By Shari Kulha, National Post

We sold our house in western downtown Toronto three weeks ago, with a June 30 closing. We have seven weeks left to find a house and move in, but every house we’re interested in seeing is sold before we can say “book us a showing.” The good ones are gone faster than this spring’s snowdrops.

We’ve been on mls.ca for hours every day, we’ve been driving unfamiliar neighbourhoods every day, we’ve been at open houses, we’ve been at appointed showings, and we’ve been asking friends and neighbours to keep their eyes open for new listings. I’ve even discovered that acquaintances are vying for the same houses as we are, and now we almost feel we can’t speak to each other until our searches are over. I’m seeing houses in my sleep… that is, when I can sleep.

Two weeks ago, we were booked to see three houses in Leslieville; two of them sold before we could get there (one went for $83,000 over asking) and the third lingers on the market as an uber-fixer-upper (if three weeks can be called lingering). Last week, a house in Riverdale sold for $160,000 over asking. Another in Chinatown apparently went for $200,000 over asking — with 20 offers for, as one agent called it, “a fixer-upper dump.” And I was told of a Briar Hill home that went for $100,000 over.

Maybe they were all priced low to attract offers, but these are much-desired neighbourhoods, where good product has often sold in bidding wars — a phenomenon now called “sold in competition.”

This past Saturday, our agent planned to show us four places in the Upper Beach, but two had been sold by the time we met up at 1:30, another had three offers registered (even though it needed another 25% of its purchase price in major work), and the fourth we liked enough to consider putting in an offer, but there were already two offers registered.

We were there at 3pm, and the owner was looking at offers at 5p. that day — and that was her first open house. That type of strategy puts a lot of pressure on a buyer — there’s no time to think; no time to consult with renovators; no time to research schools, aftercare, proximity to amenities. Only those who have all their ducks in a row (and by that I mean well-rested brain cells) and can offer a premium with few conditions attached are actually able to buy. That sounds like a sellers’ market to me.

I know that many agents feel that way. At one open house, where there was an enormous pile of shoes left at the door by all the visitors touring through at one time, the conversation between two agents went like this:

“How are you doing in the downturn?”

“What downturn?”

That’s exactly what my husband and I have been feeling this past month, watching in amazement and not a little anxiety as sold signs go up on one street after the next.

“The hot pockets are hot again,” a Forest Hill Real Estate agent tells me of the buzz in the city. And with all the right elements being strong, such as low mortgage rates and a job-filled city, she says “there’s no reason for it to die off.”

————————————————————————————————————

Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information  –  416-388-1960

————————————————————————————————————