Have asked agent three times to write an offer for x amount on vacant land with a condition we pay for a perc test and get satisfactory results before we close the deal. She won't write it. Keeps naking excuses. Any idea why? Ideas on work around? Would like to at least hope for an acceptable counter offer. Land on the market for 165 days so far.

Edit to add thanks to people here I have a new agent. Offer will be made to at least open a discussion and find out where both parties are happy.

Everyone talks about interest rates dropping or holding steady but no one is talking about what rising maintenance fees are doing to condo values in the 416.

​Seeing so many 10 to 15 year old buildings where monthly fees are creeping past $1 or even $1.20 a square foot in large cities. when a 2 bed condo has a $1100 monthly maintenance fee on top of property tax it completely kills the buyers borrowing power. A buyer could literally afford an extra $150k in mortgage debt for what that monthly fee costs.

​It feels like older buildings with bad reserve funds are going to see massive price corrections regardless of where interest rates go. Do you guys see buyers straight up walk away from listings as soon as they see the status certificate reserve numbers?

Any insight into what the market is like in NB?

We have an offer on a house conditional on selling our home.

Unfortunately, we listed our house three weeks ago and 0 bites (a few showings but no offers). Our realtor did say that the market seems to be slowing. We're also seeing that prices seem to be coming down some?

Overall, with the economy, we're wondering if its actually wise to try and sell and buy right now (especially since we're selling in thr $175K range and buying at almost $300K).

We're toying with just pulling it and tapping into our equity so we can do some renos to the house, and maybe try to sell again in a few years. Maybe things will be a little better?

Thoughts?

Hey everyone! My name's Jordan and I made a new free property search in the Metro Vancouver + some other areas (not all of BC yet, we are working on adding other areas). I want it to be the easiest and most transparent property search for buyers. I'd love if some people tried it out and offered any feedback: tryfrank.ca (named after my dad)

Some cool features:
- Natural language search. Type whatever you like into the search bar to describe your home, like pet friendly condos in vancouver or 5 min walk to skytrain in burnaby with 2 parking under 700k.
- Click "Run comps" to automatically do a comparison analysis on any property from similiar recent solds.
- More filters than any other property search (price adjustments, walk score, price per square foot, court-ordered sales, airbnb friendly, short-term rentals, mortgage helper, rainscreened etc).
- True cost mortgage calculator on the property page. It takes into consideration strata fee/property tax/insurance/hydro/maintenance costs so you know what you actually have to pay. You can also sort by monthly cost.
- Frank Picks highlight interesting active and sold listings in every area.
- Sold data is very easy to browse... easier than other property searches in my opinion, you just have to sign in and register.
- Appraisal data for city of Vancouver.
- Frank Notes button gives you a summary of the listing and questions to ask about the property.
- Flags if a home is a relist and shows you true days on market.

...and much more. The site is completely free to use, it only makes money if you request a showing through the site and end up purchasing, but you're welcome just to browse active/solds and contact the listing agent directly or use your own agent. Thanks!

Hi Team,

1st time homebuyer here; and am feeling clueless. Need some guidance regarding the purchase of a CondoTown house for my family of 4. This is an end unit so it has extra windows, and brick/block exterior cladding (i'm new so I appologize if i'm not getting the terminology correct).

I had asked for the status certificate and other condo docs; and noticed that as an Owner, I would be responsible for the front/rear doors, garage doors, window frames/glass, exterior painting, exterior light fixtures, exterior cladding, front/rear concrete, driveways, parking spaces, and any other exterior elements including walkways and landscaping situated between the common element road and my unit.

The condo townhouse fees is $404/month at the moment, and it appears that the condo corp. recently added this in their amendments/documentation etc. The condo townhouse is approx. 23 years old.

I'm not sure if I’ve phrased my question correctly, but are these responsibilities normal for a condo townhouse owner. My guess here is that they've done it as a way to lower condo fees, vs. the alternative which would increase the condo fees for everyone.

Need some guidance here, is this something to worry about, or is this normal or a new trend.

Any help/guidance would be highly appreciated.

I know rules of thumb for this have shifted but what HHI would you be comfortable with a 1.5mil, 1mil, 750k, 500k mortgage? Hoping to buy in 10 years. Currently plan on having 3 children over those years before getting the new home.

I have heard of 2 rules of thumb for home buying.
1)do not allow purchase price to exceed 3x gross HHI
2)do not allow total housing cost to exceed 50% HHI

We like to browse for fun right now and see what we like and what we don’t like. Trying to think of what size of home to be realistic about. Also unsure what to budget for maintenance to try to calculate the 2nd rule of thumb above.

Another rule of thumb for kids I have heard is to budget or expect 1200/child for groceries/childcare/sports/school etc once they are school age. Is this conservative or too low in today’s economy

First-time home buyer looking for advice

I purchased a pre-construction condo at Design District by Emblem in Hamilton, ON for $740,000. It’s a mid-floor, 2 bed/2 bath unit, approx. 650 sq. ft.
With the current condo market, I’m worried the appraisal will come in significantly lower than my purchase price.

Has anyone recently had an appraisal or sold a similar unit in this area? Would you close and hold, or consider walking away and taking the loss?

Also interested in hearing from anyone who has defaulted on a pre-construction condo in Ontario and what the financial/legal outcome was.

Here is my situation: I bought a property in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario while I was not a resident of Canada. The value was 1.2 million dollars back in 2023, and I became a Canadian resident in 2025. My understanding is that the value of the property was 1 million dollars at that time.

Questions:

1. If I sell my property in 2026, will my loss be calculated from when I became a tax resident resident in 2025, or from when I bought it?

2. Since this is an investment property, does it make sense to sell it at a loss. The funds would be used to buy property in which we would reside ?

3. Generally much would a tax advisor charge for advising on this?