Blog Toronto Real Estate

Why Can't You See Real Estate Signs At Night

It's pretty simple... often there is no streetlight right where you'd like it and running a spotlight and extension cord from the house seems pretty crude.

I've often given some thought as to how to light up my For Sale signs at night to give my toronto real estate seller clients more exposure for their homes and to make it obvious to people driving by after dusk that there are full-colour feature sheets mounted in a box on that signpost.

Finally there seems to be a solution... a California company recently came up with a portable lighting system that sits up on the top of the sign and has two LED light arms extending out to both sides of the sign.

I just installed the first three of them last night... what do you think?

There's a bit of ongoing 'battery' maintenance with them but I think the result is terrific.

Underpricing Listings Is Bad For The Seller & The Buyer

For the last several years we've had a busy Toronto real estate seller's market.  That has resulted in at least 20% or more of the sales resulting from multiple offers.  That means more than one purchaser was trying to buy the home at the same time.

In the past year or so, the phenomenon has become almost ridiculous because of agents deliberately underlisting homes with the sole purpose of making themselves look like heros!  Their 'selling point' has been that underpricing the home will attract lots of offers (often but not always) and that the seller will get more money than they would have otherwise (often NOT true).

Recently Sally was on an offer in the Bloor and Bathurst area for a home listed at $399,900.  Upon checking old solds for that property she found that it has sold for $410,000 two years previous and certainly the market had NOT dropped in that neighbourhood!

We did our analysis of value and came to the conclusion that the value was really in the range of $470-480,000.  Our client couldn't afford to go that high but was very happy to pay $463,000.

When it came time to present the offer, there were 7 offers on the table.  Our client got it for the price she could afford so we were very happy.  The listing agent thought he was a hero, but we believe that the seller undersold their house and potentially lost between $7,000 and $17,000!

There are other problems with this process too.  Buyers see a home listed at $399,900 and get excited at purchasing a house for that price in that neighbourhood.  Problem is... they can't!  They get disappointed (and pissed off at such a silly process) and sometimes lose their faith in Realtors and quit looking altogether.  It wastes everyone's time.

Another problem is the bank appraisal.  If the sale price goes over list by more than 10%, there may be issues with getting a mortgage approval unless the buyer agent has done their homework and provided the lender with other comparable sales in the area to use when calculating the value.  If the appraisal comes in low, then the purchaser may be on the hook to come up with a larger down payment.

What is the solution?  Complain to RECO (Real Estate Council Of Ontario -> 416-207-4800) about the inequities of this process... it's the only way it is going to change.

Downtown Condo Attracts Multiple Offers

Early this week we listed a 1-bedroom plus den at CityPlace in the Matrix building.  It was priced competitively but certainly not under market value.

The response was terrific... several showings in the first few days and two offers at the same time.  We were able to play those buyers off against each other so our seller received a terrific price.

At this point it is sold 'conditional on satisfactory examination of the Status Certificate' so we can't reveal the price... we'll let you know when it's sold.

If you would like to check out the listing, go to our 'neighbourhood' site for this group of condos called www.LivingInCityPlace.ca and see how we marketed this home.