TrueCondos.com – The Best Source for Toronto Condos

Ken’s Condo

Last year a client of mine – Kenneth Friesen – purchased a great 1 bedroom and den unit at Tip Top Lofts. He hired designer Jewel Weeks to furnish and decorate it for him.  Kenneth is a very interesting guy and he gave her full creative freedom to do with it as she wanted. The results speak for themselves and the loft is currently featured in a 6-page spread in the September issue of Style at Home magazine.

Check it out in the September issue due out any day now and congrats to Jewel and Kenneth for the feature. I have posted a few more pics after the jump.

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Client Service Is For Clients

Using a buyer’s agent is not for everyone. Even though I constantly preach on this blog that having a buyer’s agent is absolutely necessary I recognize that not everyone agrees with me. Some buyers prefer to go directly through a seller’s agent, or in the case of new construction-directly through the developer. Everyone has their reasons for doing so, and that’s fine, but what I don’t understand is why some buyers feel they can have their cake and eat it too!

Quite routinely I get emails from buyers who have elected to ‘go it alone’ and buy condos directly from developer. They usually go something like this:

Hi! I really like your blog and what you have to say about the condo market. I just bought a condo at “XX” development but I don’t know if I made the right decision. Did I pay too much? Is this a good area? Are other projects better? Help!

So essentially they don’t want to hire me as their agent (at zero cost to them), but they want my expert advice and opinion on whether they made the right decision! Even better is when the buyer tells me they have their own agent, but yet they don’t care what they say, they want to know what I think!

I’ve been writing this blog about downtown condos for over 3 years now. I’m flattered that many people value what I have to say, but my client services including my advice, opinions, analysis, and access to the best developments in the city are for my clients only. Hiring me as your buyer’s agent will cost you nothing. Not hiring me as your buyer’s agent could cost you thousands.

Questions or comments? Think I’m being an arrogant jerk? Contact me or leave your feedback in the comments section.

My Response to Haiti

Like most Canadians, I have been watching the news and updates surrounding the earthquake in Haiti with a sense of shock and sadness. The images and scenes are horrific and overwhelming. And like most Canadians, I feel like it is my responsibility to do something to help.

The immediate needs are obvious: people need food, shelter and water desperately. I have faith in the International Community to provide for these basic needs in the weeks to come. But when the dust settles and all the bodies are buried, Haiti will need to literally rebuild itself. This will take years and probably hundreds of  millions of dollars.

This is why I have decided that for the next 30 days, for every client of mine who buys or sells a property, I will donate $1 for every $1000 spent to a charity of their choice to help the relief efforts in Haiti. For example, a purchase/sale of a $300,000 condo will mean a $300 donation. The charity must be directly involved on the ground with the relief work that is happening in Haiti. And to be clear, the donation will be made in the name of the buyer/seller – so there is no financial benefit for me personally.

I realize this will be more of a gesture of good will than any major significant contribution to the cause, but I feel like I have to do something more than just give personally, and I see an opportunity here for my business (helping people buy and sell real estate) to do some good.

And just a thought to all the Toronto Realtors out there who are reading this blog: if you want to join with me and do the same with your clients, I think that would be great. With a little momentum, we could start to make a significant difference. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Update 1: 24 Hours after posting this I am happy to announce that 3 other Realtors have joined in the cause. Katy Galica of Re/Max Condos Plus, Kenny Shim of Re/Max Condos Plus, and Mark Savel of Re/Max Realtron.

Update 2: I’ve joined the Toronto Works For Haiti team. Toronto Works for Haiti is a collective of Toronto area small business owners who are offering services in exchange for donations to the relief efforts in Haiti. It’s all about raising money and awareness for Haiti so I am all for pooling resources and joining this group.

I would like to highlight one organization’s efforts in Haiti: Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat’s early response to the earthquake is threefold:

• Cleanup
  To clear the way for home repair and construction, Habitat will assist in the cleanup by mobilizing people to remove debris and salvage materials that can be recycled in new shelter.
• Shelter kits
  Shelter kits include building materials and tools and are designed to help families and neighborhoods make immediate repairs to damaged homes. The kits typically include items such as wall panels, roofing sheets, hurricane straps and a hammer and nails. Habitat also has a cadre of certified masons and carpenters to assist families with immediate repairs.
• Transitional shelter
  Small transitional shelters can be built quickly and provide permanent base structures that can be expanded over time. The shelters will meet humanitarian standards of adequate living space and provision of water and sanitation. The structures will also be designed with hurricane- and earthquake-resistant features

Other organizations who were very active in Haiti before the earthquake and will be there for years to come include:

• World Vision
• Red Cross
• Oxfam
• Doctors without Borders (MSF)

Consider giving to one or more of these organizations if you have not already.

X2 Condos and River City Live Blog

Today is a rather exciting day in the life of the Toronto Condo market, so why not live blog it (watch for updates here all day and night)?

5:00am – Waking up at 5am. Ouch, that hurts. City is silent except for a couple hundred Realtors…

5:30am – I’m at the X2 Condo broker’s sales event lineup outside the Intercontinental Hotel on Bloor Street. I quickly discover 2 lines are formed – one on the south side of Bloor, one on the north

5:35am – After first thinking of joining the south side line, I decide to join the north side as word on the street was that was the line that Baker Real Estate had said was the true line. I feel bad for the people who apparently had been waiting as long as 10 days outside, but the police did not want people crossing the street during rush hour traffic so a line formed on the north side where the hotel is located.

6:30am – Media frenzy in full effect as CP24, CTV NEWS and 680 News all are filming and interview people on the scene. The Twitterverse is starting to buzz with reports of 2 or possibly 3 separate lines that have formed.

8:30am – after 3 hours of waiting I get my official number from Baker Real Estate. #45. Another 50 people across the street are now chanting slogans and shouting across Bloor street, holding up signs that read “UNFAIR”. Originally, numbers were to be given out at 12 noon, but they did it earlier due to the crowds and traffic chaos that would be caused on Bloor street from the crowds gathered.

9:30am – CTV news just called me to interview me about the event. See the article online here.

10:30am – off to River City sales centrer on Eastern Ave for the broker’s information session. Another line up to get in.

11:00am – doors open and about 200 agents are here. All the usual players from the downtown scene, and also plenty of ‘905′ agents. Say hi and catch up with a few people. Biggest news: It’s going to be a LOTTERY BUYING SYSTEM.

12:30pm – Just got back to the office and am preparing an email for my clients with all the details about River City.

2:30pm – answering client inquiries about River City and getting prepped for X2 sales event tonight.

3:00pm – Old colleague just called and asked if I want to share my spot in line for X2 event tonight…

4:00pm – Media lining up their cameras for the sales event at X2. Obviously hoping for a fracas to break out tonight. If you are driving I recommend avoiding Bloor anywhere near avenue road!
http://pic.gd/70b3a0.

7:45pm – so cold… Fingers Falling off after 3 hours waiting to get inside the hotel. No protests or drama at sales event so far

8:40pm – still outside. Word from inside is only 2 beds still available.

10:44 – managed to get a 2 bedroom unit…I think. I’m outta here. Got to get some sleep and warm up

‘Put Us On Your Radar’ Contest Winner

Congratulations to Ali Karbassi for winning the TrueCondos.com “Put Us On Your Radar” contest.  Ali is a real estate investor and currently works in business development & interactive marketing. Ali generously asked his prize of the $50 Best Buy gift card to be donated to Cancer.ca instead.

If you have not ‘put us on your radar’ yet, please do. This is a brand new web service that is now in Beta and allows my clients, customers, followers, and fans interact with me in a whole new way. Radar now supports Facebook messaging too! If you have already signed up but not yet set-up your account options for receiving ‘pulses’, please login to your account and set up your delivery options.

Stay tuned for more contests in the future and thank you to the hundreds who are subscribing, following, commenting, emailing, and working with TrueCondos.com! If you have ideas for how this service can be improved, please let me know.

The Garth Turner Effect

Garth Turner posted a link to TrueCondos.com from his very popular blog: Greater Fool. Garth is probably Canada’s best known ‘Bear’ when it comes to real estate and has been blogging and writing books about the impending doom of the Canadian real estate market for a couple years now. Garth calls me a ‘Hypester’ which is fairly flattering compared to what he calls most Realtors.

For those of you with Bear-like tendencies or who simply would like a different perspective on real estate in Canada, check out Garth’s blog. He has a strong and loyal following as you can see from the graphic above and the amount of traffic generated from Garth’s link to this site.

Put TrueCondos.com on Your Radar + Contest!

I am very pleased to announce an exciting new feature on TrueCondos.com. Big Time Radar is a brand new technology that is still in Beta and TrueCondos.com is one of the very first websites on the planet to be using this new service.

The concept behind Big Time Radar is really quite simple: it is a way for you (condo watcher, customer, client, reader, investor,  follower, stalker etc.) to get only the information you want, the way that you want to receive it. It is a 100% user-driven, opt-in communication experience. In short, it is the opposite of SPAM!

Here’s how it works:

1. Create your Radar account
2. Choose the information you want to receive from us in Pulses. You can change these at any time!
3. Choose the discreet delivery methods through which you receive your Pulses. You can change these at any time also. Currently available delivery methods: Email, Twitter, SMS Text Messages, MSN Messenger, and coming soon – Facebook.
4. Sit back and let the information you want come directly to you

You are in control-if you ever want to stop receiving Pulses, just sign into your account and remove yourself from any groups you have signed up for.

The downtown condo market moves fast and so does TrueCondos.com. Sign up and receive great insider information before everyone else:

• Information about special VIP Sales Events
• Insider gossip and news about upcoming projects
• Special offers and promotions available only to TrueCondos.com!
• Investor tips and advice
• Resale condos – Deals, Steals, Best & Worst Buildings
• and much more!

I am excited to get this service up and running and test it out with a group of users. As a special incentive to get my readers and followers to sign up, I will be giving away a $50 Best Buy gift card to one of the first 25 people who sign up for this service (random draw).

So sign up today and put TrueCondos.com on your radar!

Canadian Real Estate is Boring

A client of mine forwarded this very cool interactive flash-based chart from The Economist. It shows the house price index, actual house price movement for several countries over the past 20 years.  (The above is just an image of the actual chart. I have embedded the actual flash chart in my blog. Click ‘Continue Reading’ to try it.)

It is interesting to see how Canada’s house prices stack up against other countries over the last 20 years. The same old story holds true: since 1990, Canadian real estate has been very boring. Appreciating at very modest but steady rates compare to the huge ups and downs of several other countries. Our downturn we experienced last year was nothing compared to other countries. This is disappointing news to the doomsayers who fervently believe we are constantly heading for a massive market ‘correction’.

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100 Subscribers Reached!

Thank you to everyone who subscribed to TrueCondos.com and entered the contest to reach 100 subscribers. We actually reached our goal just a couple days after the contest was announced, and now we are all the way up to 109 subscribers as of today!

The winner of the prize of the Ruth’s Chris gift card valued at $88 is Ayaz Lalani of Brampton, Ontario. Ayaz is a seasoned condo investor and has been a subscriber to TrueCondos.com for several months. Congrats to Ayaz.

Thank you to everyone who subscribes, reads, or even just trolls this blog. Stay tuned to TrueCondos.com for more contests in the future. If you have an idea for how I can make TrueCondos.com an even better website for condo buyers, sellers, and investors in Toronto, send me an email any time!

To subscribe to TrueCondos.com, simply enter your email in the ‘Subscribe’ box in the right sidebar of this page, or subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader.

TrueCondos.com DOES NOT have Malware

Some of you may have received a rather scary looking warning from your browser or from Google when attempting to visit this website in the past 24 hours. It seems Google thinks that my site contains some type of malware that could be harmful to anyone visiting this site.

Let me assure everyone that there is no malware on TrueCondos.com and you are safe to visit this site.

The problem arose when a 3rd party widget I use on this site in the maps section was attacked by malware. This problem has been resolved by the 3rd party.

We have resubmitted TrueCondos.com to google for reconsideration and to have the ‘infected’ tag removed from us. Hopefully Google will restore us to normal some time later today. Thank you for your patience.