FAQs

Not before we talk. A first conversation is just that. If we decide to work together, Ontario requires that I give you RECO's information guide and that our representation is set out in writing before I act for you. I will walk you through what it says and what it does not, and you should read it. It exists to protect you, and it is worth understanding before you sign it.

Mostly, I listen. Where you are financially, where you expect to be in five years, what you can carry comfortably, and what the purchase or sale has to do for you. No properties are discussed until that is clear, because a property that does not fit your position is not a good one at any price. Expect forty-five minutes to an hour, and expect to leave with a clear view of what makes sense to do next, even if that is nothing yet.

Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington, Toronto and the surrounding region. For pre-construction, the range is wider, because the projects that pass my filter are not always in the same place twice. If you are outside the area, ask. The honest answer is that if I cannot serve you properly I will tell you so and, where I can, point you to someone who can.

Yes, and it is some of the work I enjoy most. First-time buyers and experienced investors want the same thing more often than either expects: a property that holds its value and suits the life they are actually living. The difference is that a first purchase carries more of your position, so the analysis matters more, not less. You will see that analysis rather than just the conclusion drawn from it.

Yes. Most of the people I work with started the conversation well before they were ready, and the ones who bought well were usually the ones who prepared longest. The list is built for exactly this: tell me what you are looking for, and you will hear from me when something fits, and not otherwise. Preparation is what lets you decide quickly when the right property surfaces.

With a conversation about position before any property is discussed: what you can carry, what the purchase has to do for you, and where you expect to be in five and ten years. From there, financing is confirmed rather than estimated, the search runs across the MLS and beyond it, and each property worth considering gets a written assessment, including the case against it. The full process is on the buying page.

The same three questions every time. What it is likely to be worth later, because every purchase is also a future sale. What it does to the rest of your position, because a property that damages everything else you own is not a good buy. And whether it suits the life you are actually living, because the numbers do not matter if you cannot live there. Comparable sales, days on market, resale history, rental performance, and what the surrounding blocks have done over a decade all feed into that.

Yes, and I do. If a property fails one of the three questions, you hear that from me in full, with the reasoning, before an offer is written. It costs me the transaction. It is still the right call, and it is the only way the recommendations I do make are worth anything.

A property that sells without appearing on the MLS. Builder inventory released quietly, units an original purchaser can no longer close on, and owners who will sell to the right buyer but have no interest in showings or a public listing. They reach me through builders, other agents, and relationships built over years. Buyers on my list hear about them as they surface, when the property fits what they have told me they want.

By not letting the room set the price. Before any offer goes in, you know what the property is worth on the evidence and what it is worth to you, and the second number is the ceiling. Ontario's rules on how offers are disclosed have changed, and I will explain what the seller has chosen to share before you decide. The buyers who get hurt in competition are the ones who arrive without a number, and we will not be them.

The ones that protect you in the market you are actually buying in. Financing and inspection are the usual two, and both exist for a reason. In a competitive situation there is pressure to drop them, and sometimes the evidence supports doing so. Sometimes it does not, and the right call is to walk. I will tell you which it is, and why, before the offer is written rather than after.

Because, chosen well, it is one of the few ways to buy at today's price for delivery in three or four years, with a deposit that spreads the entry. Chosen badly, it is one of the fastest ways to lose money in real estate. The difference is the filter. A project reaches my clients only when the numbers work first, and then only if the builder, the product, and the location each hold up on their own. Most projects I see do not pass.

The ones nobody mentions at the launch. Completion can slip by a year or more. Interim occupancy means paying to live in a unit you do not yet own. Closing adjustments and development charges can add materially to the price. Assignment may be restricted or taxed. HST rebate eligibility depends on how you use the unit. None of these makes pre-construction a bad idea. All of them belong in the assessment before you sign, and they are.

For a new condominium in Ontario, yes: ten days from receiving the signed agreement and disclosure, during which you can withdraw. For a new freehold home, there is generally no statutory cooling-off period, so the review has to happen before you sign. Either way, the agreement, deposit structure, closing costs, and assignment terms are reviewed with you and your lawyer inside whatever window exists, and nothing becomes firm until they have been.

Selling your agreement of purchase and sale to another buyer before the project completes. It can be a useful exit if your circumstances change, and it can also be restricted by the builder, subject to a fee, or treated differently for tax than a resale. Whether assignment is realistic for a given project is one of the things checked before you buy, not discovered afterward.

The period between moving in and the building being registered as a condominium, when you occupy the unit but do not yet own it. You pay the builder an occupancy fee rather than a mortgage, and it can last months. It is a normal part of buying a new condominium and a frequent surprise to people who were not told about it. You will be.

Nothing. The list is how off-market and pre-construction opportunities reach people before they are public. You tell me what you are looking for, and you hear from me when something genuinely fits. No volume, no newsletter, no pressure to act. Access to builder allocations depends on relationships, not guarantees, and I will not describe it as more than that.

From evidence, not from what wins the listing. The number I bring you is built from comparable sales and current conditions, and I will show you how I arrived at it. Sellers are routinely told what they want to hear, and the price then gets corrected in public, in front of every buyer watching days on market climb. I would rather have the harder conversation first.

Sometimes, and it is your choice. Where it suits the property and you would rather not have showings, staging, or a public listing, I can take it quietly to my buyer list first. Ontario requires your written direction for a property to be marketed off the MLS, and I will explain what that means for exposure and for price before you decide. For some properties a full launch is still the right call, and I will say so.

Usually less than you fear and more than nothing. After seeing the property, you get a short list of what is worth doing, what is not, and roughly what each returns. Repairs that a buyer's inspector will find, presentation that changes how the photographs read, and timing the launch for the market rather than the calendar. Spending on the wrong things is common, and part of the job is preventing it.

It depends on price more than anything else, which is why the pricing conversation comes first. A property priced on the evidence in a normal market typically sells within weeks. A property priced on hope sits, and the eventual reduction is larger than the one that would have sold it on day one. I will give you a realistic range for your property and your market, not a promise.

Everything, checked rather than collected. Application, credit, income and employment, references, and previous landlords. The same standard for every applicant, applied within the Ontario Human Rights Code, because it is the law and because a consistent process is the one that holds up if it is ever questioned. You see the file and the recommendation, and the decision is yours.

If placement only: No. My work is placement: the rent from evidence, the screening, the lease, and the move-in. When a tenant moves on, the next search starts before the unit is empty. For day-to-day management between tenancies, I can recommend people I trust.

If managed: Yes, where it suits the investor. Rent collection, maintenance coordination, and the tenant relationship, for a fee agreed in writing. Most clients holding one unit do not need it. Clients holding several usually do.

No. On a residential lease the leasing fee is paid by the landlord, so you do not pay me to find you a place or to represent you. What you get is a real search built on what the place has to do and cost, a direct introduction where a landlord in my database fits, and an application package prepared so it is the one that gets accepted.

From current comparable leases in the building and the pocket, and you see how it was arrived at. Sometimes the number is higher than the landlord expected. More often it is slightly lower, and the unit leases in days rather than weeks. A unit priced on hope sits empty, and every week it sits is a discount nobody chose.

If you are buying, nothing. Commission is paid by the seller, or by the builder on a pre-construction purchase, and it comes out of the proceeds at closing. If you are selling, commission is agreed with you in writing before the property is listed, and nothing is added to it later. The full explanation is on the services page.

Land transfer tax, which in Ontario is provincial and, in Toronto, municipal as well, with rebates available to first-time buyers. Legal fees and disbursements. Inspection. Adjustments at closing for prepaid taxes and utilities. On pre-construction, development charges, occupancy fees, and HST treatment on top. You get a written estimate of all of it before you commit to a property, not at the lawyer's office the week before closing.

Commission, agreed in writing before the listing. Legal fees. Any preparation you choose to do, which you will have a cost and a return for before deciding. And, if there is a mortgage, any penalty for discharging it early, which is the one sellers most often forget and which I will ask about in the first conversation.