How a desperate letter helped a Hamilton couple win a bidding war against a Toronto buyer

After spending 10 months searching for a home to start their life together, Brett Miller and Candace Beres said they almost lost all hope.

They are engaged to be married and were looking to buy their first home butwere being priced out of their hometown of Hamilton.

Then a listing popped up in March aone-and-a-half storey home with three bedrooms and one bathroom,priced at$499,000. Beres said the family sellingthe home originallybuilt it and had lived theresince 1953.

"Our max budget was$630,000, which is what we bid for it," the 33-year-oldsaid.

Then, this offermirrored countless others they made.

"We got a call from our realtor that a bully offer had been made ... wewere outbid by a couple from Toronto," Beres said.

She and her fiance had five hours to make another bid.

"I just sat down and thought, 'Apiece of paper with the amount of money I'm able to offer isn't enough to showcase my story,' " Beres said.

She took a chance. Beres wrote the sellers a letter, describing how she and Miller wanted to stay in Hamiltonand find a hometo begin their life together. She also wrote they wanted to keep the home the way it was instead of re-arranging the insides and flipping it.

About six hours later, they got a call the letter worked.

"It took me a while to believe it actually happened. I fully expected not to get it because we had so much disappointment for so long," Beres said.

Nigel Garcia, a sales representative withColdwell Banker Real Estate in Hamilton, said he never recommended buyers use letters before,but started doing sobecause of the booming housingmarket full of bidding wars.He said he hassuggested a letter to two clients and both times,the lettersworked.

"You try to make an emotional connection with the seller ... smart purchasers will do a little bit of research on the seller themselves before they write the letter," he said.

Garcia said he doesn't recommend letters often though because the more they appear, the less specialthey become.

Developers compete with first-time home-buyers

Beres' happy ending follows news of a Toronto-based developer's plans to buy single-family homes in cities including Hamilton and St. Catharinesand rent them out.

Core Development Group's$1 billion plan is tobuy, renovate and rent about 4,000 ground-level suburban homes across Canadaby 2026. It wouldn't say how many of those homes will be in Hamilton or St. Catharines but previously said it included variouscities in its plan because of their low vacancy rates.

Beres said she's upset to hear people still in the markethave to face off against developers with deep pockets.

"It can't just be the top one per cent and two per cent that can get into the market," she said.

But Garcia said letters couldgive familiesan edge over developers like Core because of their personaltouch.

While Core released a statementsayingits plan actually helps people who can't afford a home, they refused to answer any further questions.

Each home Core buys will have a secondary unit added on, which it said in the statementwould double the housing supply by providingtwo rental units on one property.

"Core's goal is to provide stable, secure long-term rental properties in ground-oriented housing for those that are not in a position to buy, but do not want to be relegated to condominium rentals with limited space for themselves or their families," read the company's statement.

Housing and poverty groups have concerns

Tom Cooper, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, says he isn't convinced it'll help anyone but Core.

"We're not talking about a mom-and-pop shop that's setting people up in nice little family houses, we're talking about a multi-billion dollar corporation that will be there to just reap as much return on their investment as they can," he said.

"We know people are being priced out of their homes and into situations of homelessness. This move looks like it will only exacerbate that trend and continue to drive prices up."

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Lindsay Gillis says an influx of buyers from Toronto have inflated house prices where she lives to the point that she can't afford to buy in. She's glad to see things cooling down a little, but she's still nervous about jumping in.

Core told the Globe and Mail the rate for itstwo-bedroom basement apartments is about$1,600 permonth while itsthree-bedroom above-ground unit goes for roughly$2,100 per month.

The latest market rental surveyfrom Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC) states the average rent for two-bedroom apartments in Hamilton is$1,291per month and three-bedrooms go for an average of $1,511 per month. In St. Catharines, those ratesare even lower, at$1,137 monthly and$1,260 respectively.

Betty-Lou Souter,Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold's CEO, andCatherine Livingston, Community Care's housing manager, said many local familieswon't be able to afford Core's rates.

"Then you run into the social ills of how do people live together in those houses? I have a lot of concern," Livingston said.

Real estate advisory firm supports Core's plan

Ben Myers, owner of Bullpen Research andConsulting, said he's shocked to hear all the criticismtowardCore's plan.

He said buying homes will drive up house prices, but will alsodecrease the demand for owning homes. He said with Core adding more rental units,the cost of rent will fall.

Myers also dismissed criticism about Core's rental rates.

"The argument that adding expensive supply is somehow bad for the market is just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. There's always going to be people that have money to afford the more expensive units ... if those people are moving into those expensive units, they're no longer rentingthe cheaper units," he said.

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Myers added that if people want home prices to lower, the countryneeds to buildmore homes,but people don't want to do that at the expense of the environment and more sprawl.

"If you don't want a corporation taking away supply, well you should probably also want there to be more supply of that housing type," hesaid.

Livingston and Soutersaid they have concerns about what will happen once people start renting, citing a growing number of renovictions and homeless families.

"Is there a community where this has worked and has it improved the housing situation for people? Give us an example," Souter said.

Cooper saidthe federal government needs to do more to combat income inequality and the housing crisis.

"It's past time for the federal government to jump in and put some strict regulations on these types of activities and you can't really call it a monopoly but it's like a monopoly," Cooper said.

"Housing is a right in this country and so how are we going to enforce that as a society?"

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