Oh you could definitely hand pick someone if you wanted to. Probably end up with some Psycho though

The realtors are good friends of mine. Jeffs been in the game for a very long time. Always a straight shooter. If you’re interested in buying something on the shore - have a convo with them.


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Super sad to hear this. At the end of the day, when you become a parent, you have to make sacrifices and compromises for the well-being of the family.

I don't understand people's aversion to moving to neighbourhoods where it's more affordable. Since we became parents, we have lived in 3 different cities in Metro Vancouver based on our circumstances and what we could afford at the time. Home is where you make it; people shouldn't define themselves based on their postal code.

Curry is for the poors, you want weekly car fires and stabbings?

^ What are you on?

I think more to the point is, if you are barely scraping by renting a 1 bdrm with no financial ability to even rent a 2 bdrm, why are you having kids? If you plan to love your kid and give them the best why bring them to the world to suffer.

One can argue, I don't have money but I will give them all the love in the world. Hey mate, if you are just scraping by to rent a 1 bdrm you won't have time to dedicate to the kid and shower him with love, you'll be working and scrambling to find childcare.

No one wants to live in Surrey if they had a choice :accepted: only reason they chose it is cuz it's so called more affordable.

The one bed for one kid is ok. Unless it's like 400sq. If you have a one bed and den around 700sq it's definitely do able for the first few years.

Most of us on here are pretty privileged so it's easy to look at the decision to have children strictly in financial terms.

Despite the narrative that people here seem to parrot (i.e. that having children is bad) I will never question the desire of people to have children. There is never really a perfect time to have children in your life... many people who waited for ideal circumstances often miss their chance. Having children builds up resilience and encourages a growth mindset - things which are healthy to have.

If you're willing to pay $2X00 for a 1 bedroom basement suite in East Vancouver, wouldn't it make sense to pay the same amount for a newer above-ground apartment somewhere else in the Lower Mainland? Quality of life becomes way more important as a parent.

WHO!? WHO SAID THAT!?

They make great servants.... or they make you into a servant

its true that if i didnt work in surrey i would have preferred to live on the north shore, but the reality is everyone has a budget. if i were 5x richer i'd prob rather live in BP. everything is relative.

I don't question the desire to have kids at all, I've met some ppl who absolutely love kids and would be amazing parents. We also have friends who I had presumed to be bad parents and they have been absolutely AMAZING and makes me feel embarrassed as a parent.

That doesn't change the fact that if you had already loved the kid before even conceiving the little guy, you would consider whether if you can provide them the basics in the environment they live in, and or like you said, make changes to make that happen.

Some ppl though, their line of work and lifestyle might not allow them to move to the suburbs. I'm on Victoria Drive, and there are a lot of ppl that rely on the N20. There were news before that the N buses are so crowded that people can't get on. The N19 goes to Surrey Central, and realistically it's not far east enough to make a huge difference in rent. That means if they have a late or overnight job in the city and can't actually afford a car or can't take the car, it doesn't leave them with a lot of choices.

I was making coffee and wife was making tea, and was just chatting with her about this. She brought up new immigrants. Which is a valid point as there are a lot of Middle Eastern and Mexican immigrants renting in the Fraserview area. She said I am way too critical and some of these ppl are either transitioning or actually trying and making sacrifices so they can bring a better life to their kid(s) from where they were.

Affordability is relative.

If your work is in East Van , trading off a $1500 1BR in East van where you might not need to own a car, for a $1500 2BR in one of the adjacent municipalities + and extra $300/month in vehicle & gas costs is not really more affordable...

As nice as it would be to be able to lock in your financial situation for life, that's not how reality works. Things change and people have to adapt to it.

For a two parent household, a car is a necessary evil once you become a parent. Even in a city as dense as Vancouver, I find that having a car is so much more convenient that planning your life around transit. I am happy to defend this perspective as we have lived in a denser neighbourhood when we had a newborn vs now with our typical suburban living situation.

Living in Vancouver proper brings all sorts of other challenges as well when you become a parent - lack of daycares, lack of civic facilities, lack of elementary schools in areas of the city where middle-income families are having to live, etc.

So, if you have to basically have a car once you become a parent, the savings argument kind of falls off.

Yeah jeff seems decent. We've actually bid (and lost) on a couple of his listings now. He's raking in the $$.

I know people who live down the street from work and they still drive. Are you really gonna waste 30 min each way waiting for transit, missing transit, while standing in the pissing rain with a hobo on the ground next to you doing crack with a 1 year old in your arms/ stroller?

Imagine trying to drop off and pick up your kid at daycare using transit. You may as well be a stay at home parent or become a teacher at the daycare because you aren't getting to work on time.

the general expectation for cusp-y millenials and Gen Z within my circle are to live within walking distance from work and hobbies

the ones who have kids expect to walk them to work and hit tennis on the way, or be able to send their kids alone to things close by while they hit the brewery

general income range that seem to be able to pull this off are DINK 200k+ .... doctor/tech kinda combo

if you're thinking of time saved by driving a car, think of it this way. say you lose an hour a day by taking transit (30m each way), and you work 22 days a month, that is 22 hours lost. say you make a generous wage of $50/hr, so you would have made $1100 before tax. after tax at that tax bracket, say $750. how much does a car payment, insurance, gas, and depreciation cost you every month? you can either 'waste' 30 mins each way or you can 'waste' whatever it costs to pay for all of that out of your wage.

I work downstairs, what are you talking about loooool

But really, I preferred taking transit to work. When I changed jobs from Richmond to DT and I could take the skytrain to work.... holy shit it was a game changer. I still had my car but I saved half my gas money, and a few more hundred a year on insurance. Stuff adds up. The bus pass was cheap in comparison and I don't have to deal with the stupidity on the road. Yeah I had to walk 15mins to the skytrain, still beats driving.

win win win win


Now with kids. Definitely need a car for things. For example our home catchment school doesn't have space for kindergarten, and we got a spot 3 catchments away. The elementary schools are designed for you to walk to, but out of catchment is extremely unwieldy and we'll have to drive our on to school everyday in Sept. But having a car and driving it to work are two different things. You don't always have parking, gas is expensive, insurance is expensive, you aren't guaranteed to get to work in the same time frame given accidents and road closures and a Vancouver favourite, protests.

Lol. I walked my kid to daycare every morning rain or shine, and then walked to the office, and then back again in the afternoon. My house, the daycare and my office are within a 2km radius. And I'm not even in the urban core.

If you need a car once you have kids then you'd need to get a second one if the one parent has a 30 min commute. Trying to drop off your wife and your kids and having a commute sounds impossible.

That's what we're saying, you can have this lifestyle if you are able to move further out and live work not in a major urban place. And save $$$$ cuz you're not paying big city Vancouver prices for everything.

The likelihood of work/daycare/home in such a close proximity in a non-urban core is very low though.

My situation is just extreme luck.

It's odd how often people on here can't comprehend people's situations aren't exactly the same as theirs or what they picture.