Idk I see it as liberating, not being tied down to resale value (worrying about what others might think of your choices). It's as illogical as modifying a car or to this extreme, building a car past the point of no return.

Cockiness/smugness is haha im better than you. But I see it as, well I want a gigantic center piece because well I like it, so imma get it. It's dumb, but so is buying a Civic Type R so I can run the 5x120 wheels I got 3 cars ago lol.

A car isn't a life necessity for anyone though.

If I was using a car comparison, it would be buying a Pagani and then removing the engine just to display the chassis in your living room. You're destroying its purpose and middle fingering everyone... but again shelter is a necessity which tonnes of people can't afford and a car is not.

It has to be more arrogance than anything. I'm going to build this house that I feel is so amazing and beautiful that people will be so blown away they won't be able to help themselves and I definitely won't lose money on this.

I would think building a custom house is like any investment for these decamillionaires, their goal isn't to lose money, they either want to preserve what they have or make more.

It's no surprise that rich people make poor financial decisions too. Like us, the hope is that the good financial decisions outweigh the poor ones.

But for many, isn't the > $20 mansion their 2nd or 3rd property? Not really a 'necessity' either.

k, school me on this municipal declaration of 'empty home tax' and then provincial 'speculation & vacancy' tax. Why can't someone just declare it once ... is it too hard for provincial and municipal to share same database.

And I get that Vancouver has housing problem but some very avg people I know have 2 properties, one in Vancouver and one vacation home (Interior, Parksville, Whistler, etc.) what about taxing someone on the 3rd property that is empty? I think having 2 properties and if owner wants to keep one vacant for whatever reason ... that's their perogative. If you have 3 and keeping 2 vacant that might be a bit excessive but hey what do I know ...

I think the city is just city, province is province, other places outside of Vancouver doesn't need to double declare but everyone has to do the bc one. It's just a cash grab

This is just typical government bureaucracy at its finest.

Every level of government wants to show the public they're doing something.

The thing about government is that the people we need in government don't want to work for the government.

So tariffs are on baby, I doubt it will be cancelled in the next 9 hours. Do we import anything we need to build a house from the US? Or are we self sufficient with other countries?

Fairly self sufficient:

https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/.../united-states

I think each person defines a wow house differently thouh.

Some people want a big footprint with a wok kitchen, but I have friends living in East van who bought an old heritage home on a standard lot. They rebuilt the interior while keeping the exterior almost original. It was super expensive to do that.

But I'd definitely call it a wow house because of the craftsmanship, attention to detail, all the built-ins, etc etc. Italian custom tile in the bathrooms, amazing chef's kitchen with a massive island, and powder room all on the main floor. And all the smart home technology ofc.

There are some things that remind you it's not a mansion. The master bedroom for example is built on the top floor and the ceiling height is minimal, so it's not for tall people.

There is no large backyard for their 2 kids, but the hardscaping is super nice with a water feature, patio, firetable, garden speakers, etc. A park is nearby though.

They have a detached garage with a lift. Daily driver SUV on the bottom. The sports car up top is one they don't drive often except for fun.

everything comes from the states

drywall, mechanical, electrical

sure lumber and MAYBE some insulation (roxul is american)

flooring?

paint is mixed here, maybe manufactured here but raw products?

doors and hardware?

expect it all to go up in price

craftsman specials are built for chinese people :awwyeah:

So after kicking it around we have decided to sell our investment condo ( i had posted a couple five pages back that we were considering asking for more rent voluntarily or selling ) . We actually discussed with our tennant for a voluntary rent increase but she declined.

She was actually very understanding and agreed that she was quite a bit under market. We then decided to sell and she has some interest in buying it actually with her partner.

Hopefully we get a rate cut next week and some good weather this spring as buyers are apparently sitting on the sidelines in wait and see mode.

That would be awesome if you could direct sell to her, the market is not great (for condos) and you could save yourself $20k in realtor fees, figure out the selling price which is pretty easy to do accurately with zealty/active listings and then split the realtor fee savings with them to sweeten the deal and pocket an extra $10k over what you'd get listing it and they feel like they save $ more likely to agree to it too.

Ppl are sitting but I'm also not sure how the tariffs will play into this. Like people are scared loosing their jobs so they won't buy?

I do wish you all the best. I've been thru this bridge so many times and it always collapses as they always feel they want a great cheap price and yet it's about 20% below market value. You're here to make money and not just break even nor dish out charity... If the tenant was smart, they woudl have bought eons ago.

^ ??? You don't know how old the tenant is?

This one recently sold featuring a garage with a roughed-in car lift.

https://www.zealty.ca/mls-R2964186/7...-Vancouver-BC/

https://dvvjkgh94f2v6.cloudfront.net.../9db0cf51.jpeg

that's one of the smallest $3.9M houses I've seen...

Part of the premium comes from the house facing a large neighborhood park on the west side - pricing seems fair for the neighborhood IMO.

A nearby house sold for $3M at 1,850sqft back in 2022 with a similar $/sqft but not renovated.

https://www.zealty.ca/mls.php?id=R2671082

after renovating my house and one of the big problem areas constantly being the skylights, i would never want skylights in a new construction house.
at minimum they need to be opening velux skylights to vent out the condensation, but its still just so common to have condensation on them all the time on cold nights.
would rather just have some bigger/more windows

I love this one.

Yes price PSF is high, but the location is west side, across from a park.

That reno is about as good as you can do with a 33 ft lot. I could totally see a rich family with kids paying a premium over and above for this place.

Sold in 2016 for $2.8M. Add in general market apprecation over 10 years, plus say $350k for renos (just a wild guess) and yeah, I guess the price makes sense?

Isn't it wild that simple houses became these multi-million dollar material objects, and if you didn't spend your life focused on buying property, you were priced out forever?

Bizarre! The scarcity is 100% intentional, no wonder we have so many people homeless and on drugs. The word "property ladder" wasn't even a thing when I was growing up.

I dig it. Premium land in a great spot - steps from lots of amenities. Big garage, lots of nice touches inside.

If I had $4m lying around that's a house I'd definitely consider though I like Kerrisdale better for that kind of house.

I always figured people who were homeless or on drugs had a lack of support system within their family. Broken home, single parent, abusive parents/substance abuse, etc.

I volunteered with the mission in the downtown east side and the people there all came from broken homes.