True; a picture paints a thousand words, and yesterday I posted a dozen photos of my new, awful condo at West Side Lofts.
Today, I have a VIDEO to further demonstrate said awfulness.
Who says you don’t make friends with developers by slandering their work?
A lot of people (colleagues, managers, readers, clients, family) have asked me WHY I am being so forthcoming with my opinions towards this project when:
a) I own a unit here and am not helping the “image” and “value” of the building.
b) I will have to be on the developer’s good side in order to get my outstanding work completed.
I guess I’m just a glutton for the truth.
I’ve never held back my opinions on Toronto real estate, and I never will.
Majority of my business comes from this blog; people read what I have to say, and they contact me to act as their Realtor and look out for their interests.
Of course, many people don’t like what I have to say, and I’ve been on the receiving end of threatening letters to my Broker of Record, and once I was even challenged to a fight by an owner at Foundry Lofts! For the record – I told him we should fight in the stupid jail-like foyer of that awful building, videotape it, and put it on my blog. He never responded…
You may or may not agree with what I have to say about Toronto real estate, depending on whether or not you’re on the receiving end of it!
But I’ll never stop expressing myself.
I’m not finished here with my opinions on the West Side Lofts.
Tomorrow I’ll summarize the photos and the video, and tell you how I’m going to handle this going forward…
calico cate
at 8:31 am
Oh, Dabed. This is just tragic.
But if anyone can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, you’re the man.
shannon
at 8:39 am
what the hell? no lights? shared balcony? the work is so shocking. also, what happened to the beautiful wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows we were going to get?
i’m curious to hear how you’re going to move forward with this. thanks for sharing.
honeylemon
at 8:48 am
Hi David,
thanks for taking the time to post the video, it’s a great help to those of us whose PDI’s are still far off in the future.
Would you recommend that people who have yet to do their PDI’s go in with an independent inspector/contractor?
Curious what steps you’re taking now to rectify all the issues you’re experiencing with your unit.
Thanks for keeping us posted
roc
at 10:00 am
whatta mess…….
Choco
at 11:08 am
That is beyond appalling. Good for you for documenting it all.
Of course, this is really the sort of story that the Star should be doing (if they didn’t depend on ad revenues that is.)
David Fleming
at 11:13 am
@ Choco
Oh, I have contacts at the Globe & The Star.
I’m just trying to decide which method to use with the developer going forward – the friendly, get-along, or the threatening “I’m gonna make your life miserable.”
Agent
at 9:49 pm
Screw the builder and go to the media. The builder has no class and does not care a out thei buyers nor their agents. There should be class action law suit.
dmose
at 1:14 pm
Hi David,
Thanks for posting this!
Dave
at 3:43 pm
I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, but perhaps there is something fitting about an unscrupulous developer screwing a greedy realtor who purchased an as yet non-existing asset with the full intention of riding the housing bubble, and eventually punting this beauty along at a later date to a greater fool. Of course paying taxes on the capital gains from this non-principle residence was always totally out of the question (as admitted to in earlier blog entries).
Just sayin’…
Choco
at 4:41 pm
Do developers even respond to ‘nice’?
It will be interesting to see if these blog posts gets any results. I can’t imagine they’d want the public at large to see the images you shot.
Keep us posted — we know you will.
David Fleming
at 7:48 pm
@ Dave
How am I a “greedy Realtor?”
I have my “consumer” hat on right now, or my “investor” hat, if you will.
My occupation is irrelevant. If you’re a garbage man and you bought in this building, does that make you a “greedy garbage man?”
And I don’t think this is greed.
It’s called an “open market.”
Riding the housing bubble? What should I do? Sell off all my assets and donate the money to charity?
If you don’t believe in the free market and you don’t believe in “profit” than you should go live on a hippie commune somewhere and strum your guitar…
WEB
at 9:54 pm
Re: Dave’s comment…..
So Dave is basically saying that you deserve this…i.e. it is fitting. This comment is even more shocking than the state of the condo you have taken possession of!
And I agree with David F’s comment: you should just get the f*** out of here …. go move to Afghanistan and see how you like it there.
By the way Dave, if you are so dumb and/or irrational that you can’t see the benefits of our free market/capitalistic economy then without one, you’d be DEAD! (And I mean, literally, DEAD!) And so it is quite ironic!
Just sayin…..
And one last thing….if you have so much disdain and disrepect for David F…..WHY OH WHY THE F*** DO YOU READ HIS BLOG?????????????????
meow
at 12:24 am
Wow. This place is not lookin’ too sharp. I hope you can do something with it. Maybe wood floors….??? I don’t know… Please keep us posted on this so that other will not find themselves in this type of situation.
Kyle
at 3:48 pm
Dave you need to stop reading Garth Turner books, they rot the brain.
The man has yet to be right in his lifetime, and in case you’re not aware, before he was a crusading Bubblist, he had his own network, where he hosted a TV show called Real Estate Television. Basically he was one of those people, he now denigrates.
shannon
at 4:08 am
David, did they move the placement of the balcony? Are you on the South East corner of the building? On my building sketch, the balcony in unit 11 is in the middle of the room, and is certainly not shared…
JD
at 12:52 pm
You mentioned in previous posts that your old man is a lawyer.
SUE SUE SUE!
Toronto
at 9:15 am
David love your videos and blogs,the haters are probably developers……
Jane
at 3:51 pm
Alan Saskin and Urbancorp flunkies have cost me 2 years of occupancy fee’s.
THIS BUILDING STILL ISN’T REGISTERED. TWO YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scott
at 7:33 am
So how did this story end?
Scott
at 7:33 am
So David, how did this story end?