So why would the Competition Bureau commissioner open the doors for these types of people.  She appears to be cutting off her nose to spite her face with her plans to allow anyone with an internet connection to view a seller’s name and address, property floor plans (handy for burglers, too), sensitive property access information, negotiated sale price (how much money you might have available after a sale) and details about your mortgage (have you debt or no debt?).   It’s most disconcerting that this kind of information could be available to absolutely anyone and even anyone in any country.  So how hard is it to think that perhaps a break and enter crew would simply check your name and address, go to the internet and cross-reference your information to your phone number and then call ahead to see if it’s okay to pop over, so to speak.  They have seen all the floor plans and know how to get around your house.  I don’t know about you but I find this a bit spooky not to mention feeling very vulnerable.

This “open doors” information policy seems to be part two of her crusade to save Canadian property buyers from being taken advantage of by licensed real estate brokerages and sales persons.  It’s really absurd that she would want the public to think that realtors are like big business, huge private corporations gouging witless consumers but in fact realtors are small business, a collective of independent businesses (each realtor is an independent contractor) operating under a number of corporate banners (Graydon Hill Realty, Bosley Real Estate, Chestnut Park Real Estate, Re/Max, Sutton Group to name a few).

Commissioner Aitken appears to be of the mind that realtors try to set fixed rates for services and those rates are too much.  And she wishes to have a wide open playing field with fewer rules.   It seems she thinks that unleashing personal information will allow buyers to make a sound decision on a  property purchase with this private information without the use of a trained real estate professional should they so decide.   Should she be successful in tossing out your privacy rights, then perhaps the best rule consumers might wish to observe is  “caveat emptor” . The truth is that there is NO SET COMMISSION RATE, it is negotiable and has always been.  Organized real estate is not a cartel!

I really don’t understand Commissioner Aitken’s keen, head-strong desire to open the doors to a home owners’ privacy.  If she wants to really be a consumer advocate perhaps she should train her guns on the health insurance business.  Now there’s a business, perhaps almost cartel-like that could use a little more transparency.  More Canadians would be better served and benefit more .

We agreed to meet on a Sunday morning and inspect the property.  The house was a basic one and half storey bungalow with a rear extension and half-basement, two bedrooms upstairs, one down along with the bathroom, living room and kitchen.  The whole house was carpeted with the exception of the kitchen and the stairs.  The house appeared clean, a little damp, in need of updating and possibly some foundation improvements.  Curiously however there was an area in the living room about six feet in from the front door where the carpet and underlay had been cut out completely exposing the bare sub-floor in a rectangle about 4 feet  by 6 feet.  After a  once around and up and down we gathered near the front door and my friend’s wife said “I wonder what that’s all about?” as she pointed to the bare spot.

My instincts were to profess I had no idea as it certainly wasn’t the place that an old wood stove would have been positioned nor a former trap door to a basement as this part of the house was essentially on grade.  But I thought I knew what it might be and as I had a client relationship with them under contract through a buyer agency agreement I decided to divulge what my experience lead me to believe to be the reason for the hole in the carpet.

I concluded that the owner had died on the carpet in the area that had been removed.   I assume there must have been some issue with the cost of remediation and therefore rather than replace the carpet wall to wall, the service company removed the area and cleaned just that space alone.  Based on my duty to my client, specifically “to disclose material facts” I decided to divulge to them what I thought was the reason for the strange hole in the carpet.  When I told them they gave me the “eeeh” reflex but appreciated the information.  I did tell them that it was conjecture and that I would attempt to have it confirmed by the listing agent.  They told me not to bother as the property did not have the functionality or space that they were looking for anyway.

So why “deadly consequences”?   As a professional licensed realtor my duty was to disclose what I thought to be a material fact which is defined in our Code of Ethics as “any fact that would affect a reasonable person’s decision to acquire or dispose of an interest in real estate”.  What if the sale was a private sale, for sale by owner?  The owner is not bound by any rules or code of ethics.  Or, what if this was an MLS  listing in which the seller retained a real estate brokerage  and elected to handle their own showings and were unaware that non-disclosure of this kind of an incident might affect a buyer’s decision?  Can you imagine the distress of the buyer and potential for litigation if a deal had been made and if the truth came out after the fact?  That’s deadly!

When you are buying a property retain an experienced and licensed professional realtor.  And, formalize the relationship with a buyer agency agreement in which you hire the brokerage under ‘client agency’.  It’s in your best interest and to your advantage.

Back to the subject, the Toronto Star is want to paint a dismal picture of residential real estate along the lines of Chicken Little’s “the sky is falling” ilk,  more often than not penned by their Tony Wong.  Maybe his editor writes his headlines but when I see them my eyes roll.  So knowing that the release of  the September sales stats by the Toronto Real Estate Board were imminent I pledged to myself to review the information and make my own pronouncement.

Here’s the breakthrough, the residential re-sale housing market is quite robust but not outrageously burgeoning, simply where it should be given our reasonably healthy micro-economy.  I reviewed unit sales of single family homes over the last five years, 2006 to 2010 for the period January 1st to September 30th.

TREB Unit Sales 2006 – 2010

As you can see by the chart we experienced a high point in 2007 which was the ‘land rush’ created by Mayor David Miller when he announced the Toronto Land Transfer tax to be instituted in February 2008, this also in my opinion drove up the average price considerably as multiple-offer fever was rampant in the 416 area code.  The low point as we are all most uncomfortably aware of was the affect of the collapse of global financial markets that hit us in 2008.  

By averaging the sales volume for the period over the last five years it provides perspective to judge this year’s performance and see it for what it is.  The average sales volume over the last five years for the period was 68,195 single family homes sold and for 2010 the volume was 69,069 homes, about a 1.3% increase.  Seems like a fairly stable situation to me.

It appears as though Bill Johnston, President of the Toronto Real Estate Board would concur with my view as he sums it up succinctly as reported in his column in the Toronto Sun.

“While September market conditions were not near the record-setting pace experienced in the first half of the year, it is important to recognize that the fundamentals of a healthy housing market continue to be in place. Today’s low interest rates for example, mean that only a moderate share of the average household income must be directed toward mortgage payments, contributing to the affordability of resale homes in the GTA. As well, more than nine out of 10 people in our province continue to be employed. This is in addition to the fact that new immigrants and the children of the Baby Boom generation will continue to fuel demand for housing from a long-term perspective.”

I will keep watch and report how this all plays out at year end.  For now my message for both sellers and buyers is that it is business as usual.  There are more good reasons to participate than there are bad.

Diminutive Bungie

In the real estate section of the Saturday, March 26th edition of the National Post, the city’s smallest home (not sure how or who designated it as such) was featured again as it was up for sale again. It reminded me that I had planned to write a post about the benefits that a smaller home (perhaps not one as small as this) can provide for their owners, some obvious but others I’m sure most would overlook.

About two weeks ago I was walking home from visiting a restaurant on the Danforth and along the way met a neighbour from the street I live on. It was good to catch up on latest news from her end of the street and to hear that her husband and kids were all doing fine and that they were really happy that they just stayed in their home rather than “move-up” to a larger home.

She told me quite proudly and justly so that their mortgage was paid off and how good it felt to not have that kind of debt to deal with and the accompanying freedom of choice to do other things or increase their savings. As we continued walking and talking I asked about her children and was surpised at their age, time apparently does fly! They were now both teenagers.

As well we talked about the bouyant real estate market and it’s continued strong health in Riverdale and Toronto despite the blip in the fall of 2008 and she said they had considered moving from their 3 bedroom semi to a larger detached home but the street and neighbourhood were a major factor in staying put and their was a huge upside to the smaller home.

Smaller spaces can lead to unseen rewards.

What she realized as her children advanced in age, especially their teen years was that the intimacy of smaller spaces forces a family to be more aware of each other. It may be a little tough trying to have privacy but then again for some kids too much privacy can sometimes lead to too much trouble. Clearly it’s easier for parents to be a little more aware of what’s going on with their kids when they are not separated by three or four floors or ten rooms. For my neighbour this has been the unseen reward, a connected family with open dialogue, comfortable being close. All this from a smaller house? No doubt it works best with some great parenting skills!

Inspiration for today’s blog is courtesy of the Sunday, February 21 edition of the New York Times. I manipulated the title thinking that the standard cliche would grab more readers’ attention. This is an entrepreneurial success story about a couple in California that came up with an idea that really is right for our times. In fact a very low tech solution for a high tech world.

Their original idea in the late 90’s based on a notion that the world would soon purchase hordes of goods online turned out to be dead on. However, their original version of a secure mailbox/dropbox was the size of a microwave oven. Who knew that digitization would change the world so drastically that computers would go from cathode ray tube monitors to LED slices. They clearly saw how Amazon.com and the Shopping Channel would change how we shop but also the problem it presented. The dreaded “deliveries are made between 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., please have someone there to receive it” in which we are held captive to the whims of a driver, computerized delivery system, the weather or acts of God. What evolved was a company with a safe, sound proposition for modern times, a secure, weatherproof and tamperproof receptacle capable of holding high value small parcels and large mail anytime of day…no signature required. Clearly they had the captured the real “ah hah” moment. Freedom and peace-of-mind in a box!

The company name is Architectural Mailboxes and the Oasis model depicted above sells for $248.00 U.S. and is available at Lowe’s in Buffalo. They have a full line of very eye pleasing mailboxes in tradional and contemporary styles that you would rarely see in Toronto. Worth a look online.

Wow, using Street View is a real eye opener. Whatever you were doing, left outside on your lawn or on your porch is now and forever out there for the world to see. And that includes tech savvy buyers who diligently check out all the sources they can when doing their home searches. It’s an excellent way to see what the neighbourhood looks like, often times most candidly.

Listening to “Q” on CBC yesterday they mentioned Wayne Coyne from Flaming Lips captured by Street View sitting in a bathtub on his front lawn. There goes that neighbourhood!

In a world that has concerns about privacy clearly it’s an issue that is increasingly being taken out of our hands because of our most peculiar and contrary desire to have more access. Truly a bit of an oxymoron.

So I guess the moral of the story is to always look your best. Curb appeal counts. Big time! You may not be able to control what your neighbour’s do but you can certainly look after yourself.

The phrase sprang to mind recently when a neighbour came to my door and asked me to assist him in interpreting the survey of his property that he had aquired when he purchased his property. The reason he was asking for my assistance was because he was about to renovate and restore his semi-detached garage at the rear of his property. When he broached the issue with his adjoining neighbour a feud between the families erupted.

Basically the adjoining neighbour refuted the old survey and said that in fact my other neighbour was encroaching on his property and he would not permit any construction until he was proved wrong. My neighbour and friend asked me to review his documents which consisted of a survey, circa 1930′s along with a typewritten description of the metes and bounds of the plot of land showing the house but no other structures. I found it difficult to read and clarify the boundaries and in some cases the information seemed contadictory. I then logged on to our Toronto Real Estate Board site to check the Land Registry online which clarified the shape of the parcel initially sorting out the semi-detached garages documentation but also bringing up a new twist, the lot was stated as being 138 feet long versus 130 feet on the survey. The MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) file as well showed the lot size as 138 feet in depth.

With this news my neighbour was clearly flustered and now thought that he might not only have all his land but might also be paying more taxes than he had to. Insult to injury. He then decided to have a new survey done in order to settle things with his neighbour on the assumption that with GPS and modern technology he would have accurate documentation to convince his neighbour to relingquish his “wrongful rights” to my neighbours property. The survey was done within a matter of days and proved that the adjoining neighbour had encroached on my neighbours property by about 6 inches (I think the foundationless structure had actually drifted on its own over time) and that the lot depth was actually 130 feet in depth as per the original survey.

Over the course of a two week period relationships had been bruised, tempers flared, time wasted and time lost. An encroachment is a large word for what is usually a very small or incidental thing, but sometimes not, that’s when it’s important to have a survey of your property, one that’s as recent as any of the major changes.

If you are buying a property insist that your realtor includes a clause in the offer for a survey or at least a copy of a survey, it just could come in handy someday, the least of which would be when you sell.
If there isn’t a survey consult with your realtor and your legal counsel for title insurance to protect you against claims against your property.

This is another chapter in my as yet unwritten ‘realtor slice of life’ story. And it’s all to do with listing and marketing of properties to present them in their best form. I have always considered that “god was in the details” and hence whether it was advertising or real estating (forgive the mangle) I’ve always had an eye for precision when it comes to presentation. In both businesses this works out great if one has ample supply of two critical components; time and money.

As one might suspect there are also two things that come into short supply when people wish to sell their properties, right? It goes something like this, “We have to list and sell within 30 days max, we just have to!” and, or “We are really tight on our budget and we don’t really want to put money into something we’re leaving behind.” It’s at this point as realtors we either have to stare them down and cajole them into finding more of both and a supplier to go with, or roll up our sleeves, jump into our coveralls and help them over the hump, in the spirit of “we’re in this together, aren’t we”.

I take people at their word and for the majority their retort is absolutely genuine, most are tight on their budget and understandably so. It’s why I personally go out of my way to help my clients where I can and I can do so because of my life experiences. Good and kind people, including my father showed me how to do stuff. I learned not always by doing but by always watching and paying very close attention to process and technique. The paying attention part I found was the most critical aspect of the learning because the opportunity to put it into practice invariably comes when one is on their own. No bailouts, no do-overs.

I have taken a great deal of personal satisfaction in a job well done for my clients that apart from the successful sale of their properties I was also able to supply my skills and equipment (numerous power and hand tools) to do these household and property fix-ups:
-Replace treads on stairs
-Install baseboards and crown moulding
-Apply new framing to doors
-Replace decking and railings
-Tiling and grouting of bathroom floors
-Repair dripping faucets, leaking plumbing, seals on toilets
-Install lighting, replace faulty switches
-Recut interior doors to fit properly
-Drywall repair and painting
-Install drapery (hemmed it too!)
-Lay sod and paving stone
-and I’m sure I will remember more after I post this…

And along with the aforementioned skills of dexterity I have also been blessed by having a sense for eye pleasing design and layout thanks to my years as an advertising and promotional marketing professional. These allow me, with a fair degree of comfort to counsel my clients on room layout, pedestrian flow and the points to be emphasized in their homes to maximize the overall experience for prospective buyers.

I feel good that my life experiences have helped me to help my clients and my friends too.

My first exposure to the building was in 2005 when I was introduced to a very tall single gentleman, a working actor that had speculated on a new construction, actually a retrofit, 1 bedroom apartment which he now wanted to flip after registration.

We seemed to hit it off. He was a detail kind of guy and of course as a former agency client services director details were second nature to me. Our next meeting was at his apartment in order that I could properly evaluate the property and get a sense of who would be the best target group and obtain a signed listing agreement. It was at this time that I discovered that the soon-to-be client had with finite and meticulous detail had the builder customize both the kitchen and the bathroom cabinetry to a counter height of 41 1/2 inches to suit his height. He absolutely beamed at how well it turned out and the comfort that it provided him.

To put this in context, the standard counter height is 36 inches, his tops were almost a half foot higher. Wishing not to injure his pride I tactfully mentioned that the cabinet height could have an impact on not only who but also how many people might find it acceptable without wishing to discount the price. He shrugged off the thought and I with some trepidation took the listing and started to market the property.

There are some few true axioms in real estate, i.e. location, location, location and right up there with that is “highest and best use” which simply means the property’s highest value can be obtained when it is purposed for its best use. This building on Yonge Street is a live/work building featuring retail on the ground level and a mix of residential and professional suites on the second and third level. Walking by it on the street one simply thinks it’s a professional building. Given that this suite was on the second floor where the majority of professional suites were located clearly our best shot was to target live/work professionals not withstanding that as a residence it offered a prime location and quality interior finishes in the unit.

It wasn’t long on the market after a few open houses and showings that I discovered the quirky nature of the cabinetry was an issue with most people, and the female gender in particular were aghast. I recall one time I was working an open house there and when no one was present I tried lifting a pot from one burner to another on the stove. I’m an average height, I think I’m 5′ 10′ / 185 cm and I found the motion extremely awkward, like holding your arm out straight with the pot in your grip, in fact a lttle tortuous. Instanly I empathized with anyone shorter than I regardless of gender.

Given my creative nature and Scottish perseverance I decided to renew my marketing efforts and strike out on two fronts to find a buyer through some different advertising and promotion. I decided to directly target two groups; medical professionals (there were three in the building already) and tall people. I wrote the copy for an ad to run in medical journals and a promotional leaflet for ambush marketing to reach tall people, noteably members of the Tall Club of Toronto.

Medical Journals Ad

Promotional Leaflet

The best part of this story is the irony of the outcome. The ambush marketing was the first to be tried. I hired an attractive young woman, close to 6 feet tall who along with a friend of hers went off to intercept members of the Tall Club at one of their monthly meetings at a Firkin pub on Yonge Street. As it turned out it was a low turnout that evening and although members graciously accepted the handout and thought the bonus of offering $250 donation to the Canadian Marfan Association (The Tall Club’s Charity) should a member of the club purchase the property, no interest was generated. Lesson learned, the target group was too small, excuse the pun, not in stature but in number.

The next foray was targetted at medical professionals; MDs, dentists, chiropractors in the local area. The ad did not run in magazine but was placed in foyers of medical and professional buildings bulletin and information boards. I cannot however in recollection attribute a prospective inquiry to the ad. However, the buyer turned out in fact to be a psychiatrist who had come by chance to an open house.

For the doctor this unit was a perfect fit. A great location, a good price and a perfect size for his practice. What had escaped me prior to the introspection which propelled me to write this is that the doctor was at least one foot shorter than the seller! Proving that size, in terms of height at least isn’t everything nor a deal breaker.

You are probably asking “So what’s the big deal with that?”. There are a few issues, some of which are sublime and not so, with serious implications, then there are the ridiculous, at least from my point of view.
Having spent over twenty years in the advertising and promotion business prior to my second career as a realtor I became highly sensitive and attentive to “truth in advertising”, which is the serious and not to be fooled with aspect and then there is the ridiculous which from my observations of the Toronto MLS system is a minefield of typos, mangles and errors foisted upon the reader by the writer, aka, the sales representative.

When I get to thinking about MLS listings (ads) in retrospect, I believe that real estate sales representatives were probably the front line of the message massagers who we now call ‘spin doctors’. Little did I realize when I was considering the real estate profession that I would be joining an elite squad of writers and publicists! Of course it should be noted that the main thrust of the majority of the advertising copy they (please note I did not say we) created was and is founded in the celebration of hyperbole as substance.

Because an MLS listing is an advertisement it falls under two levels of jurisprudence, the Competition Act from the federal level in Ottawa, and the Real Estate and Business Broker Act of Ontario both of which bodies should one be found guilty of a transgression can fine for civil offences and federally can jail in criminal cases the truth stretchers. Corporations are highly sensitive to litigation and hence for the majority “truth in advertising” is the watchword which was drummed into me by MacLaren Advertising and General Motors at the onset of my first career. No shading, shaping allowed! Which is why I like to write my ads (my listings) to the point, and hopefully clever without obfuscation. It is a serious undertaking that a realtor relies on and in so doing their client (the consumer) does as well and guilding the lily is not acceptable especially if it misrepresents facts or clouds the existence of defects.

Then of course there is what I find to be the humourous perhaps not always intended gaffs created in MLS listings on a daily basis that for some reason aren’t considered by some realtors as a ‘big deal’. After all it’s just a listing. Here are a few that you might find interesting:

“Quaint Elegant Starter Home Has Been Touched W/Sophisticated Updates Thought Out!”
“Both Clients Are Out Of Town On Staggerd Dates.”
“Suited For Daily Life And Glamarous Entertaining”

Maybe it’s just my somewhat jaundiced sense of humour when it comes to copywriting but coming across these tidbits does after an initial OMG does kind of give me a giggle. Some of the simple typos might be caught if the software in our MLS system had spell check but for the most part what flies by and into the internet forever is simply the fact that most people don’t proofread. Of course as you can see by the sampling above that it may also take a little more than proofreading to correct.

Brydon-Harris