A businesswoman in Vietnam offered $675,000 for the townhouse at 78 Carr St.
Real estate agent Manu Singh has become accustomed to conditional offers in the unpredictable housing market of the Greater Toronto Area.
But the recent sale of a townhouse in the trendsetting Queen Street West neighbourhood brought a new twist: The buyer lives in Vietnam and she offered to buy the townhouse sight unseen.
The catch was, the offer came with an unusual condition. The buyer asked the sellers to give her time to fly over and tour the property.
Mr. Singh, who represented the sellers, says the deal was risky for his clients. The buyer had the option of backing out of the deal entirely if she didn’t like what she saw.
“I was a bit skeptical. It’s a foreign buyer. It seems a bit odd,” Mr. Singh said.
The arrangement seemed precarious for his clients, he says, because they would be taking their townhouse off the market for several days. If another offer came in, they would have to reject it.
On the other hand, if the buyer did close, they would be achieving the sale price they hoped for.
“They didn’t want to lose the opportunity,” Mr. Singh said.
The buyer was purchasing Unit 25 at 78 Carr St. for her daughter, who plans to attend the University of Toronto. The townhouse has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a deck.
The home is in a typically hot area, so it was listed with a lower asking price to generate a bidding war – but the initial offers were disappointing.
The area surrounding Bathurst Street and Queen Street West is typically hot, so Mr. Singh first listed the property with an asking price of $599,000. He knew the price was below market value, but he wanted to attract attention before the offer date scheduled for a week later.
“We got a lot of action in terms of showings,” Mr. Singh said.
Two bidders did come to the table on offer night, but they both submitted offers that disappointed the sellers.
“They weren’t up there,” Mr. Singh said.
Those bidders were turned away and the sellers relisted with an asking price of $680,000 and no offer date. That more realistic price was around the mark the sellers were really hoping for, Mr. Singh explains.
A couple of days after relisting, an offer of $675,000 arrived from the businesswoman in Vietnam.
Mr. Singh was apprehensive – partly because there was no cheque attached to the offer – and partly because the sellers would have trouble chasing a foreign buyer if she failed to show. He asked the buyer to increase the size of the promised deposit in order to give the sellers some assurance. He also kept in touch to make sure she was booking a flight.
“We accepted it. We made sure they had travel plans.”
When the buyer arrived with a business associate and a younger family member, Mr. Singh met them at the property for a tour. The business associate was the translator, he says, so communication was difficult.
After the tour, the buyer told Mr. Singh she would get back to him and headed off to her hotel.
“That evening, they said, ‘We’re heading to the bank.'”
The buyer did produce a large deposit cheque, then flew back to Vietnam to arrange the rest of the paperwork with her own lawyer. The deal closed as planned 45 days later.
Mr. Singh says the process had everyone involved on tenterhooks.
“We wondered, what’s going to happen? Are they going to close? It was a new situation for all of us.”
Mr. Singh says the sale illustrates that Toronto is still attractive to global players.
“People are turning to Toronto from around the world.”
Mr. Singh says the market has been very choppy in recent weeks. While the Queen West townhouse failed to attract the expected bidding war, a two-bedroom condo unit at 16 Yonge St. outpaced expectations.
“There was quite a slowdown going on,” Mr. Singh said of the first half of September.
He had the unit cleaned and staged, then listed it with an asking price of $799,000 and set an offer date.
The unit drew six offers and sold for just under $870,000.
“We weren’t expecting as many offers as that,” he said.
The first two weeks of September brought an uptick from August, he says, but not a surge. In recent days, he has been fielding quite a few calls from potential sellers. While high-quality listings have been scarce, prices have stayed firm, which may in turn encourage some owners to list.
“A lack of good supply is keeping prices up,” he said.
Lisa Marie Doorey, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, says the lack of listings prompted a bully to step up recently to purchase a historic home in Cabbagetown.
The three-storey condo townhouse at 390 Wellesley St. E. was listed by Ms. Doorey and Linda Chu with an asking price of $1,098,000.
Ms. Doorey says the house is unusual because it was originally a Victorian-era detached cottage known as Owl House. Several years ago, a developer built a townhouse project around it and made it part of the complex.
This house at 390 Wellesley St. East was originally a Victorian-era detached cottage, and now has a townhouse project built around it.Roobert Holowka
The home still has such original details as leaded glass, cournices and an ornamental owl embedded in the brickwork.
After three days on the market, Ms. Doorey received word that a bully offer was in the works.
“I told the sellers, ‘I think we’ve got a bully offer coming in so think about what that number is for you.’”
Ms. Doorey says other house hunters were interested and she believed the house had the potential to draw multiple bids, but the sellers accepted an offer of $1.2-million.
Ms. Doorey says the sellers had a price in mind and they were happy to see the home go to someone who really loved it. They were also able to skip the weekend open house, she points out.
“It’s refreshing to talk to someone who isn’t trying to squeeze the last bit of juice out of the market.”
The three-storey condo townhouse was listed with an asking price of $1,098,000.Roobert Holowka
The listing agent believed the house had the potential to draw multiple bids, but the sellers accepted a bully offer of $1.2-million.Roobert Holowka
Ms. Doorey says some buyers with preapproved mortgages are motivated at the moment to get an agreement in writing before interest rates rise again.
National Bank of Canada senior economist Krishen Rangasamy believes an October hike by the Bank of Canada is highly likely.
Mr. Rangasamy says an upside surprise in recent inflation data signals that overall price pressures are heating up.
“All in all, inflation this quarter is proving to be hotter than what was expected by the Bank of Canada.”
Carolyn Ireland