Best Bang For Your Buck In Niagara | The Golfi Real Estate Show

On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about where to get the best bang for your buck in Niagara, how the Niagara market is still up, young buyers being bullied out of buying a home, what happens when an item is broken during a showing, and whether or not buying a home with Bitcoin is the future.

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The Golfi Team RE/MAX serves Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, and surrounding regions (See List of Service Areas below). Check out the Golfi TV YouTube Channel Videos. You will find videos related to the Real Estate Industry including new home listings. You will find industry tips and fun community features as well. Call 905-575-7700 for all your Real Estate Needs!

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Good morning, Niagara. This is Rob Golfi with the Golfi team. Welcome to the golf, the real estate show Niagara edition with host Tim, Dennis, and Golfi is here to talk about all things real estate. We're going to talk. Over the next little while about a bunch of things going on in the business over the past couple of weeks, we're going to talk about Bitcoin.

We're going to talk about, Ontarians on the move. We got lots to discuss this week, but let's start off with, what's been happening here in Niagara, Robert. Niagara and the first two weeks, and this is based on the first of the 15th. So that just to give people out there a good one, the idea, if the market is still running a strong, like it has been in the last three, four months.

So in the first two weeks, just I'm going to do all Niagara. Then I'm going to dissect it to near fall St. Catherine as well. And so in the first two weeks, an all in ag or a 399 homes have sold. Okay. Now, in last year was three 2,321 homes. So, so we're, we're up 24% in unit numbers that is sold in the first two weeks.

So the market, so obviously a lot of homes are selling that probably weren't going to sell. We only have 21 days of inventory left. So if we stopped selling, if we stopped listing houses today, Yeah, we have 21 days of inventory left. Th th that's so that's all, all in Niagara. So it's pretty, it's pretty low inventory.

It's pretty low. So jumble them all along. Hasn't it. It's been a problem all along. So the inventory is getting less and less right now. And, as, as we're getting into the 2021 year, and I think we're going to have a year, the same as, towards the last six months of last year, inventory is going to be low.

Housing prices are going to go up now in, in, in all in Niagara. Now I checked out in the first two weeks of, of, last year, February versus this year in all in Niagara. 80% of the homes that sold in the LA in the first two weeks of this year sold for full price or more 80%. That is huge. Last year was only 35% in all the night.

Yeah. Last year was only 35%. So now if I dissect that down, let's go to St. Catherine's. Now St. Catherine's, 81% of the homes sold for full price or more so re like, so right now the market, like, that's just crazy. So St. Catherine's last year, in 2021, first two weeks. 88 home sold the first two weeks of this year of February 90.

So we're only up 2% and amount of sales. So, so obviously that not that much was listed and not that much was, like, so not that much sold. So the average price last year in the first two weeks of February and St. Catherine's $444,306 this year. 300, sorry. 650, 2,807 47%. Oh, Holy smokes. In St.

Catherine's in, in the average sell price went up, from last year. Crazy Niagara falls. Niagara falls. There was 70 homes sold last year in the first two weeks. This year in the first two weeks 81 homes were up 16%. The average sell price in Niagara falls last year. And the first two weeks is 467,449.

This year, 629,059. We're creeping up close to St. Catherine's with Niagara falls. So Niagara falls is up 35%. Average sell price from last year. That's pretty strong when we come out of this and we'll get, we'll get to the other one in a second. But when we come out of this, when we get back to normal times, do you believe the Niagara falls is going to continue to be right in, right in there with St.

Catherine's and hired will, will continue to increase. I think by the end of this year, we'll serve narrow falls. We're surpass, St. Catherine's. I really, truly believe that just because of the, immigrant population and, and I'm not well not immigrant population. It's the older generation that have immigrated to Canada 30, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40, 50 years ago.

They're coming this way. And, and they love Niagara falls because they love going to the casino. They love driving by the falls. And I was actually, I was in, on Sunday. I was w I was with some friends and we just kinda drove around, you know, Dufferin islands in Niagara falls. I was showing, you know, friends of ours, you know, Hey, this is where, you know, high school.

We used to go at different islands, you know, park our cars and, you know, make out with girls and stuff like that. And, that was kind of like, Yeah, you go parking and then, and then I would say, this is where they used to have swimming. Like, you know, remember Dufferin islands, he could swim. They had like an area there.

You can go swimming. They had a lifeguard there and everything. Yeah. There was a time, years ago. It was, it was all, you know, there was a little, a buoy there that showed you where you can swim and they had lifeguards. It was, it was a huge spot. It, it was my parents, you know what they used to take us there all the time.

I mean, they, they make, like a bat like sandwiches and everything we would spend the day there, you know, going swimming. And then there was a park there at Dufferin islands. People will remember. That they used to paint this area. You can walk into the, the, like into the water and they had one area with Symantec.

He just walked in and was blue. Right. And it was pretty cool. Pretty cool. I was driving through there, but just to let you know, it was jammed. It was like bumper to bumper in Niagara falls. So, I mean, obviously with nothing's open, you can't go anywhere. So all you do is just drive around and, you know, and just stay, you know, gang, just doing them going for drives.

And sometimes there are people from outside Niagara. Sometimes they're just Niagaras with nothing else to do. Exactly. Exactly. So people. So there was a lot of people walking, lots of people driving and nowhere to go, they just, you know, just enjoying the scenery and you know, and me, like, I mean, I like, you know, I was born and raised in Niagara falls.

I'm still driving around just. You know, checking out things and how they were and, and stuff like that. And, and our friends, were from out of town. They just, Hey, wow. I didn't know about this. Like they didn't, you know, like I was kind of giving them like a little bit of a history lesson that, how this, how the area was, it was pretty cool.

It was pretty cool, but, but I'll tell ya, the people that are moving into nag. Falls are those people that are driving here all the time and loved it and loved the, the city of Niagara falls. And I do believe that Niagara falls by the end of this year. Actually, we should Mark this down by the end of this year, it will surpass the average sale price of St.

Catherine's. That's my opinion. I could be wrong, but let's back that up. But Niagara falls in Niagara falls. So 80% of the homes that sold. We're full, full price or more we're 80%. They were actually, yeah, pretty strong night. And, but you're not going to believe this. So Welland Welland, sold 42 homes in the first two weeks last year, 46 this year.

So they're up just 10%. The average sell price in Welland in 2020 in the first two weeks, $419,454. This year 556,560 30. So they're up 30, 33% in average sale price in the first two weeks this year versus, but look at this. So last year in the first two weeks, well, in, in the first two weeks sold 24, 24 for full price or more 24% sold, full, full price or more in the first two weeks of last year in February, this year.

And the first two weeks, 93% full price or more. Sold in Whelan Whelan had the strongest, the strongest gain, like everywhere else was pretty well. 80 plus percent like Niagara falls was 80%, or more, St. Catherine's 81, but 93% in Welland in credible. So. Well, and is, is gaining a lot of ground just because of the fact it was very affordable area.

And, and that's, and that's just, now that's picking up steam. Let's pick it up a lot of steam, just it, but that's going to start getting expensive now. So now all the local people that live around Niagara, it's tough for them. Where are they going to go? Wow. This has been the big question.

So they like they can't compete. They can't compete against the out of town buyers from the bigger cities, because they're the guys that the guys coming from Toronto, they're coming in with strong numbers in competition. And they're beating out the local, buyer, which hurts us. Cause we're we're local guys.

We live here and if we have kids or our nieces and nephews are first time buyers, it's tough. They can't do it. It's tough. Well, there's a lot of eyeballs to get something. And there are a lot of young people who would love to stay in Niagara, but. If they want to get into the housing market, it's tough for them because they just don't have the down payment or they just, as you say, can't compete.

When somebody comes in from Toronto and says, I want that house, and this is how much I'm going to bid. It's just it's it's insane. Okay. So let me, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. So prior to this year, prior to COVID and people were coming into Niagara and they were saying, okay, Rob Golfi, I can't afford St.

Catherine's. Maybe not even Niagara falls right now, but I want to get a good house, the best area in Niagara for bang, for buck, you can get a big house for a lot less than you can get it in the, in the bigger cities. Where do you tell them to go now? They're starting to, they're starting to go to Stevensville and Fort Erie and, and, and so now their, their drive is further.

And you know, that drive between Niagara falls and Fort ear. Like you get white outs on those highways there, especially in the winter time, it's dangerous, it's dangerous driving those highways. It's, you know, you just gotta find, sometimes you gotta find, a house that needs a lot of work. And fix it and then refinance it to get some money back that you borrowed or whatever to, to get into something because it's, it's, it's not going to be that easy.

So why don't you drive further away or you buy, you buy, you know, a fixer-upper? Well, it was always the place. Welland was always the place you went to get. Bang for your buck. You could get a bigger house than you could in St. Catherine's for the same money or Niagara falls or that kind of thing. And now, now that's Fort Erie.

So you have to put up with the, a little bit of the extra drive. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, 40. Are we willing to yeah, exactly. Well, and was, and people didn't, you know, like if you grew up in St. Catherine's in Niagara falls, Welland, wasn't the first choice because they didn't grow up there. Right, right. But now Whelan is becoming a choice that they have to look at and Fort Erie and same thing in 48 people wouldn't, you know, people you grew up in St.

Catherine's area falls. Well in Fort Erie, wasn't. A a, a choice, but now it's kind of have to be kind of, you know what I mean? Like, look, there's houses in Stevensville. There they're building. When all the homes is out there and they're selling them for like $900,000. Can you believe that? Yep. Like a 2,400 2,600 square foot home, two story for $900,000 in Stevensville.

Incredible. Just can't believe that they're getting those kinds of numbers, but they are. And I, like, I was driving around Stevens. I'll just looking at some houses and, just, you know, just wanted to see what's being built and all that kind of stuff. And, that's what I do in my spare time. Uh I have enough of it and, during a week, well, it's funny, you know, you know, we talk about people who.

You know, live in, in Fort Erie or Stevensville and go to St. Catherine's or Niagara falls for the jobs. And we talk about the 40 minute commute or whatever it is, and people from Toronto go 40 minutes. Are you kidding? That's that's to get the end of my street in Toronto. I mean, that's not a commute, that's a, that's a leisurely drive.

So, you know, it's all, it's all relative. Isn't it. Oh, it is, it is. So it's like, if you talk to, if you talk to, people in Toronto going to the corner store takes about 20 minutes. So that to them is short. But, but anyway, yeah, like it, it, it it's, but you gotta buy real estate though. Somebody, you gotta buy it.

Cause it's just going to keep going. And I know it is, and you cannot go wrong by buying and owning real estate. It's always got to look at as longterm. So the people in 2017, they were buying real estate early in 2017. They thought they were overpaying, but guess what? We've surpassed those numbers now, even if real estate.

So like look at this real estate up in some areas, 46%. And, so even if it, if it, if it balances out down another 10%, we're still up 30% in some areas. So you're still, you're still good. So D the, the key thing is, is you got to get into the real estate game, find a way to get in it, and then you stop the inflation once you own a house, because now you're part of the inflation.

You are part of the game, and that's the key factor of owning real estate. And in Niagara, I'm going to tell you is going to be. Coming a bigger and bigger, part of, of people moving to, and you're going to start finding industry start moving out that way too, because the industry. The, the commercial and the industrial land is, is, is still a very affordable.

You're going to start seeing that, getting gobbled up real fast and that, and that's going to start climbing up and you're gonna find companies moving out to Niagara because it's because that's where everybody wants to move to. And it's easier to hire people. And that's where you're going to see industry.

Happening, I'd say within the next five, 10 years, lots of questions for Rob this week. And we'll get to some of those. Won't get, talk about, you know, taking an offer before the home even hits MLS. We're going to talk about buying a home with Bitcoin. Believe it or not, which to, some people is very confusing, but we'll try and.

Make some sense of all of that, that when we continue on the Golfi real estate show, Niagara edition, right after this, you're listening to the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition right here. And you are of course might find next week a different time because we're going to be moving the golf a real estate show to a news time.

Two o'clock on Saturday, starting next week. Right? Two o'clock. Yeah. So you don't have to wake up too early in the morning on Saturday mornings and it's two o'clock in the afternoon, so they can put it on right after they have lunch or wherever they're driving to. And, yeah, that'd be good. At two o'clock time slot is going to be our time, starting, next week or the week after, that will be next week.

I do believe so everybody. Just, remember that, be real estate show a Niagara edition is going to be two o'clock next, next weekend. Couple of questions that came in online for you this week, touch on before we get to some other things. A listener writes to you. What happens if an item is broken during a property showing who's responsible for replacing the item and what happens if that item is irreplaceable?

That's a good question. And I'm going to tell you something and I'll tell you when we have a showing in a busy market like this, it's tough to get the culprit, but in a slower market, all the, every agent says, well, it wasn't me. It wasn't me. They had to break the screen door that going out to the backyard or they break this or they break that by accident.

They just don't want to admit it. And I hate when they do that. So. If we can find out who actually did break something, we try to, we call the agent up and obviously they say it wasn't us. And we'll say, well, there was nobody else in the house except you that day. So it had to be you. And, so, but they never take the blame.

They never take the blame, but normally what we do at the Golfi team, depending on what it is and everything. We will, we will pay for whatever damages is, even though it's the other agent. And then I personally would go after the other agent and try to get some, recuperation of any, con like costs that came to me.

And, you know, it's just, it's sad. It does happen. And, but agents, the problem with agents that are showing the host to their clients, sometimes they have kids with them and they're running around and they break something. And then, then after they leave. They don't mention anything to the, to us and say, Hey, you know, listen, we were inside.

The OD agent does do that. A good agent does, he will call us, but, but most agents won't. And then we have to hear, we get a phone call from our client and they'll tell us, Hey, Rob, you know, like our screen door that, you know, it's all damaged. We can't close. Can't open it. And I, and so the first thing I do is we make phone call to the other agent.

He denies it and which he knows he'll deny it. And then I'll just go to my clients, say, listen, you know what, we'll get that fixed for you. We'll take care of that. And then, and then we try to find a w I'll try to do my investigation. and see if we can get some compensation back from the cost of fixing or replacing anything that did a break in someone's house, but it is, it is frustrating.

And, and the problem in dealing with, you know, realtors for the GTA, right. You know, right through the Hamilton and into the Niagara region. These aren't agents, sometimes we're dealing with agents that we've never met or seen before. And, and again, if you hold a real estate license, you can sell real estate anywhere in Ontario and they don't care because you know what I mean?

Like, like this is something that, you know, they're, they're coming from out of town, you know? W are we gonna talk to this agent again or not? Probably not. So. It's it's just, it is frustrating, but us at the Golfi team, we will fix it or try to replace it. And it's just part of cost of doing business.

And this is one of the great advantages of your virtual tours, right? Cause you don't have to worry about people traipsing through your house. Exactly. Like we have the 3d tour, we can say, Hey, listen, before you went in and look on the 3d tour, that's how the, that's how the screen door looked like before you went on it.

So, I mean, it was fine the day before, before you, you came in, but it, it, but you do get things like that. And it's funny, like it's, you know, you just gotta, you just gotta, you gotta deal with it and, and push through and, and, and try to make everybody happy. But, but. With us, you know, we, we try to, we definitely will work with our clients to make sure that, even at our expense, even though it was the other agent's fault, we will, we will, fix or replace anything that, that, that has caused any problems with anybody's home.

Yeah. Depending on who you talk to these days, Bitcoin is either the future of currency, the future of the economy or something that. People just don't understand. It's, it's a little bit of both for a lot of people. But a lot of folks may be surprised that you can actually buy real estate with Bitcoin these days.

How much of that have you had to deal with and have people asked you about how that works? So Bitcoin, I know a little bit about it. I don't know. A lot about it. So what it is, it's a, it's a, it's a, an online kind of currency and it's picked up a lot of, popularity, especially in the last year, a couple years, two years.

And I remember when it came out and I'm like, like, what, what is this? Like, it's money online? Like, like, like it's not something you have in your hand. So what did it, so what they're saying is this agent came out with this. Program of you can buy a house through Bitcoin. But my understanding is this is my understanding I can be wrong.

So they're a Bitcoin guy would probably send him, send us an email and probably clarify it more. But my understanding is, as you, if you own Bitcoin online, you can buy a house with them. But here's the thing that guy, all he's going to get is Bitcoin online. But he needs money to buy the next house. Yep. So, so if you're going to sell, if you're going to sell a house, Or buy a house with Bitcoin.

That guy has to have big money in the bank to buy the next house. So it's not going to be that easy to do that. Like, I, I, I, I truly feel Bitcoin. You can buy houses and you can buy cars. It's going to be more popular in 10 years from now. Right now it's just at the beginning stages. Like when was the first electric car came out, maybe it came out many, many years ago, but now they're coming out off the assembly line by the hundreds every hour.

So, so it'll be the same thing, with Bitcoin and, and, and, and Tesla just announced a couple a week or two ago that they're willing to take Bitcoin. As a currency to buy a Tesla. So, so now that that works for Tesla because it stops right there. So Tesla is willing to, build a bank account of Bitcoin and they get a product back.

But when you have to sell a house, you need another house to buy, especially unless you're not buying another house. And you, you use that for Bitcoin. It just depends on, on the situation. This article came out and I think it was more publicity just to show that, That, that, that brokerage, can take Bitcoin as a, as a sale.

Has anybody ever come to you and said, Rob, I have Bitcoin. I want to buy a house that way. Has anybody come to you at this point? Not yet. Not yet. I bet you, it will happen in five to 10 years though, for sure. Yeah. Well, the other part of it then I suppose, is confusing is that houses are valued in dollars.

And yet they're not valued in Bitcoin. So, and Bitcoin goes up and down so quickly. It can be worth a whole ton one week and lose a lot of its value the next week. It's, it's so volatile that it would confuse people. I value. How much is the house worth in Bitcoin? I don't know. So, and, and the article mentions that they will freeze.

The the, the Bitcoin, saying, okay, well, here's the value of the Bitcoin the day that you bought the house. Gotcha. Now, when you move in, if it's lower, you're still getting that value. If it goes higher, you're still getting that value. Okay. So it just, so I don't know. There's a lot of. There's a lot of moving parts involved with that.

I'm sure we will be buying and selling houses with Bitcoin in a future that looks like that's happening. And, it's you know, but, something we all have to learn about, we all have to learn more. There's a learning curve coming up, I think, but, and I. I think Bitcoin is probably the most popular online, but there's other currencies online currencies.

So that's what scares me. Like, like, like who created this currency? Like it's not, it's not something that people like make, and it's not something that, you know, printing, you know, how the, the Canadian government, they print money and then you have it. Like, this is something that's just online. Like it's, I don't know.

Like, can you, can you. Cash it in and just put it in your safe at your house. I don't know. It's not that it's just a, so it's like, I'm older, I'm old school. So to me, it's like, I got to feel it and touch it kind of thing. So a Bitcoin to me is still new and I guess the younger generation, the millennials to them, that's no problem.

They, they probably will doing all their exchanges through Bitcoin in the future. Last segment we were talking about. Where to buy and sell homes in Niagara, what the, what the trends were, what was up, what was down. We talked a little bit about, where people were moving to, to get a better bang for their buck.

Let's move it outside of, moving outside of Niagara a bit. And even moving outside of Ontario is reading a story this week that a lot of Ontarians are taking advantage of the incredible prices that they are getting for houses here, selling their homes. And moving out East, how far are they going?

They're going, they're going, they're going out East because it's affordable and it's, it's a better lifestyle. I've got, I've got a couple right now. I've got their house up for sale. They're moving out to Nova Scotia. They're going out there. And none of them came from there. They just said, Rob, we go there, we visit we vacation there.

We love it. And, And, and that's where we're looking to go. So as soon as they sell their house and their house is worth, you know, 900 plus thousand dollars, they're going to end up buying a $350,000 house. $400,000 house in Nova Scotia. They're gonna have money in the bank and they're going to have a, you know, a lot quieter, slower paced lifestyle, you know, fresh air and getting away from the rat race in Ontario.

And, they're, they're looking forward to it. Not only just retirees are going out there. Like, like young people, like they're, they're, they're, they're people that have jobs, like, people that, can work out of their house. For instance, the guy that does our phone systems in our office, he is virtually, he lives, he lives out in the East coast.

He actually sent me pictures one time and the ocean's right across the street from him. Like, like he's far back enough, but he says, Rob, like I w like I look up my front door and I've got the ocean in front of me and I'm like, wow. And, and, and he's online virtually, you know, like if he has to reprogram our phones or do anything, he can do it right from his house.

And he says, I bought a, he bought a house out there. Next to nothing. And he's got a better lifestyle. He, he enjoys it. The people are, are all nice. And, and that's, and that's where a lot of people are going. And a lot of people are, are opening up businesses. Oh, in, moving out they're young people, they're, they're selling their house.

And then there's this one, couple, they bought their house. They bought another one on the same street. And now they've got a business that they're running down in, in the East coast. And so that that area is going to probably eventually start getting, more popular. And, and, and the realtor was saying that, with these people in Ontario, going into Nova Scotia, that people know Scotia, aren't used to having multiple offers and these aggressive Ontario ins going out there and saying, Hey, and bidding, opening these, local people.

So now they're feeling. The brunt of what we would feel here in, in Niagara with the Toronto agents. So it's like, it just, it's like, everybody's just kind of scattering it all over the country, in different corners of the country to find that common place where they can feel comfortable and live a better life.

Like the younger generation. Now they just love that. Like, they're not like. My generation, like I grew up, you know, like, you know, as soon as you finished school, you get a job, you work and all this kind of stuff to them, it's lifestyle and is more important than, worked in heart. I remember a friend of mine who had just bought a house for like seven, $800,000 and he was shown a real estate property in Newfoundland.

Right on the ocean three times the size of the house that he bought for 210 and it had property, it had ocean front and he said, why am I not living there? It's gotta be tempting to a few people. I'm sure. Oh, it is, it is. And I've been out there. It is beautiful. Like I, you know what I mean? Like I, like I was in Nova Scotia and I, you know, we stayed in hotel.

We walked along the, you know, the pier and the boardwalk. We did, you know, the boat and did the tours and, and went to the, Cove there where they have, Where, where it's popular. I th th the lighthouse there, I can't remember what the name of it is called right now of hand, but it was, it was fun. The fishermen's Cove, there was a fishermen area to lobster.

It was. Fantastic. It was, it was, it was nice. It is nice. It, for a lot of people, it's, it's a great place to, just to either wind down, kick your feet up and enjoy life more. And I don't blame her little house on the Prairie, what it is well on that note, we'll pause. We've got more to get to, the Golfi real estate show.

Niagara addition, when we come back in just a moment, it's called the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition, Rob Golfi is here to answer some questions. Talk about the real estate market, what it is, what it's doing, what it's not I'm Tim, Dennis slits. Let's talk about real estate as an investment and the real estate market is the numbers are growing.

Is it a good time to invest? Because I know you've talked about this a lot in the past that. It's still one of the safest really it's one of the safest investments people can make. Is it still with even as volatile as it's been during the pandemic, it is still safe. It's still safe and there's still deals out there.

I've, I've bought in, a few properties, in the last probably year. But, but actually no, backup there. I bought, three properties in the PA since the pandemic started. So I'm not like I'm not afraid. So if I'm buying it, I don't think anybody should be worried about buying investment properties.

But the key thing as, as the values are going up there, there is a key thing is, what you need to do. It's getting tougher. But if you're buying an investment property, sometimes it's fun. It's, it's better for somebody to buy an investment property that needs a lot of work. Because a lot of people don't want to do that.

And the key thing is you go in, let's say it's a duplex that needs a lot of work. You go in and you renovate it, fix it up, make it nice. So nice. You get it. Reappraised and then you get your, then you get your money back that you put into it. The renovations. Now you got yourself a great investment property.

And I think that's the way you have to look at, real estate now as an investment. So if you see something. Find something that needs a lot of work, fix it up and or fine. And then if you can buy it and if you don't have the money, find somebody, we'll give you the money to renovate it. And there's a lot of private lenders out there.

They'll do it, but you got to renovate it fast and finished and get it done fast so that you can get rid of that private lending, because private lending is interest rates are a lot higher and, and then, refinance it and, pay off the private lender. And then you've got yourself a nice investment property.

Like I said, it's, there's still deals out there. We, there was one that sold recently for 650. It's going to be a duplex. The client of ours is going to renovate it. And it's, it's probably gonna be worth both maybe 800,800,000 once he's done with it. There was one that, came up for sale. It was to there, there were asking, 300,000 for it and we didn't get too much action on it.

Like you're not gonna believe this. It was like a 470 square feet home. 470 square feet. So a lot of people were looking at that as a tear down to build a house. And some people were looking at it, just, you know, Hey, renovate it and just re rent it or whatever. So it actually sold for 330,000. It went up 30,000 above asking price, which is not that much, but it, it was, but for somebody, Hey, they're going to go in, probably fix it up, do some work on it.

And, and they're going to have a nice, a nice property with lots of equity in it. But again, there's deals out there. You just got to look for them and you got to jump on them and, and you'll get them. But the ones that have need a lot of work, those are the best ones. They're the best ones to make money on, but you just gotta put, you gotta put a lot of elbow grease into it and, you'll, you'll do very well with it.

And one of the, one of the questions I get all the time when people talk about real estate is okay. I have a house that I dunno. Two years ago was worth $400,000. And now it's worth six, six or seven, or, I just bought a house for $700,000 in two years. Is that how still going to be worth $700,000 or after the pandemic?

Is it going to fall back to what it was worth before? It's it's going to be worth more. We're going to have the roaring twenties happening after this pandemics over. You're going to see, an explosion happening. Tim it's it's, you know, it's just going to continue to go for a long time. Uh it's and you know, banks are predicting a house prices are going to be up again this year for the, 2021 year.

And these guys, these. Like when we were talking banks, like our RBC, TD Canada, trust and CIVC and UN, you know, BMO and all the, all the major banks, they're all predicting housing prices going up this year. And now they've got. Analysts and experts that follow this and they are all predicting. The markets is going to be very, very strong to share and they wouldn't lend money unless, if they were worried they would not lend money.

And they would put a lot of cautions on it and they're not doing that. They're they are continuing, to lend money. And in 2017, they were more worried than they are now. But right now they're, they're, they're, they're confident, but with the interest rates, the way they are. It's going to be, it's going to be very good for a long time.

Okay. Let me, let me throw this out there. You've had a house and you're putting it up for sale and it hasn't gone on MLS. Yet. Word gets around some neighbor down the street says I'll buy it. I'll give you a great deal. Before, before it even hits MLS, I'll give you a great price. Should you go with you?

Should you go down that road or should you wait for it to hit the market? Absolutely not. So here's the thing. If you like, I'll get, I'm going to give you a story. That's going to really blow your mind out of the water here. The, you should not ever it, depending on the price point, there was, there was a, there was a house that went up for sale 950,000 coming soon, somebody offered them $150,000 more.

So they're at 1.1 million. Sounds good. $150,000 more. I'll take it. They didn't hit the MLS yet. So they took it two hours. After that they got another offer for 1.3 million, $200,000. More than that, they couldn't take it because they ex they accepted a 1.1 million. They lost $200,000 on a table, just because, and this is an, all this frenzy was happening before it hit the MLS.

Can you imagine if it did hit the MLS, how much more they would have got, can you imagine? So, so here it is. So this is what you got to do. If you're putting your house up on the market, that's fine agents, but coming soon, exclusive do not take any offers until it hits the MLS for at least three to five days.

Do not just because you are leaving money on the table. Yeah. Agents will say, Oh yeah. And I may have a buyer or this and that. Do not. I'm telling you right now in this market, do not sell private because you're throwing money. You're, you're leaving money at the table. You are losing money. This is not what you do in this market.

Okay, but somebody is going to say this privately, somebody is going to say somebody is going to say immediately though, you're saying that because you're a real estate agent and you want to get a commission, but that's what they're going to say. When you say that. No, no, you're good. You will let let a good agent work for you.

And they will get you more money right now, the average, over like, like I said, full price or more like you want the mass market to be looking at your house. You want, like, you're getting 50 to a hundred people walking into your house when it hits MLS. You don't want to sell that house before it hits MLS.

You want the a hundred people to fight. That you want them all fighting against each other to get that house so that they win the bid and you as a seller gets the highest price and the buyer. Well, he's, he's, he's the big winner that wins the praiser loser that got the price. I don't know. But, but what I'm saying is do not sell the house.

Until it hits MLS. I don't care what anybody says. If they say, if they, we have a clientele base and we do not sell a house, unless it hits MLS. And then we send it, we'll tell our clients, listen, it depends on the price point. It depends on the price point, especially when you're dealing in a high-end market, you better be more careful than in the low end market.

Yeah. We've sold houses and we listed at 600 and we got seven 50. Now there is nothing that even sold, even hiring that we don't even know if the banks will even accept that. Sometimes those people have bought those houses at seven 50 and the average sale price in the neighborhood. Isn't in the six 50 range.

They may have to come up with the extra money to make up the difference because depending on the bank, but what I'm saying is, is be careful. On taking any offers before you hit MLS. If you do, you are losing money and you think don't worry about the commission. The commission is peanuts compared to what you're going to lose on the sale price of your home.

If you do, if you do not wait till it hits MLS. So people please. Call me. And I will sit down with you and we'll give you a couple of scenarios, but like, again, we, we start marketing our properties before it hits MLS and we have people call us. I had a guy here begging, he called Rob, listen, I'll give him an offer.

Give him an offer. I said, buddy, listen, I'm sorry. We're not, we can't let this thing hit, take a look at your offer until it hits MLS. I'm not doing, I'm not doing justice for my client. That's selling his house. I go, you're going to have to wait. And like, it's just like this guy that actually, that we had this property for sell for 300,000.

He was coming in under 300,000 and we were just like, forget it. But we ended up getting three 34 it 330,000. It's still 10% more than asking. So, so there you go. There's a, there's a, there's a small. Thing there that that could hurt somebody. This guy wanted to go under asking, but then we wait till it hits MLS.

And we got over asking, so people please do not sell your house until it hits MLS depending on the situation. But very rarely. You will lose if you sell it before you will lose thousands and thousands of dollars. That's now in this market. That's now, now I may say something different in six months. I may say something different one year, but right now, do not sell privately and do not sell before you hit MLS.

And I would, you know, and I challenge any. Any realtor out there that will challenge me on that because I know we sell a lot of houses. We know how the system works and how the market works. I was reading a story this week about some vacancies, downtown, some vacancies and strip malls and whatnot. And we haven't talked a lot about this recently, but, with all the talk about residential prices and that's what we've been focusing on a lot, what is the commercial.

A real estate business looked like from the downtowns and from the strip malls, given that this last year has been so challenging for businesses, remaining open and not, maybe not having enough money to cover their rents, et cetera, et cetera. What is the commercial business looking like right now, Rob?

It is tough. It is tough. I have some, some commercial tenants. I do give them a break. And we work out, some things cause I don't want to lose them because it's going to be a, it's going to be a lot tougher to get that, to fill that unit up again. So, so I take a bit of a loss. The, the tenant doesn't want to leave.

Because he knows it's going to cost them money to go someplace else, especially with the opening and closing rate. Now, you know, Doug, Doug Ford is just saying, okay, we're shut down for a month while you know, like I've got a barber shop. So, so I do get, I do give a break, but there are units starting to come up for lease right now, a lot of units are coming up for lease.

It's sad. A lot of businesses are closing up this this year. With whatever stimulus money that the government is giving businesses, it's not enough for them to survive. And you're going to find a lot of, empty stores, are happening, especially in the small towns. Like the little. You know, small, like, like Grimsby or, or beams, like they hardly have enough traffic as it is.

And they're just doing enough to, you know, it's like doing enough business just to pay the bills and make some money. Those guys are going to be gone. And then it's hard to compete against the online Amazon and, and the Costcos and the superstores and all the, all that they're there. They're hurting the small businesses right now and they can't compete.

And so you're going to see a lot of, towns that you're going to small towns that are going to drive through a lot of stores closed up. And especially this, this, this year, it's going to happen last year. They're hanging in there cause they. They didn't think this pandemic was going to last as long as it did, but now we're probably not, we're not going to probably be out of this till the end of this year.

And hopefully they said, I'm not sure if we're going to start getting our vaccine in September or will be done by September. I don't know. We're going to have another year. Another year of just going to a driving around in the summertime, probably just doing picnics, but really can't get into any stores or anything like that.

But so people who own commercial interests, people who own strip malls or, or long storefronts in downtown, they're not seeing the huge spike in prices right there. That's that's not translating to commercial real estate. Depending on how much, how much rent they're collecting it. All. It all goes by cap rate based on the return on investment, on what they're collecting for rent and what the cost to run that, that Plaza, the best thing the best properties are.

If you've got a commercial Plaza, the best ones to buy as of yet, You got residential units with the commercial unit, then it, you know, cause you always got some money coming in to help pay for the mortgage on that, on that building. But if you're a hundred percent commercial, you never know office buildings right now.

Like I, I always wanted to own an office, a small office building. I'm staying away from those. I'm not even like that. That's like suicide for me right now. I would not go near an office building right now. Well, there we have it for this week. You can always listen to these shows on Spotify, iTunes, Google podcast, whatever, just search the Golfi real estate show on your favorite podcast platform and hit the follow button.

And you can follow every episode. You can also ask questions of Rob by calling the team at six four one Oh three Oh eight or go online at Rob Golfi. G O L F i.com. This, this is Ben, the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition. Robert, talk to you next week. You too. Take care.

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