03/18/2017
As a realtor, I get to participate in many offer nights. Where a property is holding back on Receiving offers until a particular day. In today's market this is happening with condos and houses all across the GTA. This pushes the agents representing their clients to remove conditions, and with so few properties for sale, it also pushes the prices to the bleeding point of possible, where the bank, your mom and dad, the borrowing from rrsp's are all maxed out in an effort to get a home, that next month will be worth 2 percent more than last month. In general, these offer nights have 10 to 15 offers as a minimum number, but by the second round of bidding there are only 3 or 4 that are really serious, and in general these top offers are within 50 000 from the top of the range to the bottom. Good realtors know where the line is, and how far you can even unreasonably push that line, but What's happening now, more and more often, is the last offer to show up, the Winning offer, has a buyer who is not even in the country. They have a local agent, and that agent just comes in with 100 to 200 000 more than the next highest offer and says, "is this enough?". This is great news for sellers, but in the current low inventory high pressure drama of a market place we are in , it is a disaster for buyers. Most of the time these off shore buyers today are from Asia. Toronto has always had foreign money in the marketplace, but never like this, this market is unprecedented. The homes are purchased by offshore buyers, not to be lived in, but as a vehicle to hide money, to give access to local business markets, educational facilities, and a bolt hole in case of political turmoil in their home countries. I would do the same if I was them and had the money. To be blunt, Toronto cannot afford for these homes to disappear, to become vacant homes, with nothing but money living inside. We have no more houses, there is no more room for houses, we build smaller and smaller condos each year, with no facilities for actual living, daycares, schools ,clinics, condos just have gyms and pools and party rooms. Well, the party is coming to a close, and without some sort of action, we are going to evacuate the future prosperity of the city for a few easy commissions . We need young people, we need innovators , we need these people to be able to afford to live here. We need a change in plan. I can still help people find homes, I now specialize in finding homes that do not appeal to offshore buyers, so they JUST face crazy domestic competition instead. Call me if you are still trying, maybe I can help you.
