#going to the climbing gym in my old city today bc i want a day trip + also i have a map to return to the library there

[toastsnaffler]

forgot my wireless earphones for the gym fuck my stupid baka life

[acuppellarp]

Welcome (again) to A Cup-pella, Jeanne! We’re excited to have you and Haley Sterling in the game! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours. 

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Jeanne Age: 25 Timezone: EST Ships: Haley/Chemistry, Haley/Nerdiness Anti-Ships: Haley/NoChem

IC INFO

Full Name: Haley Nicole Sterling Face Claim: Virginia Gardner Age/Birthday: 23 / September 17, 1995 Occupation: Part-time acup barista, part-time level 1 instructor through NYC Ultra Gymnastics, part-time student at NYU, defender for April’s Showers Personality: Competitive, impulsive, determined, naive, ditzy Hometown: San Francisco, CA

Bio:

Oh, the Sterling family. If there was ever a group more fitted for a reality TV show on TLC, it was them. That’s how an outsider would see it, at least. For Haley, it was just her family. The first few years of her life were spent loving her parents and little sister, and then her second mom and her second dad came into the picture. Whenever she went over to her friends houses growing up, they introduced her to their parents. Haley did the same, it just so happened she had a few more parents than them. It wasn’t the picture that she saw on TV, but that didn’t really matter. She had a family that loved and doted on her, that’s what mattered. She was an incredibly content child - set her out in the backyard to run around and play, and she was a happy camper. Or set her up in her bedroom, playing with her little sister (once upon a time, Jemma really did play with barbie dolls properly). She was content, and she was friendly, always running up to strangers and asking if they wanted to be her friend. Needless to say, her parents had to have the stranger danger talk with her more times than she can count, but the fact remains that Haley has always been a people person, easily able to settle into a crowd.

Dedication isn’t a word many people would associate with Haley even today, and it never has been. She comes across as having her head in the clouds 9 times out of 10 and she wasn’t exactly a contender for valedictorian. She’s not the person you to go if you’re looking for reliability, and that’s why a lot of people are thrown off when they find out she’s been honing her skills as a gymnast since the age of 4. It wasn’t some kind of “love at first sight” moment, where Haley knew she wanted to make it her life from day one. On the contrary, she remembers crying in frustration when she couldn’t get a somersault down as easily as the other kids in her class (granted it was within the first week of classes, but Haley’s child mind didn’t care about that).

That’s why it was so invigorating when she finally nailed it by week two… Haley’s never been known for her patience, you see, but the one thing she’s got going for her is that she doesn’t quit. She doesn’t quit because of that same excitement she got when she perfected that first somersault right, followed by her first cartwheel, her first handstand, mastering her first forward tuck and everything over the next few years as she climbed up the levels. She was 8 years old, level 9, when she got her first first place award on the uneven bars, subsequently helping her team take home the win as well. That, my friends, is when Haley fell in love with the sweet taste of victory.

There wasn’t time for Haley to ever cultivate many other areas of extracurricular interest. She’d arrive at school an hour before classes started to make use of the gym’s empty weight room for strength and conditioning, and immediately after school she would make her way down to the gymnastics center for more hours worth of practice. Her dedication and prowess in the sport are what helped her lock in a scholarship offered by NYC Ultra, a gymnastics club located not too far away from NYU’s campus. The school itself didn’t have a gymnastics program, but NYC Ultra had scouted her during her final meet during high school and offered to help fund her higher education if she joined their team upon moving. And its a good thing they did, because her grades certainly wouldn’t be earning her any academic scholarships.

Leaving her family had her balling like a baby, but Haley found herself settling in to New York City life eventually. It was a much different pace than San Francisco, that was for sure. Still, Haley prides herself on never really feeling like a fish out of water, especially since she quickly made friends with the other members of her gym and then at school. Her decision to major in social work was based in her family’s own unconventional-but-still-good history, and as much as she struggled to maintain her school, practice, and work schedules, she did find herself liking the course she was on. She was a full-time student for her first two years, but recently after much debate and guidance from people significantly smarter than her, Haley made the choice to go from full-time student to part-time student.

At the same time, she also made the decision to retire from competing in gymnastics and try her hand at coaching, something she’s discovered a love for. She’s now certified to teach entry-level gymnastics, and she thinks she’s found a good balance to her life. It also lost her her academic scholarship, but with the time she’s freed up from her previously strict practice schedule and full-time course-load, it’s all been a relief. She can study without feeling pressured to make it a priority, and is able to both work and be involved in athletics at a pace that lets her enjoy herself rather than feeling constantly stressed. Sure her schedule is pretty packed, but it’s all things that bring her happiness, so it’s worth it.

See, the thing with Haley is that if she isn’t interested in something, it falls to the wayside. But once she finds her passion and groove, she is all in. That’s the reason why she can’t sit through an algebra class without daydreaming, but she’ll give you a point-by-point breakdown of why Laurie Hernandez should’ve taken the gold for the Women’s balance beam during the 2016 Olympics, or make an entire PowerPoint on why Digimon trumps Pokemon (she’s still gotta catch ‘em all though, make no mistake). She knows what she loves and doesn’t waste her time or energy on things that won’t end up bringing her personal happiness and fulfillment. Is that a good way to be successful in life? Probably not, but has it helped Haley get through the last 23 years with minimal sadness and reason to say she didn’t give something her all? Absolutely, 100%, a thousand times yes.

Pets: Haley has had iced coffees last longer than some goldfish. She’s pretty much given up on trying to keep any kind of pet alive at this point, so instead she has her bedroom windowsill decorated with succulents. They’re less likely to ruin her carpet and lose her her deposit.

Relationships:

Jemma Sterling — She’s the first person to admit that Jemma is far from perfect, but she’ll also attempt to rip anyone’s head off who dares insult or undersell her baby sister. Watch it, folks. Haley adores Jemma, even if she does worry her from time to time with just how… we’ll say just how “free” she can be. It’s probably not the best idea, but she trusts Jemma wholeheartedly. In a way, Haley is a little envious of how open her sister is with everything, but that’s a story for another time. She still loves her to the moon and back and then to the moon and back again.

Blair Anderson — Haley and Blair dated for a short time, but that didn’t make it hurt any less when the broke up. Or at least Haley calls it a break up — she won’t say it out loud, but a part of her felt completely jilted and forgotten about when Blair went on her cruise. It’s been months since they’re brief fling, and while Haley hates being anything less than UBER SUNSHINE HAPPINESS, she’s also still angry with Blair. Could she suck it up and just talk to her to get resolution? Of course she could. Has she? Absolutely not, Haley lacks that kind of foresight for common sense.

April’s Showers — Even though she replaced being on a gymnastics team with coaching, Haley did miss the extra boost of athleticism that came with constantly being in practice. She got the idea to join April’s soccer team from her sister, and it’s definitely been a big help in keeping her endorphin levels high and her laziness levels low. It feeds in to her competitive nature, and she digs almost everyone on the team so far. Being on the same team as her sister means they have to share the family brain cell at the same time, but Haley’s enjoying herself.

EXTRA INFO

mmmhalebop ☄️ / HaleyStorm / i’m secretly the fourth member of Hanson

Five latest tweets:

@HaleyStorm: @marvelstudios pls call my insurance company and tell them you’ll cover the surgery to have the heart you ripped out of my chest replaced @HaleyStorm: manny santos hiking up her thong will always be iconic #whateverittakes @HaleyStorm: #gymnastsecret - if you see me hold a position on the bar too long, it’s bc i 100% blanked on the rest of the routine @HaleyStorm: tba @HaleyStorm: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guess who just saw a dog, me it was me you don’t have to guess

[rebeccahpedersen]

Buying A Former Marijuana Grow-Op As Your Primary Residence (Pt2)

TorontoRealtyBlog

You know the expression, “Good things come to those that wait”?

There couldn’t possibly be a more incorrect way to describe being a buyer in the 2017 Toronto real estate market.

Those that wait either end up paying more for a semi than they could have paid for a detached a year earlier, or get priced out of the market entirely.

Waiting intentionally gets you nowhere.  But once in a while, you get somewhere after a while, by complete fluke…

What is marijuana anyways?

And why is it illegal?

We Canadians think it’s insane that our neighbours south of the border give out jail time for possession of a gram of herb, but they can walk a loaded handgun through a school gym class…

I think that if the U.S. government was able to regulate, and tax, the sale of marijuana, it would be a no-brainer.

Same goes for Canada.  I never met a Liberal government that didn’t love a tax!  Figure out how to profit from it, and the Liberals will make possession of marijuana legal.

In 2006, I went on a journey with my father and my brother, that saw us climb to Base Camp at Mount Everest, but then take a short side-trip to Bhutan.

I had never even heard of Bhutan until my Dad told us we were going.

I’ll never forget, driving from the airport (which was the size of your house) to the hotel, and you could see fields of marijuana from the window.

I’m not joking.

I’ve just gone into my archives, check this out – this is the view from where we pulled the car over:

Gorgeous, eh?

And then this is what was at our feet:

There are literally fields of marijuana, growing in the wild.

Our guide told us that it grows “like a weed.”

Hence one of the many reasons why it’s referred to as “weed.”

It seemed to come in all different shapes, sizes, and colours.

That classic light-green look above, and then something like this below, which shows the typical light-green leaves, but on a redwood stem that you’d expect to find on a maple tree:

We took hundreds of photos of wild marijuana on this trip.

Our guide kept asking us, “What is the fascination with this weed?”

We told him that back home, it was like a currency.  It had value.

He said, “It’s illegal to own it here.”

That made no sense!  It was growing wild everywhere, but it was illegal to own it?  And what was the value like, given it was readily available in fields as far as the eye could see?

“It has no magic powers, like yours back home.  It does not make you feel good.”

He went on to tell us all about the male and female marijuanas, how they’re born, how they grow, what metabolites they contained, etc.

For a guy that didn’t use it, didn’t own it, and claimed it was illegal to possess it, our guide sure knew a lot about it!

On Monday, I told you the story of my buyer clients, Duncan and Amanda, who were having a tough time finding a home that suited their needs, and was within their price range (like every buyer out there), but who stumbled upon a house that was priced like we were in the spring of 2014, only to find out that it was used as a marijuana grow-op thirteen years earlier.

When we left off, I told you that we had decided to make an offer.

And we did.

Our offer was conditional on financing and home inspection, since we needed to know if there was anything wrong with this house, but more importantly, we needed to know if a lender out there would finance it!

I knew it was a long shot, but it was a shot I was willing to take.

I don’t generally seek out the near-possible, but I have faith in my “team.”

I often tell my clients that I have spent 13 years surrounding myself with people who I know and trust.  My mortgage broker, home inspector, lawyer, stager, painter – if you need it, I have a guy or a gal for it.

And I knew that while most buyers wouldn’t want to own a “former grow-op,” and most agents would tell the buyers it’s impossible to finance, this was a situation we could use to our advantage.

As I said on Monday, this house was listed at $800,000, but was worth, in my opinion, well in excess of $900,000.

We didn’t waste any time with the offer – we made it an hour after seeing the house, threw the full $800,000 list price at them, and gave them until midnight.

We could have tried to work the price down under $800,000, but it was simply a risk-reward equation that we didn’t like.

I had no doubt that somebody else could try to buy this house.  They could outbid us, and tie it up conditionally, but they would never get financing.  So I wasn’t afraid of losing the house, but I was afraid of the house being tied up for two weeks.

The house had also just been reduced by $50,000 that afternoon.  Now would be the least likely time for the seller to negotiate.

So while we could have tried to get the house for $790,000 or $795,000, we couldn’t have put the midnight gun to their head, and I thought another offer would come in by the next day.

We bought the property, conditionally, and yet there was still a hint of excitement in the air.

I called Duncan to tell him, and he laughed.  Hard.  The classic Duncan-cackle that I’ve been hearing since 1985.

“Dave, one day we’re gonna be sitting around like two old men, and you’ll say, ‘Hey man, remember the time I sold you that grow-op?’”

At least we could laugh about it!  We had a tall order ahead of us.

And we were setting ourselves up for disappointment too.

We had a 1% chance of getting this deal firmed up, and we knew that.

I asked my mortgage broker well in advance if we could get financing on a former grow-op, and he said, “Next to impossible.”

Everybody in my office thought I was nuts.

But we got the ball rolling, and booked a home inspection for two days later.

I only use Gordon Mathieu from Carson Dunlop.  He is, in my opinion, the most knowledgeable inspector working in the city today.  I’ve probably used Gordon a hundred times, and I trust him emphatically.

When Gordon likes something, he’ll glow about it.  And when Gordon doesn’t like something, he takes it personally.  It’s like every house out there, is his own.

We spent three hours at the house, and Gordon was raving about it.  Not only did we find absolutely no evidence of mold, water damage, or basically anything wrong with this house (other than the 35-year-old furnace), but Gordon pointed out many of the super-adequacies, or features of the home that were built above and beyond the building code, or how it’s done today.

“The way it’s built” changes with the years, whether it’s the style, the aesthetic, or the materials.  Look at some of the detail in the beautiful old buildings in downtown Toronto, and then look at the glass towers we see today.

Gordon pointed out many of the features of the home that were built better in the late-1970’s than they are today.

Overall, he loved the house.  The report checked out, and we even added the thermal imaging (which few people do), just to be safe.

The sellers had done an Indoor Air Quality Inspection Report through EnviroSolve Canada – a 22-page report, which concluded that there were was no hidden mold growth within the wall or ceiling cavities of the home that were affecting indoor air quality.

Armed with these two important pieces of evidence, it was time to approach the lenders.

Just for good measure, however, I added a third bit of data, which I simply called logic.

I drafted an email that I knew my mortgage broker would forward to the lenders, which laid out the nuts and bolts.

The house, as I explained, was not a “former grow-op.”  It was a “former, former grow-op.”

The house was used as a grow-op for a few months back in 2002.  That was it.

The house was now inhabited by a family of four, who had been living here for thirteen years with no issues.

The basement, which is where the plants were grown, was completely gutted and renovated in 2003.

So was this really a “former grow-op?”  Was it really a concern?

Or was this just stigma on paper?

As somebody pointed out in the comments section on Monday, any sigma like this must be disclosed forever.  When my clients go to sell in 20-30 years, they’ll have to disclose this too.

So while the fact that this house was used as a grow-op in 2002-2003 had to be disclosed out of necessity, was it really applicable or important in 2017?  Or was it just a formality?

We started going to the lenders, and we got shot down left, right, and centre.

The bank that held the current mortgage, turned us down, which was shocking.

Imagine that!  The very bank that currently holds a mortgage on the property, won’t lend us the money.  Does that make sense to you?

The owners got a mortgage in 2003, renewed in 2008, and renewed again in 2013 – all three times, with no problems.

Now we were talking to the same lender, a Big-5 Bank, who was saying, “no.”

We talked to Big-5 Banks, credit unions, and monolines, but nobody wanted to touch it.

Then one credit union said they would lend, as a favour to my broker, but they wanted the following:

-2003 police report -2003 mold remediation report -2003 re-entry certificate -2003 environmental study -2017 home inspection -2017 air quality report -2017 environmental study -2017 appraisal

And I think that was it.  Wait…..there might have been one or two other things.

But overall, the list was exhaustive.

And as I soon found out, there was no 2003 mold remediation report, since no mold was found, and none was remediated!  There was no 2003 re-entry certificate issued, since this house wasn’t condemned or shut down by the police.  There was no 2003 environmental study.

This “grow-op” wasn’t much of a grow-op after all.  It was small-scale, short-lived, and made no impact on the house.

But the credit union wanted what they wanted, and we couldn’t get financing without it.

Now as you would probably assume from the tone of my story, and from the title of my blog, we did get financing on this property eventually.

Can you guess where we got it from?

A credit union?

A monoline?

An underground lender?

Nope.

We got financing from a Big-5 Bank.

I won’t say which one, just as I won’t name the bank that holds the current mortgage and turned us down.

But it wasn’t some fly-by-night, and it wasn’t a lender you’ve never heard of.  In the end, it was a bank you know and trust.

And it was 100% due to my mortgage broker’s relationship with the underwriter.

Some of the lenders told us, “We’ll do 10,000 mortgages this year; we don’t need to do 10,001.”  They saw this simply as a deal they wouldn’t touch, because of the stigma.

But the underwriter and the Big-5 bank we went to, knew my mortgage broker, and listened when he framed this deal as one that was just as good as any, if not better.  The clients had 35% down, their mortgage application was top-notch, and they were brilliantly qualified.  So what if the MLS listing had the words “grow-op” next to the date “2002.”  We had enough to refute that, and more.

My mortgage broker’s relationship with this particular underwriter made this deal, and that’s something that no other broker had up his or her sleeve.

I’m sure somewhere out there, there’s another mortgage broker, with another relationship, with another underwriter, that could have got the deal done

But this was truly 1/100 from the start, and thanks to the people around me, we got it done.

We almost lost the deal at the last minute, however, when the on-the-ground “mortgage specialist,” who worked retail at my buyers’ branch of this Big-5 bank, refused to close his own pre-approval on the buyers.  He told my clients, “There’s a rate hold on file, and it can’t be removed for four months.  I’m really sorry.”

This would have meant that the underwriter my broker was working with couldn’t have approved the loan on her end, and we’d be without financing.

My mortgage broker sniffed this out quickly.  He told my clients, “Put me on the phone with him, please,” and after a 30-second phone call, low-and-behold, the retail-rep said, “Oh, wait, I actually can closet this file, my mistake,” and that was that.

I’m all for getting business, but when somebody shows up at your door and says, “We got a broker to approve a deal that you never could have got approved, we’re going with him,” why try to deliberately get in their way?  I’ve heard a lot of bad stories about mortgages and lenders at the retail level lately, but that’s a story for another day.

So there you have it, folks!

My clients bought a $900,000+ house for $800,000.  In this crazy market!

Who’d have ever thought?

I can’t wait to be invited over for a summer pool party.

I really, really need to work on my Dad-bod…

The post Buying A Former Marijuana Grow-Op As Your Primary Residence (Pt2) appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

Originated from http://ift.tt/2lnoQZH

[acuppellarp]

We’re excited to announce that Jeanne has decided to level up Haley Sterling from a mumu minor character to a main character! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours. 

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Jeanne Age: 24 Timezone: EST Ships: Haley/Chemistry, Haley/Nerdiness Anti-Ships: Haley/NoChem

IC INFO

Full Name: Haley Nicole Sterling Face Claim: Virginia Gardner Age/Birthday: 22 / September 17, 1995 Occupation: Social work student at NYU, gymnast at NYC Ultra Gymnastics Center, telemarketer Personality: Competitive, impulsive, determined, naive, ditzy Hometown: San Francisco, CA Bio:

Oh, the Sterling family. If there was ever a group more fitted for a reality TV show on TLC, it was them. That’s how an outsider would see it, at least. For Haley, it was just her family. The first few years of her life were spent loving her parents and little sister, and then her second mom and her second dad came into the picture. Whenever she went over to her friends houses growing up, they introduced her to their parents. Haley did the same, it just so happened she had a few more parents than them. It wasn’t the picture that she saw on TV, but that didn’t really matter. She had a family that loved and doted on her, that’s what mattered. She was an incredibly content child - set her out in the backyard to run around and play, and she was a happy camper. Or set her up in her bedroom, playing with her little sister (once upon a time, Jemma really did play with barbie dolls properly). She was content, and she was friendly, always running up to strangers and asking if they wanted to be her friend. Needless to say, her parents had to have the stranger danger talk with her more times than she can count, but the fact remains that Haley has always been a people person, easily able to settle into a crowd.

Dedication isn’t a word many people would associate with Haley even today, and it never has been. She comes across as having her head in the clouds 9 times out of 10 and she wasn’t exactly a contender for valedictorian. She’s not the person you to go if you’re looking for reliability, and that’s why a lot of people are thrown off when they find out she’s been honing her skills as a gymnast since the age of 4. It wasn’t some kind of “love at first sight” moment, where Haley knew she wanted to make it her life from day one. On the contrary, she remembers crying in frustration when she couldn’t get a somersault down as easily as the other kids in her class (granted it was within the first week of classes, but Haley’s child mind didn’t care about that).

That’s why it was so invigorating when she finally nailed it by week two… Haley’s never been known for her patience, you see, but the one thing she’s got going for her is that she doesn’t quit. She doesn’t quit because of that same excitement she got when she perfected that first somersault right, followed by her first cartwheel, her first handstand, mastering her first forward tuck and everything over the next few years as she climbed up the levels. She was 8 years old, level 9, when she got her first first place award on the uneven bars, subsequently helping her team take home the win as well. That, my friends, is when Haley fell in love with the sweet taste of victory.

There wasn’t time for Haley to ever cultivate many other areas of extracurricular interest. She’d arrive at school an hour before classes started to make use of the gym’s empty weight room for strength and conditioning, and immediately after school she would make her way down to the gymnastics center for more hours worth of practice. Her dedication and prowess in the sport are what helped her lock in a scholarship offered by NYC Ultra, a gymnastics club located not too far away from NYU’s campus. The school itself didn’t have a gymnastics program, but NYC Ultra had scouted her during her final meet during high school and offered to help fund her higher education if she joined their team upon moving. And its a good thing they did, because her grades certainly wouldn’t be earning her any academic scholarships.

Leaving her family had her balling like a baby, but Haley found herself settling in to New York City life eventually. It was a much different pace than San Francisco, that was for sure. Still, Haley prides herself on never really feeling like a fish out of water, especially since she quickly made friends with the other members of her gym and then at school. Social work is a demanding field and it can come as somewhat of a shock that the ditzy blonde chose it as her major, but Haley doesn’t understand the surprise. She grew up in a very unconventional family that, despite the tribulations and disruptions later on, was filled with love for the most part. Haley wants to help ensure that other people get to experience that same level of love and support in whatever way she can, or at the very least bring them a sense of safety. It helps that she is actually able to focus on her major work better than she ever could her high school and general education credits.

See, the thing with Haley is that if she isn’t interested in something, it falls to the wayside. But once she finds her passion and groove, she is all in. That’s the reason why she can’t sit through an algebra class without daydreaming, but she’ll give you a point-by-point breakdown of why Laurie Hernandez should’ve taken the gold for the Women’s balance beam during the 2016 Olympics, or make an entire PowerPoint on why Digimon trumps Pokemon (she’s still gotta catch ‘em all though, make no mistake). She knows what she loves and doesn’t waste her time or energy on things that won’t end up bringing her personal happiness and fulfillment. Is that a good way to be successful in life? Probably not, but has it helped Haley get through the last 24 years with minimal sadness and reason to say she didn’t give something her all? Absolutely, 100%, a thousand times yes.

Pets: Haley has had iced coffees last longer than some goldfish. She’s pretty much given up on trying to keep any kind of pet alive at this point, so instead she has her bedroom windowsill decorated with succulents. They’re less likely to ruin her carpet and lose her her deposit.

Relationships:

Jemma Sterling — She’s the first person to admit that Jemma is far from perfect, but she’ll also attempt to rip anyone’s head off who dares insult or undersell her baby sister. Watch it, folks. Haley adores Jemma, even if she does worry her from time to time with just how… we’ll say just how “free” she can be. It’s probably not the best idea, but she trusts Jemma wholeheartedly. In a way, Haley is a little envious of how open her sister is with everything, but that’s a story for another time. She still loves her to the moon and back and then to the moon and back again.

EXTRA INFO

mmmhalebop ☄️ / HaleyStorm / I’m secretly the fourth member of Hanson:

Five latest tweets:

@HaleyStorm: @marvelstudios pls call my insurance company and tell them you’ll cover the surgery to have the heart you ripped out of my chest replaced @HaleyStorm: manny santos hiking up her thong will always be iconic #whateverittakes @HaleyStorm: #gymnastsecret - if you see me hold a position on the bar too long, it’s bc i 100% blanked on the rest of the routine @HaleyStorm: is crimped hair still in style?? asking for a friend @HaleyStorm: update - i am that friend and idc. get ready to see me rocking lizzie mcguire hair today #ifoundcolorfulextensionstoo

[rebeccahpedersen]

Buying A Former Marijuana Grow-Op As Your Primary Residence (Pt2)

TorontoRealtyBlog

You know the expression, “Good things come to those that wait”?

There couldn’t possibly be a more incorrect way to describe being a buyer in the 2017 Toronto real estate market.

Those that wait either end up paying more for a semi than they could have paid for a detached a year earlier, or get priced out of the market entirely.

Waiting intentionally gets you nowhere.  But once in a while, you get somewhere after a while, by complete fluke…

What is marijuana anyways?

And why is it illegal?

We Canadians think it’s insane that our neighbours south of the border give out jail time for possession of a gram of herb, but they can walk a loaded handgun through a school gym class…

I think that if the U.S. government was able to regulate, and tax, the sale of marijuana, it would be a no-brainer.

Same goes for Canada.  I never met a Liberal government that didn’t love a tax!  Figure out how to profit from it, and the Liberals will make possession of marijuana legal.

In 2006, I went on a journey with my father and my brother, that saw us climb to Base Camp at Mount Everest, but then take a short side-trip to Bhutan.

I had never even heard of Bhutan until my Dad told us we were going.

I’ll never forget, driving from the airport (which was the size of your house) to the hotel, and you could see fields of marijuana from the window.

I’m not joking.

I’ve just gone into my archives, check this out – this is the view from where we pulled the car over:

Gorgeous, eh?

And then this is what was at our feet:

There are literally fields of marijuana, growing in the wild.

Our guide told us that it grows “like a weed.”

Hence one of the many reasons why it’s referred to as “weed.”

It seemed to come in all different shapes, sizes, and colours.

That classic light-green look above, and then something like this below, which shows the typical light-green leaves, but on a redwood stem that you’d expect to find on a maple tree:

We took hundreds of photos of wild marijuana on this trip.

Our guide kept asking us, “What is the fascination with this weed?”

We told him that back home, it was like a currency.  It had value.

He said, “It’s illegal to own it here.”

That made no sense!  It was growing wild everywhere, but it was illegal to own it?  And what was the value like, given it was readily available in fields as far as the eye could see?

“It has no magic powers, like yours back home.  It does not make you feel good.”

He went on to tell us all about the male and female marijuanas, how they’re born, how they grow, what metabolites they contained, etc.

For a guy that didn’t use it, didn’t own it, and claimed it was illegal to possess it, our guide sure knew a lot about it!

On Monday, I told you the story of my buyer clients, Duncan and Amanda, who were having a tough time finding a home that suited their needs, and was within their price range (like every buyer out there), but who stumbled upon a house that was priced like we were in the spring of 2014, only to find out that it was used as a marijuana grow-op thirteen years earlier.

When we left off, I told you that we had decided to make an offer.

And we did.

Our offer was conditional on financing and home inspection, since we needed to know if there was anything wrong with this house, but more importantly, we needed to know if a lender out there would finance it!

I knew it was a long shot, but it was a shot I was willing to take.

I don’t generally seek out the near-possible, but I have faith in my “team.”

I often tell my clients that I have spent 13 years surrounding myself with people who I know and trust.  My mortgage broker, home inspector, lawyer, stager, painter – if you need it, I have a guy or a gal for it.

And I knew that while most buyers wouldn’t want to own a “former grow-op,” and most agents would tell the buyers it’s impossible to finance, this was a situation we could use to our advantage.

As I said on Monday, this house was listed at $800,000, but was worth, in my opinion, well in excess of $900,000.

We didn’t waste any time with the offer – we made it an hour after seeing the house, threw the full $800,000 list price at them, and gave them until midnight.

We could have tried to work the price down under $800,000, but it was simply a risk-reward equation that we didn’t like.

I had no doubt that somebody else could try to buy this house.  They could outbid us, and tie it up conditionally, but they would never get financing.  So I wasn’t afraid of losing the house, but I was afraid of the house being tied up for two weeks.

The house had also just been reduced by $50,000 that afternoon.  Now would be the least likely time for the seller to negotiate.

So while we could have tried to get the house for $790,000 or $795,000, we couldn’t have put the midnight gun to their head, and I thought another offer would come in by the next day.

We bought the property, conditionally, and yet there was still a hint of excitement in the air.

I called Duncan to tell him, and he laughed.  Hard.  The classic Duncan-cackle that I’ve been hearing since 1985.

“Dave, one day we’re gonna be sitting around like two old men, and you’ll say, ‘Hey man, remember the time I sold you that grow-op?’”

At least we could laugh about it!  We had a tall order ahead of us.

And we were setting ourselves up for disappointment too.

We had a 1% chance of getting this deal firmed up, and we knew that.

I asked my mortgage broker well in advance if we could get financing on a former grow-op, and he said, “Next to impossible.”

Everybody in my office thought I was nuts.

But we got the ball rolling, and booked a home inspection for two days later.

I only use Gordon Mathieu from Carson Dunlop.  He is, in my opinion, the most knowledgeable inspector working in the city today.  I’ve probably used Gordon a hundred times, and I trust him emphatically.

When Gordon likes something, he’ll glow about it.  And when Gordon doesn’t like something, he takes it personally.  It’s like every house out there, is his own.

We spent three hours at the house, and Gordon was raving about it.  Not only did we find absolutely no evidence of mold, water damage, or basically anything wrong with this house (other than the 35-year-old furnace), but Gordon pointed out many of the super-adequacies, or features of the home that were built above and beyond the building code, or how it’s done today.

“The way it’s built” changes with the years, whether it’s the style, the aesthetic, or the materials.  Look at some of the detail in the beautiful old buildings in downtown Toronto, and then look at the glass towers we see today.

Gordon pointed out many of the features of the home that were built better in the late-1970’s than they are today.

Overall, he loved the house.  The report checked out, and we even added the thermal imaging (which few people do), just to be safe.

The sellers had done an Indoor Air Quality Inspection Report through EnviroSolve Canada – a 22-page report, which concluded that there were was no hidden mold growth within the wall or ceiling cavities of the home that were affecting indoor air quality.

Armed with these two important pieces of evidence, it was time to approach the lenders.

Just for good measure, however, I added a third bit of data, which I simply called logic.

I drafted an email that I knew my mortgage broker would forward to the lenders, which laid out the nuts and bolts.

The house, as I explained, was not a “former grow-op.”  It was a “former, former grow-op.”

The house was used as a grow-op for a few months back in 2002.  That was it.

The house was now inhabited by a family of four, who had been living here for thirteen years with no issues.

The basement, which is where the plants were grown, was completely gutted and renovated in 2003.

So was this really a “former grow-op?”  Was it really a concern?

Or was this just stigma on paper?

As somebody pointed out in the comments section on Monday, any sigma like this must be disclosed forever.  When my clients go to sell in 20-30 years, they’ll have to disclose this too.

So while the fact that this house was used as a grow-op in 2002-2003 had to be disclosed out of necessity, was it really applicable or important in 2017?  Or was it just a formality?

We started going to the lenders, and we got shot down left, right, and centre.

The bank that held the current mortgage, turned us down, which was shocking.

Imagine that!  The very bank that currently holds a mortgage on the property, won’t lend us the money.  Does that make sense to you?

The owners got a mortgage in 2003, renewed in 2008, and renewed again in 2013 – all three times, with no problems.

Now we were talking to the same lender, a Big-5 Bank, who was saying, “no.”

We talked to Big-5 Banks, credit unions, and monolines, but nobody wanted to touch it.

Then one credit union said they would lend, as a favour to my broker, but they wanted the following:

-2003 police report -2003 mold remediation report -2003 re-entry certificate -2003 environmental study -2017 home inspection -2017 air quality report -2017 environmental study -2017 appraisal

And I think that was it.  Wait…..there might have been one or two other things.

But overall, the list was exhaustive.

And as I soon found out, there was no 2003 mold remediation report, since no mold was found, and none was remediated!  There was no 2003 re-entry certificate issued, since this house wasn’t condemned or shut down by the police.  There was no 2003 environmental study.

This “grow-op” wasn’t much of a grow-op after all.  It was small-scale, short-lived, and made no impact on the house.

But the credit union wanted what they wanted, and we couldn’t get financing without it.

Now as you would probably assume from the tone of my story, and from the title of my blog, we did get financing on this property eventually.

Can you guess where we got it from?

A credit union?

A monoline?

An underground lender?

Nope.

We got financing from a Big-5 Bank.

I won’t say which one, just as I won’t name the bank that holds the current mortgage and turned us down.

But it wasn’t some fly-by-night, and it wasn’t a lender you’ve never heard of.  In the end, it was a bank you know and trust.

And it was 100% due to my mortgage broker’s relationship with the underwriter.

Some of the lenders told us, “We’ll do 10,000 mortgages this year; we don’t need to do 10,001.”  They saw this simply as a deal they wouldn’t touch, because of the stigma.

But the underwriter and the Big-5 bank we went to, knew my mortgage broker, and listened when he framed this deal as one that was just as good as any, if not better.  The clients had 35% down, their mortgage application was top-notch, and they were brilliantly qualified.  So what if the MLS listing had the words “grow-op” next to the date “2002.”  We had enough to refute that, and more.

My mortgage broker’s relationship with this particular underwriter made this deal, and that’s something that no other broker had up his or her sleeve.

I’m sure somewhere out there, there’s another mortgage broker, with another relationship, with another underwriter, that could have got the deal done

But this was truly 1/100 from the start, and thanks to the people around me, we got it done.

We almost lost the deal at the last minute, however, when the on-the-ground “mortgage specialist,” who worked retail at my buyers’ branch of this Big-5 bank, refused to close his own pre-approval on the buyers.  He told my clients, “There’s a rate hold on file, and it can’t be removed for four months.  I’m really sorry.”

This would have meant that the underwriter my broker was working with couldn’t have approved the loan on her end, and we’d be without financing.

My mortgage broker sniffed this out quickly.  He told my clients, “Put me on the phone with him, please,” and after a 30-second phone call, low-and-behold, the retail-rep said, “Oh, wait, I actually can closet this file, my mistake,” and that was that.

I’m all for getting business, but when somebody shows up at your door and says, “We got a broker to approve a deal that you never could have got approved, we’re going with him,” why try to deliberately get in their way?  I’ve heard a lot of bad stories about mortgages and lenders at the retail level lately, but that’s a story for another day.

So there you have it, folks!

My clients bought a $900,000+ house for $800,000.  In this crazy market!

Who’d have ever thought?

I can’t wait to be invited over for a summer pool party.

I really, really need to work on my Dad-bod…

The post Buying A Former Marijuana Grow-Op As Your Primary Residence (Pt2) appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

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