You are moving a family, not buying a house.
Usually, that means a lease first.
We advise high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families relocating to the Greater Toronto Area from abroad: Oakville, King City, central Toronto and the surrounding high-end markets. Most of them arrive with the same five questions, and the honest answer to several of them is lease first.
Five questions, answered the waywe would answer them to a friend.
Which areas actually suit us?
Oakville, King City and the central Toronto ravine neighbourhoods behave nothing like each other. We will tell you which one fits the family you have, not the one that pays best.
Buy now or lease first?
Most principals should lease for twelve to twenty-four months. You do not yet know which commute you will hate. We run the leasing desk, so we can say that without losing the transaction.
Can we even get a mortgage?
Newly landed, with no Canadian credit file, usually yes, at a different loan-to-value and through a different lender. We will introduce you before you make an offer, not after.
What about the schools?
Catchments, the private options, and the waiting lists that actually matter. Checked, not assumed.
What will it cost to run?
Land transfer tax on both levels in Toronto, property tax by municipality, insurance on a ravine or waterfront lot, and the annual carry nobody quotes you.
The order mattersmore than the effort.
Orientation, before you commit
A half day on the ground, or an hour on a call if you are still abroad. We drive the three or four areas that plausibly fit, and we tell you which ones to stop considering. No property is shown. Nothing is signed.
A lease, usually
Twelve to twenty-four months in the area you think you want, at a rent that buys you the right to be wrong. Executive tenancies from $10,000 per month, furnished where the family is arriving ahead of the container.
Banking, credit and counsel
Introductions to a lender who writes against foreign income, an accountant who has filed a first Canadian return before, and, where the file needs it, counsel. Arranged before you are under contract.
The purchase
By the time you buy you have lived a winter here, driven the commute, and seen the street in February. That is when a $3M to $15M decision should be made, and that is when our opinion is worth something.
We own whatwe advise on.
An opinion is worth roughly what the person giving it has at risk.
We can tell you what a property costs to run, what a conservation designation does to the buildable envelope, which builder's mechanical fails in year six, and which of two identical-looking lots is worth more in a decade. That knowledge comes from ownership.
The principals of this firm own residential and commercial property in the same markets we broker. We have carried the financing, argued the assessments, replaced the roofs and timed the exits, on our own account. That is where judgment comes from, and it is why our advice does not sound like a listing presentation.
Same markets
We hold property in the areas we advise on
Same asset classes
Residential, multi-residential, commercial and land
Same decisions
Financing, capital, hold and exit, on our own account
Arrange an orientation.
A half day on the ground, or an hour on a call if you are still abroad. Nothing is shown and nothing is signed.