Location
“The three
well known and universally accepted factors in buying real estate are
‘Location, Location and Location’ does not apply for condos. In
fact these extremely important factors are only the 4th to 6th
factors. The three most critical factors for condo purchasing are
‘Knowledge, Knowledge and Knowledge.”
—Tom LePage Condominium Consultant,
Founder of Condo-Ology
Location, as most real estate agents will say, is everything in real
estate but as Tom Lepage says, when it comes to condos, knowledge is king.
As far as location goes, decide what neighbourhood you want to live
in. Among other things, especially for a townhouse, or if you are
buying a two bedroom apartment, it should be a neighbourhood that has
the better-rated public schools. (Higher resale values.)
Then buy a condo in a desirable building in that neigbourhood.
Transportation
Transportation is important. Condos that are close to subway lines are
more desirable than those that sit at the end of a long bus route. You
want to be within walking distance of the subway or only one short bus
or streetcar ride from the subway.
You also want to be on a bus route that is part of the Blue Light
Network
(24 hour service) and has Sunday service.
Shopping
You want to be within walking distance of a grocery store, a bank, fast
food joints, coffee shops and local services. A local park would be
nice and so would be a community centre and a library.
Noise
Know the area. There are a few condos on Sheppard Avenue West in
Toronto that are parked right in front of a fire station. They hear sirens all
day long. On Bathurst, the condos are just up the street from a EMS
station so they hear sirens from the ambulances as well as the fire
trucks.
Some condos sit beside railway tracks or busy highways. Others are
under aircraft flight paths or in entertainment areas where
there are
large crowds, loud music, crowded bars and horn honking all night long.
Have
a nose for value
No one would buy a condo next to a large slaughterhouse that
kills 6000 pigs a day would they? In Toronto they do
and then they
complain about the awful stench that prevents them from using
their balconies in the hot summer evenings.
Every
couple of years, the condo dwellers protest and complain about
theabattoir
has existed on Wellington Avenue, in Toronto's old industrial lands,
for the last 80 years.
Brad
Lamb on his balcony. Quality Meats is in the background.
Brad Lamb, Toronto's condominium
specialist, who sold over 19,000 properties worth $6 billion bought a
condo in the King-Bathurst area that overlooks Quality Meat
Packers and
pig barn. he told the Toronto Star that he hates
the pigs. “I’m not sure what it is that I smell,” he said, “but it’s a
very unpleasant smell.” He guessed it was probably feces.
“We
shouldn’t be smelling that in what is really now a residential area,”
he said.
He also objects to the sight of the pig transport trucks with
ventilated siding rumbling along Wellington Ave. “You see their snouts
sticking out,” Lamb lamented.
(The slaughter house closed in 2014.)
Cookie bakery
closed
That is when the residents near the Humber Treatment Plant plant in
Etobicoke began to notice the stink from the millions of gallons of raw sewage.
The city claims that the odor should disappear in the next three years
once they introduce new technologies.
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