Here is a real estate prediction worth listening to. My friend Jordon Scrinko of Precondo is one of the great resources in the space who provides solid and objective analysis of the condo space. Back in December of 2020 when we were in the thick of lockdowns, the condo market was at an all time low and no one was buying except a few brave souls. Jordon made a very contradictory prediction...
Who is the builder? One of the first questions when evaluating buildings for a condo purchase. Builder reputation can ebb and flow, some have developed stellar reputations and command a brand premium for their buildings, old and new. Tridel being the prime example of the current gold standard. There are at least a dozen solid builders in the GTA, but there are just as many if not more that I...
Some personal thoughts on how to think about downtown as an investor based on personal experiences. The downtown core as per The Toronto Real Estate Board is split into 2 Municipalities: CO1 (South of Bloor, West of Yonge, East of Landsdowne) and C08 (East of Yonge). For this discussion I will only focus on C01, west of Yonge. The C01 Municipality has 9 communities, of the 9, there are 3 where the...
One of the nice things about purchasing a condo unit is that they are relatively straight forward to value. Your standard downtown condo will have a couple of hundred units with sales occurring with regular frequency. Comparables are readily available and standard adjustments to finalize valuations are based on floor, layout, condition, status certificate, views, etc. In this post I will highlight two...
I have a theory on how to effectively ‘lowball’ within the real estate market, mostly substantiated by my own successes and failures with prior transactions. This strategy is exclusive to ‘stale’ listings, homes that have sat on the market for a few weeks with little to no traffic. Almost always this is a function of a property being overpriced and the seller not having realistic expectations....
Over the summer of 2021 there was a sale that got the attention of a few mid town agents, it was a home on 55 St. Edmunds Dr in the coveted Lawrence Park neighbourhood that sold for $3.45M in March of 2021. A neighbourhood with a median price of ~$4.2M for 2021. At face value there was nothing notable about this sale or listing until the deal fell through and the property was relisted for...
The path of least resistance when it comes to multigenerational living is finding homes with layouts that lend themselves to minor retrofits where privacy can be achieved for 2 families. Finished basements with separate entrances being the most popular choice have an inherent problem as not many want to live in a basement long term. The following are alternatives that are gaining popularity,...
Pre Covid, the common theme when purchasing a home was to drive until you qualify, in other words, the further out you go from the Toronto core, the cheaper real estate was. Since covid this entire phenomenon has been turned upside down. With real estate assets at record highs and little in the way of cost savings by going further out of the Toronto core, the most common question I get from...
A trick question, it’s both, yet the elephant in the room doesn’t seem to get much attention. Interest rates being front and center when it comes to affordability, on the demand side – based on population growth, immigration is a massive driver for the ever-increasing real estate demand in the Greater Toronto Area. The GTA on average absorbs 35% of all newcomers to Canada yet new home...
One of the most common concerns by those considering condos as investments is that rent doesn’t cover taxes/maintenance fees/mortgage, leaving them to subsidize the purchase and making the investment ‘cashflow negative’. A valid concern and something that was not the case up until a few years ago when capitalization rates on residential real estate became more suppressed. This model walks through...