Over the years I have built a business that serves seller and buyer clients of all sorts, ranging anywhere from a first time buyer all the way through assisting a family sell a home through an estate sale.

Some clients are more savvy than others, which doesn’t affect the outcome from my perspective, as my career long positioning as your real estate consultant for life, affords everyone that I work with the surety that I’m looking out for your best interests at all times.

A few weeks back a client of mine closed on the purchase of a condo in one of the hottest pockets of Toronto, in a building where the condo corporation, due to no fault of their own, are navigating through multiple lawsuits that can have a negative outcome on the condo unit owners, and possibly resulting in a special assessment. I’ll come back to this a bit more further on.

I’m going to add that having an experienced real estate lawyer on your side is of utmost importance and it is why I heavily recommend the lawyer I do. He is one of the absolute best there is, not only in navigating through the legal side of a real estate transaction, also having a thorough and deep knowledge of deciphering through a condominium status certificate, where potential red flags can be had.

This particular condominium corporation, the units are selling at a huge discount in lieu of the complicated status certificate and the problems the building has had to overcome over the past few years.

We’ve had our on eye on this building for most of the past two years, and have waited patiently for the right opportunity to present itself. Having been on the losing end twice previously we finally succeeded in purchasing a unit that checks all of my buyer clients needs. And the cherry on top is that it has one incredibly amazing skyline view!

My clients intent is to take a smaller sized 2 bedroom unit with 2 baths, and renovate it in to a more useable friendly 1 bedroom plus den. In the end, he will have a newly renovated suite, with an upgrade in parking and a locker from his previous condo, adding a balcony to the mix plus that amazing city view.

Here’s where the savvy part ties in. Looking out longer term (five + years) the potential building issues will be behind him. In a worst case scenario we are budgeting $5,000 should the lawsuits not be settled and each owner is asked to contribute via a special assessment. Keep in mind that if there were no issues, this unit would be around $75k more, so we are already ahead. Best case scenario, there is no special assessment, and a building that is in a prime locale with a suite that includes parking, locker and a balcony, plus the amazing view, are all an upgrade over his current living arrangement. As an added bonus, we were able to sell his current condo in a matter of days (yep!!) for the full asking price, which is slightly less than that of his new purchase.

A happy past client who has moved up the property ladder by seeking out opportunity slightly off the beaten path. The end.