I'm at home in my PJ's right now with a box of tissues, a cup of herbal tea, antibiotics, and congestion thick enough to clog a drain... yup, you guessed it, I'm sick.

Being sick and being a real estate agent don't mix very well, especially on big days like today for the grand opening of the long awaited 80 storey 1 Bloor East tower.  I'm miserable and I've been trying to find someone who is already in line or who can get in line for when the doors open at noon and the search has been unsuccessful thus far, but it's not over yet.  I'm sure my client wont be pleased with me for not sucking up the sniffles and braving the Bloor street bonanza for his condos of choice, but I'm really not "feeling it" and I'm not just talking about being sick here...

All the hype is absolutely frightening me!  Oh come on, it's not as if we haven't learned what happens when something is over-hyped... it usually just turns out to be a big over-hype.  Not to say that this building wont be spectacular - quite the contrary probably, but starting at $850 + per square foot (which is the teaser a.k.a. the absolutely shittiest one-off unit in the whole building on a low floor with an irregular layout facing into a brick wall next to the garbage chute and elevator shaft), I question the investment potential of the building... both for cashflow and appreciation purposes.  I don't have a crystal ball or anything,  so I can't say for sure, but I do think that's a pretty penny to pay for a landmark in the sky - although to the people who are actually buying in there, money is probably not an object.

Can you believe people lined up there since last Thursday?  It's those poor students that I talked about in my last blog, but now they aren't so poor anymore after I found out that they were making in the range of $2,000 - $3,000 per week for camping with heaters and a nearby hotel room to rest and shower in between.  That's a lot of books and beer right there!

-- to amend to this post, I'm actually very happy that I did not brave the cold and line up yesterday... I just read this news article on CTV News... they raised the prices by $150,000 before the doors even opened!  Now if that's not capitalism (a.k.a. robbery) at it's finest, I don't know what is.   Sheesh!