Richard Silver

Archive for December, 2009

Toronto Real Estate: A Home Inspection Story Part 4

Years ago a consumer bought one of my listings, and after living there for 10 years and having children, he decided to finish the basement as a bedroom and playroom for his children. A few years later he decided to sell it and a pre-listing inspection was done and then the new buyer decided to do another one as part of the Purchase. After the sale was completed it was found that there was dampness in the basement and the...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate: Home Inspections Part 3

Issues that arise during the Home Inspection. Over the years I have seen many issues that arise during a Home Inspection. They usually fall under three main categories; Did the Seller know there was a problem but chose not to disclose it? When there is no disclosure by the Seller of something that the Seller is aware of and the Buyer and their Realtor find out, there is an obvious lack of trust that occurs. The deal is tainted and even if both...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate: The Reality of Home Inspections Part 2

After the Home Inspection  The home inspector will give you a "blow-by-blow" of what they feel needs to done on the house...many times when I visit clients 3 or 4 years later, none have been done. Not good, if you are planning on selling...however it does point to the urgency of some of the suggestions from the Home Inspector. The reality is that house problems do not get better on their own. You house will not heal itself and a lot of...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate: The Reality of Home Inspections Part 1

After years of attending Home Inspections, some of them my own, I have learned a few lessons that I thought would be good to share with you: No Home Inspection is perfect: Even if you were to buy a brand new Home today, the Home Inspector would find some issues that need to be dealt with. That is their job. Manage your expectations: In reality, Houses are ongoing projects, costly and full of surprises. The job of the Home Inspector is to minimize some...Continue Reading...

The Problem with REALTORS.

Before I even “go there“…let me first say that I am speaking totally on my own behalf and not in any of the positions that I hold in organized Real Estate. This is just some of my ramblings that come in go in my mind and need a Blog outlet, so please bear with me. I began in the business 30 years ago and when I say “the business” I am referring to Real Estate or any other service industry. We...Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate: Buying a Power of Sale

"I want to buy a cheap property, a distress sale, Estate Sale or a Power of Sale." I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this statement. If a property is in distress, it means that it is hard to sell to begin with...why would that be a good buy? There is one location near me that I have watched 5 or 6 restaurants go into and close. Why does the next buyer think they will do better? (more...)Continue Reading...

Hooked on Travel and My Video Pocket Camera.

Giving you an update for the next few weeks and talking about how much I love my Video Pocket Camera, a VadoHD by Creative Labs . Any thoughts? Comments below?Continue Reading...

Toronto Real Estate Board Announces: Almost 500,000 Square Feet of Space Traded in November

TORONTO, December 17, 2009 — Toronto Real Estate Board  Commercial Members reported 468,350 square feet of leased space in November, down 58 per cent from the 1,113,195 square feet recorded in November of 2008, Commercial Council Chair Garry Lander  announced today. “While both the monthly and year-to-date figures are considerably below 2008 levels, recent economic news, including third quarter GDP growth and November employment gains, suggests that the health of the commercial real estate market should improve in 2010.” Prices were mixed...Continue Reading...

Greater Toronto REALTORS® Report December Mid-Month Resale Housing Market Figures

TORONTO, December 17, 2009 - Greater Toronto REALTORS reported 3,079 existing home transactions in the first two weeks of December compared to 1,487 in 2008. The strong growth represents both increased home ownership demand and the fact that we are comparing the recovery phase of the sales cycle this December with the contraction phase experienced last winter Year-to-date sales, at 84,888, were up 16 per cent compared to the same period last year and have moved in line with the...Continue Reading...

Technology: The Joys of Ping.fm

The great news about Social Media is you have all these platforms to help get the word out...The bad news is that you have all these platforms to update. It forces you to rewrite or cut and paste updates into three,  four or more sites. Then along comes Ping.fm  and I love it. It allows me to go to one dashboard, enter one update, and have it syndicated to all or a number of the Social Media platforms that you use (eight for...Continue Reading...