Due Diligence

Due Diligence By Theresa Grant Real Estate columnist Most people know that when you are looking to purchase something, especially something of real value, you want to do get as much information about that product or service as you possibly can before laying out large sums of money. There are many ways that people gather their information. Some people live by online reviews. I am constantly being asked by Google and Amazon to review products and services that I have used. It begs the question then, when it comes to purchasing a home, why don’t people do a little research before they purchase a home in an area they know nothing about? There is a house on Celina street in Oshawa that was sold in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. It sold then for a ridiculously high price but that was just a glimpse into the craziness that would ensue regarding house prices. A year later the same style of house on Celina street would be selling for $150,000 more. Unbelievable was a common word to hear from long-time residents of the street. So, this house, on Celina street was purchased by people from out of town. The purchasers used an agent from out of town, who did not know Oshawa. The new owners set about to improve the property as many new homeowners do. After spending many thousands of dollars putting in a second full bathroom on the main floor and covering both the upstairs bathroom and the new one downstairs in beautiful Italian marble, with all the extravagant finishings the home looked completely different. There were also some very nice improvements to the kitchen which would have cost a pretty penny. A massive wooden garden shed in the picturesque backyard looked like something out of a storybook. Where the homeowners went wrong here, is that not too far from their potential new home was a large corner lot that had visible signs of active construction on it. Without asking any real questions of the owner who was selling the property, they went ahead and made an offer that was accepted and the deal closed without incident in 2020. Fast forward three years, what was under construction was the Durham Outlook for the Needy. While the resource is much needed for the community who relies on it, it plummets the value of the homes in the immediate neighbourhood. So, here we have a home that was purchased at an inflated value due to the pandemic, that has now had many thousands of dollars in upgrades done to it, that is sitting in the shadows of the Outreach for the Needy. The home has been listed for sale numerous times to no avail. The homeowner would like to recoup his investment of course, but that seems impossible given the location and the money spent on improvements. Although extremely unfortunate, there is a very valuable lesson here. The purchaser’s agent should have looked into what was being built on that lot. If the purchasers asked their agent and the agent could not give them an answer, the easiest thing to do would be to place a quick call to City Hall. Anyone in Building/Planning could have told them what was going up on that site and they would have then had the opportunity to make an informed decision. Before you make an offer to purchase any type of property, always do your homework. Ask the questions, knock on the doors, get your answers.