He's essentially just reviewing a product, just like any other review channel, except his reviews are on a grander scale.

I feel like he was right on a lot of the design elements not being connected or not leveraging the space properly. Especially the point that the designer was a commercial designer and not a residential designer, I feel like the design represented this.

He was right about the finishing too. For $40M, I was expecting a lot more regarding the kitchen and bathrooms.

^ what my biggest 'complaint' about him is this. Those people who review the product or gadgets actually open it and use it. People who review cars drive them as part of the review. This guy just sits at his computer and goes through real estate videos and critiques it. If a guy put up a series of car reviews based on manufacturer promotional videos, how much weight would you give it? Or, if someone gives one of those reviews on the latest iphone or Pixel without ever touching the phone and only by video of the product only? Everyone knows that when checking out a house, a walk through, taking the time to see it live makes a world of difference. You see the flow, the 'oh' moments, the feel .. more spacious/less spacious, etc. Pictures or videos of a place just doesn't do it justice.

Everyone knows that architects choose beauty over functionality and want to leave their stamp on a >$30M mansion. Of course it's going to be quirky in one way or another.

I just don't understand why anyone who can drop $30m on something would want to buy it here, unless it's so cheap to them that locations whatever. Just a storage house for Vancouver hoes

The thing I like about this guy is that he gives you his opinion on a design element and then explains why he has that opinion, so it's up to you if you feel like his criticism is valid or not. A lot of the things he points out is just his design theory, he's not reviewing an abstract painting.

It's like the whole thing about having warm tones in a whistler house like that, I feel like that's a pretty valid point. Or his comment on the yard and if it's worth it to do it that way, or even that sauna steam room that is just there and doesn't tie into anything. I feel like a lot of what he's critiquing seems like it's rooted in some sort of design theory, making it more of an objective criticism versus a subjective thing.

This is fair; however, like peanutbutter points out, even if in real life the house doesn't actually suffer from that issue, the problems he points out are valid concerns that you should be aware of if you are designing or building a place, and I think that's more so what draws me to his videos. I dont particularly care how fucked a 120mil dollar house in LA is, although it is comical, but I care that I dont make some of those dumb simple mistakes when I work on my shitbox in vancouver.

I'm going to attach two particular videos that I think he showcases pretty well some major issues, and you dont need to visit the property to realize that he is correct:


The lot placement of this house specifically, and then the weird front entry vs garage issue.


This video showcases an issue he talks about often, which is when you make these "long" houses, you end up just walking from room to room to get through the house and it makes the livability really bad.

Check out this reno flip. Friends of mine went to a showing and said it was done poorly.

First bought on Apr 10 for $1.475:

https://www.zealty.ca/mls.php?id=R2863074

Sold on Nov 22 for $2M

https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2942495/1...-Vancouver-BC/

Before and after floor plans:

https://cdnparap130.paragonrels.com/...95f8c98bb1.JPG

https://cdnparap130.paragonrels.com/...b122b3b9b2.JPG

Can't speak to the workmanship (some of the experts here can spot that stuff) but I like the work to knock down a couple walls to open up the main floor, good way to create a suite downstairs (with separate laundry too), and they managed to turn the bathroom in the primary into a full bath. That's a pretty solid modernisation of an old house in terms of layout and design.

Wonder how much the reno cost and what the profit of it was.

Ptt was $27500 so after lawyer etc let's round up to $30000. I doubt it's this cheap but let's say $1m at 5% is $4167 a month, x 7 months = $29167. So after realtors fees and lawyers again on selling let's say that's another $30000. So that's like $100k deep before out of pocket Reno. More if you had to borrow. Buddy guys and Mexicans are pretty cheap as the market was dead last year. Not sure if there's any other flip tax as it's less than a year ownership. Then you got capital gains?

Oof, I can't see how they made money on that then.

Also pretty sad they decided to remove the garage to make an entrance for the suite.

-Mark

Judging by street view I don't think that was a real garage in that it wasn't actually accessible for a car. Looks like the area is steep enough that the garages are located at the back of the lot (if they exist at all) on that street.

https://i.imgur.com/NMaWgbO.jpeg

Okay, I feel better no garages were harmed in the making of that flip. I also agree I cannot believe somebody went through that effort and risk for such a modest profit.

-Mark

considering how much renos cost these days i can't imagine how that reno could have been cost efficient if done well. bought and sold with a 500k margin before expenses, to make it worthwhile you'd prob want to make at least 200k on that, leaving 300k for expenses (nevermind buying/selling fees). fully doing 2 levels, doors, windows, a lot of landscaping, basically gutting the entire house and modernizing it for 300k seems impossible to me.

Prior to the reno, the existing garage was accessible by a steep driveway. If you streetview the rear of houses located further down the alley, you can see how it would have looked.

Instead they removed the garage and built out a tiered back yard with a tiny gravel pad that is useless for parking. It can barely hold a smart car.

For $2m detached house, you get no parking and no garage.

The current owners park both of their SUVs on the street.

They have 3 kids under 5 (!!).

If you want to see a real world example of losing your shirt on a real estate gamble, here it is:
https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2944338/1...-Vancouver-BC/

They paid $5.1M + transfer tax in 2016.

Listed for $5,888,000 in May 2018.
Reduced to $5,488,000 in August 2018, listed for a year, terminated in July 2019.
Reduced to $4,888,000 in October 2019, listed for a year, terminated in September 2020.
Relisted for $4,988,000 in in May 2023, reduced to $4,188,000 and terminated in August 2023.
Relisted for $3,799,000 in November 2024, reduced to $3,419,000 in February 2025 and still for sale.

It has been 9 years since they bought it and they are going to take a 50% loss I bet with the cost of interest of holding over that period.

-Mark

I feel his approach of "sense" is too normies. Things like connected rooms, colors... etc all make sense for us normies. But from what I can tell with people on the higher echelon is this: they want what they want and don't give a fuck.

When we make decisions on houses, we might think on resale value, whether it makes sense for others and whatever. That Whistler home had one thing in mind, lawn in the middle and it was willing to sacrifice on a lot of things for it. But they did it anyway.

And TBH, for clientele in that kind of category, it's all about finding another person who can resonate the same idea. Of course, if they built it with the idea to sell, that was very stupid. But for something they wanted to own, it made a lot of sense to forgo everything just that one thing he wanted.

That looks like a tear down, how the hell do you pay $5.1 for that when it was barely assessed at $4

The fact that Hehe thinks of himself as a normie makes me realize how many levels there are to welf LOL holy crap

I like the idea that being ultra rich apparently allows you to be a fucking idiot in a way that normies, with their poor little minds, just don’t understand the genius in your idiocy.

That's definitely not the way I took it. Can you develop late stage autism? This is the second time today that I can't read implied cockiness/smugness if it was apparent.

I took it as the ultra rich do what they want because they want it. They don't have to care about resale value. Drop in the bucket. Which is fine. That's cool. Mbn.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk

He is a real estate agent and a consultant. He helps people design and buy mansions.

Isn’t that the very definition of cockiness / smugness? I don’t care what works as an actual house, I want a centre lawn on a mountain top and I’ll spend $40M to get it, fuck you practical plebs in condos and 1.x houses.

Yes yes but there should be limits to people’s insanity regardless of income bracket. That’s why we are in a society based on rules and regulations. Otherwise what’s stop me from invading Taiwan… eruhhh I mean Tibet… oops I mean uhhh weeeeee gurs… heh

I feel that's what he's saying though. He talks about the trade off. If you focus on the lawn, that's great, but there will be sacrifices.

But you're right, you can do whatever you like if you have the money, but you're probably not going to get the return you want if you want to resell, like you said.

One of these days (Maybe 10-15 years) I'll be able to build my own house on a standard Vancouver lot, but because the space is so small (33x120ft) I don't think there is much room to make it a wow type of house, without sacrificing efficiency. I haven't seen a wow new build on a standard lot in Vancouver, I wonder If that even exists.

Unfortunately, there isn’t enough space on a standard lot to build a “wow” house. Just getting a powder room on the main floor to not open into your dining/living area is a challenge! Wife wanted a wok kitchen, a rooom/den, and mudroom on the main floor and it just wasn’t possible. Laneway house or double garage? Pick one.

On top of that, if you can only afford a standard lot, then resale value will also probably be a factor.