Not your average Downtown Toronto 1 Bedroom

http://www.visualtour.com/applets/flashviewer2/facebook.asp?t=2162012&prt=12571




Unique One Bedroom with floor to ceiling wrap around windows, large balcony and spectacular views. Excellent location. Being sold exclusively for 1 week before MLS. Opportunity to $ave!

If we wait until after the HST kicks in will the market go down?

This is a question I have been asked by many first time buyer clients lately. In fact, I am always asked the Chrystal Ball question by first time buyers ' should we wait' ? If I had answered yes each time since 1998, with the exception of the months before July 2008, I would have been dead wrong.

However even if I took a stab at it, as I did in 2003 when housing economists predicted a big slow down by winter 2005 (ouch bad advice eh?), I have come to the conclusion that even if I was right I could be wrong.

The reasoning is this:  If you are renting a small house in the burbs for 1400/month and you purchase today. Then, lets say 6 months after you move in prices drop 5%.  You may be a little peeved. Yes it would have cost you $8400 in rent but it certainly would not be  $15,000 - $17,000 (average first time buyer starter house x 5% drop) . However in reality, you would be living in the house so really the price drop would not materially effect you.

On the other hand, if you waited and paid rent for 6 months and then the market did not drop but in fact went up 2-4% - which has been happening in the GTA year over year - then you would be out $8400 + $6000 - $12,000. Except this time it is directly out of your pocket. you would be materially effected by up to 20,000 + dollars.

I think the first scenario would be the lesser of two evils?

MLS Changes Welcomed ... with Caution.

Even more important than being a single source for access to most houses listed for sale, our MLS system provides accuracy of information governed by local boards. Brokerages and their agents posting a listing to the MLS are further governed under the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, and by the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) who administers the act. This allows for a standardization of the tools of the trade which promotes or requires agents to be diligent about the information placed on the MLS system - and makes them liable if information is false. 

For instance, it is not unfathomable that all For Sale by Owner websites gather together and create their own MLS! There would be thousands of listings. The main thing that will be void from that system is uniformity and accountability; If you view 10 houses, information for each house will be the interpretation of each homeowner...multiple that by 300,000...

How can confidence in purchasing run as high as it currently is? 

For example, those of you who have sold or bought houses using my services may understand perfectly that the intricacies of  multiple offer negotiations, although intense,  are highly organized and serve to protect the consumer. The result may not be in a buyer's favour but the system is maintained irregardless. 

I am, however, seeing the world through rose coloured glasses. My team and the agents that surround us are full time veteran agents who mentor the lesser experienced counterparts. We know for a fact that this is not the experience of all consumers. 

So, on the flip side, I welcome changes to the MLS.  The new changes will allow it to become more of an  al-la carte system. 

I believe it will provide a stage from which  Realtors who invest in themselves, and Realtors have something unique and  tangible to offer, can get ahead. 

It may spur the public to insist that a resume be produced in order to justify how listing through a full service Realtor makes more sense than shlepping a listing on the MLS with a part time Realtor. Today, part time Realtors, Realtor who are fresh out of Real Estate College, and Realtor's whose greatest accomplishment is their uncanny ability to sell themselves, still manage to thrive.... or at least survive. 

In today's hot market, part time agents and discount brokerages survive and often thrive. Its a numbers game! Perhaps changes to the MLS will permanently end the days where a 'professional agent' can be defined just as well by a person who is a cashier full time and manages to sell 4-6 houses per year by hitching their entire business plan on the MLS.  (totally fictional but  also possible in today's system and today's hot market).