area isn’t large.  It’s like, if I had to guess, maybe half of South Leaside?

To be fair, this is essentially a sub-division, so many of the homes are similar in size, and thus much of what is for sale would be around the same price, give or take.

But that’s a lot of inventory, at one price point, for one area.

And that’s a lot of “DOM” for those homes.

Quite the difference from the central core, wouldn’t you say?

I feel like we can waltz in and make offers well under the list price on any of these homes if we want to, which, of course, we do.

And if one seller doesn’t feel like playing ball, we can go try his neighbour to the right, and then if need be, his neighbour to the left.

The market has changed since the peak in April of 2017, but as I continue to explain to those that are willing to listen, the market conditions vary dramatically from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

So that was the weekend, bring on the week.

I expect this week to be slow in the freehold market, as few sellers want to list before a long weekend, and review offers after Easter Monday.  But beyond next week, I expect to see a lot more listings hitting the market as we move through spring and into summer…

The post The Weekend That Was… appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

Last Friday, when I offered another edition of “Photos of the Week,” a couple of readers mentioned that rather than sharing negative reviews of listings, photos, and seller/agent behaviour, I should provide some feel-good examples of listings done right.

So in the spirit of positivity, let me offer you a story for “Feelgood Friday.”

Perhaps I don’t often share enough of the good stories, and despite this chaotic market, there are many.

Last week, I sold a condo listing amid 13 offers, and the ending sent chills up my spine…

You’ve heard this from me before, but I honestly don’t enjoy working on the selling side on “offer night” during multiple offers.

Most listing agents love it.

I mean, what’s not to love?

Power?  Status?  Envy?

That’s not me, I’m sorry.

Call me dramatic, but when I receive 13 offers on a listing, I can’t help but think about the twelve buyers, and buyer agents, who go home disappointed.

Once the “winning” bid has been accepted, I personally call all the agents with unsuccessful offers to tell them that I appreciate their offer, and their efforts, and that I hope to see them again out there in the real estate trenches.

In today’s market, when you have 13 offers on a property, the person-to-person connection often goes out the window.  More to the point, the buyer-to-seller connection goes with it.

Some of my clients couldn’t possibly care less who buys their house or condo, and yet to some, it’s tremendously important.

The first property sale I ever witnessed was my childhood home, which I mentioned in my Pick5 video today, on Parkhurst Boulevard in Leaside.

It was the spring of 1992, and I was 12-years-old.

I remember my father telling me, as I was upset that we had sold the house and were moving that a “young couple” were going to buy the house, and “start a family.”

In my mind, this was our house.  I belonged to us, and no matter what happened, and who moved in, it would always be our house.

Once we had moved out of our home, and into our new one on Bessborough Drive, we went back to the vacant house on Parkhurst, God knows why.  I think my brother, sister, and myself wanted to say some sort of “goodbye” before the deal closed, and another family moved in.

I remember laying on the floor of my bedroom so vividly, I can almost smell the 80’s carpet fibres, which always seemed a little dirty, and a little greasy.  My mom was trying to round up her three kids to get going, and she walked by the doorway to my tiny room, saw me laying on the floor with my arms outstretched as though I were hugging my room, and said aloud, “Oh my God, I knew this was a mistake.”

When we moved to Bessborough, I still thought of Parkhurst as “my house.”

Our family jogging route took us from Bessborough Drive along the outskirts of Leaside – Bayview, Southvale, Laird, and then back up Parkhurst to Bayview again.  We jogged by our old home hundreds of times.

We moved to Parkhurst from a house around the corner on Airdrie Road shortly after I was born in 1980, and lived there until 1992 – a total of twelve years.

I remember in 2005, chatting with my sister, when she said, “Can you believe the family who moved into our old house on Parkhurst has now been there longer than us?”

It was crazy-talk to me.

Longer than us?  Really?  How could that be?

“Time flies,” and all that?  Twelve years?

I remember when I was coaching Bantam baseball from 2007 to 2013, at some point one of the kids mentioned a party at the house (why do parents leave they teenagers alone???), and my head popped up.  I gave them the address, and they said, “Yeah, you know it?”

Time flies, indeed.  It seemed that the non-existent child from the “young couple” who were “going to start a family” as my Dad told me back in 1992, was now a 17-year-old, throwing parties with the kids I coached.

Well, guess what?  That family is still there.

They’ve been there now for a whopping twenty-six years, by my count.

And I think it’s fair to say, that of all the people that have ever owned that particular property, the 26-year tenure really makes it their house.

I think if you took a quick poll, and perhaps we should do that, you’d find that the ratio of people who care, and don’t care, about who buys their home, is about 50/50.

When I received 13 offers on my condo listing last week, my sellers said they really wanted to know who was buying the property from them.

They’re a really nice couple, and I could tell from the first time I entered their condo, that they take an immense amount of pride in their home.  They also like to entertain, and left behind in that condo, as is the case with everybody who moves, are a slew of good memories, great times with friends and family, and a few years of their lives.

When we settled on the “winning” bid of the thirteen offers, I called the buyer agent to let her know.  She was a little surprised, as anybody would be in the midst of thirteen offers, and she said, “My client will not believe this!”

She told me again, “You will not believe how much this means to my client, just, wow.”

I’ve heard it before; emotions run high in these situations, and the reactions are often hyperbolic.

I emailed the accepted offer, and asked the agent where she was, and where I could get the certified bank draft for the deposit.

And then things started to get really interesting.

“She’s at King & Sherbourne,” the agent said.  “I’m in the west end; I could go meet her, then meet you, wherever you are.”

I told her that I actually live two blocks from King & Sherbourne, and provided she trusted me interacting with her buyer-client, I was happy to save her the trip at 9pm in the evening, and go meet the buyer myself.

She took me up on the offer, and was quite grateful.

“Let me give you the address,” she told me, and I said, “I already know.”

Creepy-sounding, but it wasn’t.  “230 King Street East?” I asked.

“Yes, wow, how did you know?”

“I lived there for five years,” I told her.  “When you said ‘King & Sherbourne,’ I had a feeling.”

Ironically, in hindsight, I realize it could have been 39 Sherbourne Street, aka “King Plus Condo,” which is directly across from King’s Court at 230 King Street.

But I just had a feeling it was my old stomping grounds, and I got in my car, and headed down.

I got to the condo, and walked in through the beautiful lobby (it’s an old bank where they’ve preserved the interior as it was in the 1900’s, and even have ‘before’ photos posted on the walls), then found a seat on the padded benches in a separate waiting area off the mailroom.

It was on that very bench, on the same side, in the very same spot, where I waited for a friend of mine to meet me, along with my mother, back in 2005 when I was looking at purchasing a condo in the building.  And here I was, years later, waiting for somebody else, who was looking to buy a condo.

Not exactly the same situation; this lady was looking to buy someplace else, but the coincidence wasn’t lost on me.

I met the woman, as she peeked around the corner and asked, “David?”

She was carrying with her a dog that, I swear – I actually did a double-take as I thought it was my dog.

The resemblance was uncanny.

“That’s my dog’s face,” I told her.  “The nose, the eyes, the little teeth – this is my dog!”

It was a half Maltese, half Yorkie, just like my dog.  Yet another coincidence.

She handed me the deposit cheque, and we chatted for a while.

She told me that the dog was a rescue, which was ironic, given I had literally just had a conversation with my wife about adopting a rescue dog.  Not any time soon, of course.  We have a dog, and a 17-month-old baby.  Another dog is not in the cards.  But my wife volunteers for a non-profit called “Save our Scruff,” which helps find owners for rescued and abused dogs, and she said if we ever get another dog, it’ll be a rescue.

As we chatted, I asked the new-buyer what the importance of her offer price was.

I realized as soon as the words came out of my mouth that it’s a far more personal question than it seems.

A buyer might offer $800,610, because they got married on June 10th.

I’ve seen all kinds of numbers, with all kinds of meanings.  Birthdays, anniversaries, lucky numbers in various cultures, favourite numbers, sports jersey numbers, number of children – anything you can think of.

Of course in this case, the lady said, “My Dad.”  And then added, “My Mum.”

“My dad died on that date,” she told me.  And as the lump in my throat started to grow, she said, “And my Mum on the other date.”

Oh boy.  Well, add “death date” to the list of potential numbers and meanings above.  I guess I didn’t think of that.

“I actually lost both my parents in a very short time,” she added.  “In the same month.”

Right.  I was so glad to bring that back up for her…

But you know what?  She wasn’t sad.  She was actually happy!

“My parents always wanted to help me buy a place,” she told me.  “And tonight, they did.”

Boy, was I ever caught off guard.

I have to be honest, maybe I’m not a deep enough person, but I never really thought of it that way.

We had 13 offers, and as is always the case, the bidding was close.

The dates of her parents’ passing were used in her offer price, and those numbers helped her win the property.

In essence, her parents did “help her buy a place.” as she put it.

It was heart-warming, and the coincidences were not lost on me.

But there was even more ahead.

She told me how she had been a tenant in the same unit for eight years, and how recently her landlord asked her to sign a new lease, at a much higher price than what was permitted by law.  When she respectfully declined, he sent her a Form N12 by email, with no subject line, and no text.  Just the form.

The form specified that a family member would be moving into the unit, specifically his son.  She added that she had known him for eight years as his tenant, and she was pretty sure he didn’t have a son…

Rather than dwell on her situation, she decided now would be the time to take the plunge into the housing market, and she started to look at condos.

I know a lot of buyers say this, so it sounds cliché, but she said, “As soon as I walked into the condo, I felt like I was home.”

“They had my stuff,” she said.  “Half the stuff I have, they have!”

They also had a dog, as did she, and she had always wanted a terrace for the pup.  This condo, by the way, happened to have a 300 square foot terrace.

The coincidences, similarities, and happenstance was just too much.  I stood there in the lobby of my old building, and smiled.

And then came the clincher.

She told me, “I just absolutely love that terrace!  I’ve always wanted one,” she said.  “I actually live above a huge terrace in my current unit.”

It made me think.

“Do you live above the units on the second floor – the ones with the 440 square foot terraces?” I asked.

“I do!” she said.

I knew these rather well, of course.  There are six units with 440 square foot terraces, as I used to own one.

“I used to live in one,” I said.  “Which unit are you in?” I asked her.

“Unit xx2,” she told me.

Go figure.

“Small world,” I said.  I used to live four floors below you.  Directly below you.  I’m was in Unit xy2.

We both laughed.

What are the odds?

She actually lived there, a few floors above me, for two years while I was there.

We shook hands, I went out to my car, and I went home feeling good.

This can often be a miserable business, and I’m sorry to say, but an overwhelming majority of interactions that you have with people, no matter what role they play, are negative.

So how good did I feel, meeting such a pleasant lady, with such a great story about bidding on and winning this condo, with all these incredible coincidences and personal connections?

That’s a rhetorical question.  And suffice it to say, you don’t have to guess how happy my sellers were to hear the following day what a great person they sold their beloved condo to.

Perhaps I’m being overly-sentimental, or maybe you caught me on an off day.

But most “tales from the trenches” don’t end well, so I’m glad I could provide you one on an otherwise feelgood-Friday…

The post Tall Tales From The Trenches On Feelgood Friday! appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

The plan today was to provide a brief review of Atlantis before my “MLS Musings” post.  But then I got typing, as I often do, and the “brief” review just kept going!

By the time I got to 1,200 words, I realized I’d be saving the MLS Musings for next Friday.

This post does have at least one thing in common with the topic of real estate, however, and that’s the inherent negativity that exists in all reviews…

Was I really away on vacation?

It sure doesn’t feel like it…

The week after your vacation is always three times as busy as the week preceding the trip, and Atlantis feels like it was a year ago.

A reader asked me for a brief recap of the trip, but surely by now, you guys know nothing I say is brief.

Feedback, commentary, and opinions on hotels, resorts, restaurants, and almost everything in the service industry are almost always inherently negative, so while I will say, “I had a great time,” and “I would definitely go again,” let me regale you with my long list of complaints first.

If it bleeds, it leads.  And happy stories don’t make the news.  So why should a review of a glorious Caribbean resort be any different, right?

Let’s start from the very beginning…

Atlantis has a shuttle that picks you up at the airport and takes you directly to the resort, but as the parents of a 17-month-old child, we wondered, “Does the shuttle have child seats?”

The answer, of course, is no.

And as my wife was told on the phone, “You don’t need a child seat in Bahamas.  It’s not mandatory.”

Not mandatory.  But preferable?  This is supposed to be a 5-star resort; we were shocked that they’d encourage us to overlook the safety of our kids, but oh well.

We decided to hire another service to take us to and from the airport, partially because of the child-seat issue, but also so we could stop at a grocery store and liquor store before we hit the resort.  As I’ll explain later, that was a more important journey than we thought it would be.

Having taken the 7am flight, we arrived at the resort around 1pm, tired already, and looking forward to unpacking and getting settled.  We were told by the front desk, “Check-in isn’t until 4pm,” but I figured that was more of a general rule.  How many times have you got to a hotel or motel and they said, “Oh, actually, look – your room is ready”?

We wandered around the sprawling and intimidating resort for 90 minutes, then went back to the desk, only to be told, again, that our room wasn’t ready.  2:30pm?  Really?  The room wasn’t ready?

My wife was in that, “Please don’t do this again” space, hoping I’d get down with “island time” and relax a little.

When we went back to the desk at 3:45pm, and were told the room wasn’t ready, I just about lost it.  But then I remembered I was supposed to relax, so I did.  I relaxed against the wall next to the front desk, and stared at the clock.  For 13 minutes.  Until at 3:58pm, magically, the person at the front desk said, “Mr. Fleming?  Your room is ready.”

Our room wasn’t ready, however.  Not for habitation.

We opened the front door, and like a punch in the face, the smell of cleaning products hit us.

The carpet was damp.  It was clear that they had put a lot of effort into cleaning the room, I’ll give them that.  But nothing was dry.  It was like a steam room, and you could see moisture on every surface.  Even the TV had streaks from cleaning products.

We explored the resort a little more, and soon realized that the “perfect resort for kids” had no ramps for strollers, and only three elevators.  The entire resort is full of husband-and-wife teams, carrying their strollers down the stairs like contestants on American Gladiators.

The resort is full of these little shacks that serve light and healthy meals like hamburgers, nachos and cheese, pizza, french fries, and hot dogs, but looking for something a little more our speed for the first night, and hoping to get out of the sweltering heat, we asked if there was anywhere we could just sit down?

Go to Mosaic, we were told, and so we did.

Hiking up and down paths that seemed to lead nowhere, with positively no idea where we were going (“up there, right, then left, then right,” is what we were told), we found Mosaic after about a half hour.

Once inside the beautiful, air-conditioned restaurant that didn’t have a single person inside, we were quite relieved to say the least.  It was exactly what we wanted after a long day of travel, and forced walking.  Just a nice, cool place to grab a quick bite and then get back to the room to put our daughter to bed.

Little did I know, the restaurant opened at 5:30pm.  We arrived at 5:31pm.

My wife and I took turns going to the massive buffet, looking for what our daughter could, would, should eat, and helping ourselves as well.

We were probably in there for twenty minutes, and when we asked for the bill, the waitress looked at us a little funny.

A few minutes later when I opened the billfold, I realized why.

$144 U.S.

For two people, because children under 2-years-old eat free.

My fault, 100%.  No question about it.

We were like lambs to the slaughter; walking inside and sitting down without inquiring about the price.  I probably wouldn’t have left, had I known this was an “all-you-can-eat” buffet at $72 USD per person, since I was so tired I’d have likely just said, “Screw it, let’s do it.”  But I sure wouldn’t have been caught off-guard!

I signed for a $15 tip, which I actually felt bad for, because it’s so cheap!  Barely over 10%, I thought.  But having been there for 20 minutes, and since the waitress only sat us down and gave us glasses of water, I tried to justify it in my mind.

I would soon learn what you guys already know: that there’s an automatic 15% gratuity on EVERYTHING on the resort.  Not to mention the 7.5% vacation tax.

22.5% added to every bill.  Even something as “cheap” as a $5 bottle of water comes with the 22.5% addition.

We left Mosaic feeling stupid.  Almost $200 Canadian for a twenty-minute meal.

My mother and I have this saying about vacations, and it goes like this, “Start spending.”

On vacation?  Start spending.

If you’re going to do it, do it right.  You’re away from home, you’ve earned this, you saved for this – so enjoy it.  Just start spending!

And after shelling out $200 for one plate of food on the first night, I figured, “What the hell, it is what it is.”

The next morning, however, I made another discovery regarding price, and this one didn’t sit quite as well with me.

It seems that all the “cheaper” restaurants on the island are of the all-you-can-eat variety.

Meaning that if you want breakfast at Mosaic or Poseidon’s Table, you’re paying $41 USD per person.

Sorry guys, I can’t do it.

I’m not cheap, and I’m not poor.  But I can’t do it.  I can’t pay $106 every morning for breakfast for my wife and myself.  I simply refuse.

The problem was, they didn’t have anywhere you could avoid the all-you-can-eat money-grab.

I’d have gladly paid $20 for two eggs on a piece of toast, but that option was nowhere to be found.

We ended up getting bagels and/or Starbucks-style cheese-croissant-bacon-thingees from the coffee shop, which along with a coffee, ran our total to about $30 per morning.

Thankfully, all the food we had bought at the grocery store for our daughter – fresh fruits and veggies, Cheerios, et al, was able to help one of us avoid gaining 6% in total body mass over the course of the trip.

I don’t know if Atlantis styles their all-you-can-eat restaurants around the American obsession with being fat, or the best way to overcharge people, but either way, the results were felt.

On the first night when we went to fill the bath for Maya, we discovered that the faucet didn’t work.  It let out a trickle of water that I calculated would have taken 8 hours to fill the tub.  So I took out the ice bucket, filled it with lukewarm water, and dumped it into the tub.

I repeated this act twenty-six additional times.

And then did so for the entire trip.  Twenty-seven buckets per night, for seven nights.  I filled the ice bucket 189 times in total.

We rented a “suite” at Atlantis, that’s essentially a 1-bedroom with a living room, so that we could have Maya sleep in a crib in the living room while we slept in the bedroom.  The pocket sliding-doors that separated the living room from the bedroom, however, did not close.

So every night when we went to bed there was a 24-inch gap that allowed noise to transfer, and thus if we wanted to be inside, we had to remain silent to avoid waking the little bug up.  We ended up drinking on our terrace every night, watching the people below – without kids, party the way we used to.  Oh, we made that observation more than a few times!  It’s just not the same with kids, is it?

The next day we decided to check out “Dolphin Cay,” which is pretty much as it sounds; a large man-made lagoon with a pack of cute-as-can-be dolphins, that kids of all ages would love.  It’s $400 USD per person to swim with the dolphins, but we were told by many on the island that you can go and watch for free.

Free?  Is anything free at Atlantis?

Imagine my surprise when we walked up to Dolphin Cay and found a swarm of people standing behind a fence that was 700 feet from any dolphin, and yet some people were on the sand, on the other side of the fence, a little closer.

Want to walk out onto the sand for a better look?

That’s $17 USD per person.

I couldn’t stomach it.

$51 for the three of us is nothing, and I’d gladly pay it to see one smile on my daughter’s face.  But I was just so unprepared for how this entire resort is built around picking people up, turning them upside down, and shaking them until every last penny falls out.

The goddam umbreallas on the beach, necessary to keep my kid from baking in the sun, were $20 to rent.

And while I don’t want to complain about the $295 USD per round of golf at Ocean Club, since that’s a personal choice I made, it bears mentioning.

So what else can I complain about?

Not once during the trip did the cleaning staff replace our shampoo and soap, so I basically grew dreadlocks.  Thank god for the bar of Dove I brought from Toronto.  I’ve never liked hotel soap.

The cleaning staff also didn’t empty our garbage, so each morning we’d take that down with us and throw it out ourselves.

We checked out the Atlantis “Kid’s Club” one afternoon, only to find it wasn’t a place where our kid could play, but rather a drop-off centre.  I mentioned in my post from two weeks ago how our daughter wouldn’t be allowed to play, given she was under 3-years-old, but I didn’t realize this was for kids only.

We asked if we could take a look anyways, and the guy at the desk said, “Adults aren’t allowed back there.”  I smiled, and said, “I’m not looking to build a Lego castle, I just wanted to see what’s behind the curtain.”  He replied, “It’s not possible, sir.”

I pictured a dozen kids behind that curtain, all sitting in front of cute little sewing machines, making textiles to be shipped out from the nearest port…

Call me crazy, but the idea of dropping my child off at this fine establishment for an extended period of time didn’t sit well with me.  Maybe, as a huge Liam Neeson fan, I’ve seen Taken a few too many times.  Tell me if I need to cut the cord here.

In the end, we made our own good time, as one has to do.

I realize just how much this reeks of “first world problem’s,” but, well, we live in the first world.  So this is my review.

The irony is, I had an amazing time.  So did my wife.  And our daughter?  I’ve never seen her so happy.

As I said at the onset, most reviews are negative.  People are far more likely to put the effort into a complaint than they are to put the effort into a “job well done.”

I’ve been to two Sandals resorts, and those trips were flawless.  So I’m not letting Atlantis completely off the hook, but I will admit that many of the negatives we experienced at Atlantis are things we would filter out next time.

Atlantis comes with a massive learning curve, and many of you wrote comments on my blog two weeks ago to that effect.  In fact, some of your comments helped us to learn what’s what!

This trip with our daughter was a huge “success.”

Last summer, we went to the same cottage that we’d been to four times previously over Canada Day long weekend, and it just didn’t work with Maya, who was then 7-months-old.  One month later, we went to Idaho, and soon learned that it wasn’t the right vacation for an 8-month-old child.

But Atlantis was perfect for her.  She played in the kiddie pool for hours every day, and in the sand on the beach.

She loved to explore the grounds no matter where we went.

And she spent hours watching the fish, sharks, and turtles from the various aquariums and outdoor ponds.

Seven days, and she never fussed.  She didn’t cry on either plane ride, she went right to sleep every night at 7pm, and slept for 12 hours.  She never stopped smiling the entire trip, and every day was a new experience for her.

Yes, Atlantis is expensive.

Yes, Atlantis is large, awkward, and has no accessiblity for strollers.

Yes, the room and the service disappionted us.

But as I have come to learn in the past year, the needs and well-being of my child now come far before my own.  This wasn’t a vacation for David and Jenna; it was an experience for Maya, and for the Fleming family as a unit.

I’m sure there are other, better, cheaper, closer, quieter, cleaner, sexier resorts out there, but looking at the photos and the smile on my daughter’s face in each of them, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

The post Atlantis! appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

Here’s something a little silly on a Fun Friday.

I get asked this question a lot by my clients – “What are you looking for in a house?”

I’m an open book, both on this blog, and in person.  People know I live in a condo, and that one day, sooner or later, I’ll be buying a house.

People always want to know what I’m looking for, so I figured this would be a fun exercise…

Another question I’ve been asked lately: “What’s with this ‘Fun Friday’ thing you’re always referring to on your blog?”

I wouldn’t say “always,” but yes, I tend to think of Friday as a more relaxed day, and the topics on my blog are often more relaxed too.

Monday’s blog post is often something big and bold that I’ve pounded hours into over the weekend, as is Wednesday’s.  Friday’s blog, since it’s only up for one weekday, is often a bit silly in nature.  Not to take anything away from the folks who come to the blog for “MLS Musings” or “Photos of the Week,” not to mention a fun video, but that’s just the Friday theme, if you will.

When I went to Leaside High School in the early 1990’s, by the time you finished Grade 9, there were “enriched” courses available to students who, like me, enjoyed studying, had no friends, and didn’t party…

In Grade 10, they offered “Enriched Math,” which I thought would be really cool.

It’s too bad that in 2018, they’re doing away with enriched courses, in attempts to make everybody “equal,” but that’s a topic for another day…

My Grade 10 math teacher was a man named Mr. De Piezza, who offered us ways of thinking that we had never thought to explore.  It simply changed the way I thought about math, and learning in general.

Most Fridays, instead of teaching from the text, or simply moving on to the next chapter or next lesson in line, he would look to do something different.  And he referred to this as “Fun Friday.”

I remember one exercise where we were exploring probability, and while we know that the chances of flipping a coin and having it turn up heads, or tails, is 50%, he wanted us to see how we get to that 50%.  How many sequences of ten flips come up with 9 heads and 1 tails?  Or vice versa?  Picture 30 kids in a classroom, with hundreds of pennies, flipping coins and scrawling down results.

For some students, “Fun Friday” was a day when you knew you wouldn’t have a test, or be stressed by the lesson, or really have to do much.  But for nerds like me, it was a day you just knew you were going to learn something cool.

Anyways, that is the origin of my “Fun Friday” saying.

And when a couple of different clients recently asked me what I was looking for in a house, I figured it would be a Fun-Friday kind of blog post.

There are a lot of things I’d look for in a house, like just about every buyer.  Some things I’d compromise on, some things I wouldn’t.

Some things are necessities, and some things are fantasies.

But explaining how many bedrooms I want, or whether I want a garage – that’s boring!

As a fun exercise, I thought I’d sway a little more toward the fantasy angle, especially because so many of my ideas are exactly that.

And while I could probably rattle off a dozen things I want in a house, if you know me by now, you know I’d rather spend an entire blog talking about just ONE feature.

One feature, eh?

Any guesses off the top?

A pool?

A gym?

A garage with power-tools?

A garden for my green thumb?  Maybe some organic kale?

What about a kitchen island facing a Wolf range?

A steam shower?  A sauna?

A backyard football field?

All good guesses, they would be.

But aside from the necessities, and if we’re just playing for fun today, one of the things I’ve always fantasized about is………

…………..a wood-paneled office.

I don’t quite know what draws me to this.

Maybe it’s the idea of having my own “lair” or “domain.”  But I also want a man-cave (a close 2nd place), so it can’t be about having my own space.

Maybe it’s about efficiency?  Being able to work from home, and feel like I’m still in the office?  I think I might be on to something there.

I’ve been in my current condo now for seven years, and save for the first six months when I worked in the “home office” I had set up, I’ve always worked from my dining room table.  As I type this right now, 12:31am on Wednesday night, I’m sitting in my half-broken, much-sat-upon chair that is also seven years old, and is probably the best $150 I’ve spent in a long time.

But having my own office, in my home?  That would be awesome.

The kids can come knock on the door, quietly, respectfully, and in a 1920’s voice, perhaps even with a hint of a British accent, ask, “Father, may we speak with you, if only for a moment?”

I’ll remove my spectacles, put my pen back in my ink quill, and say, “Yes, children you may, but let’s do so post-haste as father has important work to be done.”

Then they’ll ask me if they can attend the sock-hop, or box social, or whatever gathering is afoot at the local broo-ha-ha, and I’ll tell them to ask their mother.

Then, it’s back to work for me.

Yes, that’ll be the day…

I’ve accumulated a few photos from MLS of wood-paneled offices I like.

Here’s my favourite thus far:

Great colour, two windows, and I like the built-in shelves.

I have a lot of art, which you may call “chachkies,” but I need somewhere to display it.

Every piece of art I own, has meaning.  Think about that painting you bought from a street vendor on your trip to South America back in 2009, and had framed in the shop around the corner from your home.  That piece is special to you because you remember where you were when you bought it, who you were with, and why it appealed to you.

I dream one day of having a wood-paneled office, just like the one above, and unpacking all the pieces of art I’ve accumulated over the years, and deciding on where each piece will go, is going to be like Christmas morning for an adult.

Behind the desk in that photo above has to be home for a very strong piece.

A defining piece.

I already have mine picked out…

One of my best friends was married in 2013, and for his bachelor party, we drove to Detroit to watch the Tigers play, then Chicago to see the Cubs, then Milwaukee to see the Brewers, and then flew home.

After we left Wrigley Field in Chicago, we were walking through town, back to the car, and we saw a shop that was sort of sports memorabilia, and also antiques.

We went inside, and it was fantastic.

I’m a huge collector, as some of you know.

My brother, father, and I collected sports cards in the late 1980’s when the boom was big, and although most of that stuff is now worthless, our 1930’s and 1950’s hockey cards remain a fantastic collection.  In the past four years, my father and I have started going back to the semi-annual expo to see if we can add to our sets.

In this Chicago store, there was all kinds of sports memorabilia, but also newspapers galore.

The moon landing, the Kennedy assassination, D-Day; you name it, there was an authentic, mint-condition newspaper being displayed.

I walked through the store like a kid on Christmas.  I’m a sucker for anything old; anything vintage.

The store owner looked like he had to be in his 90’s, although maybe the stress of the near-1oo-years between Cubs’ World Series wins just made him seem that way.

I asked him, “What’s the oldest newspaper you have in the store?”  And he thought about it for a while.

He then said, “It’s not on display,” and I figured it had to be special.

He walked over toward another counter, reached underneath, and pulled out a very large, flat wooden box.  He opened up the lid and blew off the dust like something out of a Scooby-Doo cartoon, and the hinges creaked.

He pulled out a newspaper that was in plastic, and turned it around with both hands in an understated, unintentional, television-like reveal.

It was awesome.

The newspaper was from 1863, right in the middle of the U.S. Civil War.

Depicted on the top-half of a horizontal side of newspaper was the Second Battle of Winchester, which took place in Virginia.  It was a hand-drawn sketch of the battle that was so incredibly detailed, I could almost see the despair in the eyes of the Union soldiers (they were slaughtered, FYI).

The newspaper was in absolutely incredible shape for something 150 years old.

But it wasn’t until I saw the date that I was really enthralled: June 23rd, 1863.

And what day were we there, in this man’s shop, in Chicago?  June 23rd, 2013.

What are the chances?

Exactly 150 years later, to the day!

I immediately decided I had to have this piece.

I asked the old-timer how much he wanted for it, and he took a long inhale.  “I’ve had that for……let me think now…..probably close to fifty years,” he said.  “Picked it up at a flea market down south in the 70’s if I recall.”

I had no idea what this was worth, but I had pretty much decided I was going to buy it.

To my amazement, he said, “I think I’d have to have…….proabably…….one-twenty for it.”

One-twenty?  Dollars?  Really?

I’m a collector by nature, but this isn’t my field.  I know it’s “just” a newspaper, but it’s 150 years old, and I don’t imagine there are a lot of these kicking around.  I suppose just like any asset, or any home out there, it’s worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.”

“I’d be honoured to buy this piece,” I told him.

And I handed over $120 USD with glee.

We left the store, and one of my buddies said, “Dude, you could have worked him down!  He’d probably have taken sixty bucks, man!  You know 100% he’d have taken a hundred.”

I told my friend that wasn’t the point.  I negotiate for a living.  I’m sure I could have got the piece for less.

But I respected the man who owned it, how long he’d had it, and the mere existence of his store – a throwback to days past, in a world where very few people care about old newspapers, collectibles, antiques, or vintage items.

I wouldn’t dare insult this man by haggling over twenty dollars.

In the end, I got a photo of he and myself, with the newspaper, and his shop in the background.

As soon as I got home from that trip, I went up to Bayview Avenue to see my “frame guy.”

“You have a ‘frame guy,’ seriously?” I’m often asked by those in my office.  But yes, I have a frame guy.  A necessary ally for an amateur art collector.

To frame a piece of art – cheap or otherwise, is a job unto itself.  The right mat, the right border, the right frame.  Colours, thicknesses, and what type of glass?

When the piece was finished, I looked at it for a few minutes, and then put it back in the brown paper wrapping.

It’s been in storage for five years.  I haven’t seen it since.

But I knew that one day, when I bought a house, and if I had a wood-paneled office – this would be the perfect piece to display on the wall behind my desk.  Feel free to read into the imagery however you want; perhaps I don’t even understand the reasoning myself.

So yeah, call me crazy, but one of the things I want in a house, more than anything, is a wood-paneled office like the one above.

Here are a few others that I’ve seen on MLS over the years.

I like this one here, but I really want the window to look out front, not to the sideyard:

–

This one below is beautiful, but a little too “much,” if you will:

There’s also no window in the room, which I think is a deal-breaker.

I mean, it’s not a deal-breaker, since this is a classic case of “beggars can’t be choosers,” but that might get a wee bit stuffy.

The desk is also way too small – it’s a glass table with a few items on it.  This reeks of staging.

I love the double doors though, as well as the ceiling detail.

–

This one below is more my speed.

It’s a combination of the very first office, and the one we just saw:

Ignore the colour of the wood, because I think that’s the camera.

I love the window behind the desk.  In a perfect world, I’d have two windows next to the desk, like the first photo.  But I don’t want the desk facing the wall like in photo #2.

I love the shelving on the right hand side.  I can’t tell you how many pieces of art (aka chachkies…) I could display on those fifteen shelves.

I would absolutely love a wood-burning fireplace!  That would be unreal.  I’m not a fan of that gas/electric unit on the left, so I’d get rid of it.  And the wall-mounted TV would be a distraction from all the really important things I’d be doing, and world’s problems I’d be solving, sitting in that chair.

–

This one below just doesn’t “do it” for me, you know?

As in I can’t quite put my finger on it, although I do like the chairs.

There’s a desk in the middle of the room, but it’s across from a built-in desk in the shelving.  It doesn’t feel well-planned.

And again, the desk is sideways to the window, which I don’t like.

–

I don’t even know what to make of this one here:

I showed it to a colleague of mine in the office, and he said, “Two desks?  Eh?  Eh???” and winked.  “Business partners?”

I absolutely love the huge window though.

I think if the fireplace wasn’t there, you could move the desk in front of that space, ditch the second desk, and it would look just like the first one:

Except it would be twice as big…

–

So there you have it, folks.

What’s wrong with a little day-dreaming on a Friday?

Call me crazy, but hot-damn do I want a wood-paneled office in a house one day.

I know it’s the long weekend and many of you have already checked out, but if you feel like playing along – let me know what cool, different, or fun feature you would want in a house.

And if you have a wood-paneled den, send me a photo.

Have a great long weekend, everybody!

The post Friday Fantasy: What I Want In A House! appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

Perhaps I’m guilty of mailing-in my Wednesday blog post, but I’m sorry folks, there just aren’t enough hours in this day…

So let me give you something to chew on, and while this isn’t meant to be a self-promotional plug (ironic, since this entire blog is technically one), I will say that I’m scheduled to speak at Wednesday night’s Toronto Life event called, “Toronto Tomorrow: Real Estate, How We Live, And The Ever-Changing City.”

You’re all invited!

Seven minutes.

I get seven minutes up on stage to try to deliver meaningful words to a ticket-buying audience.

Seven minutes.

Seven minutes?

What can you do in seven minutes?

And yes, I’m aware of the obvious joke out there, for those of you with gutter-minds.

“Not pleasure my wife,” may have been in the first draft of my humourous and thought-provoking speech, but I thought better of it.

Anyways.  Silly seven minutes…

For a guy that routinely turns a two-minute conversation into a 2,000 word blog post, delivering a speech in seven minutes is next to impossible.

Oh, and I get to go first, with four other speakers to follow.

Toronto Life is putting on a real estate event on Wednesday night, with the aforementioned title: “Toronto Tomorrow: Real Estate, How We Live, And The Ever-Changing City.”

I was asked to be a part of the panel, and upon seeing who else they have lined up, I’m somewhat humbled:

Sam Mizrahi – Developer, Mizrahi Developments

Alexandra Dagg – Public Policty Director, AirBnB Canada

Guela Solow-Ruda – Architect, Ark Inc.

Richard Sommer – Dean of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

I’m not big on social functions.

In fact, this is the last place you might ever expect to see me, with the first place being “on my couch,” and perhaps “with pizza and Crown Royal.”

But what the heck, sometimes it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.  I think.

So what am I going to talk about?  Before a condo developer, a lobbyist for AirBnB, and the dean?

Well, with my seven minutes, I have to get a point across.

And, I essentially have to summarize 11 years of blogging!

What can I tell people that will give them something to take away from the event?

Look beyond the headlines.
Dig deeper into the numbers.
Don’t believe the hype.

The best advice I can offer somebody who is interested in Toronto real estate, but wants whatever ‘truth’ is possible to attain, would boil down to those three taglines, all of which will make my presentation, in lieu of coming up with one.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, I’m working this into the mix on Wednesday night:

That’s right.

If you think I’d speak at a Toronto Life function, and not call them out on their 8-year-old prediction about a market bubble, that cost people a 91% appreciation on the average home price in Toronto, then you really don’t know me.

But seriously.  It’s in there.  Don’t doubt it for a second.

I’ll be back on Friday with new material.  For now, feel free to debate how much that home, pictured above, would sell for today…

The post Toronto Life Event: “Toronto Tomorrow” appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

TorontoRealtyBlog

Here’s a fun topic for Humpday!

How many of you out there attend open houses for sport?  Anyone?  Care to anonymously confirm?

I’d like to address to topic of etiquette at an open house, and depending on whether you’re a buyer, or a seller, you may agree or disagree with my sentiments.

Let’s look at ten areas of interest pertaining to the property, and the open house…

Agree, or disagree.

I’m soliciting opinions here, folks.

Here are ten points that I think require our attention, and I’m providing my opinion based on both my representation of sellers and home-owners, as well as my guiding buyers through the process, while trying to represent their interests and respect the rights of a property-owner.

Much of this is common sense.

And then, there are points that might make me sound rude.

You decide.

1) Access To Property

First and foremost, folks, let me remind you that it is not a right to enter an open house.  It is a privilege.

The salty, jaded, Realtor-hating market bears would suggest otherwise.  But I just know that the home-owner in you all, would agree.  Dig deep on this one, and you’ll come around.

This is not just an asset.  It’s not just a property.  It’s not just a house or a condo.

It’s a home.

So please don’t take this the wrong way, but for those people out there that feel that once the “OPEN HOUSE” sign is up on the lawn, they have free reign in and out of the property, I would say that you are sorely mistaken.

Quite often we lack sensitivity when dealing with people’s homes.  They do become assets.  When staging a property for sale, we encourage our sellers to “de-personalize.”  But that doesn’t mean that this isn’t still somebody’s pride and joy, and buyers need to remember that.

To be fair, I’m using the term “buyers” here, when I should be using the term “visitors.”  Because let’s face it: many of the people who attend open houses are exactly that: visitors.  They’re not buyers, and it is buyers that the home owner/seller is seeking.

But whoever enters another person’s domicile, whether that person is looking to purchase a home, or looking to kill two hours, must have respect for the home itself, and the people who have faith in mankind when they open the front door.

2) Personal Information

You’re attending an open house on the weekend, and the listing agent inside the property is foaming at the mouth as you walk up the front steps, I know, I know.

You absolutely hate having to talk to an agent who is only there to pick up buyers, and who latches on to you like a toddler with separation anxiety.

I understand all of that, and when I’m working open houses, I try to stay out of people’s way, and simply represent the seller.

However, the seller has every right to know who is coming in and out of his or her home.

And if a “visitor” to the home has a problem with that, then they should turn around and walk out.

When I run an open house, I don’t have a sign-in sheet.  I’m not there to pick up buyers, as I said, I’m there to represent the seller, and answer questions, but also to ensure that there’s no funny business.

But if another Realtor asks for your information, or even your ID, then you can decide if: a) they’re looking to get your information to harass you and pick you up as a buyer, or, b) keep track of who is entering the house.  And if you don’t want to give your information, then you don’t have to.  You can leave, and come back with your agent through a booked showing.  If you don’t have an agent, then you can call the brokerage, and ask to see the property.  Either way, if a seller wants his or her agent to keep track of who is coming through the house, than that supersedes a “visitor’s” desire to not identify him or herself.

3) Unfettered Access

Once again, this is a continuation of Points #1 and #2.

Just as it’s not a right, but rather a privilege to enter another person’s home during an open house, it’s also not a right to be able to walk around without supervision.

If an agent says, “Let me show you upstairs,” he might be looking to give you a sales pitch, as I mentioned in Point #2.  Or, he might be looking to represent his seller’s best interests, and ensure that you – whether you look shady or not, are going to respect the home.

I recall a situation where a visitor to the open house found the garage locked, and asked if he could see inside.  I said, “No problem, just let me see this couple out (there were two other people, just about to leave), and I’ll lock the front door, and show you.”

He replied, “I don’t need you to go with me, I can take the key.”

I was really surprised, but then again, in the context of this blog post, I shouldn’t have been.

I said, “I understand, if you could just wait two minutes, it’s not a problem.”  Kill them with kindness, right?

He said, “I can unlock the garage door for myself, I don’t want to wait until you deal with other people, I can go outside and look myself.  What am I missing here?”

I ignored his question, showed the couple out the front door, locked it, then headed back to show him the garage.

To answer his question, “What am I missing here?” what he doesn’t quite understand is that I don’t know him.  He’s alone in an open house.  He wants the key to a garage where the owner has several very expensive bikes, and there’s an automatic garage door that opens to a laneway.

I don’t suspect this person was a thief.

But I also don’t owe him anything, and he certainly has no right to demand access to the garage, which the owner keeps locked, without my presence.

Notice a theme here, folks?

This is all common sense (or should be), and it’s about representing and protecting the seller.

4) Shoes

As crazy as this sounds, there are people who walk right past the “PLEASE REMOVE SHOES” sign, with their shoes on.

I just don’t understand it.

My brother lived in Riverdale for several years, and he had one of those “Please Don’t Let Your Pet Pee On The Lawn” signs, because the grass was dying and he basically had to dig it up, and lay down fresh sod (ask a home owner about how hard it is to get dogs to stop peeing, once other dogs start).

Imagine my brother’s surprise when he looks out his window one day and sees a dog peeing right next to the sign, and the dog’s owner standing idly by.

You will probably suggest that the owner was doing this on purpose, to spite the home owner and his sign.  But some people are just damn clueless, and can’t see what’s right in front of them.

Who walks into an open house and doesn’t take their shoes off when there’s a sign?

5) Commentary

I think I’ll get some pushback on this point, but regardless…

If you’re entering somebody’s home, and that home is for sale, and you don’t like it, or don’t like the price, would it be so unreasonable as to keep that to yourself?

I think it’s tacky for people to walk through an open house and poo-poo it.

Many of the people who do this, to be quite honest, are people who can’t afford the home.  I see this all the time.

But you know the guy in the basement that says, “There’s a problem with this foundation, for sure” – he’s not a home inspector.  He’s just saying that, to say it.

When you’re at a restaurant, you don’t lean over to the table next to you and say, “I bet the cook wipes his nose with his sleeve before he makes salads like the one you have.”

I have no issue with people talking, discussing, investigating, etc.

The issue I have is when people go out of their way to make remarks when others are around.  It’s petty, vindictive, and as I said – it’s almost always done out of frustration and jealousy.

6) Attitude

Real estate is expensive.

Real estate in Toronto is expensive.

The house that you want to buy, that’s up for sale, that has an open house, that has 100 people going through on Saturday, costs more than you want to pay.

I get it.

But when you show up, looking for a fight, what purpose does that serve?

Picture the person that walks into the open house, seeks out the agent, and says, “So, is this priced for one of those goddam bidding wars?”

The person already knows the answer.   He or she is just looking for a confrontation.

I see this more than you’d think, and call me naive, but I see no real end game.

This point isn’t like #1 above, where it’s not up for debate.  You’re free to give attitude to the listing agent if you want to, and you can take out all your inner demons and market frustrations if you want.  I just don’t see the value.

7) “Trying Out” The Features

The house you’re touring is somebody’s home.

It’s not Sleep Country Canada.

You’re looking at the house, not the bed.

Do you know how many times I see people do the turn-around, raise arms to the side, fall-backwards on the bed?

Have we, as a society, lost all social understanding?  Why would a person think this is a reasonable action?

I’m not saying you can’t sit down on the living room chair to tie your shoes as you leave the open house.

But use common sense, which continues to be the theme here.

I’ve seen people take their shoes and socks off, sit down on the edge of the pool, and put their feet in the water.

If you’re a guest at a pool party, there’s no issue here.  But what makes a person think this is a normal course of action at an open house?

8) Opening……….Things

Open the kitchen cupboards, no problem.  Maybe you’re being nosey, but under the guise of, “I want to see what kind of storage space this kitchen has,” you can get away with it.

Open the top drawer to the dresser, and you can’t get away with it.

You’re looking for panties.

There’s no other explanation.  You want to see if the woman pictured in the photo on the wall is a size small, medium, or large, and what style she prefers.  You want to know the colours, and cut.

You want to know if the master of the house wears standard white jockey briefs, or if he has Andrew Christian fully stocked.  Is there, or isn’t there a “pouch” adorning the front of these undergarments?  Pray-tell!

You opened the drawer on the nightstand, next to the bed, for a reason.  You weren’t looking to see if there was a copy of the home inspection in there.  You wanted to know if they use a higher-end, water soluble personal lubricant, or if they’re unimaginative, and just buy KY at Pharma Plus.

We know where this could end up, if I went on.

And we know that this happens at open houses, and just how offside it is.

9) Kids

Kids are an essential part of the open house process, no doubt about it.

For starters, many buyers have kids with them on weekends, and can’t get to an open house without their kids.  I get it.  There’s no “open house daycare” available for parents to utilize so they can attend open houses alone.

And secondly, kids will be moving into the house eventually, so some parents want to get the kids in there as part of the search process.  I get that too.  I don’t know how much “say” the kids will have, but that’s up to the parents.

However, as many of you can imagine, many buyers suffer from a lack of understanding of Point #1 above, in that they fail to realize this is somebody’s house, and they let their kids run amok.  See Point #3 as well.

I’ve personally witnessed buyers come in, with three kids in tow, and say, “Okay guys, go have a look!” and encourage their children to run around, unsupervised.

I’ve witnessed parents say, “Go play hide-and-seek with your brother!”

I’m sorry guys, but as per Point #1, attending an open house is a privilege, not a right.  And if you want your kids to play hide-and-seek, then take them to a park, or an indoor play.  Don’t take them to an open house.

Now some parents take their kids to open houses instead of taking them to an indoor play, ie. as an activity, or an outing.  I’ve seen parents tell their kids, “Go take a feature sheet!”  I’m not cheap; I have a couple hundred thousand dollars per year in expenses, but it’s the principle behind seeing a woman tell her kids to take “one of each” of the feature sheet, floor plan, home inspection summary, area amenities, and MLS listing that bothers me.  I’m also not an environmentalist (although I did proudly switch from plastic water bottles to a metal thermos this year), but I hate to see three kids take a combined 48 pieces of paper, and know that this is going in the trash within an hour.

Last but not least, many parents take their kids to open houses to feed them lunch.

Yes, we know many open houses serve lunch – especially the agent open houses, which are during weekdays from 11am to 1pm.  I can’t tell you how many parents show up and tell their kids, “Run and grab a sandwich.”  It’s the same point as above; I’m not cheap, I just don’t like the false pretenses of attending an open house to feed your children.

10) Toilets

You all knew this was coming, right?

In fact, many of you would have led with this point.

What is the etiquette about using the toilet at an open house?

It’s sort of a double-edged sword.  Not one of you wants the public using your toilet when your home is for sale, but many of you feel it’s not an issue if you’re attending an open house, or you’re on a showing, and you need to use the toilet.

Then many of you suggest that using the toilet all depends on………you know………the specific use.

I’ve seen everything there is to see when it comes to this topic.

January of 2013, I wrote this blog: “The Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened.”

I can’t give you the Coles Notes on this one.  Just read it.

But ask every agent, and they’ll tell you a story about an open house, and a toilet.

One I don’t think I’ve ever had occasion to tell before – it was one of my first open houses ever, back in 2004, around Victoria Park & Lawrence.  A woman walked up the front steps, and said, verbatim, “Do you mind if I use your bathroom?  I just ate a shi!t ton of chilli.”

Folks, on my life.  Word for word.

It’s so insane, that you just can’t make it up.  At first, I thought it had to be a joke.  I thought it was a test, either from the listing agent, or somebody at my brokerage.  It was just nuts!  I mean, chilli?  Really?

But every real estate agent has a story like that one, probably more.

And yet no two people can agree on what the etiquette is on toilets at an open house, or a showing.  You have all used the toilet, for #1, at a showing before.  Don’t tell me you haven’t…

–

So there you have it, excuse the lack of brevity.

Let me know which points you agree on, and which you don’t.

And if I’ve missed anything, or more importantly – if you want to know if something is offside or not, ask the question in the comments below.

The post Open House Etiquette appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.