COVID and the housing market | Page 337 | GTAMotorcycle.com

COVID and the housing market

nobbie48 said:
New listings are great compared to that of decades ago. LOOK AT THE PICTURES. Google maps / street view tells you there’s a school nearby.

“There’s no upstairs” Yeah, it’s a bungalow, as listed.

One problem is expectations of granite and a six figure recent kitchen at fixer up prices

Staging is like makeup on a woman. With enough almost anyone can look good. Without staging you see what you’re going to be looking at in the morning after the beer has worn off.
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What is a fixer up price? Most houses are now seven figures. That is all of someones takehome income for 20+ years. Is that a fixer up price? My brother was burnt by that thinking pre-covid. If they were spending their max budget, they wanted a house that was modern and good looking. Their budget was a bb gun in a cannon fight. They needed to settle and they would be hundreds of thousands ahead now (and stable). The quest for perfection is always the enemy. Stick with good enough and almost every aspect of your life will be better.
 
GreyGhost said:
Buyers are by and large braindead. When we were selling our old house we got "this is smaller than the townhouse we looked at that is the same price". Yup, that's how detached house prices work. Also, "why wouldn't there be a main floor powder room?" 21x23 exterior footprint doesn't leave a lot of space, would they like to give up living, dining, kitchen or stairs to accommodate their powder room?

EDIT:
Your listing even says basement is unfinished (in RE speak "open canvas"). With that wording and no pics, I would expect a concrete room.
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Yup, not saying my home is the best one out there but far from the worst and priced accordingly.
It seems that people don't care who did the interior work or how it was done as long as it looks pretty.
When I bought this house, I was pleased the basement was unfinished so I did not have to deal with any issue from shotty workmanship.

How the times have changed...
 
Jampy00 said:
Yup, not saying my home is the best one out there but far from the worst and priced accordingly.
It seems that people don't care who did the interior work or how it was done as long as it looks pretty.
When I bought this house, I was pleased the basement was unfinished so I did not have to deal with any issue from shotty workmanship.

How the times have changed...
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You’ve got a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, should sell fairly easily if the price is right.

An unfinished basement is the best for me. Free to do whatever one wants to meet their particular needs.

The ONLY thing my house is missing is a full size basement. As it is…it’s only under half the house.
 
mimico_polak said:
You’ve got a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, should sell fairly easily if the price is right.

An unfinished basement is the best for me. Free to do whatever one wants to meet their particular needs.

The ONLY thing my house is missing is a full size basement. As it is…it’s only under half the house.
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That's the question, what is the "right" price, we've had no feedback in regards to being priced to high. But I fear many people are just buying time to see if and when the prices drop, then the question is how much will they drop?

We have a full sized unfinished basement, nice and dry. I have never heard of it not being full sized, I assume then the other half of your house is on a concrete pad of some sort?
 
Jampy00 said:
That's the question, what is the "right" price, we've had no feedback in regards to being priced to high. But I fear many people are just buying time to see if and when the prices drop, then the question is how much will they drop?

We have a full sized unfinished basement, nice and dry. I have never heard of it not being full sized, I assume then the other half of your house is on a concrete pad of some sort?
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No clue. Neighbours tell me the foundation goes deep all around…but without heavy machinery I have no way to tell.

One neighbour ended up poking through and excavated by hand and made himself a cold storage room…I don’t plan on being that adventurous.
 
mimico_polak said:
No clue. Neighbours tell me the foundation goes deep all around…but without heavy machinery I have no way to tell.

One neighbour ended up poking through and excavated by hand and made himself a cold storage room…I don’t plan on being that adventurous.
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Looking for a junction box I found a basement apartment at a low rise condo in Mississauga. All it needed was a concrete floor and a proper door. Access was by a hatch. Cut in the door, pour concrete and have a maintenance area with the layout of a two bedroom apartment.
 
Jampy00 said:
That's the question, what is the "right" price, we've had no feedback in regards to being priced to high. But I fear many people are just buying time to see if and when the prices drop, then the question is how much will they drop?

We have a full sized unfinished basement, nice and dry. I have never heard of it not being full sized, I assume then the other half of your house is on a concrete pad of some sort?
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I wonder if the instability of the market is worse than the pricing. If you peg your search based on $X and yours sells high do you start searching again going for an even better replacement If yours sells low can you stretch the dollars or do you settle for a tiny step up that’s hardly worth it?

Definitely go for an unmolested structure. Fixing up is far cheaper than tearing down and fixing up.

An older reno that the owner has done for himself and lived in might not be too bad. Flip renos are usually bad news.
 
nobbie48 said:
I wonder if the instability of the market is worse than the pricing. If you peg your search based on $X and yours sells high do you start searching again going for an even better replacement If yours sells low can you stretch the dollars or do you settle for a tiny step up that’s hardly worth it?

Definitely go for an unmolested structure. Fixing up is far cheaper than tearing down and fixing up.

An older reno that the owner has done for himself and lived in might not be too bad. Flip renos are usually bad news.
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IIRC @Jampy00 has already purchased a fantastic property further north. But my memory may be failing me.
 
My real estate buddies tell me they’re getting calls, but the only serious ones are coming from CRA.
 
Buddy selling his detached bungalow in Mimico.... Reno half done, gutted with some open (unfinished) building permits--blank slate. Decent lot very close to the lake. Electrical is top notch BTW.

Listed in July for 999K, he got a bunch of lowball offers in the 700K and 800K range.
First legit offer was 930K a week or so in, he countered at 950K and they dropped their offer to 920K, no deal.
Lots of offers wanting to pay 900K if he finished it, lol.
Next legit offer weeks later was 911K conditional on financing and they say they cannot go a dollar more, no deal.
Listing price drop to 949K
Just sold for 909K to another buyer. The closing is a month sooner than the 911k one so in the end it saves a month's carrying costs...
 
backmarkerducati said:
Buddy selling his detached bungalow in Mimico.... Reno half done, gutted with some open (unfinished) building permits--blank slate. Decent lot very close to the lake. Electrical is top notch BTW.

Listed in July for 999K, he got a bunch of lowball offers in the 700K and 800K range.
First legit offer was 930K a week or so in, he countered at 950K and they dropped their offer to 920K, no deal.
Lots of offers wanting to pay 900K if he finished it, lol.
Next legit offer weeks later was 911K conditional on financing and they say they cannot go a dollar more, no deal.
Listing price drop to 949K
Just sold for 909K to another buyer. The closing is a month sooner than the 911k one so in the end it saves a month's carrying costs...
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That must hurt but one has to move on, the sooner the better. Low ballers and chain jerkers are part of life. Avoid at all costs.
 
We're looking at a price drop, funny enough everyone wants a finished basement, but the houses with one (some with separate entrance) are not moving at all. Luckily we owe very little on our current home, so we can deal with the drop, while not happy with it (we're as greedy as the next guy)
We want this venture to come to a close so we can focus on other activities. Like what to do if we can't sell in time etc.
While we don't think we'll lose with this gamble, it is best to prepared. We signed to buy another home and the MIL already sold here condo so we're going to have to move one way or another.. LOL

The Media keeps talking about a housing crash in the near future, so with all this talk there is bound to be one (real or not)
 
Jampy00 said:
We're looking at a price drop, funny enough everyone wants a finished basement, but the houses with one (some with separate entrance) are not moving at all. Luckily we owe very little on our current home, so we can deal with the drop, while not happy with it (we're as greedy as the next guy)
We want this venture to come to a close so we can focus on other activities.

The Media keeps talking about a housing crash in the near future, so with all this talk there is bound to be one (real or not)
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As more mortgages come up for renewal, I expect a lot more listings as the monthly hit hurts. That being said, I don't expect most people to fire sale as that wouldn't help them. If they can sell for enough to escape with a different acceptable dwelling with minimal (or no) mortgage, some will but in most cases, the economics of that doesn't work. They will extend to 35+ years to get through this bump. The market will have tons of listings but price may not move down as much as some hope. The listings are just flyers to see if they can get their magic number.

I know of people that are going with pocket listings very soon to try to get their number. The ones I know of are pricing 100K over what I think they can get. A pocket listing priced over market price on a house that is nice but nothing special I don't think has a chance.

The more media talks about a crash, the more people hang out waiting for a crash. At some point, all the people on the sidelines get bored waiting and start to buy. As that frenzy starts, it picks up pace quickly as once prices start rising, those waiting for the bottom panic to get in as they realize they missed it and the rocket takes off again.

If government wanted to engineer a housing price crash, they could restrict A lenders to 25 year terms. That would be an almost immediate rush of properties to market that had to sell regardless of price. That quickly drops market prices. As with most of their recent policies, that would disproportionally affect a small portion of the market and pick winners and losers. Those renewing mortgages during the policy window get kicked in the nuts as their losses get locked in, those with small/no mortgages or those that don't renew during policy window have paper losses but they aren't locked in (unrealized capital loss).
 
ifiddles said:
@GreyGhost what is a pocket listing? never heard that terminology before...
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Not on mls. Private listing held by the realtor. Normally used for special or well-known properties where either the seller doesn't want people to know it is for sale or where realtor gets to call valued clients and let them know that they have access to a desirable secret.

Bonus points if you prepay land transfer tax on the listing. No price shows up in any public records that way.
 
GreyGhost said:
Not on mls. Private listing held by the realtor. Normally used for special or well-known properties where either the seller doesn't want people to know it is for sale or where realtor gets to call valued clients and let them know that they have access to a desirable secret.

Bonus points if you prepay land transfer tax on the listing. No price shows up in any public records that way.
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Interesting...I've heard of exclusive listings but never this one...my brother owned Remax in Oakvile for decades and I even worked for him for a while when I went back to school to become a teacher...learn something new every day! :D
 
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