The Best 4 Letter Word Ever.....

It took a little over a week and some very hard work on our part and our agent's part - but we are officially SOLD! Now that we are sold, I can reveal how it all went down. A little over a month ago, a unit exactly like ours was priced at $329K and sold in multiple offers for $363K. Now, the unit did have some nicer finishes than ours and had an extra patio at the back, so we figured ours wouldn't sell for quite as much because of these factors, but were still pretty hopeful. We decided to list at the same price, and hold back offers for about a week and have all offers presented at the same time in the hopes of drumming up our own multiple offer situation. The listing went on the market  last Tuesday, and we had showings all week, through the weekend and we had over 25 scheduled showings, and over 30 people show up at the Open House. That translated to 4 registered offers tonight.

All 4 offers were presented and we decided to work with 2 of them - meaning that there were 2 offers that were fairly close and they were sent back to improve them. One of the offers was initially $5K over the other one, but it had a financing condition which we weren't too happy about because it meant there was a chance that the deal could fall through. The higher offer came back with a price of $352K and the sightly lower, but firm offer came back with $351K - this is the one that we ended up accepting.

After signing paperwork, we officially sold our condo! It was a great feeling but both J and I felt some bittersweet emotions because it meant that we would be saying goodbye to our first home together. All of our work in staging our place paid off and it was totally worth it. The sale of our condo puts us in an excellent financial position for our new home and gives us some extra money for renovations and furniture. I guess I had better get some moving boxes ready!

You Would Want to Live Here, Right?

Sorry for being MIA after my last post, however J and I have been super busy over the last week or getting our condo in selling shape. It is a LOT of work to stage your home and make it look like it is always in pristine condition. Even though I have only been there for 2 1/2 years the amount of things that we seemed to have was crazy! We made 2 runs to Value Village and my lovely parents allowed us to store some extra things at their place until the condo sells.

Our realtor Andrew sat down with J and I and explained everything that is involved with the selling process, including using recent sales in the area to set a list price. There is a particular strategy that we are employing currently, but I want to wait until it is sold before it is revealed! J and I are certainly hoping it pays off. Some of the reasons we decided to go with the same realty  were that they provide amazing marketing (also because we are thoroughly impressed with our agent). Professional photos of our condo were taken, and some amazing marketing materials and website were created. These make a huge difference to a prospective buyer on MLS - believe me!

We already have 3 showings today, and it is the first day it is publically on the market, so we are hoping it is a great sign of things to come this week. J and I know that means we will need to find some things to do during our evenings while people are taking a look at our place. It also means not getting a lot of time to cook (also because our kitchen is sparkling clean and we don't want to ruin it!)

One thing I have learned is how important it is to stage the condo to appeal to the largest number of buyers. Some of the things that we did to encourage this were:

- Taking down ALL personal photos and replacing them with generic black & white travel photos
- Putting away some of my favourite travel souveniers
- Buying fresh flowers for different areas of the house
- Replacing all towels with fresh white towels, and the shower curtain with a white curtain
- Overall, de-clutter all closets and keep kitchen counters mostly clear
- CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!

We know this week will be a little inconvenient, but it is a necessary experience to go through and hopefully a little inconvenience now will pay off when we get an offer!

Here are some photos of our staged condo. Those of you that have been to our place can see what a big difference it is from its regular state!

Our listing website can be found here and our MLS listing is here. If you know anyone looking for a great place in the South Riverdale/Leslieville area of Toronto, please forward these links to them. Thanks!

Am I Dreaming? Pinch Me!

This is the post that I have been wanting to write for a very long time, but simply have not had the opportunity to. On Wednesday this week, we decided to go out to the west end with our realtor Andrew, and spend the day looking at listings. We really loved the first house we saw and although it was a slightly older home (20 years) it had a ton of space, and so much potential to make it our own. We saw 4 other houses after that, and J and I agreed that we wanted to put an offer in on the first house we saw in Oakville.

It looked great in person and on paper, 3 large bedrooms upstairs, an open concept living/dining space, large kitchen and finished basement. Some extra things that we got were an entrance into the house from the garage, a main floor laundry room, and a large deck in the backyard. The major things have been done in the house - new windows, roof and furnace in the last 3 years. In addition, the sellers had decided to add granite counters, a new under-mount sink and faucet in the kitchen before we moved in - for free!!!! Gotta love that price!

Given that this market is so swift, we decided to put in an offer that same day, and after one sign back from the seller, our second offer was accepted, conditional on financing and a home inspection. J and I were happy, but we didn't want to get too excited because we had been burned by the inspection before.

We made the appointment for the inspection within 36 hours after the deal was accepted because J and I just wanted to get this finalized as soon as possible. This morning, I went to the inspection with our realtor and it went well - ridiculously well. There were only 2 minor problems that the home inspector found and would cost less than $500 to fix. I left the inspection beaming because I knew this was the home for us - our new home that we would spend many years and eventually start a family in.

It took us 45 houses, 3 bidding wars, 5 offers, and 2 inspections to get where we are now. I knew this house was out there for us and we couldn't be happier with it. The journey was exciting, frustrating, and very emotional but now that we are here, it was all worth it. Here are some pictures of our new home:

What's next? Selling our condo! This will be a very eye-opening process for me, as it's our first sale. Looking forward to selling, but not to all the work that comes with it! Stay tuned.

Third Time is the Charm...Or not?

Sorry for the delay in this post, but I think I needed to give myself some time to deal with everything that just happened. I guess I will start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) - sorry I love The Sound of Music.

We decided to spend an entire day looking at houses - 7 to be exact. It was a grueling day, but we managed to find 2 houses that we liked, that both had pros and cons. We decided to go for a slightly older home because we loved the space and it had a finished basement with and extra full bath. We knew that it still needed some work in order to take it up to the standard that we wanted, but it was far under our budget so there was room to do that. The house had been on the market for about 30 days, and our realtor suggested that we offer $20K below asking as a starting point, with financing and home inspection conditions.

The owners of the house signed back at $5K below the list price. We in turn offered $10K below the list price and the deal was accepted. I guess we were a bit naive to think that was the hardest part of the process because it wasn't.  Given this was the farthest we had gotten in an offer process - we were 90% of the way to getting our new home.

The Home Inspection


I couldn't make it to the inspection, so J and our realtor Andrew went along with a fantastic home inspector - Mourad from The Professional Home Inspections. He was incredibly thorough and extremely professional. I know that we would not hesitate in recommending him.

Going through the property again but at a slower pace allowed us to see everything in a better light and spend the time looking for issues. We were not anticipating however, the amount of issues that would arise. The place looked really amazing - and the renovations looked like they had been done by someone who knew what they were doing.

Our home inspector revealed however, that this was not the case. The electrical is the house was a mess and revealed live wires all over the place, the furnace was older than we had initially thought and needed to be replaced, the windows needed to be replaced, and there were a few cosmetic things that we were aware we needed to fix.

The major issue was the foundation - there were settlement cracks along one side of the house and water was getting in - which means moisture was getting into the basement - a very expensive fix. We were prepared to pay $20K for renovations that needed to be done, but this would involve almost $50-60K to get everything done - a cost that simply didn't make sense. Not only that but that only included things that the home inspector could see - who knows what was lurking behind the walls.

After a lengthy discussion, J and I decided that it was best to walk away and find another house. It was a pretty emotional day after making that decision, but we know that it was the best one for us and that our house is still out there somewhere. Stay tuned for my next post which will involve talking about compromise - an essential part of the home buying process.I guess I should get back on MLS and start searching!

The Highs and Lows of House Buying

Even though J and I aren't technically property virgins, we have never really experienced these emotions that we are having because the property that we own now was bought pre-construction - which works on a first come, first served system. Sadly, the resale market doesn't work like that! I think this particular search has been more emotional because of what this house symbolizes for J and I. This will be the house that we move into for the long haul, and to start and raise a family - some emotionally charged ideals for sure!

Last week we made another offer on a property in South Mississauga, and lost another bidding war. The housing market outside of the city isn't quite as competitive as Toronto proper, but areas that are in high demand will still result in multiple offers. This property was a bungalow, completely renovated on a great lot with a large yard and finished basement in a great residential area - pretty much what a lot of other buyers are looking for. Our realtor called us before presenting the offer and had some good news for us - there were only 3 offers including ours and we had a good shot at getting the house.

One of the other buyers did not have an agent representing them so the listing agent was representing both the buyer and seller - meaning the listing agent would be getting double commission. Typically, agents get a 5% commission - which is divided to give 2.5% to the listing agent and 2.5% to the buyer agent. I know that this is legal and a situation that does happen- but I really think this is a conflict of interest. Supposedly the agent cannot tell the buyers what the other offers are, but from what I have read and heard, the successful bid always seems to be the double agent's. We lost the property - and it was tougher than the last one because we got emotionally invested and thinking we had a shot got really excited. It was pretty deflating - but the home search is still on!

Andrew, our agent has been amazing and making sure we don't lose hope. In an effort to broaden our horizons (and listings) we are moving a little farther west and including listings from Oakville. Yes, it's farther away from the city but if this is our house for the long term, space is really the most important thing. We will definitely get more space in the suburbs than the city. I am trying to come to terms with not living in the city anymore, and I know that I will miss it terribly but excited for everything the future has in store. 

A Rant

Ok, I think I need to vent. I understand that we haven't been looking that long but I am beginning to get very frustrated with the home buying process. Every real estate story in the media seems to be hinting at a housing bubble that it about to burst - however I can tell you that our experience over the last few weeks tells otherwise.

I tend to agree that the condo market in Toronto is heading towards some price correction, but the freehold home market is another story. I just wish realtors would list houses at their true market value rather than deliberately pricing them below to encourage bidding wars. We went to 6 open houses this past weekend - and every single house was holding back offers - meaning they would not even entertain any offers until a certain date, thus encouraging multiple offers. You would think this is limited to Toronto, but even the houses we were looking at in Mississauga are doing the same thing. It is frustrating when speaking with listing agents as they all tell you the house is expected to go significantly over list price. I understand they are trying to get people to put in higher offers (and doing a job for their clients), but it means we are visiting houses that we more than likely will lose out on because someone has a bigger budget. I realize I might be a hypocrite when we turn out to be the seller - but for now I am venting.

An another note - I completely understand why realtors tell you to clear the clutter and remove personal items for an open house. Would you believe we actually saw a bear rug in a house? I mean an actual dead bear carcass, with its head baring teeth displayed proudly in the house - perhaps you could have put that particular item away? We don't own any animal accessories, but I now see how important it is to make the house feel as impersonal as possible.

We will see how the search goes - for now it still continues. We are trying to see houses within a day or two of them coming on the market on the off chance that someone is not holding offers. Our house is out there - but I guess we need to earn it!

You Win Some...and You Lose Some.

Well, it has been almost a week since offer night - and it was an eye opening experience to say the least. We didn't get the house, but I don't think it was a complete loss, and learned a lot from going through the motions.

Andrew our realtor knew that it would go far above the under-valued list price - but it was difficult to know how much. After speaking with our realtor and assessing the house, our offer was significantly above list price, but a price that we were comfortable paying and not more than market value for the area. As each day came and went, Andrew kept telling us information that was making our hearts sink - more offers registered, the fact that 5 home inspections were to be done before offer date, etc.

We decided to do a home inspection to make our offer firm and without conditions, so we knew that it was a possibility that we could lose the house and be out $300 - but it was a risk we were willing to take. We called our mortgage broker and made sure our finances were in order so we could take the financing condition out of our offer. These steps are quite commonplace when trying to compete in the Toronto housing market.

All in all, there were 18 offers on the property, and the house went for $112K over asking - way over what we were comfortable spending. For a short time, we were upset, but we are now armed with a whole new set of real estate weapons - knowledge to help us in our next offer.

We are now open to doing some of our own renovations, buying a fixer upper under our budget, and putting some money into a house to make it our home. After all, this is the biggest investment that we will likely make in our lifetime, and we have a long time to make improvements. Stay tuned for more showings, offers, and eventually - moving day!