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The Chase: A couple finds the street life of their native Caracas at Yonge and Eglinton (of all places)

The Buyers By Monika Warzecha

The Buyers: Venezuelan expats Adriana Rosemberg, a 29-year-old scriptwriter, and her husband Jonathan, a 32-year-old ad executive.

The Story: The Rosembergs moved to Toronto in June 2009 to escape the violence and political instability of Venezuela. They were accustomed to the noise and street life of Caracas and wanted to live in a vibrant neighbourhood downtown. They also wanted enough space to spread out, and they quickly fell for the idea of a finished attic that could serve as a studio—she writes, he deejays. So the couple set a limit of $800,000—and armed themselves with a home inspection handbook—before setting off last December on a search that would span five months and more than 40 houses.

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The Goods

From the Print Edition

August 8, 2011 | 11:15 am

13 Comments

The Chase: One couple resists the lure of suburbia for a few more precious years downtown

The Chase By Monika Warzecha

The Buyers: Erica Smith, a 34-year-old real estate agent with Condo Chicks, and her fiancé, Marc Puddy, a 37-year-old insurance executive.

The Story: Smith and Puddy started looking for a place together after they got engaged in November. Torn between the large lots of the suburbs and their love of downtown, the couple looked at houses in Etobicoke and Port Credit as well as condos in the core. “Condos are getting smaller and smaller. It’s hard to find one that feels like a home,” Smith says. They needed room for their dog and a home office, as well as two parking spots. They set an upper limit of $1 million—preferably less if they opted for the burbs—and started their search.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

April 27, 2011 | 9:15 am

7 Comments

The Chase: the search for a Danforth house with an extra suite to rent out—for under $500,000

Jo-Anne McArthur

She wanted to stay in her neighbourhood, but she had to share her front door to do it By Bert Archer

The Buyer: Jo-Anne McArthur, a 34-year-old freelance photographer.

The Story: McArthur had been renting a house near Danforth and Jones for four years, and wanted to buy in the area. When her parents, who live in Ottawa, proposed purchasing an investment property, she figured they could team up, and she would buy them out in (she hoped) about 10 years. Since her parents wanted to earn some income from the house, she would look for a place with an extra suite to rent out—an easy stipulation for McArthur, who is usually abroad six months a year with her camera and is used to subletting to short-term tenants. With a maximum budget of $500,000, she enlisted Julie Hughes of Keller Williams and started the search.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

April 7, 2011 | 8:43 am

16 Comments

The Sell: finding a homebuyer who will honour an Annex classic, not obliterate it

Two sisters search for the right buyer for their parents’ place, a 19th-century Annex coach house with a mid-century modern interior By Bert Archer

Listed for: $1.099 million. Relisted for: $999,000. Sold for: $960,000

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

February 23, 2011 | 8:58 am

25 Comments

Rent to own: chasing the perfect Little Italy home for two 24-year-olds

Making the leap from basement apartment to home—with a little help from Mom and Dad By Hayley Mick

The Buyers: Hélène Furlotte-Bois and her boyfriend, Rory Hayes.

The Story: Hélène (at far right) and Rory, who are both 24 and work at a student travel agency, wanted an upgrade from their basement rental. Hélène’s mom, Lise Bois (at right), came up with the home ownership scheme. “I didn’t want to see them throw away $1,500 in rent every month,” Lise says. She and her husband, Darrel Furlotte, who run a home daycare, offered to loan the couple $150,000 for a down payment on a house with rental space—the extra income would pay off the loan and mortgage. Lise searched, mostly near the family home at Clinton and College, and made a short list for Hélène. Then Rory checked out Hélène’s top pick. The search took less than two weeks. “My mom gets pretty determined when she wants to do something,” Hélène says.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

February 8, 2011 | 8:37 am

9 Comments

The Chase: searching for a classic Cabbagetown house for under $1 million

They wanted to stay in Cabbagetown. Their budget was just under $1 million. But the place had to be big enough for Cardinal Richelieu By Bert Archer

The Buyers: Keith Pfeiffer, a 50-year-old retired television director, and Lawrence Reiter, a 37‑year-old pharmacologist.

The Story: When Pfeiffer and Reiter moved to Toronto from their native Johannesburg in 2008, they bought a modest home: a semi-detached Cabbagetown Victorian on a narrow lot with no yard. Two years later, they started looking for an upgrade.

Their wish list: a house wide enough for their oversized furniture, with a yard for their three dogs and a large wall to display their huge antique portrait of Cardinal Richelieu. “The Cardinal has been in my family longer than I can remember,” says Pfeiffer. “It’s a beautiful piece.”

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

September 22, 2010 | 11:41 am

7 Comments

The Chase: two sisters show us how to find a Toronto condo on a tight deadline

THE BUYERS
Madeleine Kline, a 63-year-old former school secretary, and her sister Nicole Fasano, a 55‑year-old retiree who worked in book publishing.

THE STORY
When Fasano’s husband died in 2009, she decided to sell her Oakville house and move to Toronto with her daughter Casey (a 28-year-old interior designer, still living with Mom to build her savings). Meanwhile, Kline, who also lived in Oakville, wanted to move closer to her own daughter at Yonge and St. Clair. The sisters decided to combine their resources. Their limit was $500,000, enough for two bedrooms and a den (for Casey) in a building with a pool (Kline has MS and needs a pool for physiotherapy). They had to act fast: both Oakville homes sold in March and had end-of-April closing dates.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

September 10, 2010 | 8:39 am

1 Comment

The Sell: a downsizing couple spiffs up their multi-million-dollar mid-century modern home

The Sellers: Wendy Davis, the 47-year-old owner of a concierge service called Zebrano, and Peter Vesely, a 51-year-old retired investment banker who collects and sells 20th-century art and objects.

The House: A 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom house across from Cedarvale Park, near Bathurst and St. Clair.

The Story: Davis and Vesely had lived here for 12 years, turning it into a showcase for their mid-century modern furniture collection. By late 2009, they were itching to travel more and started to think about selling their big house to move into their second property, a Barton Myers–designed townhouse on Hazelton Avenue, which they’d been renting out. Then their dog, a 12-year-old Bouvier named Cruise, died. “We’d always said that losing Cruise would be the right time for us to make the transition,” says Davis. They listed the uptown house in March to attract the first spring buyers.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

July 21, 2010 | 8:46 am

13 Comments

The Chase: Upper Beach for under $475,000? The search for an under-asking miracle

A family in the Upper Beach was determined to find a detached house for less than $475,000 By Bert Archer

THE BUYERS
Gordon Springle, a 45-year-old real estate agent, and his wife, Ruthann Clayton, a 46-year-old home stager.

THE STORY
Springle, a former French teacher, flipped five houses in six years before becoming a full-time real estate agent in 2003. He and his wife were renting a semi on Main, near Gerrard, but after a few years there, they were tired of the traffic and noise from the busy intersection. Springle gave himself a challenge: find a house on a quieter street, still within walking distance of their daughter’s high school, which meant somewhere between Victoria Park and Main, Kingston Road and Gerrard, for no more than $475,000.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

May 26, 2010 | 8:43 am

13 Comments

Super-Sized Real Estate

How one couple built their dream home, a $5-million south Mississauga mansion, and then realized it was just too big By Bert Archer

The Sellers
Ed Hand, a 53-year-old client manager at a personal injury law firm in Ajax, and his wife, Reta Hand.

The House
A 6,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bathroom, multi-gabled mansion in Mississauga’s tony lakefront Lorne Park neighbourhood. Extras included a saltwater swimming pool with a waterfall, an outdoor bar (“Ed’s Place”) with a flat-screen TV, and a massive 3,500-square-foot finished basement featuring a wine cellar, movie theatre, exercise room and game room.

The Story
Hand had lived in condos and a relatively modest 3,400-square-foot house his entire adult life. In 2006, he began building his dream home. By 2008, when the Hands finally moved in, they had exceeded their budget by $1.5 million in a quest to go over the top: there was the $250,000 sound system, the $600,000 in landscaping and $700,000 in furniture. “I got a little carried away,” Ed says. The Hands, who shared the house with their three 20-something sons, soon realized their home was way too big. There were entire rooms, such as the upstairs lounge, that no one in the family ever used. In June 2009, they put the house on the market for $4.9 million.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

April 21, 2010 | 11:15 am

59 Comments

Buy in Rosedale or Little Italy? One couple’s $700,000 real estate compromise leads them to the Annex

She wanted to buy in Rosedale. He didn’t. After an epic 10-month, 140-house search, they settled on a fixer-upper in the Annex By Bert Archer

The buyers
Matt Killen, a painter and high school art teacher, and Joanna Foster, a photographer, couldn’t agree on where to live. They had been renting an apartment north of Liberty Village, as well as an art studio on Ossington, but wanted a place large enough for an in-house studio. Killen suggested Little Italy, Seaton Village and Riverdale, all of which Foster nixed. She wanted Rosedale, the neighbourhood where she’d gone to school. “I pictured us in a house on a lush, tree-lined street safe for kids,” she says. They finally agreed on the Annex, which felt urban and central to Killen, yet cozy enough for Foster.

The criteria
Three bedrooms, close to transit, with a rental unit. They preferred an older Victorian home, and it had to be north of Bloor, east
of Bathurst and west of Yonge.

The budget
$550,000–$700,000.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

March 29, 2010 | 11:33 am

3 Comments

Escape from Guelph: two 20-somethings tackle the Toronto condo market

The buyers
Ellaine Yusi and Csilla Bajari are banking officers with Scotiabank. When they met two years ago at the Guelph branch where they worked at the time, they were both living with their parents and feeling trapped. On New Year’s Day 2009, the friends drove to Toronto for dinner and resolved to apply for job transfers and buy a place together in the city before the year was out. Within a few months, they’d landed positions in the city and begun condo shopping (and commuting).

The dream
They wanted a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo—“Two girls cannot have one bathroom,” says Bajari—in the downtown core, but they expanded their search to North York when they realized how small and expensive downtown condos were.

The budget
$260,000–$330,000.

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