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Listen to “Why you may need to do a home inspection for a condo?” on Spreaker. Alan Carson, Owner and President of Carson Dunlop Home Inspection discusses the importance of home inspections for condos. Why should you consider getting a home inspection for a condo? What kind of systems exist in a condo that need inspection? What is kitec plumbing? How can an inspector find kitec plumbing?
Listen to “Why every home or condo should be staged” on Spreaker. Lucie Brand, co-owner of Toronto Condo Staging and Design discusses why it is important to stage a property before putting it on the market. Why should you stage a house or condo? What paint colours can make the biggest difference in a sale? What paint colours can turn buyers off? How much of a difference can staging make to the actual sale price? Do buyers really need to see staging? What are some of the biggest faux pas that you see sellers making with their decorating?
I work with rentals on behalf of clients and for my own properties and the one thing I have learned is that pictures are critical. I repeat pictures are incredibly important. With more and more rentals available and with many people moving into Toronto for school and career shifts, I’m noticing a greater number of renters, renting places sight unseen because they live in other cities. If you are renting a place sight unseen, the most important thing for you is great pictures. It also improves your chances of having your place rented given the competition. When I have a new condo for rent, I hire a stager who will make the place look amazing. I know that it’s common to have condos and houses staged for sale so it’s a little uncommon to have a condo staged for a rental. Although the cost to stage the condo could be $1,500-$2,000 which is usually around the same cost as 1 month’s rent, I still feel that it is a worthwhile investment for the long-term real estate investor. Every time a tenant leaves, you will need pictures. Tenants don’t always keep their places in the best condition. In addition, many tenants don’t want their belongings photographed. The best solution is to stage your rental and hire a professional photographer to take pictures. This way, prospective tenants have a great example to see. More renters will most likely come to see your place because of it. And when an out of town renter is looking for a home, they will most likely select your place because you have put your best foot forward. Your place will look amazing. An initial $2,000 investment can become the gift that keeps on giving for the years to come each time you need a new tenant. Do this once and then you don’t have to do it again. Pictures in this digital world are simply uber important. People are moving at a faster pace and need a quicker way to select your place over the completion. So make your rental stand out. Stage your place. Take great quality professional pictures.
Does size matter? When buying a condo you need to determine what size space you’d like to live in. The older condo buildings tend to have much larger units available than the newer buildings. The average size condo in a newer (less than 5 years old) building is less than 600 sq ft. If you want space you need to look at an older building. BOTTOM LINE: If you want more square footage, go for an older building Maybe size does matter Many buyers like the idea of living in a smaller boutique condo building. However in a smaller boutique condo building, there are fewer units to spread the costs around. Generally the size of the roof is relatively similar from building to building. So if you live in a taller building with more units, you simply have more people to share the cost of replacing it. The same goes for many of the other costs of running a condo building so the more units in a building, the lower the maintenance fees can be. Some people do like having a 24/7 concierge, or a swimming pool, however both will drastically increase the costs of running the building. BOTTOM LINE: If you want lower maintenance fees, pick a large building with many units without a concierge or pool. Would you like a room with a view? The views in our city are literally changing daily and just when you think the view out of your window is secure, BAM!, a new condo building is going up. So if the view is uber important to you, the only thing you can do is to purchase a condo where the view is currently of a park or cemetery. The Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and June Rowlands Park at Davisvillle & Mt Pleasant come to mind. They will never (at least one would hope) build condos over a park or cemetery. When you’re looking for a condo, look out the window and what do you see: A parking lot? That will probably be a condo in the near future. A string of 5-10 houses? That could become a condo in 5-10 years. A small apartment building of less than 8 storeys? It could become a condo in 10 or 15 years. In New York City, when condo developers started running out of land, they started buying up apartment buildings and giving the tenants thousands of dollars as payouts to move. In the years to come, this will start to happen in Toronto. BOTTOM LINE: Remember only parks & cemeteries are safe (we hope!) if you want a room with a view. Why should you care about a status certificate? The status certificate will showcase a building’s financial health. It’s comprised of all the financial statements for the condo corporation. When you are purchasing a condo, the status certificate is sometimes made available to you up front or when you have an accepted offer on the condo. It will be conditional on your lawyer having the opportunity to review the status certificate. The status certificate will also allow you to see how much money the condo corporation has in its Reserve Fund. Every 3 years, every condo corporation must hire an engineering firm to come up with pricing scenarios as to how much it will cost to repair the mechanicals of the building, the roofing and other areas of the building over the next few years. In this Reserve Fund study, the engineers will determine how much money the condo corporation needs to set aside over the years for these repairs. Why does this matter to you? If there isn’t enough money in the reserve fund, the condo board will most likely have to ask all of the owners to pay a special assessment to bring the reserve fund up to where it should be. Does the building have a special assessment coming? A special assessment occurs when the condo corporation realizes there isn’t enough money in the budget or reserve fund to cover a major expense like fixing plumbing, the parking garage, elevator, roof or anything else. It’s when the board and property manager have that “Oh crap” moment that they can’t afford something major that needs to get done. They divide the costs between all of the owners so that each owner will pay an amount in proportion to the size of their unit. No one likes to be charged thousands of dollars they haven’t budgeted for. This special assessment will need to be paid by the seller of a condo before they leave the building or by a new buyer coming in. And don’t think you can get away without paying this if you own a unit in the building. Your condo corporation has more pull in making you pay for outstanding bills than your bank does on making you pay your mortgage. BOTTOM LINE: Be cautious if there is a special assessment on the condo. What can you do to save money on your condo purchase? Purchase an older condo that needs work and isn’t updated and do the renovations yourself. That is of course easier said than done. Doing renovations in a condo means that you’ll have to allow for additional time to have those plans approved by the condo board and property manager. When you make changes to the flooring in a condo, it can affect the suites below so it’s important to abide by the rules set in place to make sure the noise transfer will be minimal for your neighbour. Why you need to see the parking spot before you buy a condo? It makes sense that if you really like the condo to go and see the parking spot too. You need to make sure that it provides easy access for your car to get in and out. You can also assess if the spot is well-lit and how close it is to the door. Do the appliances really work? When you
Listen to “What you need to know to design a budget” on Spreaker. Connie Parsons, owner and a Financial Planner at Portfolio Clinic gives us some tips and insights into the financial planning world. What does a financial planner do? Why should people do up a will? How many people do not have a will? How often should someone update their will? Why would somebody need disability insurance? What is the difference between having mortgage insurance than life insurance? Are mortgage insurance is essentially just to make sure that the mortgage gets paid off if you die? How can you help someone save for a down payment on a home if they are wanting to get into the market? What is a Tax Free Savings Account? How can a financial planner help people budget their money more effectively?
Listen to “What you need to know before buying a condo” on Spreaker. Davelle Morrison, Sales Representative at Bosley Real Estate discusses some of the things that buyers need to know before buying a condo. How is location important in your decision to buy a condo? Which is better older condos or newer condos? What are the positive and negatives of both of both buildings? How does the size of the condo play a factor in determining whether you pay a high or a low maintenance fee? Why should you create a wish list of what your priorities are when you are buying a condo? Are fixer upper a really great way to get value for your money in the condo market? What are the positive and negative aspects of buying a fixer upper condo? What is a conditional purchase? What is a Status Certificate? Why is it important to go see the parking spot a head of time? Why is it important to buy a unit in building where the percentage of renters are below 30%? Why is it important to consider the demographic of the building when you choose to buy a unit? How is the price fluctuation for a condo on a bidding war night different from the price fluctuation you would see on a house on an offer night? What is a bully offer or preemptive offer? Which is better preconstruction condo or a resale condo? What is the percentage of investment you have to put down up from for a preconstruction condo? What is the percentage of investment you have to put down up from for a resale condo? Why is it important to hire a lawyer in your decision to buy a preconstruction condo? Which is better coop condo or a regular condo? Which segment of the market loves the coop condo? Why is it important to look out the window of the condo you intend to buy?
Listen to “How to utilize your laneways?” on Spreaker. Michelle Senayah, Co-Founder and Director at The Laneway Project walks us through some of the ways laneways could be utilized. What technically is a laneway? What city rules or by laws do you need established for the laneway projects? What are some of the things that could be done in the laneway? When it comes to doing something like a murals, how do you determine what kind of artwork suits the community and all the neighbours for that particular laneway? Who foots the bill for some of these special projects? What kinds of events would have been done in the past? What is done in the greening front? How did The Laneway Project get started? Where did that come from? How many people are working at The Laneway Project? How has the support been in the city? Has other cities been utilizing their laneways? Are their considered to be high profile laneways in Toronto? Is there an ultimate laneway you would really love to do a big project with? Do you have a couple of ideas that you have in regards to the laneways you would love to see enacted and any one of laneways you have not done yet or you would like to do? What are your big dream or ideas you really want to do in a laneway? Do people donate to help fund some of these projects? Do you fundraise? When it comes to your corporate donors who would want some exposure on the other end. How do you give them the exposure without compromising what you are doing in the specific laneway? When someone’s got a laneway in mind in their neighbourhood and they really want to get their laneway involved. How do they apply? Do they go to your website? Do they fill out an application? How does it work?
Listen to “What you should know about the Condo market” on Spreaker. Shaun Hildebrand, Senior Vice President of Urban Nation walks us through some of the trends in the condo market. What does Urban Nation do? What has been the trend in the market over the years in terms of the size of the condos? What kind of price points are the larger units coming in at? Why are more developers going with rental buildings now? Why it is not a big concern that there are so many condo building going up in a particular area? Why we are not over building condos? Why the volume of completions have gone down this year? Why will investors not be impacted at all by the number of purpose built rental buildings that are coming up? In terms of the preconstruction condos, what are the percentage in the preconstruction market who are end users, foreign investors and local Canadian investors?
Sought After Davisville Village, This Spacious 2 Bedroom Condo Faces West With A Sweet Balcony, Ready For Sunset Viewing With Wine. The Open Concept Kitchen, Living & Dining Space Is Ideal For Entertaining. Hardwood Floors Throughout. Steps Away From Davisville Subway Station, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Grocery Stores, Restaurants, Boutiques, Summer Farmer’s Market, Beltline, Ravine Trails & Parks. Extras Include: Stove, Fridge, Dishwasher, Washer, Dryer, *Locker & Parking + Bike Rack For 2 Bikes. Visit 317-245Davisville.com
Sought After Lawrence Park, This Spacious 1 Bedroom + 1 Den Condo With West Facing Ravine View From A Sweet Balcony. Large Open Concept Kitchen, Living & Dining Space Is Ideal For Entertaining. Large Master w/Closet & Den. Hardwood Floors Throughout. Close to Shopper’s, Starbucks, Grocery Stores, Restaurants, Boutiques, Ravine Trails & Parks. Extras include: Stove, Fridge, Dishwasher, Washer, Dryer, California Shutters, Locker & Parking. Visit 209-455rosewell.com
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