Yesterday the CBC National did a feature urban living trends in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. For the Toronto segment they were talking about how condos are getting smaller and they featured the notorious Smallest Condo in Toronto which is one of my investment properties. I was also interviewed for the piece and you can watch the whole thing here.

The key questions that came up from the piece were:

1) Is this trend of smaller and smaller condos here to stay or just a trend that will pass? I do believe that this is the way of the future in Toronto, especially downtown but it will eventually be seen in other parts of the city as well. Don’t be surprised if someone eventually builds an entire tower of 250-400 sq ft studios. There is plenty of market demand for this type of product.

2) Have we gotten as small as we can go, or can we get much smaller? I think we still have a ways to go. 200-250 sq feet is actually very attainable given that it is designed for a single person, the layout is good, there is plenty of light from large windows, and the kitchen and bathroom are kept small and efficient.

Questions or comments? Please contact me.

I’ve been blogging about the downtown condo market for a little over 5 years now. In that time I’ve seen tremendous shifts in the market as well as in how condos are marketed. I’ve met many great people through this blog and my twitter account, including many amazing clients who have bought and sold properties with me. A comment that I consistently hear from people, and what keeps me going, is that they really appreciate the knowledge, insights, and opinions I share on this blog. Unlike 98% of all real estate websites which are nothing more than online billboards full of regurgitated information, I like to think that I offer some added value with the original content I put up each week. I know that many Realtors and condo industry people read my blog and that’s cool, but ultimately I’ve created this website for the regular people who are interested in buying and selling real estate in Toronto.

With that in mind I’m happy to announce that I’m going to be expanding my blog very soon by adding videos. It’s something I’ve been considering doing for about 3 years, but never felt like I had the right ‘formula’ for doing so. Well, I’m still not sure if I have the right formula, but I’m about to find out!  It may surprise you but the videos are not going to be about what I typically write about on this blog: pre-construction condos. I’m going to shift gears a little bit as I’m finding that my client’s needs are changing and I am expanding my game to adapt along with them.

Some time in the next few days I’ll be rolling out an entirely new blog design, one that I hope you like, and with it, the addition of videos.  Thank you for your ongoing support and I look forward to your feedback once the new site and videos are up and running.

Rogers-owned real estate  portal Zoocasa launched a new service this week called “Zoopraisals“. CTV News quoted me in a story they posted on their website which you can read here if you like. They offer anyone a free home appraisal instantly over the internet without any strings attached. This brings Zoocasa one step closer to becoming Canada’s version of Zillow.com which is an extremely powerful real estate search engine in the U.S. and they have been providing property owners “Zestimates” for several years now.

The big question always is, do services and innovations like this mean the end of Realtors as we know it? Will technology and the internet ultimately replace the traditional real estate agent model of buying and selling real estate? Will commissions soon be a thing of the past?

My answer to all these questions is obviously ‘no’. While I give kudos to Zoocasa for creating great tools for the consumer, these tools only serve to highlight the fact that any service professional who can’t prove themselves more useful than a computer model or add any more value to a transaction than an online classified ad will soon be out of business. However, those professionals who are experts in their market niches and understand the many complex variables to go into every single real estate transaction will continue to thrive for many many years. I think you know which group I plan on being a part of!

This is also a great time to plug my own condo evaluation service, which like Zoocasa’s is also free, however unlike Zoocasa it actually contains more than just a single number on a screen as it takes into account my extensive knowledge and experience working in the downtown condo market! If you’d like to know what your condo is worth, please contact me.

CBC Radio Interview from Andrew la Fleur on Vimeo.

OK. This will be the last post on this subject-I hope! I just had to share an interview I did yesterday with Charles Adler on his nationally syndicated radio program (AM640 in Toronto) about “The Smallest Condo in Toronto”.

Charles and I talked for about 6 minutes about the “micro-condo” phenomenon in Toronto. I had a lot of fun doing it and I hope you enjoy the listen! Questions or comments? Please contact me.

CLICK TO LISTEN ->Charles Adler – Sep 29th 2011 – Interview

To download the podcast in iTunes, go here.

Just 24 hours after TheStar.com wrote their article, Sympatico.ca and Yourmoney.ca picked up the story too. You can read it here.

While the articles were a fun read, what I found most interesting were the comments section of each article.

The article on TheStar.com framed me as a landlord and Realtor. The comments were mostly personal attacks on me, essentially calling me an evil, greedy slumlord and that I should be locked up for even thinking about renting out such a horrible, God-forsaken shoeb0x of a condo at such an exorbitant and oppressive monthly rate. “How dare you!”

The article on Sympatico.ca framed it as my own apartment that I would be living in (even though the author knew that it is an investment unit). The comments section on this article are full of praise for me as a smart and even ecologically sound home owner who is living within my means and not being wasteful. “Good for you for making it work!”

This contrast between the two comments’ sections provides a fascinating glimpse into the human physche, but the point I want to make is that it really underscores my belief that investing in real estate is not for everyone. Many people do not and will never understand real estate, and specifically how it can be a vehicle for wealth creation. Some of us ‘get it’. Some of us don’t. I wrote a couple blog posts last year about the difference between those who get it and those who don’t.

Questions or comments? Please contact me.

I never envisioned my face would be plastered on the front page of TheStar.com right next to a picture of Rob Ford laughing diabolically, but here we are. Check out this cute little article-with video- that Susan Pigg (The Star’s new real estate reporter) wrote about my investment unit at One Park West. What is interesting or ‘newsworthy’ of this condo is that it is possibly the smallest condo in the entire city at 301 square feet.

I guess you could say I put my money where my mouth is when it comes to the Regent Park revitalization project. I first started blogging several years ago about One Cole, then last year it was One Park West, now this week it’s Paintbox. It’s no secret I am a believer in the redevelopment that is happening in Regent Park, and I’m happy to say my own piece of the puzzle has turned out fantastic.

I know that many people within the real estate industry in Toronto are still highly skeptical that Regent Park will overcome it’s stigma and reputation as a ‘bad’ area, built progressively over the last 50+ years, but I’m not one of them. I believe when the redevelopment is complete in around 5-7 years this area will be a great middle-class, family-type neighbourhood in the heart of downtown. Something unique and an affordable area that people will not only want to live in, but also spend their free time in.

Questions or comments? Please contact me.

I guess this makes it official: everyone is talking about the Toronto condo market. I was interviewed a couple weeks ago for an article on our condo market by a writer for the Wall Street Journal, and today that article hit wsj.com. Read the entire article here. See what people on Twitter are saying about the article here.

The article certainly has a bearish slant to it, with the basic thesis being: the market has been booming for so long it therefore must crash. Certainly not something we haven’t heard before many times over the last decade, but should this article give individual investors pause as to whether or not they should be buying a condo in Toronto right now?

I was asked my opinion on the market and the prospects for a ‘correction’. What I told the writer was the same thing I’ve been saying on this blog for a while now: the likelihood for a correction in the short term is very low, the fundamentals right now are strong. However, even the most bullish investor must admit that a key driver to this market has been the lower-than-low interest rates we have had over the last few years. If rates continue to stay low, demand will continue to be strong, prices will continue to rise, and thus, the potential for a correction will grow. In other words, no market can rise at 6-8% per year ad infinitum, but as long as money is cheap, the market will likely keep its momentum.

I would love to hear your comments. Leave one below or email me.

Graphic above taken from the wsj.com article.

I’ve been working with one buyer downtown for the past few months. Let’s call him MJ. MJ owns a condo townhouse near Yonge and Eglinton that has appreciated significantly since he bought it and he’s looking to sell and move downtown. After seeing several units in different buildings and in different areas, MJ narrowed it down to 2-3 buildings he liked and was looking for a 2 bedroom unit up to around the mid $500s. Problem was, there was nothing available for sale. We waited. We waited some more. Nothing was coming up in these buildings. Frustration was starting to set in. Time to get creative.

Some agents will solicit listings by  flyering or directly sending letters to specific units in specific buildings. The message being, “I have a buyer who will buy your condo for top dollar!”. I suspect this approach is not very effective as it inherently reeks of ‘spam’ mail. I decided to take a different approach.

There just so happened to be a unit FOR LEASE in the exact building that MJ was very keen on, and this unit’s floor plan was one he had seen before and liked it. I called up the listing agent for this unit that was for lease and asked if the seller had any interest in selling instead of leasing it. He said unlikely since he just bought the unit last year. I let him know MJ was a serious buyer, and low and behold after a few phone calls back and forth, we submitted an offer in writing and that offer was accepted! MJ was thrilled that he found a great condo in a great building and he did not have to go through the pain of a bidding war to get it! He’s now getting his townhouse at Yonge and Eglinton ready for sale.

Thinking of buying or selling a condo this spring? I’d love to help you achieve your real estate goals. Contact me to discuss.

The most recent case was an email that I received from a prospective client. He forwarded me an email that he received from another Realtor (whom I have never met) about Theatre Park. The client was confused at the origin of the email and thought I was involved with it somehow. Reading through it I realized that the words of the email were copied and pasted from my recent blog post about Theatre Park. Brutal!

I know that the Toronto condo market is the NFL of condo markets, and that I am part of a hyper-competitive industry (30,000 Realtors in the Toronto Real Estate Board). We all copy each other to some extent (myself included), but when imitation crosses over into plagiarism, I can’t help but throw up a flag and call a foul.

So I wanted to put it to my loyal readers and followers: what should I do about these plagiarizers? Should I expose them publicly on this blog or some other forum? Should I threaten legal action (or actually pursue it) where warranted? Should I stop taking myself and my blog so seriously and ‘get over it’?

The angle I have taken to date has to simply ignore them, keep my eyes locked in the forward position, and concentrate my energies on creating the best, most informative, most BS-free, and most insightful Toronto condo blog on the Internet. What say you readers??