DID YOU KNOW… the location of your condo may determine who pays for the status certificate!

Wait…do you even know what a “status certificate” is? And why you should be asking for one when purchasing a condo?

In the simplest terms, a Status Certificate is set of documents prepared by a condo board to illustrate the financial health of the building! A typical certificate will show a variety of facts including: how many units are being leased in the building, any shortages in payments of maintenance fees (for the particular unit) and the amount levels of the reserve fund.  They take 10 days to prepare (though most boards I’ve dealt with produce them sooner) and can be obtained by the unit owner.  They’re typically requested when a buyer submits an offer to purchase.  The purpose of the documents is better educate the potential buyer on the financial status of the condo and point out any pitfalls that may lay ahead if the decide to go through with the purchase.  A Real Estate lawyer is often best to review the Status and relay it’s info to the purchaser!

Now that we know what it is and why it’s needed, it’s time to answer the almighty dollar question “Who pays for it?”

Up until a few weeks ago, it was to my understanding that in Canada the seller is the one who pays for it…but after talking with Matt Richling, a colleague selling real estate in Ottawa I learnt different!  In Ottawa it’s common practice for the buyer to be the one who pays the fee. Which would make sense since it’s the buyer who’d be most interested in it’s findings. Fortunately for buyers in Toronto that’s not the case, and the seller typically pays for the status.  Your Realtor should always have the “Cost Talk” with you to better inform you of all the expenses that tend to pop up above and beyond the sticker price!

I ALWAYS recommend putting in a clause requesting a copy of the status and having a Real Estate lawyer review it.  Regardless of who pays for it…it only costs $100 and could save you a million headaches in the future!  If you’re looking at buying place of your own downtown…feel free to call or email…I’d love to help!

Leave it up to the good folks at ART Condos to come up with this smart purchasing incentive!  Not only is parking available for every suite purchaser…it’s also available with a SMART Car!  As mentioned in their latest blog post:

“Any purchaser who buys a unit at ART has the option of buying a car parking space for a fee of $3o,000. We are giving another option however. Instead of purchasing a space for $30,000, you can pay the same amount to get HALF a space, and a brand spanking new Smart Car.”

I like this idea for a few reasons…For starters, if you’re currently paying lease payments on your car, chances are you’ll qualify for less when applying for a mortgage.  Under this incentive, you can get rid of the clunker, qualify for more condo AND get a new car out of it!  Toronto isn’t getting any smaller so as traffic becomes even more busy, you can zoom around in this compact car while reducing you carbon footprint (compared to bigger cars). Most first time purchasers often debate between buying a new car or putting the amount towards the down payment of a place… with ART Condos latest incentive, you can do both!

ART Condos will be an excellent addition to the West Queen West area, and if you’d like to be apart of it send me an email or give me a call…I’d love to help!

In an effort to bring even more content on a consistent basis, I’m pleased to announce PHOTO FRIDAYYY!

I’ll be posting a new photo every Friday from my Savel And The City PhotoBlog.  With the photoblog I post a daily photo from my travels around the City.  It’s typically just a picture with very little description.  With Photo Friday I’ll be picking my favorite shot from the blog and describing the image further!

For my inaugural Photo Friday post I picked a picture that I took a few weeks back from the newly completed Maple Leaf Square!  Taken from 40+ stories above and looking down at Lanterra Developments latest project “ICE Condos”, the picture captures the condo during it’s earliest stages of development…hence it’s title “From Soil to ICE”

This southern part of the City is really starting to take shape! In anticipation of this, Longo’s grocery store is opening up a location at the base of Maple Leaf Square and across from ICE condos this fall!  Both condo’s are minutes from the Air Canada Centre and Union Station!

If you’re thinking of moving into this growing part of the Toronto Send me an email or give me a call…I’d love to help!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you have an extra 80 inches in length and 40 inches in width in that den of yours? If yes, then that’s just enough room for 2 beds! The clip above is from New-York-based Resource Furniture. Watch in awe (as I did) as they demonstrate how a little ingenuity can give a small space a lot of room!

I’ve never been a fan of the 300 sqf studio, be it for living or an investment but as the price of land in Toronto goes up; the spaces we call home are becoming smaller! It’s inevitable as developers try to facilitate as many units possible into their towers to maximize the profit on the project. Even traditional 2 bedroom units are being built with less square footage than their older counter parts.

If you look at a building like The Esplanade, it’s very common to see 1 bedroom units pushing 700 sqf. Compare that with many of the newer buildings going up and the same square footage is now housing 2 bedrooms! Space saving decor like the ones available from Resource Furniture are the key to using every square inch in your condo and making the most out of the limited space available!

…I wonder if there’s a foldable garden available?

Ready to find your own space in one of Toronto’s many condo towers? Give me a call or send me an email… I’d love to help!

I’ll admit it…I’m a news-a-holic. I start my day with BBC, have lunch with CP24, follow up with a few newspaper stories from my twitter friends, squeeze in some “6 o’clock news hour” with Leslie Roberts, and end it with CTV’s local news at 11:30…all of course if time permits! (It usually doesn’t)

In keeping with my newsly-ritual, I tuned into CTV just in time to watch Tom Hayes cover a store on “The Bully Offers”. Now before I get into all that is wrong with the story…I’ll like to say this disclaimer: “I have nothing against the good folks at CTV news, Tom Hayes included. For the most part I enjoy watching their news as they tend to get into more detail than some of the other stations BUT this time they dropped the ball by leaving out a few key points”…now down to the venting!

If you missed last nights story, click here and watch it first!

So? What did you think, kinda scary eh? While you’re planning the placement of furniture in your dream home, some big bad bully and their Realtor are lurking behind the curtains to snatch that house from under you!!! At least that’s how I interpreted the report!

In the last little while, it’s been very common to see a house sell for amounts much higher than the asking price. In a typical example, the seller will price their home at or below market value. They then set a date for when they’d be willing to negotiate with offers…if any. Clearly the Toronto real estate market has been red hot in for the past 8 months so these types of scenarios have been very common and bidding for a property has become the norm. If you or your friends have purchased or sold in the past while, I’m sure you’ve heard of a similar example.

So we know what a bidding war is, but what exactly is a “Bully Offer”. Essentially a bully offer is an offer given before the set presentation date of a multiple offer sale. If the buyer wants to try their luck and avoid bidding for the home, they write up an offer significantly higher than asking and submit it before others have a chance…how a prudent Realtor would handle it is what the story is missing.

In the next clip he goes on to mention that bylaw Realtors have to present the buyers offer to their seller “leaving the rest of the buyers out in the cold”… (More on that later!) Further in the clip, Tom mentions that “because so many people were side swiped by bully offers, agents NOW have to announce when a bully offer comes in”!

Here’s how I see it…Real Estate is an aggressive game and bully offers are nothing new. There’s always someone who tries to jump the line and is willing to pay more to make it happen. Look at a downtown night club…talk to the right person with the right coloured bill and boooom, you’re in before all the others standing in line. Does that always make you the smarter person? NO! It just means you paid more than the rest of the people to get in! Whenever the market gets hot, someone tries to get their hands on it before someone else!

Although Tom says that the rules have changed for how we handle bully offers, truth is, we’ve always had rules in place to handle these types of scenarios. Say I’m working for the seller. I do all the right things to prep their unit for sale, I market the heck out of the property (through all my online ways ;) and because of this another Realtor suggests they want to present a bully offer. Tom was saying that “By Law” I must present this offer BUUUT also by law I’m working for the seller and have to do everything in my best interest of my seller…I’ll like to quote 3 Codes of Ethics from the REAL ESTATE AND BUSINESS BROKERS ACT, 2002:

3. A registrant shall treat every person the registrant deals with in the course of a trade in real estate fairly, honestly and with integrity.

4. A registrant shall promote and protect the best interests of the registrant’s clients.

5. A registrant shall provide conscientious service to the registrant’s clients and customers and shall demonstrate reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence in providing those services.

6. (1) A registrant shall demonstrate reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence in providing opinions, advice or information to any person in respect of a trade in real estate.

(2) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1) or section 5,

(a) a brokerage shall not provide an opinion or advice about the value of real estate to any person unless the opinion or advice is provided on behalf of the brokerage by a broker or salesperson who has education or experience related to the valuation of real estate; and

(b) a broker or salesperson shall not provide an opinion or advice about the value of real estate to any person unless the broker or salesperson has education or experience related to the valuation of real estate.

In order for me to satisfy those codes, I’m not just going to work with the one offer… You better believe I’m going to do everything I can to get a few others in on the action and sell that place as FAST as possible for AS MUCH as possible. After all (in this scenario) I’m looking out for what’s best for my SELLER! Also by law, I MUST inform all other parties that have registered an offer on the property that a bully one would like to be presented. The MLS listing MUST also be updated to show the new presentation date! I often advise my clients to stick with the original offer date and if the buyer wants it that bad, they’ll surely bid when the time comes! So far with all the places I’ve sold this logic has worked! In all cases the bidding has brought a higher price than the original bully offer.

For my buyers, I also don’t advise giving a bully offer… even multiples I’m wary of. My process is simple: I first educate them on what market value is of the property. I then make sure they’ve been pre-approved to give an offer above asking. My final suggestion is to NOT pay an exorbitant amount for something they wouldn’t be able to sell in at least 2 years time. Why two years you ask? Although you should be buying for long term, sometimes things happen and you have to sell sooner than later. If 2 years has past and the market has not caught up to the high price you paid…you’re going to have some problems. Primarily with the bank. Just look down south for an example on the effects of over valuating a home! If after all this they’re still adamant on forking over the dough, then I do my duty and fulfill their wishes by submitting their offer. OF course only after “demonstrating reasonable knowledge, skill, judgment and competence in providing opinions, advice or information to any person in respect of a trade in real estate.”!!!

A few simple things can be done to give you the best shot at getting that home…even if a bully tries to get it before you!

1. GET PRE APPROVED – know how much the banks are willing to lend you before you commit to paying more than you have!

2. If you love the home enough to bid on it MAKE SURE YOUR REALTOR registers your offer with the listing brokerages office ASAP. Once you’re registered, the listing agent will have to notify you if any other offers come in (bully’s included)

3. Write your offer as soon as you decide you want the home! That way, the bulk of the work is out of the way, and if a bully offer comes in you can easily adjust your offer to compete with it!

Happy buying Toronto!!!

Oh and Tom, call me next time!

The week has just begun, and it’s already looking busier than the line up for beer at a Toronto FC game! I figured, before I get into a week of writing about the glamorous world of real estate, I’d dedicate my Monday post to my beloved Reds! 

The Toronto Football club is about to embark on its 4th year in the MLS (and no not the Multiple Listing Service as some readers may think). TFC has yet to make the playoffs but have definitely scored in getting fans on their side. I dabbled in the cult following but never really became hooked until my first live game…I remember it like it was only a year ago (probably because it was). 

From the Dufferin bus ride down, to the stomping of the ground in the bleachers…it’s an experience every Torontonian must try! I went to several games last year and had the time of my life every time. – Sidenote to any one from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment that may be reading this: They won 5 out of 6 games I attended; I very well may be their lucky charm! I started the season as just another fan wearing whatever red and white I could find in my closet, but I ended the season with a scarf, jersey, t-shirt (both of which I won at that game) and I was even lucky enough to catch the ball! See video below

Click here to view the embedded video.

The team has gone through a lot of changes during the off season, and so has the stadium! We not only have REAL grass to play on, but also additional seats for the North side of the pitch. The Reds start their season Saturday March 27th in Columbus! Check out the full schedule here. 

If you weren’t lucky enough to buy season tickets…you could always buy a liberty village condo as many offer views of the stadium ;) Goooo Reeeeds!

It looks like we’re getting closer and closer to the launch of ART Condos – a boutique atmosphere in the Studio District with only 147 suites!  The 11 story building will be made up of studios from 460 sqf to 2 bedroom units (with den) at 1290 sqf. The spacious unit will also feature a 960 sq f terrace on the 9th floor.  My personal pick is the two level suites that will have living, office, dining and kitchen on the first level with 2 bedrooms and laundry on the second!  Units will have 9ft ceilings and many include terraces or balconies.  In keeping with the culture, floor plans include long hallways allowing residents to show off their own collections of art in their units.

Amenities will include a resident lounge with fireplace, bar, and catering kitchen.  There will be an outdoor terrace with BBQ’s, a fire pit, built in banquets and a hot tub! I can’t wait to see what the interiors will look like…when you hire a team on 3RD UNCLE DESIGN; you know you’re in for a treat!

There’s nothing I dislike more then when condos are designed to look like night clubs.  Very quickly you get the Vegas effect (you want to leave after 4 days).  This condo is the exact opposite, embracing the area and celebrating its creative side. One article I read mentioned the main floor having live/work units which are sure to attract purchasers looking to make the most out of the Queen West location!

Prices and a launch date the next two strokes to complete the “ART Condo” painting, but until then check out their updated website with floor plans, a map of the area and an art gallery.  It’s going to be a great addition and an interesting mix of business and art!  Send me an email if you’d like further updates on the project.