StoryLine By CondoNow
Are you looking to purchase a new condo in Toronto right now? To put it simply, you aren’t alone. The market is busy these days, and it seems like everyone wants to buy.The shopping process can be stressful, competitive, and exhausting. Here are four tips to help you keep your sanity while you make your way through Toronto’s condominium market.
1. Do Your Research Before You Start Looking for Specific Properties
One of the biggest mistakes you can make in shopping for a Toronto condo right now is to start seeing condos and get attached to something without knowing much about the state of the market. The fact is that Toronto’s condo market is very hot right now. With foreign investors taking a new interest in the market and plenty of locals looking to buy as well, condo prices are high—particularly in hot neighborhoods like Yonge-Eglinton or Casa Loma. In other words, you can start looking at the Toronto Life map for the best neighborhoods to live, but don’t get attached to anything until you’ve started researching condo prices in those areas. Depending on what your budget is, it may well render certain parts of the city unaffordable for you.
2. Figure Out Your Budget
Speaking of affordability, it’s incredibly important when it comes to buying a condo in Toronto. Would you rather try to live beyond your means in one of the city’s top neighborhoods or live comfortably in a slightly less sought-after (but still beautiful) area? If you want to keep your sanity, your answer will always be the latter option. Figure out your budget and pair that information with your research on different neighborhoods and prices. If you can’t afford housing in Forest Hill, focus your search elsewhere. You’ll save time and avoid the heartbreak of having to walk away from a dream condo that just happens to be $50 thousand out of your price range.
3. Get an Agent
Yes, there are a lot of resources online right now that can help you find condos in Toronto. Not all of them however also help you find a really good agent. CondoNow has a great resource for viewing and finding an agent that just right for your needs. A great agent will help you to find a condo that fits your lifestyle, wants and needs, meshes with your budget, and that (hopefully) is close to your optimal location.
Our CondoNow Agents are more tapped into the market than you can hope to be, and will point you toward new listings, or off-the-beaten-path listings, that you might not have known about otherwise. The Agent you get matched with will also be able to stay in the loop on which properties have bids, which can help you strategize on where to make your offers. Of course, you can still do research on your own and send listings to your agent if you want to see a property, but having an agent to steer the process will keep you from falling behind the rest of the buying crowd.
4. Avoid Bidding Wars
When you find a property that you want, the hope is that you can make an offer and win the bid before any other potential buyers get involved. In a situation where there is another interested buyer, though, be sure to think carefully before you dive into a bidding war. The Toronto condo market is a battlefield right now, which might convince you that you need to double down and up your bid if you get challenged over a dream condo. However, the vibrancy of the market also means that new developments are popping up every month and that you can almost surely find another dream condo if you hold out for a little longer. Weighing these options is important since getting into a bidding war could cause you to make the kind of rash or emotional decisions that push people way over their budgets.
Conclusion
Ultimately, your budget should be your one unbreakable rule. Knowing what you can afford and keeping that figure in mind at all times will help you zero in on the right properties. Avoid ill-advised decisions, and come out on the other end of your condo shopping process with your mind and wallet intact. Just be ready for the possibility of disappointments and false starts: in a market this busy, they are next to inevitable.
