I’m not sure what the theme to this post is, nor do I know what I would call the ‘moral of the story.’

This is about greed, unfair business practices, and perhaps a call for more stringent regulations.

I’ve never seen it before, but there is a first time for everything: agent and seller holding back offers on a LEASE!

Oh, it may not look like much from the outside, but here lays one of the most popular condominiums in downtown Toronto.

21 Nassau Street and 160 Baldwin Street are home to a two-sided condominium that sits in the middle of Kensington Market.

If you want to live in the Kensington Market area, you’re looking at a few rat-infested rowhouses on Kensington Place, one of a limited number of nice homes on Oxford or Nassau, or of course the only condominium in the area: Kensington Lofts.

In fact, if you were to Google “Kensington Market,” the little “A” that we all know and love comes up right-smack-dab in the middle of Baldwin & Nassau Streets about twenty feet from Kensington Lofts:

Kensington Market is a Toronto landmark, no doubt.;

And the building itself at Nassau/Baldwin is certainly a unique treat if you like hard lofts with thirteen-foot ceilings.  I’ve put two of my clients in this building, one being my best friend, so I know the lay of the land pretty well.

The building was red-hot for a while and I was involved in multiple offer situations here twice in early 2008, and then when the market cooled down at the end of 2008 and into early 2009, so too did the demand for units at Kensington Lofts.

But the market has heated up again, and with a limited number of entry-level units changing hands each year, sellers and their agents have been holding-back on offers and trying, successfully, to create a buzz, panic, and subsequent frenzy.

When a large 900-square-foot, 1-bedroom unit came onto the market for lease at $1900 per month, with a parking space, I immediately thought about two clients of mine who might be interested.

Then, I read the fine print in the MLS listing, and I sat quietly shaking my head for a good minute in full…

I stared at the screen like I was trying to decipher ancient hieroglyphics when in reality I was just in a dual-state of shock and awe.

I saw what I was reading – they were holding back on offers, but I just couldn’t understand why.

Well, I guess I could understand: greed, and no sense of common decency.

But it became a bit of a moral dilemma that I pondered while bored out of my mind on the Stairmaster at GoodLife later that day.

If this were my seller, would I do the same thing?

Would I hold back offers on a lease?

I’ve written countless articles about how I feel about “holding back offers” with the sale of real estate.  I think that there is a time to do it, and a time not to do it.  I understand the theory and motivations behind it, and as a capitalist, I support the idea, somewhat begrudginly on infrequent occasions.

But to hold back offers on a lease?  Now we’re just getting ridiculous!

Greed plays a huge factor in the purchase and sale of real estate, and I’ve witnessed people turn down $1,000,000 for a property trying to hold out for $1,050,000 and end up with $700,000.  This happens in all markets, in all cities, all over the world.

But gouging people for the next dollar, and the next dollar after that is where I draw the line, and that is what happens every single day in our market place.

Buying or renting real estate should be an exciting time in one’s life, but that excitement has been replaced with anxiety and fear.  And now, some greedy property-owner in Kensington Market has decided that for a period of more than two weeks he is going to parade potential lessees through his property and then sit back like Jabba-The-Hut on August 15th and accept offers from those pathetic minions who wish to inhabit his abode.

This listing hit the market two weeks ago, and I’m sure that many, many potential renters got excited when they saw it.

Living in Kensington Market is an absolute dream for some people, and I’m sure this property will have seen as many as one-hundred showings in the seventeen days before the owners “review” offers.

That’s a lot of crushed hopes when you consider that this situation is shaping up for a bidding war, and if/when you end up with four offers at the same price, then you look at the “worthiness” of the tenant.

That’s right – you look at their employment, credit history, references, and anything you can get your hands on.

I just completed a lease the other day for a 2-bedroom unit at the new “London on the Esplanade” where the owners wanted to meet my client.  But they didn’t just want to meet him, they wanted him to drive from Waterloo in the middle of final exams to their house in Thornhill so they could essentially interview him in their living room.

Sure, they’re well within their right to do so.  I’m just trying to put the tenancy process into perspective.

But for the one, ten, twenty, or one-hundred people who express interest in the unit at Kensington Lofts, how many will be dissapointed when it receives multiple offers and goes for far, far over the asking price?

And how many people who are willing to pay this exorbatant amount will be dissapointed when they are not deemed a “worthy tenant?”

Maybe I’m not the single-nicest guy in the world, but I’d like to think I have some decency.

I wouldn’t want to be guilty of creating a situation where a whole lot of people are going to feel like sh!t.

That’s exactly what’s happening at Kensington Lofts.

Holding back offers on a lease.

I never thought I would see the day.

But I never even considered it a possibility until it happened!  The situation never even occurred to me!

So now I’ll wait with baited-breath to see what happens on August 14th.

But if I had a client who was interested in the property, I’d go at it, full-throttle.

I have no choice.  It’s my job…