Blog

I recently had a listing in Cabbagetown, a beautiful Victorian row house built in 1868, that attracted six offers on our offer review date. My client, who had owned the home for the past 40 years, was delighted there was so much interest, but understandably nervous because she had never gone through this process before. All six offers were over our asking price. Unbelievably, the three top offers were identical in price. In my more than 20 years of selling real estate, and through the many multiple offer situations I've been in while representing sellers, I had never seen this happen... [CLICK THE TITLE ABOVE TO KEEP READING]

The anticipation leading up to the last month's federal budget announcement had me and many others on the edge of our seats. There were the leaks to the media that the federal government was going to bring in earth shattering initiatives to make home ownership more affordable for first time buyers. What would these measures be? [CLICK THE TITLE ABOVE TO KEEP READING]

Re-introducing the ever-growing Desmond Brown Real Estate Team!

Sold information is now available! (For real this time!) For me and other realtors to release the sold information, we've had to jump through many hoops in order to follow TREB's silly rules...

The headlines are saying sales in the Toronto real estate market are down by up to 35% compared to this time last year. That number looks huge, but...

Here's a story, written by my team member Jennifer Scaife, about a couple who recently entered the Toronto real estate market. Recently, Kassia and Cory were referred to me by a past client. Lively and energetic, they were eager to get going on their quest. We saw properties that challenged their tolerance for ‘fixer-upper’ and others whose state of ill-repair were jaw-dropping! We soldiered on, intent on finding the perfect home in the perfect neighbourhood that was within their first-timers’ budget...

Two weeks ago Bank of Canada raised its prime lending rate 0.25% points. As a result, we're now seeing posted bank rates for five-year mortgages at 4.64%. Experts are predicting the Bank of Canada will raise the prime rate a few more times over the next twelve months. With the average price of a home in Toronto at $730,000, the media reported that this was the beginning of the end for home ownership in this city and that people are now in danger of losing their homes. Not true...

It's been nine years since I left journalism and returned to selling real estate.

Some of my colleagues and mortgage brokers have been freaking out since last month's announcement about the new stress test requirement for all buyers. In my opinion, this is a good thing...

I recently received a call from an agent on one of my listings. On the listing I stated that the seller would consider holding a mortgage for the new buyer. The agent said to me, "You mentioned on the listing that your seller will hold a mortgage. Can you tell me what that means?" I immediately knew that the agent I was speaking to was fairly new...