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Baby, we got a bubble!?

When I bought my townhouse condo, I just walked into the showroom and talked to the sales person. No real estate agent at all. I even negotiated for a slightly lower price, because I didn't want the extra incentive they were providing. I told them to take the cost of the incentive and lower the unit price by that much, and they did.

However, that was back quite some time ago, before the mid 2000s condo boom.

My first condo, back in 2002 I got a discount, I think about 3% because I didn't bring an agent.
 
Re buying condos not yet built -- I think the logical action when faced with a market of such information asymmetry is to not participate, and to protest vocally for more public data and transparency in such a systemically important industry (housing).
 
Re buying condos not yet built -- I think the logical action when faced with a market of such information asymmetry is to not participate, and to protest vocally for more public data and transparency in such a systemically important industry (housing).
Well, some people would rather just get a place to call their own to live in.

Feel free to protest though.
 
Well, some people would rather just get a place to call their own to live in.

Feel free to protest though.

What a dumb comment. There's something called "resale" out there where you can actually see what you're buying before making the biggest purchase of your life.
 
What a dumb comment. There's something called "resale" out there where you can actually see what you're buying before making the biggest purchase of your life.
So you're going avoid a huge segment of the market just because you want to "protest"? That seems even dumber to me.

Sure, if you don't want to buy pre-construction, then don't, but to ignore that entire segment based only on some misguided philosophical stance seems pretty foolish to me.
 
So you're going avoid a huge segment of the market just because you want to "protest"? That seems even dumber to me.

Sure, if you don't want to buy pre-construction, then don't, but to ignore that entire segment based only on some misguided philosophical stance seems pretty foolish to me.

I would never buy a car I haven't test driven/inspected and would never buy real estate I haven't toured/inspected. That just seems like basic common sense to me, but common sense has been absent from the real estate market for years now.

It's not about protesting...it's about acknowledging that preconstruction real estate is a completely speculative because there are almost no guarantees in terms of what the builder will deliver.
 
The other poster was talking about boycotting them and protesting.

P.S. I bought a condo townhouse preconstruction downtown and a 2004 Prius without test driving it first. Both were good purchases IMO.
 
Myth : If I don't use an agent I will get a better price. Wrong! By the time the grand opening to the public has happened, this is the 5th sales event and depending on price hikes and promo deletions from the 1st sales event to the 5th, you are most likely looking at paying more and getting less.

For those who walk in to a sales center without a trusted real estate salesperson/advisor, I really don't know what you are thinking. The on site sales staff represents the builder, they are there to sell the units, their job is to sell all of the units at the site, if you think they will tell you don't buy a unit here its no good your wrong, the builder does not employ these on site staff to tell you the suit you are trying doesn't look good on you! Have you ever walked into a sales office and the on site sales staff said Hi don't buy a unit here! Wake up! Only a real estate agent that walks in a site with you will analyize the potential of the site and the units within that site and give you guidance positive or negative. If the agent is focused on the relationship will advise not to buy a specific unit or walk out of the site and don't buy at all. Think about it.

On a side note, I am getting info on 501 Yonge st in Zurich later on this month, for those of you who purchased at 11 Wellesley Condos congratulations the site is 75% sold in a few weeks. I get first access to 501 Yonge before all other sales events. I hope to meet CN Tower in person at this site launch, time will tell. I am thinking the price will be attractive, lets wait and see, if they come in high we don't sell the site.
 
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Myth : If I don't use an agent I will get a better price. Wrong! By the time the grand opening to the public has happened, this is the 5th sales event and depending on price hikes and promo deletions from the 1st sales event to the 5th, you are most likely looking at paying more and getting less.

So you admit that the only value a real estate agent adds is due to the ponzi schmee nature of preconstruction real estate sales?

For those who walk in to a sales center without a trusted real estate salesperson/advisor, I really don't know what you are thinking. The on site sales staff represents the builder, they are there to sell the units, their job is to sell all of the units at the site, if you think they will tell you don't buy a unit here its no good your wrong, the builder does not employ these on site staff to tell you the suit you are trying doesn't look good on you! Have you ever walked into a sales office and the on site sales staff said Hi don't buy a unit here! Wake up! Only a real estate agent that walks in a site with you will analyize the potential of the site and the units within that site and give you guidance positive or negative. If the agent is focused on the relationship will advise not to buy a specific unit or walk out of the site and don't buy at all. Think about it.

What a joke. You only make money if there is a transaction. I would love to hear you give somebody advice that the condo market is overinflated right now and buying anywhere is a bad investment. But no, there is no situation that you would give that advice. It's always about pushing somebody to buy or sell something.

You don't benefit really if somebody buys a profitable unit versus an unprofitable unit. Your interests aren't aligned, so why are you pretending they are? What value do you add in analyzing an investment opportunity beyond access to information that the real estate indsutry has a monopoly on?

Why would you sell a profitable unit to somebody else instead of just buying it yourself? You admitted you buy units in the buildings you sell. Do you buy the best units and sell worse ones to your clients?

On a side note, I am getting info on 501 Yonge st in Zurich later on this month, for those of you who purchased at 11 Wellesley Condos congratulations the site is 75% sold in a few weeks. I get first access to 501 Yonge before all other sales events. I hope to meet CN Tower in person at this site launch, time will tell. I am thinking the price will be attractive, lets wait and see, if they come in high we don't sell the site.

Why are you advertising here? Buy a banner ad if you want to peddle your services.
 
So you admit that the only value a real estate agent adds is due to the ponzi schmee nature of preconstruction real estate sales?



What a joke. You only make money if there is a transaction. I would love to hear you give somebody advice that the condo market is overinflated right now and buying anywhere is a bad investment. But no, there is no situation that you would give that advice. It's always about pushing somebody to buy or sell something.

You don't benefit really if somebody buys a profitable unit versus an unprofitable unit. Your interests aren't aligned, so why are you pretending they are? What value do you add in analyzing an investment opportunity beyond access to information that the real estate indsutry has a monopoly on?

Why would you sell a profitable unit to somebody else instead of just buying it yourself? You admitted you buy units in the buildings you sell. Do you buy the best units and sell worse ones to your clients?



Why are you advertising here? Buy a banner ad if you want to peddle your services.

+1
 
So you admit that the only value a real estate agent adds is due to the ponzi schmee nature of preconstruction real estate sales?



What a joke. You only make money if there is a transaction. I would love to hear you give somebody advice that the condo market is overinflated right now and buying anywhere is a bad investment. But no, there is no situation that you would give that advice. It's always about pushing somebody to buy or sell something.

You don't benefit really if somebody buys a profitable unit versus an unprofitable unit. Your interests aren't aligned, so why are you pretending they are? What value do you add in analyzing an investment opportunity beyond access to information that the real estate indsutry has a monopoly on?

Why would you sell a profitable unit to somebody else instead of just buying it yourself? You admitted you buy units in the buildings you sell. Do you buy the best units and sell worse ones to your clients?



Why are you advertising here? Buy a banner ad if you want to peddle your services.


The reality here is that this is a middle man adding a cut. However, to blame Condo George I hardly think is fair.
The developers (business people) have figured out I imagine that a good use of their marketing dollars is to get a target audience....realtors....who have the connections with buyers.
Since so many of the projects are 3-5 years downstream, investors make up a big part of the market. The developers could deal with longer times to sell and bypass realtors but they have obviously made a business decision that they feel makes sense.

Does this add to the cost....yes for sure.
Do I agree with it....I am not happy with the system.

However, I understand it. If I were a developer, I would certainly give access to the agent who brought me 10 clients or more.

Now I don't fault Condo George for posting here. He implied this was a source of "investors" for him. If you were him, I am sure if you could "advertise here for nothing" and further pick up some revenue...all the better.

Finally, unrelated to Condo George, it is my experience that agents are there mainly to represent their own interests unfortunately. I find the problem with real estate is that it is a monopoly like situation no matter what the agents feel and like most monopolies/oligolopies, they tend to favour the monopoly/oligolopy. For e.g. the 5 main banks keep making great profits vs. the US where they don't. But there there are hundreds if not 1000's of banks.
 
The big boys are out I see.. the guys that are 10 to 20 posts deep trying to talk like they understand the market. Please do some research and understand where people come from then make a valuable contribution. I don't think it's fair to label all agents the same. I have been dealing with CG since he started in the business and don't know anyone else that puts clients first over his own interests. I've seen him lose millions in deals because he told clients not to buy! Business ethics at its best.. ps.. ive done quite well under his guidance .. he gives me great units.. ;)
 
The big boys are out I see.. the guys that are 10 to 20 posts deep trying to talk like they understand the market. Please do some research and understand where people come from then make a valuable contribution. I don't think it's fair to label all agents the same. I have been dealing with CG since he started in the business and don't know anyone else that puts clients first over his own interests. I've seen him lose millions in deals because he told clients not to buy! Business ethics at its best.. ps.. ive done quite well under his guidance .. he gives me great units.. ;)

I didn't know that the number of posts you have on this internet forum determined how well we "understand the market". Thanks for that valuable advice. I know when I want investment advice the first place I go is to a real estate agent with a high school education and a couple months at the highly-regarded Real Estate Institute of Canada.
 
I didn't know that the number of posts you have on this internet forum determined how well we "understand the market". Thanks for that valuable advice. I know when I want investment advice the first place I go is to a real estate agent with a high school education and a couple months at the highly-regarded Real Estate Institute of Canada.


I am not an agent - and just slightly less educated than that ; )

http://www.torontorealestateboard.c...ket_updates/news2014/nr_market_watch_0514.htm

Best May on record! YOYprice increases over 8% in 416
 

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