Welcome to the February 2018 Home of the Month! This feature provides a snapshot of what Urbaneer’s Buyers have recently purchased in the City of Toronto.
This month’s real estate buy comes from Urbaneer team member James Ormston, who assisted our Buyer in her search for a freehold property for less than $850,000 which still satisfied all of her needs and desires. Here’s her journey!
When our financially savvy Buyer contacted us to help secure her first purchase, she had already sharpened her pencil and prepared a list of six objectives ranked in order of importance. With her partner already owning his own property, she wanted a principal residence which met both her particular needs in addition to having broad appeal to potential future tenants. Why? Part of their strategy as a couple was to ensure their dwellings could potentially be merged into their income property portfolio in the future, should they co-purchase a matrimonial residence down the road. As a result, the property had to meet the needs of both herself / themselves and/or future tenants. Of priority was the property offer generous square footage, be in turn-key condition, present strong resale appeal, and be no more than $850,000. Here’s the list she put together, in her own words:
1. 4 Bedrooms and minimum 2 washrooms in move in condition. Future potential renting is critical – rooms large enough for a chest of drawers and to add decent sized closets if no built in ones exist.
2. Minimum 1 car parking plus easy street parking availability for guests/entertaining is important.
3. The convenience of being not more than 30 minutes to downtown Toronto by public transportation (bus/streetcar/subway). Ideally max 5 to 8 minute walk to bus/streetcar line.
4. Being close to the Highways is important because both she and her partner drive to work (YYZ Airport / Mississauga) 5 – 10 minutes access to the main arteries (Gardner, 427, Hwy 401) is imperative. Shaving some time off our daily commute to work is a preference.
5. Having a grocery store (Metro, Freshco, Loblaws etc.) within 5 – 10 minutes walking distance nearby would be a big perk.
6. Not super close to a fire or EMS station.
Very thoughtfully, she also prepared a map for us which outlined 4 distinct areas they were interested in searching. Here it is:
Embarking on our search, we visited and discussed several properties, but none were sufficiently aligned to merit submitting an offer. In fact, even though the Summer market was experiencing a lull, the central downtown east side (Zone 1 in her map) was seeing listings going into bidding wars in several instances. Our Buyer was keen to secure a property that represented strong value, and she felt the listings going into bidding wars were achieving sums that diminished future profit. Her preference was to secure a property which had, for no clearly evident reason, been overlooked by the buying public. We researched for listings which had been on the market for 20+ days – and therein we found a listing which checked all the boxes for potential opportunity.
The destination? St. Clair West Village! Interestingly, St. Clair West Village is not actually a City of Toronto-named neighbourhood, but rather a redeveloped site created by developer Tribute Homes. The company built 350 freehold dwellings near St. Clair Ave West & Keele Street in 2001, effectively creating a small village which they then branded: “A major redevelopment in the centre of Toronto, St. Clair West Village is another of Tribute’s New Urbanism communities. Rear lane garages and welcoming front porches create a fully integrated, fully engaging city neighbourhood with a distinctively friendly ambiance. Charming village semis create attractive streetscapes that blend perfectly with the surrounding community.” -Tribute
Although it was situated just north of their search area, it othewise checked all the requisite boxes – 4 bedrooms, 4 washrooms, 2 parking spaces (1 in a detached garage), 2 kitchens (including the finished basement featuring a fully fitted 1 bed/1 bath nanny suite), outstanding TTC access (with a stop quite literally at their front door!) and easy commuting access via highways, and a host of convenient amenities within just a few short blocks. With our Buyer and her partner being lovers of international cuisines (he’s a professional chef), the newly opened Nations Fresh Foods grocery store just two blocks away at nearby Stockyards Village with its offerings of supplies and a plethora of fresh and prepared foods from the world over was literally a dream come true – who could ask for anything more?!
Happily, after a brief negotiation with the sellers, we were able to secure the property conditionally for less than the asking price (much to the delight of our buyers!). They were able to comfortably perform all their due diligence on the property itself before going firm on the sale – another rather relatively rare opportunity in Toronto’s busy real estate market – including having the Seller attend to most of the minor deficiencies identified by our Home Inspector!
We’re delighted to share this testimonial from our happy buyer:
Testimonial From Crystal and Thomas:
“James Ormston and Steven Fudge at Bosley Real Estate Brokerage were a dream to work with. They were prompt in their replies, always available to conduct last minute site tours, showed flexibility with our demanding work schedules and had great insights on the area and neighborhood based on their realty experiences. James Ormston made our home buying experience enjoyable by taking the time to get to know our specific needs and filtering down our options to allow for a more efficient and less time consuming search. James and Steven helped us negotiate with the sellers effectively by providing us with comprehensive, time saving analysis on the property and market data that reassured us that the bidding decisions we were making were in line with current market scenarios. James helped us seal the deal with the sellers by helping us get to a place of win-win for both parties. We feel we got exceptional value for the services James and Steven offered and we are thrilled with our beautiful new home in Toronto that we purchased under asking.”
Here are some photos from MLS which illustrate just how stellar this purchase was:
Congrats to our delightful Buyer! Offered for $849,000; we negotiated and secured this Home for $828,800!
Serving first, second and multi-time buyers, young families, down-scaling Zoomers, renovators and those building their investment property portfolios, our mandate is to help our clients strategically secure the best real estate on offer, while ensuring their purchase best serves their practical needs and their dream of ‘Home’. We identify a property’s best qualities, features and insouciant charm in the context of the future target market while meeting your own wishes, wants and desires.
Are you familiar with The Junction, which is just east of this location? Check out our Neighbourhood Pages to explore many more of Toronto’s desirable neighbourhoods! They feature flavour videos, city census data on the area, plus past amenity blogs!
Curious to see what the Urbaneer Team sells? Here’s Toronto’s Best Houses & Condos Of 2017 By Urbaneer, which showcases our expertise across the original City!
If you, or someone you love, has specific real estate needs, wishes and desires, and would enjoy the personalized service of someone Celebrating Twenty-Five Years As A Top-Producing Toronto Realtor who subscribes to a pressure-free approach – and a specialty in unique urban homes – please know my team and I are here to help!
– Urbaneer Team
Steven Fudge, Sales Representative
& The Innovative Urbaneer Team
Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage – (416) 322-8000
– we’re here to earn your trust, then your business –
Celebrating Twenty-Five Years As A Top-Producing Toronto Realtor
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*Love Canadian Housing? Check out Steve’s Student Mentorship site called Houseporn.ca which focuses on architecture, landscape, design, product and real estate in Canada!
Buy Of The Month
