The real estate industry in North America is an $800 Billion dollar a year industry with hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions paid to sales people ONLY when they make the sale! Many of the absolute BEST SALESPEOPLE on the continent earn their living selling real estate. When you visit a new condo sales site you are many times facing the best sellers in the business (people who can influence your decision making process through their use of proven sales techniques and tactics).

Nowhere is sales pressure more evident than on the sales floor at new condo development sales sites. It is incredible to me how the carnival atmosphere that we launched in the early 1980’s still lingers on today.

Every week I visit new condo sites to see what they are doing, what’s selling and what’s not selling. I disclosed in the introduction to this book that I am a recovering condo sales specialist. I say recovering because up until a few short years back I was one of these highly trained sales professionals exercising my skills on sales floors like Minto Plaza which I managed to sell amidst the crashing market of the 1980’s, 300 Bloor St. East (who’s developer unfortunately went bankrupt and never built the building which is today Bellagio on Bloor), 1001 Bay St. and others.

In those days we “top guns” got our highs from closing sales with buyers who actually were trying to NOT buy! The power of persuasion when coupled with proven sales tactics and strategies is dynamic. I welcomed customers' pleas to “just go home and think about it and talk it over”. The odds were that once you got into my presentation centre, you were buying. Even if you didn’t want to, you were buying. I was literally a highly polished high pressure salesman. You would ask me if you could just go home and I’d say “no”, reaffirming to the wife that “he probably does this every time he is faced with a decision”. Give me a little confirmation there and I’ve got you. This is why I say I am “recovering” because I still start to salivate when I think of the “contest” (much like a game of chess) to get you to sign and write out a deposit cheque.

The reality of this all is that I am not alone in this field. Pretty well every site that you go to in Toronto (or anywhere for that matter - Americans are even more polished) has one or two veterans, some elderly matron types, some suited power broker types, some quiet and timid but lying behind that venire is a trained sales professional accustomed to walking prospective purchasers through the process without ever disclosing anything more than answers to what their customer (you) specifically asks.

Most developers hold back a certain portion of suites and many more times these suites are sold to “insiders” (family, friends and acquaintances of the Developer) at “insider prices” (usually ten to fifteen percent below the going market rate). Have you ever wondered how they sell out on the first weekend? These “insiders” buy suites at these low prices to insure the developers' bank that sales are good and to generally keep things moving in a positive direction. These
suites and/or any hold-back suites will be filtered into the

market a couple months prior to occupancy at substantially marketed up prices (present day rate on investment made 2 years prior with minimum down payment). These are called “Assignments” and require addition legal protection for purchasers.

The remaining inventory of suites are then sold to buyers who reregistered earlier and have been awaiting their opportunity to come into the sales site for a presentation. I was somewhat embarrassed just a week ago while visiting a sales site to hear the carnival announcer come on the PA system announcing “Unit 1702 SOLD, Unit xxx SOLD, etc. SOLD”. This is condo selling 101 for the year of 1985 (old world) and yet, it still is alive and doing well today! And the consumers are still buying it!

I visited another site on behalf of a client in the summer of 2002 and was told that a building they were building would “occupy in October of 2002” while the building was not even completed and it was August! A good rule of thumb when visiting condo sales sites is “BELIEVE NOTHING THAT YOU HEAR AND ONLY HALF OF WHAT YOU SEE”.

Have you noticed when you visit these sites, they won’t even talk with you unless you complete the registration card? This is to restrict you from having your agent get involved so if you want FREE professional advise when buying new, be sure to have your buyer’s agent attend the site with you and never register if you intend to have your agent work with you. Most reputable developers “co-operate” with Realtors to insure their customers have adequate professional representation and most of these do not limit your ability to have council based on a shell game of having you Register at their site before even speaking with you. Once you have registered they immediately no longer honour co-op agreements so always be sure to have your Buyer’s Agency established before you go to the site.

This does not mean that you can only visit sales sites with your Buyer’s Agent. I have all of my clients take my card into the site if they want to visit without me. I inform them to disclose that they are represented by me and I give them a handful of my business cards. What this does is disconnect their system and takes all the heat off of you. The sales representatives will be thoroughly professional with you yet apply no sales pressure. Feel free to ask for their assistance. They will give you floorplans, site plans, etc., and not play any of the conventional games that are played.

Obviously there is a very strong undertone throughout this publication to suggest that you only buy a condo in Toronto using a professional Buyer’s Agent, one who does not introduce potential of conflict by carrying listings and who is thoroughly familiar on a day to day basis with what’s happening in the market. The logical representative for you in this market is me and I will look forward to hearing from you in the event that you decide to buy a condo in Toronto (not intended to solicit property already advertised for sale or lease). I can always be reached c/o simplycondos@gmail.com.