"It's a great time to buy" is the most common — and least useful — thing a real estate agent can say. It ignores your financial position, your timeline, your risk tolerance, and the actual state of the specific market you're entering. In London, Ontario's executive corridors, your equity outcome is determined by neighbourhood-level absorption rates, capital expenditure realities, and local inventory — not national trend lines. Ty Lacroix, Broker at The Envelope Real Estate Group, has spent 24 years giving London buyers and sellers straight answers rather than sales pitches.
The fastest way a real estate agent can lose your trust is by saying, "It's a great time to buy."
You've heard it. Every agent says it — in a seller's market, in a buyer's market, in a flat market, in a correction. The line never changes because it isn't about your situation. It's a reflex. A conversation-opener dressed up as advice. And if you've been around long enough to be buying or selling a home worth $700,000 or more, you probably already know it when you hear it.
I don't say it. Here's why.
Your Decision Isn't a Market Decision — It's Your Decision
Whether it's a good time for you to buy has almost nothing to do with what the national headlines say the Canadian market is doing. It depends on your equity position, your income stability, your timeline, what you're leaving behind, and what you're moving toward. Two people can look at the identical market conditions and reach completely opposite correct conclusions — because their situations are different.
A 67-year-old downsizing from a paid-off home in Byron is not making the same calculation as someone carrying a mortgage and two car payments. Telling them both "it's a great time to buy" is not advice. It's noise with a smile on it.
National Averages Don't Protect Your Equity
Right now, headlines are full of broad Canadian real estate trends — interest rate movements, national sales volumes, average price changes coast to coast. These numbers are useful context. They are not your strategy.
If you are buying or selling an executive home in London, Ontario, your outcome is tied to the absorption rate in your specific neighbourhood, the capital expenditure realities of the homes you're comparing, and the immediate supply and demand picture of the micro-market you're entering or exiting. None of that appears in a national average.
In Lambeth, Sunningdale, Riverbend, and FoxHollow right now, well-priced turn-key executive properties are moving in under 32 days. Overpriced ones are sitting, accumulating days-on-market stigma, and selling for less than they were worth on day one. That's the local reality. The national headline tells you none of it.
What You Don’t Need
You don't need someone to tell you it's a good time to buy. You want someone who will look at your specific situation — your property, your target neighbourhood, your timeline, and your financial position — and give you a straight answer about whether your move makes sense right now.
Sometimes that answer is yes. Sometimes it's "wait six months." Sometimes it's "the home you're looking at is overpriced for what it is, and here's the data."
After 24 years in this market, I've learned that the clients who trust me most are the ones I told the truth to when the truth was inconvenient. That's the only kind of advice worth paying for.
If you're considering a move in London's executive market and you want a straight read on whether now is the right time for your specific situation, that's exactly the conversation to have.
No pitch, no platitudes. Reach out for a private conversation, and I'll tell you what the data actually says about your move — not what you want to hear.
For the complete framework:
Also find me at tylacroix.com and Totally Preachless
