I apologise for the delay in sending out my communications. For many of you I know that there is an empty feeling at the end of the week when the communication does not arrive J. It has been a very busy time. Between moving out, prepping and listing properties for sale and taking buyer clients around, the communications have not been consistent. I will strive to get them out weekly again.
Earlier this week
Last Sunday I showed a nice semi-detached home at 595 Concord Ave. The list price was set at 599k. Offers were set for presentation night on Wednesday. I thought that the property value for this home was a maximum of 650k and that was a little bit of a stretch. My client liked the home and wanted to see it again on Tuesday evening. Monday, at 1pm I received a message that a bully offer was coming in and that the offer night was pushed forward to that night (Monday). I give credit to my client who without missing a beat made an offer as well (A firm deal with a strong price). In the end 8 offers were submitted and the home sold for $761,000! – I really I can’t explain that – scratching my bald head on that. Needless to say my client did not get the home and I would of advised him not to even get close to that valuation. The problem going forward is that $761,000 is now the benchmark price that other sellers will gauge there properties against.
This Weekend – Open House Invite
Open house is Saturday 1-3pm and Sunday 2-4pm
COME JOIN ME at 372 Crawford St where I get to showcase a fantastic and beautiful family home by Trinity-Bellwoods and Little Italy.
Check out the tour for this totally fab home. Email me for more info!
http://www.propertyspaces.ca/372crawford
In the GTA Market
It’s much of the same in Toronto, low inventory. The demand is still quite strong and out pacing supply despite some new listings coming out. Next week I will share the April results but expect the official stats to echo this point. Interest rates remain unchanged and lenders are offering some (in a TV announcer voice) “Craaaazy Rates” This coupled with low supply is seeing prices steadily climb.
Are there limits? – Of Course. Another renovated (flipper) semi-detached home on Crawford street was listed at $1.349 million and stalled to take offers. Although a nice home, there were some limitations with the property. Offer night came and went and it did not sell. It is now on market at $1.5 million.
Construction Blog # 5 (Bust a Move to my in-laws)
March break 2015 and the Gallippi family packed up their truck and moved to Beverly-Hills that is . Lara packed up box after box of 12 years’ worth of “stuff” and I hauled it away to a friend’s home nearby who was very kind in letting me steal a room in a basement. Other boxes ended up in a friend’s garage attic and some others at my in-laws. It will be a great scavenger hunt 1 year from now!
Overall the move went well and we are settled and happy. I am actually quite comfortable and plan to sabotage construction somewhat to maximize our stay here. All kidding aside, we have been delayed with our truss drawings – again! This time I take some of the blame because we made some changes that required revisions and thus started the process again. As of now the best timeline I can muster is for demolition to start at end of May. I’m not sweating it too much. Life is busy with business, rep soccer, rep hockey etc. plus, it’s out of my control so…..”Wadda you gonna do?”
I’m fortunate to have the support I do with family as I’m sure if I didn’t I would not be so “ok” with it.
Vancouver home sells for more than $2 million above listed price
A Vancouver home sale that closed this month at more than $2 million — or 33 per cent — above the listed price is the latest eyebrow-raising real-estate deal in a city racked by worries about affordability.
The home, at 1383 West 32nd Ave. in Vancouver’s tony Shaughnessy neighbourhood, was listed for $5,990,000 on Feb. 5 of this year, according to its MLS listing. It sold for $8,010,000 on Feb. 17, and the sale was finalized on April 16.
The listing broker for the sale, Stuart Bonner of Re/Max, said 10 prospective buyers expressed interest in the property during the 12 days it was on the market. That level of interest is fairly normal, Bonner said, but the sale coming in at more than $2 million above the listed price was “unusual.”
“It’s that kind of a market,” Bonner said.
Bonner said Vancouver’s supply of detached houses is shrinking while more lots are converted to townhouses and apartments.
“When you’ve got too little supply (of detached houses) and too many buyers, that’s always what happens,” he said. “There’s only one result: Prices go up.”
The property’s assessed value this year is listed at $5,094,600, records show, meaning the sale price was $2.9 million above its assessed value.
Bonner has worked in real estate on Vancouver’s west side for 36 years, and said in that time the housing market has “absolutely” changed. He recently saw a property he had sold for $1.98 million a few years earlier that resold for more than $2.5 million.
“I was thinking, ‘Holy smokes, in three years it’s gone up $600 grand?’” he said. “When you look at it logically, you can understand why it happens. But it is a lot of money. It’s expensive, and it makes it difficult for people.”
Data released this week by Desjardins economists showed housing “affordability continued to slide in Vancouver” in the first quarter of 2015.
The Desjardins Affordability Index, based on the average household disposable income compared with the income needed to obtain a mortgage on an average-priced home, was released Wednesday. The report notes Vancouver’s average property-sale price was nearly $850,000, twice as high as the average across Canada.
The wood-framed, two-storey house on West 32nd Avenue has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, according to the listing, which also notes the property, on a 100-foot lot, is “perfect for redevelopment.”
The lot is zoned for a single-family dwelling, and doesn’t meet guidelines to be subdivided into two lots, said Susan Haid, assistant director of planning for the City of Vancouver.
No one answered when a Province reporter knocked on the house’s front door Thursday afternoon, and there were no vehicles in the driveway. While the lawn and landscaping were well-maintained, it appeared the house was empty.
Land-title records list the property’s new sole owner, Xiuhua Li. Records list Li’s occupation as “housewife.”
Bonner said he believes the new owner’s family has lived in the Vancouver area for some time and plans to move to the West 32nd Avenue property and live there.
Records list the property’s previous owner as John Everett Stark, lawyer. Bonner said the Stark family had lived there for more than 50 years before selling this year.
Last month, an East Vancouver home sale made headlines when it sold for $567,000 over the listed price. That house, at 65 East 26th Ave., was listed at $1.6 million and sold for more than $2.1 million.
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Have a super fantastic, wonderful amazing sunny weekend.
Anthony