The debate continues to rage on, and I’m sure I’ve covered this topic ad nauseam.

But while we usually look at this issue in bits and pieces while dealing with other topics, I feel it needs to be addressed on it’s own.

And what better way to examine the topic debate than with accounts of a few clients of mine?

Yesterday I told the story about my client named “Sport” and the very unique housewarming gift I provided him with.  Sport ended up in a house in Leslieville, but would you believe that we looked at condos for three months first?

I have another client right now named Darcy who is still living with his parents in North Toronto.  We’ve been looking at houses for the better part of six months, and he is 110% against condominium living…..or at least he WAS until yesterday!

And finally my friend Geljo turned up his nose at a small 2-bedroom house in the King West area yesterday and told me he’d rather have a smaller condo for the same price.

Everybody knows what they want.

Or do they?

Nobody knows what they want!

How can you?

Many, if not most of us grew up in houses and will at some point or another live in an apartment or a condominium.  But until you’ve experienced every style of living there is, how can you be expected to know what and where you want to live?

Let’s take my client, Darcy, for example.  He is the one person I NEVER thought would flip-flop on the house-versus-condo debate, but he finally did.

Darcy is 26 years old, and lives with his parents in North Toronto.  He is an “independent-contractor” since he works on commission for an insurance firm.  He doesn’t work your typical 9-5 days or sit behind a desk, and he is always on the move.

Darcy told me that he’s finding it increasingly hard to focus on work from his “home base” when his aunt drops by at 2PM on a Tuesday and takes his family dog for a walk.  But as Darcy puts it, “Them’s the breaks when you live rent free!”

But the issues began to mount, and finally Darcy realized that the distractions around the house were keeping him from reaching his full potential in his job.  Darcy told me he wanted to find a house.

Most people Darcy’s age don’t look at houses, but Darcy plainly said, “Dave, I’m not a condo guy.  I’ve never been a condo guy.  I never will be a condo guy.”

He had it all figured out.

I find it ironic that Darcy, who has never lived in a condo before, could surmise that he doesn’t and will never like condominium living.  He even used the past tense to somehow infer that he had some experience with this in the past, even though he didn’t.

Darcy and a friend of his decided to pool their assets, access to debt, and of course their respective parents’ help and find a house in the $600,000 price range.  We looked in North Toronto, Davisville Village, Leaside, Hillcrest Village, and East York, but nothing jumped out at us.  Darcy and his friend Johnny also wanted to get some income out of the house, and thought perhaps a duplex was what was calling them.

But after six months of casually browsing the house market, Darcy called me today and asked me about condo townhouses!

I never thought I would get this call from him.  Ever.

Darcy explained that while his friends (and my clients) Pete & Sarah are slowly moving in to their new house, he began to see how much work a house really was.  They paid almost $600K for the house and were undergoing a small renovation.

“Dave, I don’t own a lawnmower, nor do I want to!” said Darcy.  “My mother gardens because she enjoys it.   You could pave over my backyard for all I care—I don’t want the upkeep!”

Darcy was beginning to see what else came with owning a house.

“They’re already looking at replacing some shingles on the roof, and they don’t have their A/C unit installed yet!  It was 35-degrees yesterday!  I can’t handle that!” Darcy said.

He now wanted to look at the condominium townhouses on Redpath Street & Lillian Avenue just east of Yonge/Eglinton.

So where did Darcy go wrong?

Well, Darcy was looking at the house versus condo only from one side of the equation: investment.  He didn’t want to “throw away” money on condominium maintenance fees, nor did he want to watch the market for houses out-appreciate the market for condominiums in the next few years.  He also assumed that buying a house now instead of buying a condo now and a house five years from now, would save him a whack of money.

But Darcy never even considered what it would be like to live in a condo!  Or for that matter, what it would be like to live in a house!  He only looked at the finances involved, which makes some sense given his industry.  He was so wrapped up in the investment aspect of the property that he didn’t stop to think that he’d be spending half the hours in a week in the property he buys!

Darcy didn’t consider the amount of upkeep associated with a house, or the so-called “carefree” lifestyle of living in a condo.  He never considered location in terms of proximity to downtown where he socializes, or the West end where he travels for work.

When Darcy went on to tell me that his friends Pete and Sarah, “Are gonna be asked to babysit all the local kids,” he snickered and added that they are already “an old married couple” since they live in a family area.  Ironically, this is where Darcy wanted to live up until a few days ago.

Darcy isn’t married, and won’t be having kids anytime soon.  So why would he want to live in a family neighborhood with his other 26-year-old buddy?  Well, initially he was only thinking about the return on his investment, and assumed that this family neighborhood would provide a sound shelter for his savings over the next few years.

There are two kids of people that come to me for help finding a suitable property: 1) Those that know exactly what they want, 2) Those that have zero clue what they want.

There is no in between.

But quite often, the people that know exactly what they want really have no clue.  They evaluated their wants and needs from the wrong criteria, or really did no evaluation whatsoever!

I could provide a list of potential criteria for your consideration when contemplating house versus condo, but the list would be exhaustive.  More importantly, I think the criteria needs to come from the mind of the buyers themselves.

What more important criteria could there possibly be than that which comes to mind first and foremost?