Ep. 51 - Why Every New Builder Home in Toronto Is Overpriced—Every. Single. Time.

In this episode of The Last Honest Realtor, David Fleming exposes the costly cycle of builder homes hitting Toronto’s market at fantasy prices—again and again. Every new build, the same result: a sky-high listing, a string of failed agents, and a year spent chasing buyers who never come.

From the scorpion-and-frog parable to brutal, fact-driven case studies, David breaks down why builders stubbornly ignore local tastes, overvalue irrelevant features, and sabotage their own sales—all while the neighbourhood looks on in disbelief.

In This Episode:

• Why every new builder home in Toronto launches at 20% over market value—and stays there
• The critical mistakes out-of-area builders make when they ignore the local buyer
• How hiring the wrong agent costs sellers time, money, and brand reputation
• The features nobody wants: pools, basement apartments, and gaudy finishes that drive buyers away
• Why serial price drops and relistings destroy buyer trust and erode value
• What actually works: understanding neighbourhood demand, staging, and fit-for-market design
• The economics of ego: how builders talk themselves out of a deal, every single time

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro: Why every new builder home is overpriced, every single time
01:22 – The scorpion and the builder: a parable for Toronto real estate
05:10 – Out-of-area builders: repeating the same mistakes
10:45 – What buyers actually want (and what they’ll never pay for)
19:04 – The price drop dance: relistings, terminated agents, and wasted months
25:25 – Reputation, brand, and the agent that actually gets it sold
32:15 – Closing thoughts: adapt, or stay stuck on the market

Subscribe, comment, and share this episode with anyone convinced that “their” new build is the one exception.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro: Why every new builder home is overpriced, every single time
• 1:22 The scorpion and the builder: a parable for Toronto real estate
• 5:10 Out-of-area builders: repeating the same mistakes
• 10:45 What buyers actually want (and what they’ll never pay for)
• 19:04 The price drop dance: relistings, terminated agents, and wasted months
• 25:25 Reputation, brand, and the agent that actually gets it sold
• 32:15 Closing thoughts: adapt, or stay stuck on the market

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Every new builder home that comes to the market in the city of Toronto is massively overpriced every single time. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Last Honest Realty Podcast. I'm your host, David Fleming. Now, we have seen this before. The house is torn down. A new one's built in this place. It's a mansion. It's beautiful. It's sparkling. The dumpster's been removed. The fence has been taken down. They've sodded the front lawn. We hope, although that's one of the things builders don't do properly, which is in my list and we'll come back to. And the property is listed for sale on MLS. The price? Is that a typo? No, it's not? Seriously? Why is that? Why is every single builder home brought out on the market at a price that makes absolutely no sense and then subsequently terminated and relisted and relisted and changed the agent and changed the price and changed the listing strategy every single time. That is what we're gonna talk about today in what I think will be a very fun post. It's gonna be full of anecdotes and stories. My colleague Tara and I recently had an experience with a builder, kinda was the impetus for this today. Walked the builder through every single thing that other builders do wrong And well, you're gonna find out what we did in the end. But first, a story. First, a childhood story, a fable, if you will, an anecdote, an analogy, the frog and the scorpion. If you haven't heard the one about the frog and the scorpion, well, I don't know, you had crappy parents, although mine never told me about that. So yeah, I'm gonna talk to my mom about it. The frog and the scorpion, it goes like this. Very simply, a scorpion wants to cross the pond. The scorpion says to a frog, can I please climb on your back? Will you carry me across? And the frog says, you're a scorpion. You're gonna sting me. Scorpion says, I'm not gonna sting you because if we're halfway across and I sting you, we're both gonna die. Now with that kind of logic, the frog says, yeah, he's absolutely right. That would make no sense for him. So the scorpion gets on the frog's back and they start floating on a lily pad or whatever it is across. About halfway through, the scorpion stings the frog. And the frog says, I don't understand. You said you wouldn't do this, and not only that, I am going to die, and you're gonna drown with me. And what does the scorpion say? I'm sorry, I'm a scorpion. Let that sink in for a moment. And if you're telling this to your eight-year-old child, they're probably gonna be upset. The point to this story, or this fable, is very simple. A scorpion's a scorpion, and in that case, the scorpion just said, I'm a scorpion, and I sting, that's what I do, even if it's to my own detriment. Do you see where I'm going with this, folks? Builders in the city of Toronto routinely make the same mistakes over and over and over. And I'm not talking about condo builders. We're talking about infill homes. So somebody buys a bungalow on a 40 by 130 foot lot in North Toronto and they tear it down and they build a beautiful new home. But what we see from there on out is the same every single time. They overprice it. They list it seven times. They have three different agents and it takes them a year to sell. But it's not just the pricing. It is everything else that goes into so many of these builder homes. And that's what I want to talk about today. So I'll tell you this. Tara and I got a phone call from a builder, and we're going to call the area of the city of Toronto Verona. It's a Romeo and Juliet reference. So in Fair Verona, where we live, it's... Well, upper middle class, let's say. It's a very close-knit community, and yes, there are developers in the area. Now, a typical developer in this area is building a beautiful red brick home that fits in with all the others in the area, and I feel like that's what the buyers really want. But the builders, the out-of-area builders, they come in and they ply their trade time and time again. They build the stucco homes, they build the sleek glass monsters, they build the things the local residents really don't want now that's the first point that i will make but we were called in to look at one of these houses and we decided nothing to lose here let's put together a presentation and in that presentation we will go through the following what buyers think about most builder homes in fair verona where we live and then what agents think we will lay it all out and we will use examples and in the end we will say mr builder would you like to list and sell this property the way that we think it should be. Let me walk you through this. The first point that we made to Mr. Builder, while looking at what buyers think of these builder homes, buyers think, and we did research for this, this is what we had asked a bunch of people in Verona, buyers say, builder homes are always price high and will come down in price. Therefore, there's no rush to see the property. A house comes out for$4 million and the neighbors are aghast. The buyers in the area look at it And they see, has it been listed before? No, it's a brand new build. It's owned by a numbered corp. They don't come see it. Why? Because they know it's not going to sell and they know it's going to be reduced. This is across the board what every single buyer in this area we call Verona believes. And we received this comment multiple times. Now, the second thing the people in Verona said, is that most of the folks representing the house don't understand them and their needs. Now, if that sounds snobby, it's because it is. But if this community is very insulated, and one of the points that we had made was that the builders don't hire an agent from Verona. They hire their outside agent, their 905-er, if you will. Now, that... Could save them some money, sure. If that agent's doing it on the cheap, that agent might be somebody they've worked with before. But there's something to be said for the brand value. And I'm losing some of you here in the YouTube comments who are gonna say I don't care. The brand value of the agent and the brokerage.

SPEAKER_00: 5:58

Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 5:58

it's a real thing in Verona. You can call it snobby, but that's fine. You don't think the guy selling the Mercedes or buying it or manufacturing it is a little bit more snobby? than the guy, I don't know, riding the bike. So the outsiders looking into Fair Verona. This is how some of the folks see both the builder and the agent. Again, the snob factor. But what they are saying is that they don't really understand us. Who are we? What are our values? What are we like in homes? Don't just come here, build a house that you would build where you're from, in your area, in other areas you've worked in, and then tell us why this house is so great. Now, money is always spent in the wrong places. This is something that a lot that a lot of buyers had said. The buyers believe that builders value function over form and that layout, flow, and usability are more important than finishes. So I will go off on a tangent very shortly and give you an example. There are two resale homes for sale on the same street. One of them is absolutely gorgeous and renovated. The basement is only the original footprint, has not been excavated, and the main floor has a bump out, but upstairs does not. A house down the block has the full basement that was excavated about 20 years ago, and it has the full second level, but it's really tired, has been renovated since the year 2000. Which of those properties do you think I'm gonna push for? The second one, you can change the finishes in a home. Now, yes, you can excavate a basement, but that smaller house that's, say, 2,800 square feet and doesn't have the extension, and thus you lack the function, the flow, and the future for you to grow into with your family, it might have great finishes. But the house down the street that has all the space you need, or the best example is a new home that has 12-foot ceilings and an older home that has eight foot, you can never change that. But sure, the Wolf range is prettier than the Amana one. The point being here, guys, is that people in Verona, they understand the lifestyle and the life cycle. They want the flow, they want the layout, they want the functionality, how they live their lives. And that Wolf range, it's pretty and all, but they could go buy one themselves. You've used expensive tile, good for you. Hell, you've put tile all over the walls. Your moldings are expensive, and on and on and on. The people in Fair Verona don't value that. And the last point, and this is kind of funny, is that people in Verona say that these builder homes have no warmth and no character. They have no story, they have no history. Now you can tell me, okay, you're just romanticizing it, but there's something to be said for a culture and a demographic that wants brand new, never lived in, and the other folks that say, no, I don't like that. I want the house to have a soul. Call it cheesy, I can make an argument either way. Now, what do agents think? And these are the points. I interviewed some folks in my office. And these are the points that we put up on the screen for Mr. Builder and really sort of hammered away. Because this isn't my opinion. This is fact. And I played it off as one or both while we were presenting to Mr. Builder. And at the end of the day, the question I'll ask you is, did Mr. Builder agree? Now, the first point that I made, builders don't build for users within that market. Now, if you had built 10 houses in... East York. And then you decided you were going to build in Lawrence Park. Suffice it to say, you can't just pick up your East York home and move it to Lawrence Park. If you're a home builder in Durham region and you decide that you're going to build in the beach, hey, listen, you've got a learning curve. So what we typically see is that, and take Leaside around the corner from me right now. When I got into this business, it was like, all the original bungalows sitting on prime 30 by 120 foot lots, and you saw all the builders come along, they tear it down, they build a new one, and that's when we started getting the stucco homes instead of the red brick, and over time they went back to red brick, and there's been all kinds of different folks applying their trade in that area. But a lot of those builders, it was like their first big project. Maybe they'd flipped a house or maybe they'd renovated one, but to actually tear one down and build a new, you see a lot of builders in Fair Verona doing exactly that. They're not building for users within that market. And I'll typecast here and tell me there's a snob factor. Let's say you have somebody that builds in Richmond Hill. Then they decide they're gonna build in the aforementioned Lawrence Park or in Moore Park or in Rosedale. You can't pick up that vibe, that design, that style, and everything that you know about that demographic and then plop it down in a new area and expect it to transfer. Now the next point, and I really want to stress this one. Builders often include features that are valued by other buyers in other markets, but not in this market. I'll give you an example in Fair Verona where we live. The builder put in a basement apartment. In Fair Verona, Those folks don't want basement apartments. Now, there's several reasons, and again, you might say, oh, it's just a basement apartment, but I'm telling you, this is what builders do. The builder comes from an area where they say basement apartments are really important and they add tremendous value because you can rent it out and get income to pay your mortgage, or if you're a multi-generational family, you've got that downstairs, or what? What else could we use that for? The point is, in Fair Verona, The buyer wants a basement that has a rec room, which is for the kid's playroom or the man cave, woman cave if you think I'm being sexist. They want an extra bedroom for mom and dad when they come or for the teenager. They want the bathroom. They want the same layout. Don't rewrite this. Don't rock the boat. Don't reinvent the wheel, whatever analogy it is that I'm looking for. And then you go and put a basement apartment in. Now here's where the snob factor's gonna come in. And this is what I told Mr. Builder. In Fair Verona, People don't want basement apartments because they don't want their neighbors to think that they need the income. And that's something that's coming from a local agent who works the area and can tell you, yes, this sounds crappy and it's snobby, but it's true. Builders don't know this. And more often than not, they don't care. They disagree. They come from an area where they put their basement apartments in and they say things like, well, we want to have the option. I am telling you, figure out what the people in this area want in Fair Verona. They want a red brick house. You built a glass and stucco monster. They want a beautiful rec room in the basement. They want it carpeted. And you built this basement apartment with your hardwood floors that, yeah, people like hardwood. I get it. But you're not feeling the vibe here. People in Fair Verona, they have 2.3 children on average. You know, their kids go to private school and, you know, they're named Todd and Rebecca. and they want a basement rec room, not a basement apartment. They also don't want a pool in the backyard. I'll tell you what, in Fair Verona where we live, the buyer who wants a pool finds a house that they want, then they put in a pool. A buyer who wants a pool in Verona doesn't target a house with a pool. Think about that logic for a minute. Do you follow? You want a house with a pool. You're not looking for houses with existing pools. The fact that there's a pool there makes absolutely no difference about whether or not you want that house. A B minus house on a D minus street with a pool, no. The buyer wants the A house on the A street that's got a big tree in the backyard that they're gonna accidentally kill with your basic 14 inch drill bit and rat poison and then they're gonna reply to the city to have it cut down because they don't care and then they're gonna build a pool in the backyard. Sorry, I went off the rails with the analogy, but you get what I'm saying. I'm saying that a builder puts a pool in because they think it adds value. It doesn't. More to the point, it detracts the things that people don't want in this area. They don't want a basement apartment. They don't want a pool. They don't want tile on every single wall. They don't want a laser light show in the living room. You know the ceilings that have the built-in purple lights? People don't want that. You know what else they don't want? They don't want one of those stones on the front lawn that has the address carved into it in cursive writing. 497 Fake Street. They don't want that. They want 497. They don't even want, and I actually had a client once that said no to a house because it was carved into the awning above the front of the home. Now, I wouldn't say it was just that, but the minute she walked up, she was like, I don't like this. I don't like this style. Walked into the house and the style was not hers. The point is that was the first impression. Something that small, you have to know your demographic. You have to know your market. And builders continue to do this. They take the things that they've learned in other areas. They don't research the area, especially in Fair Verona where we live. And they put all kinds of features in here that buyers don't want. Now, this next point goes part and parcel with what I just said. Builders will overvalue items of less importance and undervalue items of greater importance. So what I mean by that is the builder will say, I've got a pool. It cost them 100,000 to put in. Congratulations, you've reduced the value of this home by 200,000. What are you talking about? It cost me 100 grand. No, they don't want a pool. This is a 30 by 120 foot lot and the entire backyard is now pool. There is nothing out here. If you had a 36 by 130 on a different street, I still wouldn't build the pool because you're gonna catch more flies with honey, right? There's more buyers that don't want a pool. Why would you put something in that more than 51% of people don't want? And I would honestly estimate that, I don't know, 80, 90% of buyers do not want a pool. I mean, my best friend Jeff bought a place in Mississauga and it had a pool. He's like, I'm not a pool guy. You show up two years later, he's got the floaty, he's got the noodles, he's testing the pH balance. Excuse me if I got that incorrect. Now he's Mr. Pool Guy. But the point is, if you're a builder and you put a pool in a backyard because you think it's adding value, it doesn't. And I'll tell you what else doesn't add value. Your Tarion warranty. The buyer doesn't care because the buyer doesn't know. Now, it's my job as a real estate agent representing the seller and trying to stress the value of that to drive home the seven-year tariff warranty, but the buyer does not care. So the builders will overvalue things like that. And they'll talk about the fiberglass insulation, the acoustic, you know, sound attenuation. Like, listen, there are a lot of things that you've done to this house that are great, but unfortunately, it may not translate with the buyer. And I'll tell you one other thing. about this particular house that we saw. The builder jammed five bedrooms into a footprint that was perfect for four bedrooms. The builder said, I have a five-bedroom house. In Verona, no one really wants five bedrooms. They want four. They want four and one in the basement. And they want those four bedrooms to have a primary en suite, and then either one bathroom to service the three kids' bedrooms, or the one Jack and Jill, and then if you're my sister growing up, she got her own bathroom. It's not rocket science. Don't reinvent the wheel. Do your research and see what people want in that area. But no, the builder jams five bedrooms in and they're frickin' tiny, and the worst part is the master bedroom, not supposed to say master anymore, the primary bedroom has no en suite closet. It has two double door closets next to each other, And we're talking$4 million. Who's buying that house in Verona without a walk-in closet? I'm a typecast. Does the woman want the house without the walk-in closet? I mean, it could be the man too. You know, the guy like in Ray Donovan, right? He's got to have the little center console for all of his different Rolex watches, his tie squares. You know, the guy that folds individual underwears and puts them in buckets. That's what they want. And the builder crammed five bedrooms into a four-bedroom floor plan. They're overvaluing... The fact they have five bedrooms, they're overvaluing their pool, they're overvaluing their Tarion warranty, they're overvaluing everything in the house that they like personally or that they've done in other areas. They're undervaluing things that the buyers want. The buyer wants a walk-in closet. The buyer wants four bedrooms. The buyer wants the Wolf range. The buyer wants what the buyer wants. Give the buyer what they want. Now, builders typically overvalue the home. They list high, they reduce over time. This was what the buyer feedback was. This is what the agent feedback was. So what Tara and I did in our presentation in Fair Verona, we found three builder homes and we put them up and we named them listing one, listing two, listing three, listing four, and so on and so forth. So you take a house in Verona, it's listed for 3998, sit in the market for 120 days. They relist at 3798. Sits in the market for 120 days. They terminate the listing with that agent. They bring it out with a new one, right? Fire the coach, not the player. And now they bring it out at 3198 with an offer date. Well, that doesn't work. They increase the price to 3798. It sits for another 90 days, and they terminate. They fire that agent. They hire a new agent. Bring it out at 3698. They're on the market for 120 days. They terminate. Now they bring it out at 2999 with an offer date. It doesn't work. Do you see where I'm going with this? and eventually they sell it after 16 months for$3.4 million as the market goes up and down, up and down, up and down. Now tell me that I'm a salesperson, I don't care what it sells for, I want it at the lowest possible price, and the entire argument I'm making today is simply I want to dump this property. No, it's not the point I'm making. The point I'm making is that I understand the economics behind home building, and there is a cost associated with carrying a property. Now there's also a risk-reward between pricing at fair market value and moving it quickly, and maybe hanging on just a little bit longer to see if you can get a little bit more. We're not talking about that. We're talking about houses that routinely are listed for$4 million that are worth$3 million. Three, two, three, four, three, six. It happens over and over and over. So when Tara and I had the builder from Verona, we showed these houses and a couple of them never sold. you can't really deny that that's how builders price, and I wouldn't say sell, attempt to sell. Now, buyers typically, excuse me, builders typically hire out-of-area agents, and this lowers the value in the eyes of the buyers. Now, I'm gonna lose some of you here, and that's fine. You got your discount agent, you know, it's great, or your buddy that's got a part-time job and sells houses. In Fair Verona, and I'm not gonna name names, but let's say that there's broker J., brokerage B, and brokerage C. All of them are very traditional, high-end, established firms. And many of them have realtors that live in the area. When you put those signs on the lawn, and you could be watching this from anywhere in Canada and the world, and you're like, I don't agree, I am telling you, I stake my reputation on it, that those signs, they make the buyers feel comfortable. The buyers like what they know. Right, so let me use where I am, Bosley Real Estate as an example. And yes, Bosley is one of the companies that routinely works in Verona. The Bosley sign goes up, it's red, it's white, it's got a name they know, it's got a brand they know, it's been around forever. They sponsor the local what? Carnival, hand out pies in the park, cake decorating contests right in the community, the skate, et cetera, and a couple of other firms. Builders always hire, and I can't name names because I'll get sued, builders always hire XYZ Real Estate from Markham, right? Builder hires the agent from ABC Realty Discount Corp, Fly By Night, Miracle, Hollywood, whatever they throw words in there. ABC Hollywood All-Star Brokerage, right? With a guy you've never heard of, a gal who's got her face on the sign. This is not a face on the sign kind of area. And I'm sorry, guys. The buyers don't like that. And if you don't like what I'm saying and it's snobby or it's egotistical or what have you, it doesn't make me wrong. And you can think of analogies in other industries. That's just the way that it is in Fair Verona. Now, builders use very distinct, often ornate finishes that can clash with prevailing styles, trends, and desires within specific neighborhoods. Let's be blunt and say that different people, ages, cultures, nationalities, backgrounds, value different things. Just as some cultures take their shoes off before they come in the house, others find it offensive to take your shoes off before you come in the house. If you're in an area that is dominated by a certain culture and you're building and not adhering to the desires and designs aesthetically, Well, they're not gonna like it. So take Fair Verona where everything's dark and it's black granite and it's gold everywhere and you've got that purple, it's like Vin Diesel crashed his car into the living room, right? People in this area, they want traditional crown molding. They want wainscoting. They'd like a coffered ceiling. And you've got the dental molding from the 905 and you've got that purple light going around it. Builders routinely fail to investigate the level of finish. And what's more is you combine this with things like builders overvalue items of less importance and undervalue items of greater importance. They will go to their grave saying, I brought this tile from so and so in such and such place. Dude, listen, if you could get your tile from two blocks away and it's what the buyers want, you're better off. So yes, sometimes the buyers are snobs, as I've mentioned. They like what they like. They like local agents and brand value and such. And they might like something that's not as good, right? I'm not the, you know, I was gonna say I'm not the handbag guy, obviously, but like, you know, the people that want the Louis Vuitton or even the Birkin, I can't believe I know what that is. And then there's other people that are like, no, I'm cool with like my Michael Kors or whatever. Some people like the super fancy and others don't. But in this analogy, some people don't carry a purse at all. And you've got to look at that and say, yes, in this area, they might like nice things. But you can have a nice... quartz countertop that's white and light versus a much more expensive, much more rare, dark black granite counter with gold speckles that the people in the area don't want. Hire a designer. Build it into the cost. In fact, hire a local agent, which again, they never do, to explain to you what the demographic in this area desires. The last point here, builder houses typically sell via the second or third agent to list the home. We put this in our presentation. And I said to Mr. Builder, listen, I mean, we'd love to work with you and all, but statistically, we're not selling this house. And he said, what do you mean? You know, I believe in you guys. Let's go, let's work together. I said, no. The three properties that we showed you, the examples of builders in Fair Verona, listing over and over and over, two of those had three different agents that sold, and then one of them that hadn't sold They terminated, but they had been on their second agent. That's very, very common. So put all this together, and we're sitting there, and we've presented this to Mr. Builder. And what do you think Mr. Builder said? We valued the home at$3.2 million. The builder said that he wanted to list it for 3.7. Yeah. That is exactly what we expected. And I said, do you remember when I said the builder houses are listed over and over and over? He debated us on the value. So we then went and we looked at the comparable sales. And when I asked somebody a rhetorical question, do you see this house here? Is this house better than yours? The answer is yes, because it's on a better street, a block from the school, It's the style that people want. It's a bigger lot, and so on and so forth. And his answer was, no, and I'll tell you why. And then went on to talk about all the features of the house that the buyers don't want, all the money they had spent on things that don't matter, and then quoting comparable sales from 2022 at the peak of the market. So what ends up happening here is that there's not a meeting of the minds, unfortunately, between myself, Tara, and the builder, but I would like to think, and this is very naive of me to think because a scorpion is still a scorpion, I would like to think that we were at least able to instill some sort of knowledge and direction and vision into this builder for what will ultimately be a very, very difficult listing and sale process. There were a lot of things in this home that did not fit. The five bedrooms crammed into four, major problem. The buyers don't want that. The level of finish and the style, no, they don't want it. The pool, it took up the entire yard. The buyers, they're not looking for that. The laser lights show on the ceiling, right? Like, you know, the purple lights. Okay, I'm just saying, I sell a lot of real estate in Verona. And my clients wouldn't like this. And there is a buyer for everything, don't get me wrong. But it was amazing to see systematically as we kind of went through all of the notes on our list that the builder had a response for every single one and the response in every case was you're wrong because you're wrong because you're wrong because. Now the builder wanted 3.7 and there was one more thing that's not on this list that I said when we met which was somebody's gonna buy your listing. I said what do you mean? I said someone's gonna tell you the price you want to hear and that is the person that you will list with. And he said, well, I'm here. I'm with you guys. You know, we want to do business. I said, look, you got a$3.2 million house. I'll go to my grave telling you, you've got a$3.2 million house and you want to put it up for 3.7. No, he wanted to put it up for 3.8 because he wanted to get 3.7. But look, I'm going to be honest. I don't even know that they can get 3.2 because the house has some serious issues. But if you find the buyer that wants the five bedroom, like somebody that's got four kids, and even though the layout's kind of screwy, okay, maybe. But I said, you are going to get somebody that buys your listing. It's going to be an out-of-area agent. And then as far as the marketing goes, and we haven't even touched on that, I can't believe when agents don't stage the entire property. And we said, yes, we're gonna stage it from top to bottom. They don't do a coming soon sign. They don't do it properly. They don't flyer the area. They're not hosting open houses. And then the worst thing, the worst thing, the worst thing that builders do is that they say that the agent has to be at every showing. I shouldn't say the worst thing. It was one thing that came to me. Now, if you were going to try on a bathing suit in a store, and the person that worked there said, yep, no problem, let's go, and got into the change room with you, would you feel comfortable? It's what I always say in my analogy of why the listing agent shouldn't be in the house. Being there is one thing. The buyer's not gonna feel comfortable, they're gonna wanna leave, they're not gonna wanna talk openly, but they don't want your sales pitch The buyers don't wanna go through, and you've got some salesman there, and you can say that I'm that, but they don't want for you to be like, and you know, the really great thing over here is, because builders think every single time, my house is different, my house is special, and I need someone to point out all of the features of it. Look, maybe, maybe, maybe, part of that is right, but two wrongs don't make a right in this case, okay? You don't need a listing agent there making the buyers feel uncomfortable. Statistically, they will spend less time there if the listing agent is there. You do not need that person there talking the entire time and giving a sales pitch. It's gross, and that is what in this area in Verona, in fact, across the entire city of Toronto, what buyers don't want. So in the end, this house was listed for$4 million. And he even said to us, we'll list for$3.8 million. I said, I can't take a listing that's$600,000 over market value. And in my heart, I kind of thought maybe it was less in a tough market. But somebody bought the listing. And the funny thing is, you talk about blind bidding. Buyers don't like blind bidding. You've listed for$9.99, and I don't know if it's$1.2,$1.3. What are the other bids? In this case,

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the seller told us he wanted to list for$3.8.

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And somebody bought the listing and listed for$4 million. They went in and they said, yeah, it's worth$4 million. On the listing, listing agent to be present for all showings. They did not stage a single square inch of the entire house. No coming soon sign. Sign went up. Littered with errors on the MLS listing. Littered with errors. And as far as the write-up goes, you know what buyers don't like? Dollar signs. It is so tacky. You say dollar sign, dollar sign, dollar sign, luxury, dollar sign, dollar sign, home from builder, dollar sign, dollar sign, dollar sign, spent on upgrades. It's so tacky. Buyers hate it. And that's what happened. That is what happened. We did what we could to explain to the builder how to not sell and think like a builder. But a scorpion is a scorpion. Every single time. Now, if any of that sounded uncouth, insincere, rude, undermining, condescending, it doesn't make it not true. And there are builders that don't sell like that, but most of them do, especially in Fair Verona where we live. It's a fun name. Romeo and Juliet. Everyone read it in grade 10. But in Fair Verona where we live, you see it time and time again. Eight out of 10 builder houses are of a design that the local people don't really want, 10 out of 10 of them are priced 20% above fair market value, just egregious prices. They're all listed three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 times. Many of them go up and down in price. When you're listed at 3.6 for a 3.1 house and then you drop to 2.99 with an offer date, what do you think is gonna happen? Buyers hate that. And another thing I don't think I wrote in this is that buyers don't wanna buy a house that's been listed eight times. you're shooting yourself in the foot, especially in Fair Verona. Because people are gonna ask them at the jamboree or the local club or tennis or whatever, I'm playing up the snob factor, oh, where do you live? Oh, we bought it, you know, such and such. Oh, that house was for sale for a while. People don't wanna be that person. And tell me it's a snob factor. Again, I think I've said that about 35 times. It must be quite repetitive at this point. But I've got to drive the point home. It doesn't matter if it's a snob factor. It doesn't make it untrue. The builders don't see that. The more times you're listed, the longer you're on the market. I'm not telling you I'm the guy that's going to give your house away. I'm listing it as low as possible. I am telling you that when you do it like that, you're losing interest. The buyers don't like it. So all told... This house was listed three months ago. And it is still on the market for$4 million. It's been up for three months. We're now getting into the summer. In this area, everyone's leaving. This house is not going to sell until next year. It'll be reduced multiple times. They have not staged it. I cannot believe they have not staged it. You got a$4 million house. Well, I think it's a$3 million house. It's going to cost you$10,000 to stage that whole house. And maybe with the luxury stager, it's$20,000. But why wouldn't you spend that money? No open houses. It says by appointment only. You're not doing any open houses. Okay, I don't see why not. No real marketing in the area. Listing agent be present for all showings. And like 50 freakin' dollar signs in the MLS write up. So that is it folks. I welcome your feedback. Drop me a comment in the YouTube section. If you see what I see out there with builder homes, tell me what I've missed, or if it's at all possible, tell me where I'm wrong on this. Thank you so much for watching. As always on YouTube, as I said, drop me a comment. Feel free to like, comment, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, if it's Apple Music or Spotify. And we'll see you here next time on The Last Honest Realtor.