Looking to start with some general education so that I can ask intelligent questions. 

The reasons as a) you can't inspect or insert any financing or inspection contingencies and have to use their basic sales contract b) online auctions are suspect and might not result in your  getting the best deal since the bank always is allowed to bid up the price up until bid close, resulting in you bidding against computer-generated bids that artificially raise the price, when there is no real competition. c) auction fees on top of normal closing costs.

So, housing demand is suppressed artificially - latent demand, if uncorked, would send home prices into inter-stellar space.

I hope you're making the shift due to preferences and not desperation and frustration.If the latter, the issue(s) may very well be be the way you market and a fubdamental understanding of markets, segments, niches and how to reach them.Really, I'm not trying yo insult your intelligence; merely raise awareness of the potential to unlock the real business that you are in...marketing and satisfying customers (whether called clients, consumers, users or patients). 

I just started reading Brandon Turner's "The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing" book, so I am in the process of learning how to do the investment analysis.Thanks again for your advice,Andrew

I'm not sure a lender would benefit financially from artificially raising the interest rate or if they even can but I feel like I have to bring it up and see what they say about the discrepancy.  

Hopefully you are doing something intelligent with the money you are saving in rent.

We call such things deceases and we do everything we can to end them, destroy them, like cancer.The pursuit of pleasure is no substitute for true intelligence.

Many soldiers don't become financially intelligent, learn how to budget, and can't fend for themselves once out because they were never forced to learn those skills.

The declining supply is due in large part to the Ontario Greenbelt legislation, which has artificially restricted the land supply in the GTA.