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Deal or No Deal
The downside of the buyer’s market: extreme haggling is the new bidding war
THE SELLER
Karen Hatch is a marketing manager with Royal Bank. Her sister, Susan Young, works in the Niagara wine industry. When their mother died a couple of years ago, their niece moved into her place, a 19th-floor Lambton Square condo, which she’d owned for 22 years. The niece moved out in the fall, and the sisters figured it was time for them to sell. The condo is a one-bedroom, but at 900 square feet, it’s the size of a modern two-bedroom. It was recently updated and has underground parking and a view of the Humber. The sisters listed the property for $199,900 in September (three days before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy). After 111 days on the market with barely a nibble, they dropped it down to $189,900 in December.
Where: Scarlett Road (near Eglinton and Jane)
Listed at: $199,900 on September 12, 2008
Sold for: $182,000 on March 2, 2009
The prep: Hatch and Young repainted and put in new laminate flooring. Brent Davey of Coldwell Banker Terrequity took the listing over from another agent, who had been unable to sell the unit, and posted new photos on his Web site.
The marketing: Along with the new images, Davey rewrote the listing in what he describes as more vibrant prose. “I tried to young it up,” he says, using terms like “excellent,” “opportunity” and “sought-after.” He started getting three and four showings a day. Within three days of relisting it, he had his first offer.
First offer: It came in at $167,500, more than $20,000 below the reduced asking price. Hatch’s response: “You’ve got to be kidding.” Davey says it’s a problem endemic to today’s market: extreme haggling is the new bidding war. “I can’t tell you how many deals I’ve had fall apart because buyers want unreasonable deals.” He’s thinking about listing his properties high just to allow for bargaining room.
The sale: Three days after the lowball offer, with Young on holiday in Mexico, another offer came in, this one for $182,000, which was within $3,000 of what Young and Hatch had agreed they would accept. The buyer had stipulated a midnight irrevocable clause, so Young had to scramble first to find a computer on which to receive the offer, then a printer so she could co-sign it, and finally a fax machine to send it back. The deal was done by midnight.
Homepage photograph by Kevin Steele
Article photographs by John Cullen
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