X-Condos is the newest, hottest building in the midtown area at the moment, and we’re already seeing some crazy things happen!

For example, how about raising the asking price of a condo by $80,000 just a few days after it’s listed?

Me thinks it’s going to be a strange Spring market…

When X-Condos was first launched back in 2006, the colour they used to market the project was black.

Jet black, to be exact.

Everything was black, from the brochure to the condominium itself.

The building looked incredibly chic and more importantly, it looked different from every building that had come before it.

I can honestly say that I think some of the success of the project can be directly attributed to the colours they used in their marketing.

That brings us to X-2, and the colour pink:

Want to make a bold statement?  How about a bold colour like hot-pink?

What could possibly be bolder?  No, seriously, that’s a question – is there any bolder colour?

You couldn’t drive by the sales centre without turning your head.  Bright PINK everywhere!

The project was an even larger success than the original X-Condos, and with that success came the story seen HERE.  I love it.  Real estate agents were physically fighting eachother as they jockeyed for position in two competing lineups for the pre-sale of X2.  After waiting in line, overnight for days, an entire group of agents were told that they were in the “wrong line.”  So naturally, these agents picketed the sales centre holding hand-made signs that said “X2 – UNFAIR.”  It must be nice to have that kind of time on one’s hands…

X2 sold out in record time, and only one month later, the original X-Condos was finally registered as a Condominium Corporation.

This opened both the doors to the building and the floodgates for new listings, but as the following story will indicate, we haven’t yet seen the abundance of sales that we anticipated.

There were three sales in December, and as I write this post, there are four more properties that are sold conditionally.

But there are also THIRTY active listings!

So why aren’t properties selling at the drop of a hat?

Why are buyers excited to see properties with equally-excited agents and yet sales are slow?

Perhaps the answer can be found in this experience…

A unit came onto the market in late December for $299,000, and it seemed like an incredible “deal.”

But just as I explained to my female companions in St. Maarten when they scoured Phillipsburg for supposed “deals” on jewelry among the hoards of tourists, “In a perfectly-functioning marketplace, there are no deals.”  How could jewelry possibly be 60% off when 10,000 naive tourists disembark each day with money to spend?

The condo was a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom of about 550 square feet with parking and locker, east-facing from a mid-level floor.

Even if you have minimal knowledge of Toronto real estate, you should know that $299,000 for this product would be considered an incredible “deal.”

The MLS listing specifically made note of the fact that, “PARKING ALONE VALUED AT $45,000,” although I think that might represent a hefty premium over the $29,500 that spaces originally sold for in 2006…

The same model unit on a higher floor without parking was listed at $339,000 and had been sitting on the market for over two months, and a newly-listed unit on a lower floor was listed at $314,900.

It didn’t take an actuary to realize that $299,000 for this condo with parking and locker was a helluvua deal.  One might even say that it was “too good to be true.”

But the crazy part was – the listing never specifically stated “Offers kindly reviewed on XX-date” or anything of the sort.  There was no official hold-back on offers, and no set offer date.

Something seemed a little off.  There was no way this property could be had for $299,000, just like there was no way that Swarovski jewelry was selling for half the retail price in St. Maarten.

And just as I wasn’t surprised to see Lacoste polo shirts priced at $155 US in Phillipsburg, I wasn’t surprised to hear that there were THREE offers on the X-Condo, listed at $299,000, being presented one cold night in early January.

I had an appointment to see the unit that night with a client, but the listing brokerage called and cancelled it!  I guess we had lost our “opportunity” to buy it…

Three days passed, and there was no update on MLS, nor did the listing agent ever return my calls.

And then came the most magical event in all of real estate – they changed the price from $299,000 to $379,000.

ZING!

Gotta love when that happens, right?

What’s that saying?  “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again……$80,000 higher…”

I’m sure you’ve all heard a similar story before, especially if you read my blog.

But I think every time this happens, people become more and more desensitized to the frustration and anguish that the parties involved are put through.

Imagine being a “happy-go-lucky” buyer who visits this property and calls his or her parents to say, “Guess what?  I found the perfect place and I’m going to make an offer!”

Then after the listing agent drives over you with the steamroller a few times, he relists the property for $80,000 more than it was listed for when you first called Mom & Dad.

Sure, you knew it was under-priced, but by how much?  And let’s say you offered $335,000 and thought you had a great chance of getting the property – how do you feel now that it was re-listed $45,000 higher?

I mean, what’s $45,000 in the grand scheme of things?  Well, apparently, it’s a parking space…

If “all is fair in love and war,” then perhaps that same school of thought can be applied to real estate, right?

It’s totally fair to price a condo at $299,000 and mislead buyers, all the while expecting $350,000, $370,000, or even as much as $380,000 for the condo.

It’s totally fair to bring three buyers into a room, laugh at their $299,000 offers, and then tell them to up the ante by $80K.

And it’s totally fair to re-list the property a few days later at $379,000.

I’m not being facetious – these are all fair things to do.

But is a small 1-bedroom with parking at the new, chic, jet-black X-CONDOS actually “worth” $379,000?  Not even close, in my opinion.

Approaching $700 per square foot?  Are you nuts?  You’d have to be tickled pink to pay that kind of money!  You’d have to be so crazy, you’d stand in the wrong line for six days!  Okay, sorry, low blow…

There are thirty active listings at X-CONDOS and four more units that are sold conditionally.

I love this building, but I think that the prices have to become slightly more reasonable for us to see some movement on this glut of listings.

A colleague of mine owns a 2-bedroom unit and he listed and sold the property inside of a week.  He listed it for just over $600/sqft, which is fair market value, and the market responded; fairly.

This should be a lesson for the other owners in the building who are playing ridiculous pricing games and misleading buyers.

Play nice.

You catch more flies with honey.

Don’t you?