As a landlord, finding the right tenant can make all the difference in managing your investment. A great tenant can provide you with an easy, low-stress experience. However, a bad tenant can lead to late rent payments, property damage, and in rare circumstances legal issues.

With this in mind, it’s extremely important to conduct a thorough screening before allowing a tenant to lease your property. This post will be a general guide to help you do exactly that. 

Starting out as a landlord in Toronto? Click here to read our list of essential Dos & Don’ts. 

Create an Application Document 

Given Toronto’s widely competitive rental landscape, you could be screening dozens if not hundreds of potential tenants. With that in mind, you’ll want to stay organized. 

A strong tenant screening process begins with a well-designed rental application. This document should gather essential information about interested renters, which you can use to sort through and narrow down candidates. 

Keep in mind, a rental application is different from a rental agreement or lease. Once you find a great tenant for your property, you’ll need to have them sign an Ontario Standard Lease – more info on that here. 

Want to know more about real estate investment in Toronto? Check out these blogs for a few helpful tips. 

• The Best Toronto Neighbourhoods to Invest in
• What Canada’s Home Flipping Tax Means For Sellers
• Garden Suites For Investors 

Verify Employment & Income

Stable employment and sufficient income are crucial indicators of a tenant’s ability to pay rent consistently. As part of your screening process, ask tenants to provide proof of income. This could be in the form of a recent pay stub or a formal letter from their employer. To be safe, always verify the information provided on the rental application by contacting the applicant’s employer directly. 

Ideally, a potential tenant’s monthly income will be three times your rental rate. That said, a tenant may still be able to afford the property comfortably even if their income is slightly outside of this margin. 

Perform a Credit Check 

Another way to assess a potential tenant’s finances is with a credit check. Look for a credit score that indicates responsible financial behaviour and a history of on-time payments. Keep an eye out for any outstanding debts or past bankruptcies.

Check References 

You’ll always want to ask for (and follow up with) references from past landlords. This step is essential for identifying potential red flags early on and can provide you with valuable insights into their overall trustworthiness. 

By reaching out to their included references, you can gather information about the applicant’s reliability in terms of rent payment, respect for the property, and adherence to the lease terms. 

Know What You Can’t Ask

While there are a handful of important details you can verify about a prospective tenant, some information is off-limits. Under Ontario law, there are certain things you can’t ask during tenant screenings. These include, 

• Whether or not they’ve ever been part of (or currently are part of) a dispute with the Landlord & Tenant Board (LTB). 
• Their age, gender or sexual orientation, personal beliefs or religion, and place of origin. 
• Whether or not they are disabled or currently receiving social assistance. 

These restrictions are designed to protect tenants from potential scams or privacy intrusions, along with making the screening process fair and equitable. 

Looking for more landlord resources? Check out these other posts from our blog. 

• A Guide to Interim Occupancy in Toronto
• Should You Lease Your Home Instead of Selling?
• Basement Apartments: Retrofit Doesn’t Mean Legal

Interview Top Candidates in Person

Once you’ve sorted through applications, you’ll want to interview your top candidates in person. This will give you a chance to assess their overall demeanour, professionalism, and how they present themselves. Ask about their long-term housing goals and what they’re looking for in a rental property. 

An in-person interview also gives potential candidates the opportunity to ask any questions they may have about the property, tenant responsibilities, and your degree of experience as a landlord. 

After speaking to a potential tenant in person, trust your instincts. While gathering personal information and checking references are important parts of the screening process, don’t ignore your gut feeling. If something feels off during the screening process, move on to the next candidate. 

Looking to purchase or build a profitable income property? As seasoned experts in Toronto real estate, our team would be happy to assist you. or send us an email at .

A few weeks back I received some marketing material from another agent. It spoke of the price of a property coming to the market, then it offered three dates:

1. The date the property was scheduled for MLS
2. The date the property would be available for multiple offers
3. The date the property would be available for pre-emptive offers

Over the past few years, a custom has developed of holding off offers for a few days after the showings begin.

Why? First, so the seller can feel confident that no money has been left on the table. Secondly, because real estate is not an exact science but rather a moving target in an active market.

Despite this, growing buyer frustration has brought on the pre-emptive offer – also known as a bully offer.

Who Makes a Bully Offer?

Someone who is willing to pay enough to make the seller not wait for the future offer date. This usually is a price that will make the overly stressed seller happy enough to forgo three or four more days of tension in keeping their house showing ready.

I have been on both sides: I have seen sellers not entertain bully offers and not have any offers on the day set for offers AND I have had pre-emptive offers rejected or not entertained by the seller to have the same buyer come forward on offer day with even more money.

There are no hard and fast rules, except at the end of the day all options should be explained and explored by the seller and their agent, always remembering that the listing agent’s fiduciary duty is to the seller.

Eager to break into the market? Explore these blog posts to expand your knowledge about the process of buying a home in Toronto.

• 3 Neighbourhoods That Are Perfect For First-Time Homebuyers
• What Buyers Should Know About Rising Interest Rates
• The Best Toronto Neighbourhoods to Invest in

Keeping Things Under Control

The Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) asks that all interested parties be informed and that the listing information be changed to represent the change in looking at the pre-emptive offers. Try as we might with both pre-emptive and multiple offers, the parties that did not “win” the property are upset and frustrated.

Recently RECO has added a new form that makes the listing agent track all offers submitted on a property and has reiterated that all offers considered by the seller must be in writing. Further, verbal or informal offers should not be considered official tender.

An Agent’s Take – Helping Sellers

In a market where there is a shortage of product, I wish there were more other solutions to alleviate and elevate the process. However, as agents, we are always guided by the rule that our client has the final decision. We can only inform them of options to consider and and the end of the day, take direction from them.

Preparing to sell your home? Visit these blog posts to learn more about finding the right agent for you.  

• How Many Real Estate Agents Should You Interview Before Selling Your Home?
• How to Read Between the Lines of Agent Reviews
• Why You Should Listen to Real Estate Referrals

What Should Buyers Know?

Today, many buyers in Toronto are entering the market with the expectation of competition. While bully offers can be advantageous in certain situations, they also come with their own set of pros and cons.

For instance, submitting a bully offer allows you to jump ahead of the competition and potentially secure the home you’re interested in. It can also potentially speed up the purchasing process by bypassing the usual offer presentation timeline.

However, submitting a bully offer is also a calculated risk – it can create a sense of urgency and limit the due diligence process. On top of that, there is no guarantee that other buyers won’t submit bully offers of their own, which can tell the buyer to expect even higher bids.

Ready to buy or sell in Toronto? As market-leading real estate experts, we can help you navigate the offers process. Send us an email or call to discover your path to success.

Portions of this article were originally published on theglobeandmail.com, on April 1st, 2016. By Deirdre Kelly. 

Over the past decade or so, houses in Toronto have routinely sold for over their asking price. You’ve probably heard countless examples of this phenomenon, whether it be in the news or from a family member, friend, or coworker. While steadily growing demand has pushed listing prices up, there’s another factor that’s boosting final sale prices – bidding wars.

While the market may shift or fluctuate, bidding wars are now common practice in Canada’s housing market and represent a significant challenge for house shoppers who are either entering home ownership or moving up.

Driving the upward trend are Toronto and Vancouver, where bidding wars have sparked a buying frenzy that shows no signs of abating.

Want to buy a home that also has great investment value? Explore these related posts from our blog for unique tips.

• 5 Signs It’s Time to Buy Your First Home
• Are Older Homes More Valuable?
• What to Know About Garden Suites

Rising Prices

Bidding wars are responsible for pushing prices up, often above what a home is worth, experts say. They have turned buying a home in Canada into a game of nerves.

Canada has few checks and balances in place for regulating bidding wars. Often buyers don’t know who they are bidding against and if the other offers are legit. Phantom offers are a big enough problem that last summer the Ontario government instituted new rules requiring listing agents to keep on file written bids and counter bids in an effort to create more transparency around the bidding war process.

Understanding True Value

“Sometimes a property is underpriced [intentionally] and will sell for more than asking, and that sadly has become a marketing tool, allowing the seller and agent to say that they got over asking,” says Richard Silver, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty in Toronto.

Buyers willing to enter the fray need to know that bidding wars are a lot like gambling: The odds are usually stacked against you.

“The outcome can be unpredictable,” says Leslie Cannon, a Vancouver realtor who has guided many clients through bidding wars in her city’s highly competitive housing market.

Among them is the would-be homeowner who became entangled in an 11-way bidding war that ended up pushing a property $1-million over asking.

“The house was listed around $2-million and I advised my client to offer $2.3-million, which we thought was a pretty generous offer,” says Ms. Cannon. “But then someone, who obviously really wanted the house, went as high as a million over asking, a price that the seller found hard to resist.”

Moral of the story? Money really does talk.

Adding Emotion to the Equation

Fortunately for house shoppers, there are other ways to come out on top that aren’t so dependent on the number of zeros at the end of the offer. Some sellers will choose a lower-priced bid over a higher one, for example, if they have a particularly strong emotional attachment to their home. That’s when having a strategy is key.

For Shawn Lackie, a broker in Ontario’s Durham region, that strategy involves often visiting the sellers to discover first-hand their history as it pertains to the home. “I make sure to at least have a chance to present [the offer] in person,” Mr. Lackie says. “I am trying to create a connection, to find out if the sale can go beyond money.”

He then shares that information with his client to use as fodder for winning a bidding war. The personal touch worked for a client wanting a house in Oshawa, Ont., with multiple bids. The seller chose him over other contenders who wanted to renovate because he had made it known that he loved the house as much as the seller did. He would live in it as is, which is what the homeowner had wanted to hear.

Getting ready to buy your first home? Explore these resources to help make it a great success. 

• 5 Things to Know Before You Buy a Home in Downtown Toronto
• A Condo Buying Guide For Millenials
• How to Realistically Save For a Downpayment in Toronto

Resetting Expectations

“Price is often the biggest motivator but anything we can do to make our offer stand out we’ll do,” adds Ms. Cannon, who similarly meets with sellers to gain information that might help her clients seal the deal.

In Toronto, Mr. Silver makes it his business to know the market and advice his clients accordingly.

When it comes to bidding wars, he says it is important to determine “what is true value and what is ego-driven.” If a client wants to buy a house just to win the contest then, in Mr. Silver’s opinion, that’s the wrong reason to stay locked in a bidding war.

“You will never overpay for a house that you love,” he says.

“If the value is there and you don’t put in your best offer, remember that the next time a similar house comes to the market, its price will be based on what you chose not to pay and you will have to pay even more for the next.”

As if buying real estate right now wasn’t emotional enough.

Searching for the perfect Toronto home? Silver Burtnick & Associates would love to work with you. Click here to get in touch with us.

 I’m a first-time buyer and I’m more interested in spacious/affordable condos (which happen to be at older buildings), and I keep on being advised not to buy such condos as they won’t be such a good investment as the newer tiny condos. Am I really going in the wrong direction? 

Thinking about buying a Toronto condo? You may find helpful tips in these other posts from our blog. 

• What to do if Your Pre-Construction Condo is Delayed
• A Condo Buying Guide For Millenials
• Everything You Need to Know About Interim Occupancy in Toronto

My Answer

In my personal experience, I have bought two older Condos, renovated them, and done very well. I completely understand the appeal. For a lot of people, the extra size is very important. I think they will hold their value as you are usually buying them for less per square foot because they do not have the bells and whistles of the newer product.

That said, if you’re looking to renovate, there’s a lot to know before diving in.

Condo Renovation Tips

• Whatever your renovations look like, the Board of the Condominium Corporation must approve your plans. If they do not, future Boards could have the improvements or changes set back to the original materials.
• You must have extra Condo insurance to cover your upgrades. If you choose to add hardwood floors and the units originally came with broadloom, the Condo insurance would only cover broadloom and not the upgrade that you have added.
• For Sellers, the Agreement of Purchase and Sale must stipulate that the Buyer agrees and acknowledges that changes were made to the unit and accepts them as they are.
• For Buyers who offer on older Condominiums, I always suggest that the Buyer asks the Seller to stipulate that any changes were made with the approval of the Board of the Condominium.

Why Older Condos Are Different

The older Condos date back to the early 1980s when 1200-1400 square foot units were about the smallest Condominiums available and it was the mid and late 1980s when the laws changed and allowed for higher density and smaller units. The larger units are fewer and are usually cheaper than the newer product but I think they offer great value. They also allow you to put your own character in the finishing.

How Important Are Amenities?

On the hunt for more condo-buying tips? Check out these blogs.

• Buying a Condo? Here’s What You Need to Know About Status Certificates
• A Condo Buying Guide For Millenials
• How to Realistically Save For a Downpayment in Toronto

Downsizing With Extra Space

While condos are a great fit for many first-time buyers, they’re a popular choice among downsizers too. If you’re a downsizing that’s thinking of buying a condo but has concerns about the size, it’s worth pointing out that there are alternative, more spacious options.

Toronto’s housing landscape is diverse. For downsizers who are moving on from their long-time homes, smaller properties, townhouses, and even garden suites make great compact living spaces – with a little extra room to breathe.

We put together a short guide for downsizers who wish to explore options that aren’t condos. You can click here to read it.

As experts in Toronto’s dynamic real estate landscape, our team can help you find the perfect place for your needs. Ready to get started? Click here to get in touch.

With the market going through constant change, it is natural that Sellers would be thinking about selling privately to maximize their profit. This is a tough market and you have to be primed to sell, so here are some suggestions that might help:

First Things First

It might seem simple, but the truth is that selling a home is a remarkably complex transaction regardless of how active the market may be. Therefore, having an agent at your side will always be your best bet. Not only can they help you maximize your results, but they also take care of the logistical heavy lifting. Selling a home comes with a ton of paperwork, legal documents, and other processes, an agent knows exactly how to navigate this step.

If you’re fully committed to heading to the market on your own, here are a few small tips that can help you avoid headaches, setbacks, and selling for less than what you hoped for.

Want to know more about choosing the best real estate agent for selling your home? Check out these blog posts. 

• How to Read Between the Lines of Agent Reviews
• Why You Should Listen to Real Estate Referrals
• Rightsizing With Agents: How it Works

Get a Home Inspection

99% of homes in this market will be inspected for flaws, so you need a knowledgeable 3rd party to go through your home to make sure it will pass a home inspection. You might even want to hire a pre-selling Home Inspection by a certified Home Inspector.

Certain issues could prove to be an out for a Buyer at closing time if you knew them and did not disclose them at the time of the Offer. With that in mind, you’ll want to disclose in writing what the Home Inspector finds.

Get Rid of Clutter

I would suggest off-site storage rather than filling the basement or garage to the brim. This just broadcasts to the Buyer one of the shortcomings of your home.

Price Correctly

Make sure that you know what the most recent sales are (not listings, as they may be overpriced) and then reduce your house to reflect that you are not using an agent. If you are offering your house privately, the buyer must perceive a benefit to them. The biggest mistake private sellers make is pricing their house within the market range and not reflecting that there is no commission.

Selling your home in order to downsize? Check out some of these helpful articles from our blog. 

• Selling to Rent: What Downsizers Should Know
• Our Complete Guide to Downsizing
• Uncovering Hidden Wealth in Your Home

Create a Web Presence For Your Home

Very few people buy anything today without searching on the Internet so your home-sale website must be viewable by the largest market out there. Remember that your competition is National, Regional and Local MLS that have spent years and thousands of dollars to be in the top positions, not to mention the Brokers and Franchises.

Additionally, it can be helpful to post your home on Kijiji.com. This site offers great visibility. However, make sure that you re-post often as they keep the newer posts at the top or on Kijiji you can pay to have your post on the front page for a period of time.

Hire a Professional Photographer

Buyers want as much information as possible before they even view the property. I believe in these photo formats so strongly that I even pay for these photos of vacant houses or ones needing major renovations. Don’t waste your time or the Buyer’s time by alluding to qualities that are not there or could-be-maybe-potentially there.

Don’t Leave Buyers Hanging

This means answering any calls, emails, or text messages as soon as you receive them.

Unless I am in a business meeting, I respond as soon as I can. Buyers, mostly come from a generation that views microwaves as slow cooking….you must be prepared to respond ASAP.

Expect Calls From Agents

You will get a lot of phone calls from Buyer-agents who will tell you that they have clients that would be perfect for your property.

They may be right, so allow them to show your house. Remember they, like you, will not work for free so your pricing should take that into account.

Host an Open House

Open Houses are the way that a lot of Buyers surf the marketplace to buy. Make sure that you use proper signage.

The City of Toronto mandates that all Open House signs show the address and time of the Open House. Make sure that you have visited the local stock of houses in your area with a Buyer’s eye. To be noticed you will have to be the best on the market that day.

Want to know more about the value of Open Houses? Explore our blog post on the topic here.

Have Your Lawyer on Standby

If you receive an Offer on your property you should have a knowledgeable 3rd party (Lawyer) lined up and ready to take you through the contract, explain the clauses and watch for conditions or timing that could pose future problems.

When I sit down with clients, their first thought is price, mine is the terms and conditions. I have seen too many times when sellers became so obsessed with the price that they forgot other “small” issues that by closing became “huge” ones. The job of the 3rd party is to make sure that those issues are not missed in all the excitement.

If that 3rd party is also giving you pricing advice make sure they know the market and have a grasp of negotiation skills and can view the issues from the Buyers side.

Note: when I have bought or sold for myself I have always run through my offer with an Office Manager or Lawyer for that important 3rd party viewpoint. Sometimes they have presented my own offer for me so I can have the proper emotional distance to make the right decisions.

Beyond managing the listing process of your home, real estate agents provide other services to support your goals. Explore these blog posts to learn more. 

• How Toronto Real Estate Experts Collaborate (and Why it Matters!)
• REALM: Next-Level Luxury Real Estate Technology 
• How Drone Tech Helps Agents Sell Houses

Keep Records of Communication

After completing the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, perform all communication that occurs between Buyer and Seller by email rather than phone. Keeps these conversations in an online folder until closing and up to 6 years after just in case.

Make sure that all parties in the transaction disclose, in writing, their relationship to either you or the Buyer. REALTORS must always disclose their fiduciary duty in writing at the time of the offer.

Be Prepared For Buyer Visits

In most transactions, the Agreement will allow the Buyer to visit your property for a Building Inspection and other purposes.

Make sure these are stipulated in the contract by both the number of visits and the length. If you don’t,  you could be in for a big surprise when all the 20 long-lost buyers’ family members visit with three contractors looking to compete for quotes.

I usually suggest two or three visits of no more than one hour at mutually agreeable times. Once again, keep all questions and answers in writing (via email) so there are no misinterpretations later…the old he said-she said.

Ask For a Substantial Deposit

During negotiations, be sure to ask for a deposit of 5-10% of the purchase price. This will be held by your lawyer in Trust until everything is finalized. As a seller, a deposit of this size will give you a sense of the seriousness of the Buyer.

Be Wary of On-Sale Conditions of the Buyer’s Property

You may have sold your property conditionally for a great price and find that the Buyer decides to overprice their home. In essence, your home is pulled from the marketplace with little guarantee that the Buyer will get a satisfactory offer and start the ball rolling. You might want to ask the Buyer to have a Professional appraisal of his property before agreeing to this Condition.

Do Not Accept Cash

Do not under any circumstances accept cash as part of the transaction. FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada) is keeping an eye on suspicious movements of cash and I am authorized to ask for and retain the personal information of all Sellers and Buyers.

Be Careful of Scam Artists

Sometimes Scam Artists hunt for Private Sellers because they think that there will be less scrutiny in the transaction.

A client of mine whose brother helped her sell privately accepted a long conditional offer. A week after it fell through we listed at $399,000. Imagine our surprise when a Bank called to say they had an offer sitting on the desk of their fraud department for $540,000 of the property. The conditional Buyer was trying to finance a house for $150,000 more than the value. Thankfully, the transfer was held up by the Bank’s scrutiny.

Looking for an experienced real estate team that can take the hassle out of your home sale? Click here to get in touch.

Unfortunately, the steadily climbing cost of real estate in Toronto and many other Canadian cities has made homeownership much more difficult for many people. While these prices are in part due to the high demand from traditional buyers, for-profit investors are playing a role as well. 

In the face of these rising costs, Canada has introduced new legislation in the form of an Anti-Flipping Tax which changes how capital gains are taxed following the sale of a home.

These new rules not only carry significant implications for investors but some everyday homeowners may also be impacted as well.  

So whether you’re actively searching for an investment opportunity in the Toronto market, or are planning on selling your current home, you’ll want to be up-to-speed on how this new tax will affect your returns. 

Cooling an Active Market

It’s no doubt that Toronto’s famously competitive market was influential in the introduction of the anti-flipping tax. Although the market has seen more neutral conditions over the past 18 months, Toronto real estate still has a reputation for being expensive. 

In addition to the federal government, the City and Province have both spearheaded various initiatives in an attempt to make homes more attainable for this generation of buyers in recent years. However, it has become increasingly difficult for these efforts to stay on pace with rising costs.

Want to make the most of your home sale? Explore these related readings for advice on how to do exactly that. 

• Selling a Home? Here’s Why Choosing The Right Agent Matters
• Why You Should Never Skip Out on Staging
• Why “Now” is a Great Time to Sell Your Home

Anti-Flipping Tax

So what is the anti-flipping tax and who will it impact most? Let’s take a closer look. 

Speaking generally, ‘flippers’ are home buyers who purchase a property with the specific intent of re-selling it for a profit in a short period of time. Under the new legislation, any Canadian who sells a home they’ve owned for less than 12 months will be viewed as a flipper and will face the anti-flipping tax following their sale. 

Here’s the major detail: Flippers will be subject to taxation on 100% of capital gains earned from their sale. They’ll also be ineligible for the Principal Residence Exemption, meaning that there’s no way of getting around it. 

As a brand-new initiative, this tax only applies to homes purchased on or after January 1, 2023. 

Long Term Goals

The government has two primary goals with the enforcement of the anti-flipping tax. The first is to ensure that investors who are operating with the intent to earn a profit are paying appropriate taxes on what is ultimately a business actively. 

The second is to potentially dissuade new investors from entering the market by curbing profit potential. With fewer active investors, the hope is that housing prices in Toronto won’t rise as quickly. Additionally, buyers who are looking for a place to call home will face lesser competition on the market and have a better chance of finding something within their budget. 

One thing to keep in mind is that the anti-flipping tax is still fairly new. As a result, it will still be some time before we witness a larger-scale market impact. However, home sellers in Toronto should be aware of this new legislation as it could affect them come tax season. 

Looking for more helpful tips on navigating the various rules and regulations of real estate? Check out these blog posts. 

• Your Questions About Garden Suites Answered
• What Happens If I’m Ghosted by My Agent?
• The Legal Implications of Buying a Home With a Spouse or Partner

Potential Exemptions 

Of course, not every homeowner who chooses to re-sell a home they purchased less than twelve months ago will be doing so with the intention of earning profit. With that in mind, the Canadian government has listed a few specific circumstances in which exemptions apply. Such as – 

• Divorce or separation (more than 90 days prior to selling)
• Severe unforeseen damage to the home
• Relocation to another city or province
• The home does not have ample room for new family members
• A homeowner has become critically ill, disabled, or passed away
• The seller has recently been fired or declared bankruptcy

The relatively limited scope of these exemptions is intentional. The government is hoping that by reducing any potential wiggle room they can ensure these taxes are paid. 

Thinking about selling? Our industry-leading strategies and guidance can ensure you get the best possible result in Toronto’s ever-shifting market. to get in touch, or click here to send us an email.