The Golfi Real Estate Show

Rumblings Of A Luxury Home Tax Are On The Horizon | The Golfi Real Estate Show - Niagara Edition (Feb. 6)

February 16, 2021 Rob Golfi Season 3 Episode 23
The Golfi Real Estate Show
Rumblings Of A Luxury Home Tax Are On The Horizon | The Golfi Real Estate Show - Niagara Edition (Feb. 6)
Show Notes Transcript

On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about what the suggested Luxury Home Tax could look like and how it would play out, where the luxury market is growing in Niagara, how working from home is changing what people want in a house, and what things you must tell potential buyers when you're selling your home.


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Good morning, Niagara. This is Rob Golfi with the golf team. Welcome to the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition with host Tim Dennis, then to a another week as we head into actually a long weekend edition of the show, because there's a family day. This weekend, there's Valentines, there's all kinds of stuff to talk about.

I, and I guess as we, as we kick off the program this week, I want to talk about something we, we kind of finished with last week. You were talking about your new, new year, your new website, that the luxury, edition, right? Yeah. Yeah. We sent, our luxury. It's called Golfi luxury.com. And, we know now for, the luxury market just is going through the roof.

So we put together last year, our website luggage, Golfi luxury.com. And, we can see already, the traction that we're getting on our site, that, people are looking at it and it's an easy way to navigate. Like, I'm not sure if you've been on it, Tim, but when you get a chance, if you go on Golfi luxury.com, and I broke up the areas like it's so easy.

So if you ever wanted to look at different luxury homes in different areas in Niagara, you just. Just click on Niagara and boom. It brings up the whole Niagara. And the other thing about it is there's different thresholds in different areas. Like in, in Toronto, I think it's two and a half million and up. And I think a Niagara, I'm not sure if it's 900 enough, but in, in Niagara, on the Lake would be 1.5 million or more.

So it just, every area has different thresholds. Yep. And I want to get to the Niagara area in a couple of minutes here and, and the number of homes, who would, who would affects and that kind of thing, and some really interesting numbers. But before we get into that, when you talk about luxury homes, automatically people think, well, that would be a good way for the local economy to make some extra money.

And in Toronto, they're talking about a luxury home tax that could give them. Almost 19 million more in revenue this year. How much of an effect should that go into effect? Would that have on the real estate market? Do you think there will be an effect on that? So think about this right now. I think they're looking at, at, two and a half percent when they close the deal.

That's $50,000. So not only you're buying a $2 million house, you got to pay $50,000 to the government to buy that house. Isn't that insane. And there are a lot people who are going to say right off the bat. Well, if you're spending, you know, two or 3 million on a house, well, 50 million, 50,000 is not all that much, but yeah, no kidding.

No kidding. And then, and then they're actually thinking of increasing it to 3%. So, so anything, 2 million or more. Could be, you could end up paying 3%. So on a $2 million house, you could be paying up to $60,000. And that's like, I don't know, like Toronto is just either they're bad bookkeepers or bad accountants.

And they keep raising the land transfer tax, in the GTA, just because of the fact they need the money because I, I don't know. I really don't know. But what you're going to find your, this is what's going to happen in the marketplace. You're going to find that people are gonna list their house. And if it's, let's say, let's say somebody gets 2 million and 20,000, it's not going to be registered for that.

The difference is going to be paid in cash. So they're going to say, Hey, I'll give you 2 million and 20,000. But let's Mark it down on the books as 2 million, I'll give you the $20,000 extra or just under 2 million. So I don't have to pay that 50 or $60,000. People are going to do that and it's going to happen.

And I mean, maybe not, not, not with realtors, but it will happen privately. And there'll be, there'll be a lot of side deals happening. You know, and, and I mean, people want the most money for their house, but the buyers it's gonna affect the buyers. There's no doubt about that. The buyers will, well, they're not  then people aren't going to pay more than 2 million.

They're going to pay 1,999,009, $900, whatever. And they're going to keep that under the 2 million and the house could be worth more than 2 million. And, but they're not going to get it. It's going to affect the market. What are you doing? I think of the idea of setting in Toronto. And we'll talk about Niagara in a minute here, but what do you think of setting the threshold for a luxury purchase at $2 million?

In in Niagaraar or in Toronto to begin with. I, I think it's a little bit much because in Toronto, I mean like the average sale price is a million dollars, so, you know, if that's the average sell price. Okay. So the guy that, you know, that has a $2 million house in Toronto is, is going to be pretty. Pretty almost average for a little more upper class, professionals that are buying.

Right. And then a million dollars. It's just, I don't know, they just want, if they need any income and they want that $20 million what's going to happen. Is there the eight more, $19 million they're going to collect extra. It's going to be absorbed so fast then after they can't go back the other way, it's just, that's just part of the way it is.

And land transfer tax is double in a, in Toronto than it is in Niagara and they try to increase it. There's a $2 million threshold in Toronto. Given the average price is a million plus what would the threshold be here if governments in Niagara decided they wanted to throw a luxury tax out there?

They'll, they'll probably put it out a million plus and again, and that'll hurt the housing market and it'll hurt the seller. It won't hurt the buyer. It will hit the hurt. The seller, a seller may have a house that's worth 1,000,050, a million, you know, you know, seven 75,000. And he's only going to get a million dollars because, because the buyer's not going to want to pay any more because they have to pay more money for a land transfer tax.

How many houses sell here in Niagara for one to $2 million. So one or 2 million just last year alone, it hit record high, 465 between one and $2 million record high. And in 2017, which was another record a year, was 221. And, and then, then it dropped in 2018. It's 151. Yep. Then it climbed backed up again in 2019, the market recovered from that little bit of, that downturn after the spring market, after the first quarter of 2017.

Yep. 2020, 2,465 homes. And, and a part of that has a little bit to do with, you know, housing prices have gone up and, but already. Look at this in, in the first, probably, 10, 11, 10, 12 days of, of, of, February. No, sorry, the first, six weeks, five and a half, six weeks of this year, 57 already sold over between and 2 million.

That's amazing. So we're going to probably hit five to 600, 600 homes in, between one and $2 million, sales and in, in Niagara. Just out of curiosity. What about homes over 2 million? Are there a lot in here in Niagara? Most of them are in a Niagara Lake. Yeah. And also, you know, big, large properties. Last year there were 61, homes that sold over $2 million.

And, in, in the highest number of prior to that was 2017. They had 47 and then, in 2019, they all, they have 36. So, so, so far this year, they've got six already, homes that sold over 2 million and I just sold one for $2 million. So, in, on the Lake in, uh Niagara and a link. Was, it was a gorgeous home.

We actually had it for sale, last year and we had a lot of action on it, but just nobody was willing to come to the plate. So, so we took it off the market, probably just prior to Christmas and, and we took a break and, so I talked to the sellers and I said, listen, I, they, they wanted to wait until April or may to put it back on the market.

Yep. And I told him don't I says, do it, do it now, like right away. So two weeks ago, I think, but two weeks ago, little more than two weeks ago, we put it on the market. Yeah. And he says, Rob, are you kidding me? Come on. Like, it's like the weathers, you know, this and that. I said, leave me, believe me. And guess what?

We sold it for 2 million. And, we had, we had two offers on it. So, it was, it was, he couldn't believe it. He totally couldn't believe it. So you know how sometimes. You know, people think realtors want to tell them, you know, I'll put it up now versus, you know, in the, in the spring now is the time the buyers are out there right now.

They're all over the place. And it w it was a couple from Mark that bought it from Toronto. And, it's you know, and, and we had a lot of Toronto buyers coming through. It was amazing. A lot of Toronto buyers, came through. And, so the, so right now, if you've got. A luxury property, no matter where in the Niagara area, you will get, those Trental buyers, especially we market in Toronto.

So that's why we do get a lot of Toronto buyers and a lot of Toronto agents coming through. But, but they're looking at luxury and luxury is hot right now. And that's why we put, that's why we put a website called Golfi luxury.com. Are those luxury buyers looking in Pelham, fond Hill, as well as Niagara on the Lake?

Or are there other areas where that are beginning to grow in terms of the, the luxury market? They're looking for, like, it's either, you know, space could be a couple of acres, you know, they just want pool. They want the pool, they want this privacy. They want every, this is what they're looking for. People's life, habits have changed or their, their, their life has changed.

So, they are looking further backyard retreat. If they don't have a cottage there, they're gonna, they're gonna have their house, their rent, normal residence. Become the cottage and, and their full-time residents at the same time. So they are looking for ravine. They're looking for, they want space and they want big because now they're a lot of them are working out of their house and they need space.

And that's why these luxury properties are selling while we're on that subject. It's it's, it's a good one to get into this way, which is, and I had this conversation with a couple of people this week, whether or not companies are going to say when COVID ends. Come on back into the office or whether we're all going to get used to working from home.

And we've touched on this a few times over the past few weeks, but are you beginning to see what this idea of working from home is doing to the real estate market? In what 2021 may hold. You're having to look through a crystal ball here, but, are, are a lot of people are going to say, yep. I'm going to buy a house with an office, or I'm going to sell this house because it doesn't have an office it's going to change things, right?

Yes, it is. If you're building a house right now, build it with a main floor officer den, make sure you've got that in the plans. I tell people, and not, and I always, you know, a lot of times people call me and friends and family and stuff like that or clients and say, Hey, Rob, I'm looking at building a house.

Can I look at the, and they ask, can I, can you look at the drawings to make sure that. I'm an, you know, it's a good floor plan. So down the road, when I decide to sell it's a sellable property, definitely you're building a house. If you're building something 2,800 square feet or more, you should have a main floor, Dan, you should.

 It, especially now, and it's going to be, that's going to be the future, of having an, an office and having that office near the. Front entrance is good because, you know what I mean? You could, you could work, you know, you could meet people sometimes and they just can come in through the foyer without going through the house.

Some people have their den, you know, at the back of the house, you know, it, depending on what they have in the back, if they have a pool or a Lake or, or ravine, and they just want to, you know, view that, it just depends on, what they like to. See all the time, but definitely people don't want to sit at a dining room table as their makeshift, office or, or in the bedroom upstairs where it's also makeshift office.

So if you're building a new house 2020, you know, it could be even 2,500 square feet or more, or 2,800 square feet or more, I would definitely have a main floor den or an office that is a definite you should have, especially now in this time that you're building and a lot of people are coming and it's not, you know, the, the stereotype is that people are coming from downtown Toronto.

They're coming from, you know, the big city downtown cores, because they don't have a lot of room, but they're also coming. Down to Niagara from, from Brampton and Oakville and places where the space is limited and they're realizing they can get bang for the buck and a lot more property. If they're going to be working from home, they can do it from down here.

Absolutely. And they are doing it. So what's happening is a lot of the people that were working downtown and, and that, and that's, what's caused the rental market to come down a little bit in, in, in downtown Toronto. They're going back home and they're saying, okay, well, I'm not going to be coped up. In this 600 square foot or 500 square foot condo, I'm going to go home.

And, so you're seeing a lot of people coming back home, living with their parents, and they're going to figure away what, what they're going to do with their life, with either buy a house or a condo down this way, that's it. They can get more like, you know, instead of living in a 500 square foot condo, they're gonna live in a 900 square foot condo.

They got more room or, or they buy a townhouse or, or, or a detached home. So you were seeing a lot of that happening and, it's, you know, it's, it's, like I said, people's lives are changing and, and, and they're changing for, for, for more space because they need it. And, and, and companies are, they're not, they're not, they're going to keep it this way because they're going to lower their costs by not renting as much commercial space at the same time.

So it's a benefit. For both the employer and the employees that are able to work out of their house. It's, it's, it's a win-win for both people pick up on that point. When we come back and still to come, you're selling a house. Yeah. And, little minor flood in the basement. Is that something you have to disclose some of the things that you definitely have to tell people when you're selling your home?

That's when we continue with Rob Golfi here on the Golfi real estate show, Niagara edition, right after this, it's the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition. I'm Tim, Dennis, but the golf and golf, the real estate show is Rob Golfi. He's with me, we were talking about trends before the break and how the whole work from home thing is changing up the real estate market in a.

In 2021. I mean, this calls for a bit of speculation on your part too, but it's going to change the way that cities sure. Planned in the future. Right. And it's going to change the way that the highway structure is. If more people, are staying home, then are we going to need commuter routes as much? Are we going to, this is going to change all kinds of things when it comes to real estate, isn't it.

Oh, absolutely everybody. And, and you know what, and that changes a lot of things for the government. Like, I mean, I mean, they're putting, the, Gautrain, right from Niagara falls, right. To Toronto. So are they going to continue with that? I hope so, because I mean, there's people that need that actually, they may even need it more just because of the fact, people may not have to go into Toronto as much, but they still use the, go train.

So they're gonna, they're like. All the analysis and all the research of every, everything that's been done for commuting is totally off the table. Now that's totally changed. So now when COVID is over, they're going to have to reanalyze everything and figure out okay. How many, how many a times do we have a deep part in Niagara falls or St.

Catherine's or, or in Grimsby or whatever they have to, they have to re analyze that all over again. So we don't have to do a full research and it's going to cost millions and millions of dollars. I mean, right now, the government's just writing checks to every, to every companies and, and people and everything who knows, I guess they got the printing press going 24 seven in, in, in the warehouse.

But. Yeah, that's a good point though, about the go train because a lot of people are thinking, are we going to need one? Well, you brought up the point that we may need one more than ever, because if people are working from home a little bit, maybe going into the, the office in Toronto or Hamilton two or three days a week, they might think if they're moving, if they're here in Niagara, I don't need a car because I'm only going in a couple of days a week.

I'll take the go train. So we're going to need it even more. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they, they, because of the fact that, and it's not a big deal driving, taking the go train to Toronto, once or twice a week. But the problem right now is the go train is not being used that much because people are afraid of COVID.

They don't want, you can go on the train. So until that gets. Changed. We're not nothing's going to happen. So like, like it, but you're right. Like there, it may help the commute, the commuting even more for everybody. Yep. I remember I used to take the, from Niagara falls, you know, meet friends in Toronto and, and go to the CNE and take the, the, the, the bus up there from, the, the, the bus station in Niagara falls.

 And, you know, just go from there. But, but now that the go, the go train would be great and get there a lot quicker. Yeah. And you know, they're, they're going to have to play that into their thinking too. Cause COVID has changed everything for everybody. All right. Let's, let's get to, I mean, a lot of people tune in every week to find out, some tips on how to sell their home, how to buy their home properly.

And, Rob's the guy to talk to. So let's, let's speak as if you're, you're selling a home and. You, you have a few things in the background that, you know, you've done to the house or things that have happened, or maybe you're buying a home and you're a little worried because it's an older home. And how much do you have to disclose to the buyer about the home's history?

What are the things that you have to tell people when you're selling a home? Rob. There's a lot of things. And especially right now, especially now with. Multiple offers. This is very important because you don't want something, six months after you've sold a house and you get a letter from, a law office saying that you're being sued because you were aware of this problem.

And you did not disclose when you were selling the house. So you gotta be very, very careful, a lot of things. And you know what a lot of people don't know. For one thing. Sometimes, you have, specific installation. A lot of people don't have, some people have bought a house, moved in, lived there for five, 10 years and moved out in, not even open the attic door.

Right. So they don't even know what installation they have in there. Now, what they've. Now that person has no knowledge of what's in the attic, whether it's the Atmos Bestos insulation or whatever installation and that's legitimate. So they, they obviously don't know about that because they probably didn't have a home inspection when they bought it.

And then they sold it and it's sold somebody, bought it under multiple offer situation. And, and all of a sudden, as best as it comes up, if they can prove that they didn't know that that's fine, they'll be able to prove. But if they had a home inspection and on that property, when they bought it. And they knew about it, but never disclosed it to the next seller.

The next story, the next buyer, you know what? That could be a little bit of a factor, but sometimes people will not go through the hassles of, suing somebody. I mean, some maybe small claims you can, it's easier, but when you have to get a lawyer, it, it can, it could be very expensive and it'd be more expensive than what you're suing for.

So you gotta be, so you can't claim ignorance, right? You can't just claim, I didn't know. You, you can, if you, if you really didn't know, you can, you can, if you really didn't know, years ago, they used to have a, a form called a seller property information statement. It was the greatest thing that came out.

Everybody. It was almost like two pages or, of questionnaires. How's the plumbing, how's the wiring. Have you had any leaks, this and that and that, so people would fill it out, right. And some people filled out. Yes, no. And it says, yes, no, or, unknown. Right. So somebody could have said, no, I had no, water problems in the basement and people move in three months later, they got a water problem, but it just so happens.

That's when it started, you know what I mean? So, so what happened? So they go to their seller property information statement that the seller filled out and say, Hey, he said there was no water problems. We had water problems three months after we moved in this guy, must've known. All of a sudden lawsuits, that seller property information statement was great for buyers terrible for sellers.

Lawsuits are coming left and right. Left and right. And so everybody was having that as a part of the offer. And then all of a sudden, it, it disappeared. Agents started not putting it in because it was becoming a problem. And you know, people weren't aware of, their house as much as they thought so, and they would get sued for something.

They didn't even know that, that they had problems with their house. Right. We had one time, this one, couple. They lived at a house. And they asked, is there any moisture in the basement? They said, no. And, so the people moved in six months later, they were ripping out the basement regarding it and there's mold all over the walls.

So, but the sellers did not know that there was mold in the house. So the buyer said, Hey, you guys knew about this and it becomes a big legal issue. So really the sellers did not know about it. And, so they, they went after the home inspector and the whole spectrum says, well, I can't tell what's behind the walls.

So it's just, everybody's pointing the fingers at everybody. So it became a big issue, these seller property information statements, and that's why, you don't see them anymore. You could ask for it. But a lot of times, agents will say, no, we're not filling that out. You do your home inspection and, and, and find if there's anything and we'll disclose anything.

If there is any issues. So let me give you, let me give you a not so hypothetical situation. I had friends who bought a home in Niagara. I won't say which city, because it might give it away. And they were, they were looking at this beautiful home and a gorgeous backyard. And behind the backyard was a schoolyard.

And they thought, well, you know, it looks like, you know, the school's got a yard there. We're going to have that empty spot behind the house for a long time. It's great. It's quiet. So they asked the, the, the seller, you know, what, what are the chances that somebody is going to build back here behind me? And the seller said, we've been told that there's no chance that that's going to happen for at least 20 years while sure enough.

Within six months of them moving into the house income, the bulldozers school gets sold. They're tearing up and putting in a huge condo building behind them. Now, from what they understand, the sellers knew this, that they'd been told long time ago. It's one of the reasons that they sold that this building was going in, but they didn't disclose it.

Is that on the seller or on the buyer? Rob? It's it's actually, it's on us on the, the eight, the seller agent. He should have disclosed. And, and also the buyer agent, maybe like if he looked into it, he would have found that there are building, built, like a building we used to find out, right. There were building permits and stuff you have to get.

So there's ways to find out and they can find out. And you're right. We come across that a lot. Tim, you'd be, you'd be surprised. Like, so we'll say look back. There is a school we don't know and just say, listen, do your own due diligence and check it out. Yep. And so if, as a realtor you want to be covered and the best way to be covered is send an email.

Just saying, as far as I know right now, I don't know, but it's best to call the, the town or the city to find out if there's any, anything coming, any development, or if the school board is selling that property or closing it down, any, any school that's closing down, that's going to be developed. There's no doubt about that.

That's what's happening about a, developer's going to buy it, build houses on it. And that the last thing somebody wants is. A six story or 10 story high rise right. In their backyard. Cause I mean, you know, you got, you know, it's bad enough having one neighbor behind you, but now you got 30 neighbors behind you overlooking your yard.

So, so, but yeah, it, it is on the, the seller should have the seller agent should have said, Hey, you should just to let you know, know they are building a high rise, behind just to give you an idea. Yeah. And, and, and you know, what the best way to do that is put it in the, in the remarks. Then you. It covers yourself, you know what I mean?

But, and then some people may not care. See, I don't care. I love the house. It's a great price. I'm going to buy it. So, but there's always going to be issues. There's always going to be a shift. So you have to be very, very careful on, on what you disclose. Okay. Speaking of neighbors, this may seem like a really silly question, but what if you have problems with your neighbors and you find them a real pain in the butt?

And you've had a, I don't know, you've had a dispute with them. They they're just not great folks. And, is that something you have to disclose or is that just courtesy or, I mean, is, can they come back at you, if you find your, the neighbor's been in a fight over something for a long time and you didn't know it.

If there's a dispute with a neighbor because your fence. Yes. But if there's a dispute with your neighbor, because you just don't like them, you just don't like each other. Yeah. That's kind of hard to explain because the new neighbors coming in may not, may not, have a problem with that neighbor. Yep.

You know what I'm saying? The like, so like, but, but if everybody on the street has a problem with that neighbor, well, no, again, that might be hidden. So you know how, you know, you know how, you know, you bought a host that there's a problem with when you move in and all the neighbors come around. Well, listen, I can't believe you bought this house.

I don't know. Did you know about this or did you know about that? Sometimes that happens all the time. So, so if a realtor, if he's good, he should just. Disclose, because if the neighbors are coming there and saying, cat, can't believe you bought this house. So because of this. You're going to have problems.

You are going to have problems. So yeah, you have to be careful, but, but yeah, if you have a dispute with a neighbor because of something to do with, you know, your fence line or whatever your driveway's overlapping or whatever, definitely you got to disclose, but if it's just a personal issue, you know, because your dog barks in his, the, you know, the kids had a fight with each other.

No, you don't have to disclose that. But, I was reading, you know, an article that, that you pointed out to me about things you have to disclose, and I'm thinking some of these are just kind of common sense on the part of the buyer should know this. So, because they were talking about, you know, if you move into a neighborhood and there are train tracks nearby, or there's a really busy intersection, or you're in a, you're in an airport, fly over zone, or those kinds of things.

That's pretty obvious. The buyer should know that. Right? You shouldn't be able to come back at the seller and say, you didn't tell me there was an airport, a couple of blocks over. You should know that. You should, you should actually know that. And, and like, I mean, you pretty well know if there's an airport nearby, if there's going to be a fly zone nearby and stuff like that.

What about if there's a bus stop that's right in front of your house. And when you've got, whenever you've come to look at the house, there wasn't a bus there, but it's, it's when you move in, you realize that the bus is stopping right across the street, like 20 times an hour. You know what sometimes the seller might not even think of that as a, as a deterrent.

So he may not even mention it. Just say, Hey, listen. That's just, that's the way it was when I bought it. And that's just the way it is. I didn't think it was a problem. You know, when you, when you buy it, I knew there was one, one time there was, a house that I had for sale, but there was train tracks, not, not behind it, but it was, it was down down a bit and they would blow the whistle through.

We had somebody looking at the house. And they didn't even think about the tracks, but all of a sudden the whistle blows and they go, Whoa, we have to listen to that. They weren't, they, they changed their mind on that, even though the tracks were probably about, I'd say 500 yards away, but they didn't want to hear that whistleblowing.

So we'll come back with some other questions that people have had for Rob Golfi. And, Golfi of course is the Golfi in the Golfi real estate team. And you can contact them anytime by calling nine Oh five six four one. Oh three Oh eight or online at Rob Golfi, G O L F i.com. Back with the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition in just a moment.

It's Tim Dennis here. It's Rob Golfi here. This is the Golfi real estate show, a weekly look at things that are happening in the real estate business, across the Niagara region. And we know it's a big area of the Niagara region all the way from Grimsby down to Fort Erie. So there are different trends happening at any given moment.

Rob Golfi is here and. What kind of, what kind of a week has it been? We, last week we talked about the fact that the prices were still rising, that it was still an incredible market. With all the news this week about what's going to be open. What's not going to be open. Has that changed things at all this past week?

What's it looking like? No, the market's just move in and it's still rapid. It, it is still rapid. W you know, we've adjusted on how to get top dollar for our clients. You know, by holding offers on listings, that if you there's a certain. What am I going to say, strategy and formula to get top dollar.

And, and it's it's, you know, and, and you have to have the experience we have, and we have a bunch of agents that work with me. They are so good at this, you know, holding offers and, and getting top dollar. It's the market's just crazy, like, like 10 game at the moment. Isn't it. Pardon? It's a chess game at the moment.

Oh, it is. It is. It is. So we we've got houses that I've sold 150,000 over asking 75,000 over asking, like, if we put those houses up for sale for that price, we would have gotten zero showings, zero. Yep. But, because we put, a price on it, that is probably just under the market value. We're getting.

Five 10% above market value on some of these houses, just incredible. And, and, and, and you know what, there, but there are still opportunities out there for the buyers I'll I'll and I'll give you a perfect situation. This is how a good agent gets the deal done. So if you, if you're looking at buying a house, this is what you got to do.

 You write a letter. You see if you can get the agent to present the offer and I, and this is what happened. Write a letter with the offer and also have, and we talked about this, I think have a, your bank draft with the offer. Because you got it right there. Okay. You will get deals. You will get the house that you want.

And I know there's frustration out there. A lot of people are upset and they're not getting the house and they're crying. And, and, and, and it's sad. I feel, I feel for these people because you know, there's a hundred people that want that house only. One's going to get it. Put the bank draft with it. You will get the house because I'll tell you something.

Even if you're a lower offer, that agent will come to that. Even if your offer is low, they'll say to you, listen, if you can come up to this number, it's going to be your deal because you've got your bank draft there. It's there. It's ready to go. Like he doesn't have to wait till tomorrow morning. There's no, buyer's remorse the next day.

Next day. That's it. That's how I, one on, on, in Niagara Lake, on the, on the water for 2 million, Hey, the guy had his bank draft right there. We had to be like, this guy was ready to go. He says, here's this here's, this here's this. And I'm like, Perfect. It's your deal. Your clients are, are the winners of this deal and that's how you get it.

But, but in general, Everything's going over asking if you want, if you want it, like, like it is it's, it's, there's a frenzy going on. It's a rapid market and it's, and it's tough for buyers. It's it's good for sellers. And, but you just got to know the strategy, how to deal on either end. All right.

Let me take, let me take your way back to when we started doing this show. And we talked one week, I remember about pre-approved mortgages and how important that was to some people to get, you know, the go-ahead from the bank before you go ahead and look, if you've got a pre-approved mortgage for a certain amount of money and you get into a price war, and suddenly the, the price of the house has gone up beyond what you've been pre-approved for.

Do you see that happening a lot? It gotta be very careful. You gotta be very careful. The guy has to know what he can, his max he can go to. Yeah. He just take that into consideration though, when they pre-approved mortgages in this day and age that there are price Wars out there that when you know, couple a are approved for such and such.

Suddenly in 2021, the house prices are incredible. Do they give them a little bit of leeway? Do they give them a little bit more? Do you think. No, they just say, Hey, you're, pre-approved up to tobacco purchase at 500, that person that's purchased, available to buy a 500 should be looking somewhere between, you know, three 95 to four 50, but look up to 500.

But, but if he's looking at it at 500 and they're holding offers, he's not going to get it. It's just, it's going to go beyond 500 he's he's got to look at the 400 range and then he'll end up at 500. To buy the house. He's gotta be very, very careful because the banks will say no, they'll say no. And, and then all of a sudden, now, if you went from, guess what?

You got problems, you got some serious problems. So you got, you bought a house and the banks are saying, no, we're not going to finance you because you went to 50,000 above what you can afford. So that, that, that person, that bond is going to have to come up with an extra $50,000, whether it's family, friends, and if he doesn't have that.

He's gonna, he's gonna have to, you know, he's going to get sued. He's going to lose this deposit and things are just going to go ugly for that, for that buyer. And it's going to be sad for the seller because you know what, they could have picked another, another buyer that could afford it. And so you, so if you're a buyer and you're, and, and your peer PR pre-approved at a certain amount, do not go beyond that.

Unless you got help, unless you have help from friends or family that can help you make the difference. Cause your bank is not going to give you more. Cause there's a reason why the bank pre-approved you, because that's all you can afford. So you gotta be very, very careful, real basic question about moving.

 When people move within the city, it's one thing when they move from out of town, you have to get movers, but as a real estate agent, before we get to the subject of tipping, but do you suggest that people, no matter what, get movers take that stress off of the table of having to find four guys to come and help you rent a truck and all that kind of garbage that happens sometimes when you're moving, do you suggest that, and do you have people you suggest to them, as a, you know, with your experience movers, the best place, best way to go.

It is. And I'll tell you, here's, here's, here's a couple of scenarios. So w w when everybody's young, they like, you know, in your twenties, you got your buddies, Hey guys, I need your help. And they do it. But then after it, every person that's helped you, you're going to have to help them. And, but here's, here's the other problem with it.

You can end up helping somebody move in, wreck your back. And then you've got that PR that you got that back problem for the rest of your life and the rest of your life's a long time and be careful, or somebody can ruin their back, helping you move and, and every time, and that could be, you know, kind of like a sad thing that, that, you know, a buddy helped you move and he ruined his back on your house.

So, you know what, like. You just don't want that to happen. Obviously, if you're young and strong, you shouldn't have that, but some people don't know how to lift things. You know, you gotta, you know, use your legs to lift, not your back, you know, don't use your back. So, so that's one aspect of it. So that's so that you don't want to have people help you move because then you don't have to worry about helping them move because it becomes it's it's, you know, it depends how organized they are.

It's always good to hire. Movers and, and then get them to help you. My, my, my, one son he's, he moved just recently and he used one of our trailers. And, that we have that it's always available for our clients. And, he was just moving all the garage stuff, all the lights stuff, you know, the stuff that's, you know, it's not, you can't box up, you know, the stuff in the garage.

So he used all that, the trailer to move, move from. And he just used the trailer for two loads. That was it. Yep. He had movers move him. And, and it was nice and clean and it was done professionally. He hired a reputable, moving company, that moved him and he was really happy. And we've used these, I use these, these movers too.

They're fantastic. And, and moving and, they did a great job and all that. So yeah. I think it's good to hire movers. It does get expensive, but if you're organized really organized, it might, it'll, it can may only cost you a thousand bucks or 1500 the most, but it just depends how organized you are packing mouth too, is the best way to find people guys, you know, don't take their word on it online.

We felt for that one day and we got probably the worst movers in history to move us at one point. And. Wow, what a mistake that was right. And I've made the mistake of hiring the cheap mover and I regretted it and never, never will it again, you know what, for, you know, an extra, maybe 200 bucks more and you get the right guy, they won't break things.

They will take care of the, you know, they watch where they're going, all that there's it it's like any, like anything that you hire, no matter whether it's from plumbing to carpentry, to, real estate, anything. You hire the, the cheap guy, you are going to get problems and that's, you know, and that's why it's always good to hire professional and, and, when you're moving, it's just a, it's a, it's a way to go.

You don't want, I get to taste them. I was reading the article about that have gone. Whoa. I didn't know. People tip so in the us tipping is huge. No matter what you're doing, that's the way the Americans are. So I was reading an article about that and, they, they say not necessarily professional moving companies.

What they do is they have already, they've already added that into their pricing. A lot of them. So, so you're already tipping them, in, in, it's Al already included, in, you know, it's like, it's like, it's like a, you know, like when you have a table of, 20. Yeah. I was just thinking that. Yeah. So they include the gratuity already inside that, inside there, but I didn't know, but so it says, over here it says, so they established that, you don't have to tip movers.

It just depends on what you want to do sometimes. You know, depending how long it is, you want to, you know, maybe buy some food for them or like, you know, say, Hey, listen, you know, they may not have anything don't I wouldn't, I wouldn't serve them any. Liquor before they're moving your stuff into your house or, or taking it out.

But, but you know, what make things good, you know? And, and, and it depends. I mean, if these guys are really careful and good, I would treat them well. And it's like, anything else, like, like, you know, you have landscapers working at, at your house, you know what, maybe put a cooler of stuff out for them all the time.

If you have a, you know, whatever, somebody that's gonna be, you know, working all day at your place. But, yeah, I don't have to tip. It just depends on the company that you're hiring, but most, most times gratuities already included it in what they've charged. You. Pointed tipping. One guy, once I remember, he came into my place and there were three of them.

And the one guy who was kind of the, the main guy looked and said, they didn't tell me there was a piano. And it was, it's a standup piano. It's an apartment side, but it's still incredibly heavy. And I have never seen a guy do this before by himself. He brought in a little rolling Dolly. He picked the piano up himself.

Because the other guy said, we don't want to touch that. He picked it up himself, put it on the Dolly. Got it. Up the stairs, out the door and onto the truck with no help from anybody but him. I tipped. Wow. Yeah. I've never seen that before. No kidding. And they charge extra for panels that's for sure do they do.

And I didn't know that I was an experienced $500. Sometimes they'll charge for a piano to be removed. We've got a piano. It's best to go with somebody who says we do pianos. They come prepared. Yes. Yeah. And, and, and yeah, like it's like those pianos, they con, and same thing with pool tables, pool tables.

A lot of people ended up leaving the pool table with the house because sometimes it costs 500 to a thousand dollars to move it and re locate it and stuff like that. So sometimes people sell the house with a pool table. Yeah. People forget how heavy those things are, because if you've got an old fashioned slate pool table, that's as heavy as a piano.

Oh, absolutely. I know. It's just, so sometimes that's why pianos, they end up staying in the house that they're the same age as the house that it's a hundred year old house and they got a hundred year old piano in there. Nobody wanted to move it. So, so it just stays there. Yeah. So, as we head toward the end of the program, if people have questions, they can get you.

Well on the website or they can call what's what's the best way for the golf team to answer somebody's questions, Robert. Yeah, just send it to, you can send it to Rob, Rob Golfi@Golfiteam.com or questions at, Golfi team.com and yeah, don't hesitate to send us any questions that you may have in regards to real estate.

We just sent out a newsletter out to everybody. Take a look in your mailbox. You should have it by now. If there's any questions on that, we put the stats, so, and we also, put on our Golfi luxury, a website for people to look at and, but yeah, yeah, absolutely. Check us out and, definitely you won't be disappointed.

We're always, we're always there for you to answer anything that you have and if you want an evaluation on your home, Give us a call. We'd be really appreciative and we'd be honored to, to just give you an evaluation with no, no obligation, no pressure. That's it for this week, Rob and I will be back next week with more of the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition.

 Thank you. Robert says thank you for being with us. We'll talk to you then.