Entries Tagged 'Toastmaster Speeches' ↓

Doesn’t that just get everyone’s blood boiling? You all know what I’m talking about. It’s the little bungalow in Mimico that made headlines in January.

If you haven’t heard, the story is about a run down 1200 sq ft property that sparked a 31 person bidding war. Nothing special, nothing that really deserved 31 people fighting over it.

If I could sum up the whole debacle in one word, I would call it disgraceful.

Madame Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters, Welcomed Guests,

Before you start pulling out your hair, know this: Real estate prices have not shot up 150% over night.

So how could something like this happen?

It’s the result of an unethical, uneducated, and disrespectful tactic put forward by the Seller and the Real Estate Agent who listed the property for sale.

Here is the secret that no one else will tell you.

The little bungalow in Mimico was $200,000 underpriced to begin with. A mere tactic to lure in some unsuspecting Buyers.

The tactic goes like this:

1. Listing agent meets with Seller of a $600,000 property.
2. Listing agent may or may not know the market value of the house, convinces the Seller to list for $200,000 less than what the true value is.
3. Listing agent counts on naí¯ve Buyers to ­­­throw in offers, and eventually arrive at a sales price that is 150% over asking.

I’ve been in the real estate business long enough to know this is wrong.

1. It’s unethical. The Real Estate Council of Ontario has distinct rules about this type of practice. What has been demonstrated here is false advertising. The Seller never had any intention of selling a $600,000 property for $400,000.  It’s illegal for Starbucks to advertise a $4 latte, and charge you $6 at the counter. Why isn’t it illegal in real estate?

2. It’s uneducated. I’ve had conversations with my colleagues and we wonder if perhaps the agent didn’t even know how to determine the market value. The most difficult job for a listing agent is to price a house. It’s a moving target, and it takes experience to get it right. If you list too high, you’ll scare off a large pool of Buyers. If you price too low, you may be leaving money on the table.  A knowledgeable listing agent would apply the market conditions, competitive listings, and strategy to determine the listing price.

3. It’s disrespectful. To pull in 30 Buyers into a what is basically a game, shows exactly how little regard the listing agent had for people’s time and emotions.

To add fuel to the fire, the listing agent double ended the deal, which basically means he cheated.  First he reviewed all 30 offers with the Seller. Then he called the 31^st Buyer – his own client – and let him know the highest offer on the table is $600,000. If his Buyer client wants the property, all he needs to do is add a $1 to the highest bid and he’ll come out the winner. Whether or not his Buyer client’s offer was $1 higher or $1,000 higher, we’ll never know. The point is his own client had an unfair advantage and the listing agent was motivated to play unethically because if he can double end the deal, he can double his commission.

So what happened to the 30 other bidders? They walked away stressed out, defeated, and broken hearted.

There will be mixed feelings in the room after this speech. Some of you will be completely appalled and sympathetic towards the 30 poor bidders left with nothing. Some of you might think a listing agent should do everything in his power to get the maximum price for his Seller.  Fair enough.

There’s only one thing I want you to remember, and it’s that there’s a right way and a wrong way of doing business.

When you conduct yourself in a manner that’s unethical, uneducated, and disrespectful — it’s the wrong way.

In my opinion, I think the Seller and Listing Agent could have obtained the same financial outcome without the dramatic misleading scheme.

The lesson I want you to take away is for the potential Buyer.

If you ever find yourself in this position — where you’re up against 30 or so bidders — do your research. Find out what similar houses on the street have sold for. If you know ahead of time the house is worth around $600,000, you won’t waste your time or emotional well being offering anything less.

Disclaimer: The preceding commentary is the opinion of Hanna Stecewicz and does not represent the interests or opinions of Right at Home Realty Inc., Brokerage or the Toronto Real Estate Board. Therefore, Right at Home Realty will not be held responsible and/or liable for any of the opinions herein.

CityPlace is Toronto’s largest multi-tower condo community in the Harbourfront District. The 6 building, 1500 unit complex spans across 52 acres of land, including an 8 acre community park.

I’m a real estate agent, and I’ve had a few clients ask me about CityPlace, but I don’t give them sugar coated answers. A real estate purchase is a big deal, for many it will be their largest investment. My clients need to be confident that whether it’s 1 month from now, or 5 years down the road, they will have the same confidence in the purchase that they did on day 1.

So I give my clients all the information they need to make an educated decision when it comes to buying a condo at CityPlace.

Madame Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and Welcomed Guests,

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Good: Price, Architecture and Amenities

Price: A quick MLS search for 1 bedroom condos under $300,000 in the downtown core (south of Bloor between Dufferin and the DVP) will produce hundreds of listings. 42% of those listings are from City Place.

Architecture: The architecture impacts the Toronto skyline in a positive way. The materials, glass and brick, seem appropriate for a complex that is contemporary but which also inhabits land that comes out of Toronto’s industrial past.

Amenities: The complex does have a community feel to it, and is designed to bring neighbours together. The amenities, which are shared between the buildings, include a 30,000 sqft recreation center with swimming pools, squash courts, a bowling alley, basketball courts, a rock climbing wall, tennis courts, running tracks and full fitness facility.

Bad: Supply and Location

Supply: There are eight condominiums in CityPlace, and around 4,000 units.  If panic selling was to take place, and “only” 10% of the owners at CityPlace were to list their units, there would be 400 units on the market to choose from. This is an extreme example, but you get the idea. It’s not going to be easy to sell if you have so much competition.

Location: It’s right on the Gardiner – and it’s loud. There’s nothing around either, no restaurants, no coffee shops and it’s still a long walk to the subway. Spadina Ave bisects the complex, creating an enormous traffic nightmare for residents especially during rush hours as commuters use the road to get on and off the Gardiner and Lakeshore.

Ugly: Quality

Quality: These buildings went up so fast, I question their quality. Plus with an inordinately high percentage of renters in the complex, the buildings aren’t cared for – I’ve heard of people throwing cat litter down the garbage chute, and letting their dogs litter the hallways. This all directly impacts your maintenance fees. I would say with confidence, that the buildings at CityPlace are mistreated. When the condo corp is forced to spend money on constant repairs and clean-up — it becomes expensive for the condo owners. As the reserve fund, money set aside for maintenance, becomes depleted – maintenance fees go up.

Conclusion:

In the end, it all comes down to preference. As long as my client’s have all the information, it’s up to them to decide whether they should buy at CityPlace or not. I have helped a Seller client sell a unit at CityPlace, but I have never helped a Buyer client buy at CityPlace, at least not yet. Perhaps my clients acknowledge the fact that there are many condos out there with higher value than CityPlace Either way, I stand by the mantra: You get what you pay for.

Disclaimer: The preceding commentary is the opinion of Hanna Stecewicz and does not represent the interests or opinions of Right at Home Realty Inc., Brokerage or the Toronto Real Estate Board. Therefore, Right at Home Realty will not be held responsible and/or liable for any of the opinions herein.

Due to the amount of content I have to share, I will be dividing my speech into a two part series. Part one is called “Pre-Construction Condos: La Bella Vita”.

“What does Italian Inspired mean? It means knowing that ciao means hello and good bye. It’s knowing that vino time is never being on time. It’s no matter what you do; you have to look good doing it. It’s la bella vita. Treviso condos starting at 170. Now open, visit the sales centre and find la dolce vita.”

It sounds good! Why wouldn’t people line up outside the sales centre for their chance to own a Treviso condo, and live la bella vita???

Madame Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and Welcomed Guests.

It’s all marketing. Some of Toronto’s best marketers were hired to make a horrible product sound so bella.

This speech isn’t about Treviso condos though; it’s about pre-construction condos in general. The point is pre-construction condos are not all what they seem to be, and I want to help you see past the marketing. At the very least, I want to inspire you to think about perception vs. reality.

Let’s examine the three factors you would consider in the purchase process.

The first factor is price. People buy pre-construction because of the perceived price discount. “Treviso condos start at 170”. Is that a great deal? Maybe it is, if it were true. Well it isn’t true. The highest value units were sold off to the developer’s investor friends long before the sales centre was opened to the public. A developer will never sell you a great deal. Not in 2011. In 2005, when the concept was still new and there wasn’t much demand yet and marketing wasn’t enough, developers had to discount the price to lure people in. Anyone who bought back then saw a nice return on their investment, but now it’s too late. Developers have  created long term hype around pre-construction condos, there’s no more need to discount the price since people keep jumping on the bandwagon. The price of a pre-construction condo now is on par with the price of a resale condo, so why do people still think they’re getting a deal?

The second factor is the condo unit itself. What exactly are people buying? You walk into a sales centre, a sales rep hands you a glass of champagne and you follow her into the model suite. It’s bright, airy spacious, the ceiling must be 14 feet tall, the layout is incredible because it feels like 1,500 square feet! It has granite in the kitchen, marble in the bathroom, a walk in closet large enough to be a den. There’s even a fireplace in the bedroom. The sales rep pulls out the floor plan. This is the Sona suite — 626 square feet. Take a moment. Think about it. Look at the piece of paper in front of you. The drawing is the same layout as the model suite, but notice there are no measurements on the paper?  Should you believe the Sona model suite you’re standing in now is actually 626 square feet? Should you take out a measuring tape? Seems like an embarrassing thing to do. No one does that. You are intelligente. No one will take advantage of you. You take a sip of your champagne and follow the sale rep into the office.

The third factor is the contract. Every developer has their own contract. It’s 50 pages long and ironclad. The sales rep is employed by the developer; her job is to tell you that it’s a standard contract, with standard clauses and not to worry. You’re buying the Sona suite, that’s all you need to know. What she doesn’t point out is that on page 27, there’s a sentence that says the developer has the right to make any material change, at any time, without notifying you and there is nothing you can do about it — that includes removing the walk in closet, and the fireplace, and the granite, the marble, the ceiling height which was never 14 feet to begin with. The developer can do whatever the developer wants. After all, the pre-construction industry is unregulated in Ontario.

All you have to do now is sign on the dotted line and you might live la dolce vita. But for now all you have is a piece of paper. You’ve tied up your deposit for the next three years.  Your new condo doesn’t exist today, it won’t exist until 2014, and it might not ever exist.

If you take anything away from this speech, it’s that you should do your due diligence. You still have a rescission period. Take your 50 page contract to your lawyer immediately. Find out exactly what it says. You still have 10 days to back out.

In my next speech, Pre-Construction Condos: La Horrible Vita, I will show you what can go wrong when you don’t do your due diligence.

Grazie, ciao!

Disclaimer: The preceding commentary is the opinion of Hanna Stecewicz and does not represent the interests or opinions of Right at Home Realty Inc., Brokerage or the Toronto Real Estate Board. Therefore, Right at Home Realty will not be held responsible and/or liable for any of the opinions herein.