References

As a world-renowned city, Toronto is known for a lot of things. Unfortunately, one of these things is the high cost of real estate. This has led many Generation Zers to wonder – will I ever be able to afford a home in Toronto? 

The good news is that it’s not all doom and gloom for younger Torontonians. In fact, a lot of the challenges facing today’s buyers have been faced (and overcome) by generations past. 

In this blog post, we’ll look at the realities of buying a home in today’s market and how younger buyers can fast-track their real estate goals by being flexible. 

Affordability For Previous Generations

Concerns about housing costs aren’t unique to today’s buyers. In fact, every generation of Toronto buyers has faced affordability concerns – all the way back to Baby Boomers. 

As Generation X began buying homes in the 1980s and early 1990s, they faced a significant challenge – skyrocketing interest rates. Mortgage rates in the double digits made owning a home considerably more expensive, even though property prices were still relatively reasonable. Then, when it came time for early Millennials to find their first home, they too encountered a unique set of hurdles. While interest rates had significantly decreased by this point, property prices had surged. 

That said, despite these shared challenges, buyers from every past generation have persevered and successfully purchased homes in Toronto. Now, as the newest generation to enter the market, Generation Z can do the same. 

Searching for the perfect Toronto neighbourhood to buy your first home? Check out these blog posts. 

• 3 Toronto Neighbourhoods For First-Time Homebuyers
• What Are the Best Toronto Neighbourhoods For Cyclists?
• Great Neighbourhoods For Young Professionals

A New Perspective on Interest Rates

Interest rates are often the primary culprit in conversations around housing affordability in Toronto. While it’s true that rates have been on the rise since early 2022, today’s average costs of lending aren’t as dire as many assume.  

It’s easy to look back at the ultra-low rates of years past and feel like mortgage costs have suddenly reached record highs, however, that’s not the case. Compared to the past four decades or so, today’s mortgage rates are more or less average. In the grand scheme of things, the give-or-take 2% mortgages from just a few years ago are far more anomalous than what today’s buyers are paying. 

If you’re hesitant to buy a home because of interest rates or have other concerns about affordability, speak to a real estate agent. They can help you assess your finances to see what your buying options are.

Resetting Expectations

For a lot of buyers, resetting your first home expectations can help you get into the market sooner rather than later. Toronto real estate is diverse, offering a range of housing types, from single-family homes to condos and townhouses. To increase affordability, be open to compromises in terms of location, size, or housing type. Expanding your search beyond a few select neighbourhoods can also yield more affordable options without sacrificing quality of life.

Consider starting your homeownership journey with a starter home rather than aiming for your dream property right away. A starter home may be smaller or require some renovation, but it can serve as a stepping stone toward your long-term housing goals. Over time, moving up the property ladder will become easier because you’ll have equity you can tap into. 

Buying a home in Toronto? You’ll want to work with a locally knowledgeable real estate agent. Visit these blog posts for helpful tips. 

• How to Read Between the Lines of Agent Reviews
• What If I’m Ghosted by My Real Estate Agent?
• How Many Real Estate Agents Should You Interview Before Choosing One?

Options for Supplementing Your Mortgage Payments

In addition to adjusting your expectations, there are other ways you can lighten the financial stresses of homeownership. Once again, this may require some flexibility, however, it can make your real estate goals much more accessible. 

As part of your first home purchase, consider creating a secondary suite. This could be a basement apartment, garden suite, or other area in your home. Secondary suites can help you generate extra income to put toward your mortgage, property taxes, and other housing-related expenses. Plus, they can also make your home more valuable in the long run. 

Ready to begin your journey of homeownership? Silver Burtnick & Associates can help. or click here to send us an email. 

Purpose-built rental apartments are a testament to the evolving real estate landscape in Toronto. Promising a high quality of life, this unique type of housing comes with a wide range of advantages not offered by traditional condos or detached homes. 

For downsizers, or as we like to call you, rightsizers, tapping into Toronto’s dynamic purpose-built rental market can be a smart way to find your next home. 

In this blog, we’ll go over the advantages of purpose-built rental living, as well as some of the potential drawbacks to help you get a better idea of how this type of housing may suit your vision for the future. 

Thinking of rightsizing from your family home to a purpose-built rental? Explore these blog posts for helpful tips. 

• A Guide to Interim Occupancy in Toronto
• Uncovering Hidden Wealth in Your Home
• What to Expect From Rightsizing

A Life of Convenience 

For many rightsizers, transitioning away from the family home into something smaller is all about convenience. One of the most significant advantages of renting a purpose-built apartment is the freedom from the responsibilities of homeownership. When you rent, you’re not burdened with property maintenance, repairs, or the stresses of property ownership. As a result, you get more time to spend on things you enjoy. 

Put simply, purpose-built apartments are specifically designed for efficient and comfortable living. They offer a unique degree of convenience that detached homes don’t. 

Access to Toronto’s Top Neighbourhoods

Another major draw for purpose-built rental living is location. A number of Toronto’s rental developments are located in the city’s most desirable neighbourhoods. These communities come with a wide range of perks like amenities, green spaces, transit access, walkability, nightlife and more. 

Great neighbourhoods include St. Lawrence Market, which is abundant with restaurants, cultural centres, parks and other lively destinations. On the other side of downtown, Liberty Village is a bustling, close-knit community with reliable transit connections and an unparalleled degree of convenience. Midtown communities like Yonge & Eglinton also offer a high degree of livability. 

As a rightsizer, living in a close-knit, carefully designed neighbourhood can be a big upgrade in lifestyle. With everyday essentials and a strong community right at your doorstep, you’ll have more opportunities to enjoy the next chapter of your life.

Want to know more about Toronto’s top neighbourhoods for downsizers? Click here to read our list of the city’s best rightsizer communities. 

Fantastic Amenities 

One of the standout advantages of renting a purpose-built apartment is the amenities. 

Although exact features will vary by property, common amenities in Toronto’s purpose-built rental landscape include well-equipped fitness centres, spas and saunas, swimming pools, and other features to help you live a healthy lifestyle. Dedicated social spaces like movie and games rooms, outdoor terraces, and communal gardens provide the perfect place to relax and socialize with family, friends and neighbours. 

Looking for outside-of-the-box housing options? Check out these blog posts for unique insights. 

• Not Ready For Condo Life? 3 Alternatives For Downsizers
• Downsizing as a Snowbird 
• Your Questions About Garden Suites Answered

The Financial Impact of Renting 

In addition to the unique lifestyle, choosing to live in a purpose-built rental apartment will also impact your finances. From a financial planning perspective, there’s a lot to consider when choosing to rent. 

For example, choosing to rent instead of buy prevents you from using your home as an investment asset. If you choose to move in the future, you won’t have any leverageable equity from your apartment. One potential solution to this is keeping your existing home as a dedicated income property as you downsize to a rental.  

Rightsizing With Silver Burtnick & Associates 

As a downsizer, selling your existing home and finding a great place to live for the next chapter of your life is a big process. In order to navigate it successfully you’ll want to work with a real estate team who specializes in supporting downsizers – like us. 

Taking an end-to-end approach, we’ve created a dedicated system to make your rightsizing journey as seamless as possible. 

It’s our goal to not only help you achieve a great result on your sale but to also take the weight off your shoulders. After finding the perfect purpose-built rental (or whatever your next home will look like), we’ll coordinate all the logistics and moving parts on your behalf so you can focus on enjoying your transition.

As an experienced and collaborative real estate team, we can help you navigate the process of rightsizing. When you’re ready to begin your next chapter, get in touch. Click here to send an email or .

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.