As the last of the children return to school from warm beaches and snowy hills we are reminded of our obligations as parents to teach our children to be kind to others. Under no circumstances do we permit bullying from our children to their peers. Of course, as adult Realtors we rarely take our own good advice and are constantly talking about Bully offers as the way to get a jump on hot listings before the set offer date.  Now don’t get me wrong, like all good adults when we are doing something so obviously wrong as being a Bully we take the mature step of re-naming the process to something much more socially acceptable, in this case the ‘Pre-emptive’ offer. So with all the talk of pre-emptive offers we decided to take a look at how common this really is and if it benefits the Seller to accept the ‘Pre-emptive’ offer.  In our sampling of freehold sales in 5 MLS districts (C01, C03, C10, C11, E01) we noted some interesting trends.  Pre-emptive offers are much more common downtown than uptown, with 25% of listings selling before their offer date south of Bloor and a mere 7% selling before their offer date once you go north of Eglinton. The other interesting fact is that the final sale price, as a percentage above the list price, was on average higher on offer night then when a Seller accepted a Pre-emptive offer. So while we remind our children not to be Bullies, we might also want to take the time to let our Seller’s know that the best strategy might be to ignore the ‘Bully’ when it comes their way.

In the Freehold market the number of new listings exploded last week while sales remained virtually unchanged from the week before.  New listings increased an astounding 100% compared to the previous week while sales increased a meager 5%.  While we are hopeful that the new listings will ease some of the pressure Buyers face on offer nights, we continue to believe that there is insufficient inventory for the obviously strong demand for freehold properties.  With a consistent 75% of all listings selling above their list price Buyers should keep a tight hold on the railing, the ride is not over yet.

Condos on the other hand continue to carve their own market, mostly in the downtown core.  There was also a significant increase in new available condos for sale but the inventory only increased 50% over the previous week while sales matched the increase of the freehold market at 5%. It is important to note that by far the majority of new condo listings and sales are happening in the central core with only 7% of condo sales occurring in the east or west parts of our research area.  Like the freehold market, condos have settled into a consistent 70% of sales occurring above the list price.