Something fishy is going on here!

I just took a client of mine to see this really great unit at 15 Stafford Street.

I get back to the office, and another unit—exact same model, has been listed today.

Coincidence?  Nope.  Just smart, shrewd, and crude sales tactics…

What a gorgeous picture!

The photo above shows the building 15 Stafford Street in the distance with the lush grass fields of Stanley Park in the foreground.  You can easily count, on one had, how many areas in downtown Toronto have small parks surrounded by tall residential buildings.

King West, and Queen West for that matter, are beyond “up-and-coming” areas by now.  They have become “the place to be.”  Although only a kilometre or two from the financial district, King and Queen West have become a haven for people who want to live away from the fast paced and crowded streets of the city centre.

Personally, I think looking out your window from 15 or 18 Stafford is like looking through a time warp to an era when actual houses and parkswere visible in the surrounding area.  You won’t see any green-space if you look out your window from 18 Yonge Street or 210 Victoria, but King West has yet to be completely developed, and small houses still litter the streets giving the area a nostalgic feel when compared to the rest of downtown.

Today I took a client to see Unit #202 at 15 Stafford Street, priced at $338,000.

The unit was a 1-bedroom-plus-den, 1-bathroom of 710 square feet with significant upgrades in the kitchen, which featured granite counters, stainless steel appliances, ceramic back-splash, and the unit had hardwood flooring throughout.

The unit is being tenanted right now, which is given away by the sheer amount of Ikea furniture and literally dozens of framed photos of friends scattered throughout the unit.  It’s a 24-year-old’s paradise…

The unit faces east over Stanley Park, which takes away any feeling of crowding that most buildings get when another building goes up next door.  It sure is nice to have a soccer/baseball field right next door!

So where is the drama?

Where are the crude business tactics that I have referred to?

Well, unit #202 came onto the market for $338,000 this past Monday, February 25th, and offers are being reviewed on Monday, March 3rd.

Today, as I come back to my office at 2PM on a Friday (very few listings come out on Fridays), there is a new unit—#816 at 15 Stafford, that is for sale for $334,900.  This unit is the exact same floor plan as unit #202!

It’s not abnormal to see a unit listed on the market and a similar unit subsequently listed after, but this case goes way beyond that!

Unit #816, that was loaded onto MLS on Friday at 2PM is going to review offers on Sunday!  This Sunday!  Two days after the listing goes up, they take offers.

Read between the lines: they are going to take offers before unit #202 takes offers, which is Monday.

Read between the lines again: they let unit #202 do all the legwork, spending a week getting people to travel down the building, evaluate the area, make decisions…..and then they list unit #816!

They have one objective here: to steal the potential buyers for unit #202!

Would it surprise you to see this caption on the MLS listing: “***Interboard Listing: Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington.”

It sure didn’t surprise me!

Although, I wasn’t aware that board members from other real estate boards were allowed to put their listings on our MLS system.  What the bleep is going on here…

The worst part about this situation, which already stinks to high heaven, is that my client, poor, poor Davey-Boy, is leaving with his girlfriend tonight for a week in Costa Rica.  Wait, I mean that’s not the bad part—-going to Costa Rica.  Of course that rules!  But he has been waiting for months to find the right condo, and while we liked unit #202 this afternoon, unit #816 is even betterand it has a large patio overlooking the park!  Offers are on Sunday, when Davey will surely be hunting wild Rhino in a lambskin tunic in the middle of the rainforest…

When a sketchy situation arises, like this one here at 15 Stafford Street, you really have to be on guard at all times and devise a gameplan that incorporates Plan A, B, and C.

There’s a chance that there is more to this situation that we know, such as the listing agent holding an offer in his pocket and trying to find a way to sell the unit himself.

Regardless, I absolutely love this building, as does my client.  As long as he’s not in any rush, I think we can wait for a similar unit to hit the market down the road, and ensure that he has no Brazilian Rain-forest Retreat scheduled that particular week…

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