Since I started the Toronto Realty Blog back in June of 2007, I have written countless blog posts about the development industry in the province of Ontario and exposed many of the issues therein.
Over the years, I’ve been described as a “critic” of developers, pre-construction condominium projects and the entire pre-construction condominium industry in general.
So when my team and I became the exclusive brokers for a development in Port Credit called “The Lake House,” by Queenscorp Inc., it might have seemed like an ironic marriage between broker and builder.
But here’s the thing:
When it comes to real estate, I have certain values and principles that I hold dearly.
The same values and principles that have made me critique the development industry over the years are responsible for my decision to work on behalf of The Lake House development.
I’ve always held myself and my team to a higher standard, and I’ve always held out hope that the real estate industry, its participants, and the development industry – and its participants, would do the same.
This has obviously led to disappointment over the last twenty years, but I was so incredibly excited to meet and speak with the team at Queenscorp when we first discussed The Lake House site.
Don’t get me wrong: they were interviewing us, and we were interviewing them. While many brokers in the industry will work on anything, anywhere, I have always believed in a necessary “fit” between the client and the representative, not just in terms of objectives, goals, and the process to attain them, but rather in terms of those “values” that I speak of.
We all remember the infamous line from Jerry Maguire: “You had me at hello.”
Well, the folks at Queenscorp had me at:
“We don’t view real estate as a commodity. We don’t view real estate in terms of saleable square footage in the sky. We don’t believe in real estate as an asset to be bought, traded, flipped, or assigned. We build for the end-user.”
As I said: values.
Many of the problems that exist in the real estate industry, the development industry, and the housing market as a whole are borne of the way that real estate is planned, pre-sold, and developed. The results of which have left us with a downtown core full if micro-condos that nobody wants, simply because of the fact that investors have financed the pre-sale thresholds that developers need to meet in order to secure financing on new construction.
Very few developers in today’s day and age build specifically for the end-user.
Do you want to learn more about The Lake House? Get the full picture right here.
But that’s where Queenscorp and The Lake House development is different.
When I was told by a Queenscorp principal, “We don’t allow our agreement of purchase and sale contracts to be assigned,” I experienced the antithesis of a value proposition playing out in practice.
To say, “We build for the end-user” is one thing, but to not allow assignments in a development is the literal definition of “putting your money where your mouth is.”
One of the major issues I’ve had with pre-construction over the years is the way that developers sell “square footage in the sky,” and do so years before a shovel is ever put into the ground.
In the case of The Lake House, all the townhomes were pre-built before sales began, which offered the buyers a rare opportunity to actually step inside a home before purchasing it – something that is completely absent in the world of pre-construction sales and development in the GTA.
Over the last few years, I have lamented that real estate developers aren’t “helping” the housing market by actually filling a need therein. Since nobody really wants or needs 260 square foot condominiums, the planning, pre-selling, and developing of said units is anything but “filling a need.”
Again, that’s where I noted that The Lake House is different.
The population of Port Credit is established, which is another way of saying perhaps that it is aging.
There are all kinds of happy home-owners that have been in their houses for twenty, thirty, or even forty years, which speaks volumes about the neighbourhood, especially in West Mineola.
But one thing that that West Mineola does not have is an option for established, long-time residents to downsize into newly-built luxury homes that offer unparallelled convenience.
As I examined the West Mineola neighbourhood, and extended my research through the rest of Port Credit, I noted that there wasn’t anything like The Lake House in existence.
There are townhouses in Port Credit, but not enough to satisfy the growing demand, in my opinion, and none that offer a location, size, layout, style, and level of finish comparable to The Lake House.
I concluded that not only is there a “need” within the real estate market to be filled by something like The Lake House, but also that Queenscorp had hit the mark on the privacy and serenity of the location, not to mention the luxury finish and quality of the offering.
When I meet with the folks at Queenscorp, I told them that three words get thrown around far too often in real estate marketing: community, luxury, and bespoke.
The irony is: The Lake House truly is a community, in every sense of the word. The seventeen townhouses resemble something out of a Christmas movie, set in a ski village, surrounded by nature.
The term “luxury” is used far too often these days to describe properties that are anything but, and yet The Lake House quality, workmanship, and design is better than anything I’ve seen in the area. It’s not even close.
And the concept of “bespoke” real estate, which is hilariously used to describe cookie-cutter real estate garbage on the regular, was met head-on by Queenscorp when they researched the “need” in the marketplace for something like The Lake House, designed the complex and the individual units around those needs, and yet left the final finishes to be individually customized by each buyer.
Most real estate developers in the GTA work towards a “finish line” that culminates with the turnover of a condominium corporation to the residents of a building that this developer has completed, and once again, I witnessed a demonstration that this is completely at odds with Queenscorp’s values.
Imagine the buyer of a Queenscorp-built property, dating back twenty years, who picks up the phone one day to call Queenscorp’s head office. Imagine that buyer saying, “I’m having a problem with my furnace,” and explaining that an HVAC technician noted that a specific part was needed to repair this furnace. Now, imagine a Queenscorp employee tracking down this specific part, which magically existed in a warehouse full of building materials and supplies, and then personally driving out to that individual’s home to deliver the part in person.
This is a true story, folks.
If there’s one thing that’s exceptionally lacking in today’s real estate development industry, it’s customer service. I was absolutely blown away by the lengths that Queenscorp goes to in order to satisfy customers, both new and old.
There’s a certain hands-on element to the operation that I’ve never witnessed before, and one that must be fantastically time-consuming, costly, and often times – thankless, and yet the customer service remains part of the overall value proposition.
I have never represented an entire site of new homes in my twenty year career, so while one might think that I jumped at the opportunity when it was presented, trust me when I say that it was far from automatic.
But then again, I have never met a group of people that espoused such incredible values, most of which I have always shared and held near-and-dear.
I’ve always fashioned myself a great judge of character, and the folks that I met at Queenscorp didn’t have to sell me on their core values, their business philosophy, and their Lake House site; I bought in on my own.
I couldn’t be happier to be representing both The Lake House site and the folks that built it, and if you’re reading this as a potential buyer or an agent working with potential buyers, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss why you should consider calling the Lake House, “home.”
Curious about The Lake House? Get in touch with me directly at 416.275.0035 or fill out the form on this page today!
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