The whole point of my blog is to share my experience in the Toronto Real Estate Market, and on Wednesday, booooooy did I ever have an experience! As reported by every news channel in Toronto, Condo-Mania hit Bloor St as Realtors lined up for the VIP launch of X2 Condos (nothing was very VIP about it, but I’ll save that for another post)

So what possessed me to stand in a cold, unorganized line for over 17 hours…and not sell a single unit? Price, Location, and Service! X2 had floor plans priced in the $475/ square foot range, and considering current developments (i.e. at Yonge and Church) start at $575/sqf, it made it a no brainer! Plus it’s being built by Great Gulf Homes, a reputable builder with a great track record. All these factors had me, 150 other Realtors and our clients lined up to purchase a unit.

The rules were simple… first come first serve, spots are handed out at 12pm, return at 4pm, purchase at 6pm. A group of Realtors took the first come first serve very seriously and rented rooms at the hotel weeks in advance, so technically they were first. What became confusing was figuring out where to line up in order to claim the first spot. I stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel 3 years ago, so does that make me first? Obviously not, but you can see how problems would arise.

For some reason this early group decided to line up on the south side of Bloor. Officially I don’t know why, but I’ve heard everything from Baker Realty told them to, the cops told them to, and lastly, they went on their own will. I arrived pretty early and was confused on which line to join. I decided to pick the one with the most familiar faces, since no other guidance was being given by the people running the show!

Luckily mine was the correct one, but I still had to do a lot of waiting until numbers were handed out. As I’m sure you’ve seen on the news, the other group of realtors made their opinion of the outcome very vocal. They started shouting “X2 unfair”, and respectively so, after all that could have easily been me. Reports were claiming fights had broken out and realtors were rioting over spots…UNTRUE! Yes, the Realtors who were denied access where upset, but it wasn’t at us, it was at the developer and its representatives who weren’t communicating procedures. I found many colleagues to be respectful of one another and great company during the long wait. Other reports made it seem like “greedy realtors” were lined up to grab a great deal and make tons of profit before the public had their chance…also UNTRUE. Each realtor was allowed to sell 3 units, and ONLY one of the 3 could be for themselves. The other two were for their clients aka the public! I even heard a lot of Realtors say something like “if my client wants to purchase more than one, they can have my spot”. So no, it wasn’t the big bad realtors hoarding all the units!

At about 9 am I was finally handed lucky number 60 (ya right). This meant that I could return later that evening and possibly purchase a unit with my clients. Simple math shows that at least 177 units would sell before my clients had the opportunity to purchase. With approximately 42 stories of units I remained hopeful.

Finally 6pm rolled around, and the “no organization” theme of the night continued! We weren’t allowed in the hotel, we weren’t allowed outside of the hotel; instead we had to line up along the side walk until our number was called. The first group went in without a hitch, but the second group had to wait over an hour before their numbers were called. I do these preconstruction events often, so I know it’s usually a 30-45 process…when 2 hours had passed and they were only at number 20 I figured something was up. Clients started to get annoyed and curious as to what the holdup was. Once again, no word from Baker (the firm representing the Developer) as to what was going on. I think things would have been a lot less tense if they told us officially how many units they were releasing that night. Because we didn’t want to lose our spot we stood and waited for any updates. Finally at about 10 o’clock a fellow Realtor emerged but was very tight lipped about remaining inventory. At 10:30 rumours were swirling that they were sold out for the night! Eventually the cops confirmed the story and told us we all had to clear the hotel ASAP!

Now I’m not naive. I get it. When you hold the cards, you control the game. Clearly they were only prepared to release 100 units; the rest I assume will be marked up at a higher price and resold to the public. They’re not the first to do this, and they sure as hell wouldn’t be the last…BUT everyone has limits, and I think they pushed ours too far! I must have looked very foolish having to tell my clients, “Sorry but they refuse to let you purchase a condo tonight” “come back later when inventory is less and price is higher”. Though my clients were very understanding of the matter, they weren’t happy. After 17 hours of line-ups, 8 green teas and 1 tuna sandwich…how many deals did I do: ZERO. Was I mad? YEP. So what possessed me to do it in the first place?

For starters, I had a VIP invite with me, which as it turned out meant NOTHING. Secondly, it seemed like a great opportunity for my clients to invest in. And lastly, it’s part of the job aka the-not-so-glamorous-side-HGTV-fails-to-show! I had spent considerable time with my clients educating and describing the preconstruction process. Plus, they made it very clear that they wanted a specific unit! This is a service business, and I’m in it for the long haul. If you have the clients, you better do everything in your power to get the job done. That being said, even if I had camped out for days, there still would be no guarantee that I would be waiting in the correct! It was very poorly organized and turned off a lot of realtors from participating in preconstruction event. I truly hope they learn from this disappointing experience and can implement better procedures! So would I do it again? YEP! Actually next week!

River City, something I’ve blogged heavily about, are having their VIP launch next Wednesday. The process is much more organized. They’ll be doing a lottery system! Essentially every realtor can submit a worksheet, all in the hopes of being randomly selected to purchase a unit. Only a select amount of units will be released, but at least we won’t have to stand in line ups for hours :)

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1. X2 Condo Mania
2. Cresford Condo Incentives
3. A Few Units Left