I have always felt that it’s inapropiate to take joy in the misfortune of others, but I’m not sure if the following story is an exception to that rule, or if perhaps the rule doesn’t apply here.

This is a story that has a happy ending only because it has a sad ending; if that makes any sense.

It’s a story that underscores the right way to sell real estate in Toronto while exploring the wrong way to sell real estate in Toronto, and as you’ll soon witness, it features a client of mine that comes out ahead, while another seller draws the short end of the stick.

Then again, it’s not really like this other seller “drew” the short end of the stick.  It’s like they drew a full stick, weren’t satisfied, then for some odd reason decdied to break off small pieces of it, while finally realizing that this made the stick smaller.

How’s that for an analogy?

I have a long-time client who we’ll call Paul.

While I’m obviously not the type of person to pick favourites, if I did have a list of favourite clients, Paul would certainly be on it.

Paul is one of the few people that I could call a professional investor, especially as Toronto goes.  And the funny thing is, Paul has made his money in an area of real estate that I have not worked in, and have berated for fifteen years: pre-construction condos.

I have two such clients; people who are in the 100th percentile of pre-construction investors and who buy through their own connections in the industry, but who use me to sell their properties years later on the resale market.

Paul and I have sold four or five of his properties in the last year, but there was one more left and it would be the biggest yet.

The property in question was a freehold townhouse in a very small complex where almost every unit was the same.  Almost every unit.

Paul was hoping to get over $1,400,000 for his unit, with a dream target in and around $1,450,000.  He knew that was more unlikely than likely but we had been successful on other projects this year, so that was our goal.

About one month before we were ready to list, the identical unit was listed next door.

Go figure.

They priced at $1,299,000, with an offer date, and we watched the unit intently.

Offer day came along and they sold for $1,431,000.

Just shy of what Paul was hoping to get for his unit.

We continued on our path – painting the unit, making some small repairs, and eventually staging the condo.

But one week before we were ready to list, Paul called me.

“There’s a lot of work going on in a unit across the complex,” Paul told me.  “Movers, painters; it really feels like they’re getting ready to list.”

Paul informed me that this unit was the one model that’s slightly different from his and the unit that just sold next door.  This unit was a corner so it had a full wall of windows that the other units didn’t, plus it was marginally larger.  This particular unit, however, had two parking spaces.  Not a tandem spot, but rather two separately deeded spaces.

“They bought at the peak,” Paul told me, since he knows every sale price for every house or condo in and around his own investments.

“They paid $1,530,000 for that place in March of 2022, which was literally the peak.”

Paul asked me, “Do you think this is going to interfere with our listing?”

I told him that I’d keep an eye on it, but that I honestly just had a “feeling” that we’d be okay.

A couple of days later, Paul sent me a photo of their “COMING SOON” sign, which was installed but had fallen over and was laying face-down on the road in front of the house.

I called the agent and feigned inexperience and asked him what he had coming up and what I needed to know.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” the agent started, which confirmed the feeling that I already had.

“This is the best property in the complex,” he said to me.  “We’re going to list the property low for multiple offers,” he said.

It’s really not for me to tell somebody else how to price, strategize, and negotiate, but you don’t really want to tell peopel you’re pricing “for multiple offers.”

I asked him, “They paid $1,530,000 for this at the market peak.  What are they expecting to get this time?”

The correct answer to this, by the way, is “I’m not sure, I guess we’ll see.”  As a listing agent, you really do not want play your hand.

But he did.

“Nobody is going to sell for a loss,” he said.  “They will sell for $1,650,000,” he told me.

I played dumb and said, “Isn’t the market lower today than it was in March of 2022 when they bought?”

He said, “No, it’s not.  Not for this type of property.  This is a special one.  It has two parking spaces!”

I thanked him for his time, wished him luck with the listing, and then told him that I might have something coming out in the complex too.

I called Paul and said, “This guy is going to fuck this up so hard, don’t worry.”

And so Paul didn’t worry.

Paul rarely worries, but a competing listing hitting the market only days before we were scheduled to list would be a worry for most.

The listing came to market at $1,399,900 with an offer date, and that offer date was going to be two days before we listed our unit for sale.

The listing wasn’t staged, there was no open house, and it was a half-effort all around.

I spoke to a few buyer agents who had shown the property and they all told the same amazing story: that the listing agent was disclosing his clients expected to exceed $1,650,000 for the property.  Not only that, he sounded cocky about it.  One agent said, “He talked down to me.”

Offer day came and went and the property didn’t sell.

Surprise, surprise.

So we took our listing to market at $1,199,000, again hoping to beat the $1,431,000 that our next-door-neighbour had sold for the previous month, but also knowing that we were competing against this other unit and their ‘interesting’ strategy.

After the other property failed to sell – listed at $1,399,000, they did somehing we’ve grown accustomed to:

They increased the price to $1,499,000.

But they wanted $1,650,000, right?  So were they conceding?

Nope.

They were priced at $1,499,000 but the listing agent was still telling people, “We need over $1,600,000.”

It was crazy.  There was no strategy here.  They were completly mismanaging this listing.

Our listing, to be honest, was going a tiny bit slow.  We had a handful of showings but it didn’t feel like we were going to recieve eight offers.

Then along came an agent that I know well, and whom I’ve worked with before, and he asked, “Would you entertain a bully offer?”

Well, of course we would!  We knew what game we were playing and we knew which arena we were playing in.

We really wanted to beat that previous sale price of $1,431,000, and sure enough, we hit Paul’s target: $1,450,000.

Signed, sealed, delivered.

We were sold firm, cheque in hand, quick closing.

Everything we wanted!

Amazingly, the “other unit” was still listed for $1,499,000 with that agent telling people they would only accept offers over $1,600,000.

In fact, the agent who brought us the bully offer said his partner (a female) had called the listing agent to inquire about the listing and he “man-splained” the market to her.  She couldn’t get a word in edgewise as the listing agnet rattled off nonsense market stats in attempt to justify his price.

So they bought our unit instead.

Soon, the listing for the “other unit” was termianted, but then they did something amazing.

They re-listed at $1,199,900 with an offer date.

What?

But they already did this!

They already tried to list low and hold back with an offer date!  You can’t possily expect the market to respond to this, can you?

No.  Of course not.

And when their listing day came and went, they made yet another poor decision:

They increased the price, again, to $1,499,900.

But there were no takers!

And at this point, they were now on their second listing at their fourth price and the market was clearly ignoring the propety.

Now here’s the part that will make you shake your head.

Five days later, they switched “strategies” again.  And I put “strategies” in quotation marks for a reason…

They re-listed for $1,139,900.

WTF?

A third offer date?

A third kick at the can?

This wasn’t strategic at all.

And by this point, the sale of our unit was starting to grow old.

While I feel like you already know how this “strategy” played out, I might as well say – no, they did not sell.

Their third offer date came and went and they remained unsold.

So what was next?

Re-list at $1,499,900.

This was now their sixth price!

They had been on the market for three months.

And although it took some time, would you believe that this unit did in fact sell?

Yep.

It sold for $1,430,000, which is $20,000 less than our unit sold for, even though they’re a corner unit, larger, and with parking.

That is how not to sell real estate in Toronto.

That is how to royally screw up a listing.

From the get-go, this listing was destined for failure.  It just had that odour about it.

Paul even knew it.  He’s experienced enough to know.  He sussed it out right away.

What’s a parking space worth?  The listing agent for that unit was trying to tell me it’s $50,000, and maybe once upon a time, it was.  But today, let’s say it’s worth $30,000, just for fun.

What’s the “corner unit” element worth?  Maybe $20K.  But Maybe $80K.  It’s up for debate.

Either way, this unit was “worth” at least $50,000 more than ours, and yet it sold for $20,000 less.

There was a cornucopia of reasons why.

The listing agent was out of his depth.  He didn’t know how to talk to and interact with other agents.

The listing agent and/or the sellers didn’t understand the value.  Or they didn’t want to.

The listing agent had no pricing strategy, which probably wasn’t helped by the fact that they overvalued the property.

Since they paid $1,530,000 for the property in 2022, the sellers seemed to feel that it “owed them something.”  This was a mistake to begin with, but it helped compound mistakes as they undoubtedly weighed their options, and did so incorrectly.

When the property sold, Paul sent me a screen shot from House Sigma.  He was on it.  He knew before I did.

Neither Paul or I could say that we’re “happy” with the result of this other listing, but rather we feel like the price that Paul received looks even better now in hindsight.  Plus, there’s just something to be said for a job well done on our part.

Stories like this one, unfortunately, are quite common in the Toronto real estate market.  In fact, this probably sounds like so many others that I’ve told before.

But there is a right way to sell real estate in this city and I don’t just believe that, nor do I simply tout it; I go out there every day and help my clients reap the rewards from it.

And there is a wrong way too.  The ‘ole, “how not to sell real estate,” that makes you scratch your head, or worse: full facepalm.

That was the emoji I sent Paul last week when he showed me the sale price of that other unit.

🤦‍♂️

Yeah.  Something like that.

Although I think we’re all more used to this one:

But seriously though.  Seriously.  For real.

Is anybody going to ask me about the mouse driving the racecar?