Everyone is familiar with the real estate saying, “location, location, location.”

It’s used in the context of the value of a piece of property, where the three things that most impact the value of a home are the same thing – where it is located.

There is some truth to that, though the attributes of a home have a lot to do with the value of a home within the area it is located.

There is actually a much better interpretation of that saying, however.  Location is the most important aspect of your living situation, not because of how much it costs to buy or how much you can sell it for, but because where you live is how you live.

The number one factor in dissatisfaction with your current home is location.  Whether it’s too far from your work, your friends or your family, or too close to noise, traffic or something unpleasant, people most often move because of the location.  If your home is too small or too large for your needs but the location works, you can renovate or simply live with too much space.  If you don’t like the location though, you can’t fix it with a bigger kitchen.

Here are our three rules to follow when considering buying so you don’t end up regretting the decision and calling us to help you sell and buy again!

Rule #1 – Bigger isn’t better.

We’ve helped hundreds of clients get ready to sell their homes and move to a new place.  The one constant with all of those homeowners is that over time, they’ve accumulated things in the home they don’t actually want or need.

It is amazing how easy it is to keep things you don’t want when you have the space to forget about them.  Whether it is an attic, the basement storage room or the garage, if you have enough space to not see some of the junk you’ve collected over the years, it tends to stick around.

The same principle holds true for when you move into a larger home with more space and rooms than you had in your last home.  Perhaps you need to buy another bedroom set as you’ve got an extra bedroom now, and it can’t hurt to have space for guests if they’re visiting town.  It might be the case that your new place has a nook that your old place didn’t, so you need to buy a bookcase, or a cabinet or a chair and side table and lights to fill the space.

It is easy to say that you shouldn’t buy a place that has more space than you actually need, but homes aren’t modular in that sense.  You can’t find the perfect house in your favourite neighbourhood with a great backyard for the kids and then ask the sellers to take the extra bedroom with them when they move.

Despite this, we always have conversations with our buyer clients about what they truly need and want in their next home.  While having too small a home can absolutely make your daily life difficult, once you’re in a place that exceeds the space you need, it doesn’t continue to add value.

We can think of many examples where clients bought in a location based on the size of the home, only to regret it and decide to sell a short time later.  One client purchased a larger home in cottage country so that they could host large family get togethers, only to find that it rarely happened.  Some family members had their own cottage they used when they wanted to take a break from the city, some lived far away and didn’t come to the area often and some were too busy to make the trek out to the home.  They sold the place and purchased a small home near their kids and have enjoyed easy and frequent visits and time with their kids and grandkids.

Rule number one is therefore bigger isn’t better.  Find a home that is big enough to allow you to live well, but don’t prioritize a larger home over the location of the home.

Rule #2 – Don’t drive.  Well, don’t drive much.

Our second rule is a bit harder to grasp given how most cities and towns force people to be car dependent.

If you look at a map and see the distance between what you need to do in your life and how you want to spend your time, it can look very doable.  A commute to work on a highway doesn’t look too far on the map, and on paper the distance to the homes of your friends, your family members, your gym, your favourite restaurant, your grocery store, your doctor, can all appear pretty reasonable.

Maps lie.  OK, they don’t lie, but distance isn’t just how many kilometres away a place is located, it’s traffic, it’s clearing snow off your car, it’s bad weather, it’s lack of parking – and so many more inconveniences.

A 5 km trip that looks easy on a map can be an exercise in frustration that takes way longer than it should. Crucially, the journey is not typically the goal; it’s the destination.

We greatly underestimate the importance of convenience in what we do in our lives.  If you can think of a restaurant you go to regularly because it’s close by – rather than because it’s great – you know what we’re talking about.  Consider the friends you rarely see because the 90-minute door to door drive to them (regardless of how far away the map says they are) is just too much after a long day of work.

We all know the importance and benefits of walking and if you live in a location where you can walk to some or most of the things you need or want to do, your life will be easier and better.  Whether it is walking to your dentist to get your teeth cleaned, biking to your gym to meet your trainer or heading out on foot to meet friends for a drink or meal, being able to avoid driving can make your life so much more enjoyable.

Rule number two is therefore don’t buy a place where you have to drive for most of the things you do in your life.  We know that having everyone you want or need to see within walking distance is not feasible, but trust us when we say that the clients who have been least happy with their purchase are people who didn’t prioritize being close to friends and family.  A lovely home that you never leave starts to feel more like a prison than a sanctuary.

Rule #3 – Pick who you want to be.

Our last rule sounds very philosophical, but it’s actually very practical.  Where you live dictates how you live and you should make your next purchase decision with that in mind.

If you want to be more social, you need to live in a location where people are socializing and you can join them.  If you love nature, parks and walking trails, then buy a place close to parks and walking trails.  However you want your life to be, a home that is aligned with that life makes it so much easier for you to achieve it.

While it is true that willpower, determination and focus can allow you to be who you want to be regardless of where you live, it is a lot harder to do so if your home and location are aligned with some other way of living.

We’ve cautioned clients in the past against what we call aspirational moves, such as a person who decides they need to live in a building with a great gym because they would then start going to the gym consistently.  It is true that you are you, regardless of where you live, so a new place doesn’t automatically make a new you.

Despite that, the chances of you establishing new habits that turn you into the version of yourself you want to be are much higher if your living situation supports it.  When you think back to times of your life when you were doing or acting in ways that you find difficult to do now, we wouldn’t be surprised if where you lived made that version of you easier to be.

If you’re thinking about making a move, we would love to sit down with you and figure out what location best allows you to enjoy your life.  We know real estate, and if we work out what aspects of a location suit you the most, we can find you a place that you’ll love.  If that sounds appealing, get in touch with us so we can meet up!

The real estate industry generates an awful lot of statistics.  While average days on market, sale to list price ratios and other stats offer useful insight into what’s going on in a given market, it’s prices that really command attention.

Whenever you see headlines about prices rising or falling, they are based on stats.  The biggest provider of those stats are real estate boards and they do their best to provide accurate information.  Sometimes, however, the data can be skewed by inaccuracies – and sometimes they’re inaccurate on purpose.

It’s time to talk about that perineal favourite word in real estate – location.

Location, location…wait, what was the third thing?

While the old adage about real estate being about “location, location, location” may still have some truth to it, you can also say that all listings have three locations.  This is because when it comes to the Multiple Listing Service (or MLS) where listings are posted, each property has three location designations.

The first is MLS Area, which is the broadest and largest geography.  Within the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board’s boundaries, we have seven of these MLS areas – Toronto, Peel, Halton, York, Durham, Dufferin and Simcoe.

Each MLS Area then has smaller districts within it, called the MLS Municipality.  Despite the name, many MLS Municipalities are not in fact municipalities.  If you look within Toronto, there are dozens of MLS Municipalities, following numbered naming conventions based on which part of the city they are located.  All areas in the east of the city start with E0 followed by a number, central locations are C0 followed by a number and western areas are called – you guessed it – W0 followed by a number.  Outside of Toronto the municipality tag makes more sense, as they do somewhat correspond.  For example, the MLS Area of Peel has three MLS Municipalities – Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon.

Finally, the smallest, most local MLS segments are MLS Communities.  If you’re looking in Toronto or other densely populated areas, these MLS Communities are recognizable neighbourhoods, such as Mimico, the Beaches, or Bayview Village.  Outside of urban centres, however, the MLS Community may be an entire town or city.  For example, Georgetown is an MLS Community and there isn’t any smaller segmentation in the data provided by TRREB.

Below is a map that gives you a sense of what these MLS segments look like across the GTA.

Get to the teleporting building already.

Now that we’re clear on the idea of MLS Areas, Municipalities and Communities, let’s talk about why real estate agents sometimes put the wrong designation on their listing.

Below is a picture of 500 St. Clair Avenue West.  It’s a lovely condo building located on the corner of Bathurst and St. Clair in Toronto.

IMAGE COURTESY OF CONDOS.CA

It’s located at the intersection of two MLS Municipalities (C03 and C02) and four MLS Communities (Humewood-Cedarvale, Forest Hill South, Casa Loma and Wychwood).  While it may be right beside another MLS Municipality and bounded by three other MLS Communities, make no mistake, 500 St. Clair Avenue West is located in C03, Humewood-Cedarvale.

We have a client who we’ve helped buy in the building who’s considering selling their unit.  As part of our research into determining the value of the unit, we looked at the 10 most recent sales in the building.  Seven of the listings correctly identified the unit as being located in Humewood-Cedarvale, while three of them had the MLS Community listed as Forest Hill South.

Did these three units somehow teleport to the eastern side of Bathurst?  Perhaps they all had very large balconies that were built across the street so they technically were partially in Forest Hill South?  Sadly, the answer is no, and the reason these units were misrepresented as being in another MLS Community was for just one reason – price.

So, you’re 6’2 on your online dating profile but 5’9 in real life?

Much like the person pretending to be something they aren’t in order to attract attention, some real estate agents choose to misrepresent the location of their listing to make them appear more valuable.

Let’s look at the differences between Humewood-Cedarvale and Forest Hill South.

First, here’s the stats for the sales of condo units in Humewood-Cedarvale so far in 2026.

• Average sale price: $454,909
• Average days on market: 46.7 days
• Sale-to-list price: 96.5%

Compare that against the stats for sales of condo units up to May 30, 2026 in Forest Hill South.

• Average sale price: $1,229,287
• Average days on market: 28.9 days
• Sale-to-list price: 97.8%

If you could wave a wand and move your condo unit from Humewood-Cedarvale to Forest Hill South, it would be very helpful!  You’d sell for about $775K more, it would take about 18 days less to sell and you’d get 1.4% closer to your list price.

But it’s the same location!

Despite some agents choosing to misrepresent the location of their property for sale, it isn’t actually in another MLS Community.  It’s not as if a buyer thinks they’re buying in Forest Hill South when they’re really buying in Humewood-Cedarvale, right?

The reason some agents take this approach is to appeal to a presumably more affluential buyer pool.  While anyone searching for condo units for sale in the building would see all of the units, regardless of what MLS Community they’re listed under, anyone who is looking for a condo unit in Forest Hill South would see inaccurately listed units in their search results.

It is questionable as to how impactful such deceitful location listings are in terms of sale price.  After all, while it may encourage some buyers from the neighbouring MLS Community to cross the border and view the listing, the reverse is true for buyers searching in the accurate MLS Community.  It seems likely that buyers looking in the actual area you’re located within would be more eager to purchase the unit.  At the end of the day, one thing is certain – it makes the data less accurate for everyone.  How inaccurate?  Let’s check.

It’s just $177,000 off, what’s the big deal?

When we looked at the data for one month when two of these misrepresented listings were sold, here’s what we found.

The data showed six sales in Forest Hill South, which an average sale price of $1,045,000.  Two of those sales were in fact in Humewood-Cedarvale and shouldn’t have been included in the dataset.  When we remove those, the average price rose to $1,223,000.  That means the average sale price was under reported to the tune of about $177,000.  This is just one month in one MLS Community and it is unknown how prevalent this practice is on MLS listings.

Given the importance of real estate stats in both reporting on the market and calculating current values for real estate, such misrepresentations of location do tremendous harm to the accuracy of the data.  We’ve only ever seen this take place where an agent is pretending it is located in a higher-priced MLS Community, so it just serves to bring down the average in those higher-priced areas and under-report the actual sales taking place in the real MLS Community the property within which it is actually located.

The ability of unethical agents to misrepresent their properties has persisted for a long time and it is our hope that the loophole will be changed soon.  While it may have been onerous in the past to have someone check each MLS listing to ensure accuracy of the location, it seems simple enough now given the technology we have available.

Whether you’re buying or selling, experienced agents know that things aren’t always what they appear.  In our work with our clients on both sides, we make sure that the data we’re relying on to inform our decisions is accurate.  If that sounds appealing to you, get in touch with us to discuss how we can help you buy or sell!

While where a property is located is undeniably important, there are two other variables that have equal impact.  In addition to location, all properties also have a price and a set of features or attributes.

Each variable is tied to the other two and changing one impacts the others.

Every buyer of a home approaches their purchase with their own specific mix of what is important to them and it is rarely the case that all three variables are given equal weight.  Let’s look at how to optimize the result for you as a buyer or seller by making one of the variables your primary focus.

Location Comes First

As it says in its name, real estate is about physical, actual property, and that property has to be located somewhere.  Location is undoubtedly crucial in real estate, for both objective and subjective reasons.

For buyers, location is most often important due to subjective reasons – proximity to work, being within a certain school catchment area for the kids, or simply being close to friends and family.  If you’re focused on buying in a particular location for any of these types of reasons, you need to be as flexible as possible when it comes to the features of the home and the price you’re willing to pay.  Remember to take the very real benefits to you of the home’s location into account when you’re comparing against other properties that might be lower priced or have more desirable features.

For sellers, location discussions are typically focused on objective reasons – a short walk to a nice retail stretch with shops and restaurants, easy access to highways or transit, or being situated in a mature neighbourhood with trees.  If you’re selling a home that is blessed with a number of objective reasons as to why it is well located, you (and your agent) need to make the location a central part to your listing story.  They aren’t simply buying your home, they’re buying into living where the home is located.  If you’re missing features that might be appealing to buyers, you can still command a good price based simply on location.

Features Make It A Home

During the COVID pandemic, we saw location decrease in importance for many people.  Whether it was for subjective reasons such as no longer needing to keep a short commute to work due to a shift to working from home, or objective reasons like a lessened ability to enjoy the nearby retail stretch with restaurants and shops, many people chose to focus on features rather than location.

For buyers, focusing on the set of features or attributes of a home over location often offers a significant break on the price.  We often see very similar homes sell for very different prices depending on the location.  If you’re focused on a particular type of home with certain attributes, then be very open to where you will live.  Structure your search around these desired attributes and you will quickly see that you can get more home (whether that means bigger, better or simply better suited to you) for the same budget.

For sellers, a home that is primarily being sold based on its features and attributes needs to present very well inside.  If you need to ask buyers to forgive some lacking elements related to location, you better be making up for it by providing the features they will love in the home.  While over-improving a home in a less desirable location is a genuine problem, you can and should work to make your home show as one of the best in the area.

Price Matters Most

Many people assume that price is the most important variable in a real estate equation.  While this is understandable, it is wrong given real estate is not comprised of standard products with limited differentiation.  As we’ve discussed, location and features are both fundamental variables and within each property there are a multitude of differences from another, some large and some small.  Some buyers do, however, focus heavily on price and there ways for such buyers – and sellers who will be dealing with them – to optimize the result.

For buyers, the cost of the home can and should be an important part of your purchase decision.  If price is absolutely crucial for you, then you need to gain a good understanding of where you can get the most house (best mix of features and attributes), in the best possible neighbourhood (location) for a certain price.  By focusing your search on areas that are lower-priced than other areas, you then only need to seek out the best option in that area with your budget.  It doesn’t make it easy, but it is far more achievable than looking for a lower priced property in an area that commands higher prices than your budget.

For sellers, when we talk about a situation where price matters most to buyers, you need to think carefully about any upgrades or expenditures you make on the home that you are hoping to recoup from the buyer in the form of a higher sale price when you sell.  If your does not do well on either the location or the features side of the equation, you must make up for it on the price side.  We always recommend sellers in such situations focus on any negative aspects of the home and work to bring them up to at least a neutral.  A dated kitchen is not a negative and should not be renovated in such cases.  A damaged countertop or broken tiles, however, are negatives that may have a large impact on the impression and therefore the sale price of the home.

It is simple to say that real estate is just about location, price and features, but these three variables influence each other in very complex ways.

Price is often wrongly considered to be only on the result side of the property equation, such as location plus features, equals price.  This is short-sighted and fails to recognize that price is a variable, not just a result.

As we’ve just reviewed, sometimes location is the focus, where buyers say what price can I pay, what features do I want, in the location that I need.  Other times, features matter most, with buyers looking for a particular size, type or finish in a home, and willing to pay within a certain range for it, in any number of locations.

As all transactions require both a buyer and seller, it is always worth it for both sides of the transaction to put themselves in the shoes of the other side.  By understanding what someone focusing on location values, or what’s important to someone who cares most about the price, or what it means for someone thinking about the home’s features, you can adjust your approach and get a better result.  If that sounds appealing and you want to work with agents who understand, get in touch.

We have all heard the old adage about the three most important things in real estate.

“Location, location, location.”

While that may make for a pithy statement, in truth there are three fundamental variables in real estate and each is tied to the others.  If you change one of these fundamental variables, it will affect the other two variables.

How do each of these variables impacts the others?

• Love a particular neighbourhood? The options for the type of home that you can buy there will be dependent upon your budget and the price sellers are getting in that area as well as the features of the home.
• Looking for a certain type (detached, semi-detached, townhouse or condo apartment) of home with certain features? The location we look in will be dictated by your budget for the desired type of home with the features you want.
• Have a maximum budget due to a pre-approval amount from a lender or your comfort level for monthly costs? The type of home and location will both be impacted by this financial consideration.

All buyers are subject to these three fundamental variables.  Even those buyers who have no financial constraints are really just able to prioritize location and features over price.

Let’s look at properties for sale right now to see how prioritizing each of these variables impacts the others.

Priority #1 – Living in a particular neighbourhood

For a buyer who has prioritized a certain location as being crucial to their purchase, they will need to adjust their preferred budget or the ideal features of the home.

Here’s three options if you’ve decided you must live in the catchment area for the Frasier Institute’s number one ranked public school, Whitney Junior Public School.

118 Rosedale Heights Drive, Toronto

This is a condo apartment with three bedrooms and two washrooms, for sale at $2,050,000.

Photos courtesy of ROYAL LEPAGE REAL ESTATE SERVICES HEAPS ESTRIN TEAM, BROKERAGE

286 St Clair Ave East, Toronto

This is a detached home with three bedrooms (plus two in the basement) and five washrooms, for sale for $3.18M.

Photos courtesy of RE/MAX PARTNERS REALTY INC., BROKERAGE

167 Douglas Drive, Toronto

This is a detached home with five bedrooms and five washrooms, for sale for $6M.

Photos courtesy of SOTHEBY`S INTERNATIONAL REALTY CANADA, BROKERAGE

If you’ve decided you must live in a particular neighbourhood or area, then the location is one variable you will not compromise on in your hunt for the right home.  This means that you have to be willing to be flexible on the features or attributes or even type of home as well as the price.  In this example, a family looking to make sure they were within the catchment area for the highest ranked public school in Toronto could buy a condo or a house, spending from $2M to $6M on their purchase.

Priority #2 – Living in a certain type of home

For a buyer who has prioritized a specific set of features or attributes for the home as being crucial to their purchase, they will need to adjust their preferred budget or the location in which they buy.

Here’s three options if you’ve got a big family who needs space (minimum 4 bedrooms and 4 washrooms, with a finished basement), and a pool to enjoy during the summer.

260 Glen Hill, Whitby

This is a detached home in the Blue Grass Meadows area of Whitby, for sale for $999,000.  It has the minimum required 4 bedrooms and 4 washrooms with a finished basement and a pool.

Photos courtesy of RIGHT AT HOME REALTY INC., BROKERAGE

39 Whitney Ave, Toronto

This is a detached home in Rosedale-Moore Park area of Toronto, for sale for $9.1M.  It has four bedrooms (plus one in the basement), seven washrooms, a finished basement and a pool.

Photos courtesy of CHESTNUT PARK REAL ESTATE LIMITED, BROKERAGE

2315 Mohawk Trail, Milton

This is a detached home in the Campbellville area of Milton, for sale for $2.7M.  It has four bedrooms (plus three in the basement), five washrooms, a finished basement and a pool.

Photos courtesy of RE/MAX HALLMARK CHAY REALTY, BROKERAGE

If your priority is specific features or attributes of a home, you can pay a wide range of prices depending on the location and variation within the features.  In this example of a family who wanted lots of space and a pool, you could spend between $1M to $9.1M and end up in Whitby, Toronto, or Milton.  While such a wide budget range is very unlikely, it showcases that if your priority is anything other than price, you can get what you want, wherever you want.

Priority #3 – Buying within a certain budget

For a buyer who has set (or had set for them) a maximum budget for their purchase, they will need to adjust the location in which they buy or the ideal features of the home.

Here’s three options if you’ve got a budget of $1 million and you’re willing to be flexible on location or features.

33 Ashmore Drive, Toronto

This is a detached home in the Stonegate-Queensway area of west Toronto, for sale for $995,000.

Photos courtesy of SUTTON GROUP OLD MILL REALTY INC., BROKERAGE

853 Fairbank Avenue, Georgina

This is a detached home in the town of Georgina, for sale for $999,000.

Photos courtesy of EXP REALTY, BROKERAGE

3476 Sommerville Drive, Clarington

This is a detached home in the town of Clarington, for sale for $999,900.

Photos courtesy of THE NOOK REALTY INC., BROKERAGE

As you can tell, if your priority is a specific budget and you were open as to location and features and attributes of the home, you can get very different homes for the same budget.  Do you decide that after budget, you prioritize living in Toronto?  If so, then you’re looking at a smaller home that needs updates.  If you’d rather spend your $1M on a home that is also recently renovated, you can buy an updated home up in Georgina.  Finally, if you think that for $1M, you’d like to have some more space, then you can buy a country estate in Clarington.

We hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how prioritizing one of the three fundamental variables in real estate can have a massive impact on the home you buy.  Whether it is location, features or price, if you focus on one, it absolutely impacts the others.  For most buyers, it is a juggling act between the three variables where you are trying to get the best possible combination of all three.  In order for that to happen you need to work with real estate agents who understand when compromising is necessary but who won’t settle for unacceptable trade-offs.  Get in touch with us and we’ll make sure you get the best possible mix!