Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Hondaracer]

lol I’m the anti hoarder, I’ll throw YOUR garbage out

[zetazeta]

Got a tough decision coming up - we are looking to upsize and have an accepted purchase offer with subject removal for next week. Our condo (2b2b) has been listed for 30 days with minimal interest (to be fair, price has been way too high). Just dropped it by 50k to be the lowest psf in the building and we can drop it even more if needed. Closing for the new home is in Sept (tenanted), it is our ideal home in our preferred complex.... Given the terrible condo market, not sure if we should roll the dice to sell before Sept or walk from the deal...

[Traum]

You must have a reason to upsize, right? If you need to upsize, then you need to upsize.

So the new place sounds like a really promising place that you'll enjoy. As long as the mortage payments work out (and leaves you with enough cashflow), what are you concerned about for your primary residence?

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by zetazeta

Got a tough decision coming up - we are looking to upsize and have an accepted purchase offer with subject removal for next week. Our condo (2b2b) has been listed for 30 days with minimal interest (to be fair, price has been way too high). Just dropped it by 50k to be the lowest psf in the building and we can drop it even more if needed. Closing for the new home is in Sept (tenanted), it is our ideal home in our preferred complex.... Given the terrible condo market, not sure if we should roll the dice to sell before Sept or walk from the deal...

If it's everything you ever wanted in a home, I don't see why you would forgo it.

If you can secure financing without selling the old place, list it for sale AND for rent. If one bites then take the other listing down. I'm going to guess based on what you said you aren't losing money on the old place and rent may cover the costs of holding. Though not everyone wants to be a landlord.

You may want to crunch all the numbers so you can make an informed decision.

[zetazeta]

Originally Posted by Traum

You must have a reason to upsize, right? If you need to upsize, then you need to upsize.

So the new place sounds like a really promising place that you'll enjoy. As long as the mortage payments work out (and leaves you with enough cashflow), what are you concerned about for your primary residence?

Forgot to mention - unfortunately we will need the proceeds of sale from our current home to afford the new one. Will not be able to carry both mortgages if it doesn't sell come September.

[zetazeta]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

If it's everything you ever wanted in a home, I don't see why you would forgo it.

If you can secure financing without selling the old place, list it for sale AND for rent. If one bites then take the other listing down. I'm going to guess based on what you said you aren't losing money on the old place and rent may cover the costs of holding. Though not everyone wants to be a landlord.

You may want to crunch all the numbers so you can make an informed decision.

I'll have to crunch some numbers to see if renting it out would be an option to subsidize the mortgage. You're right, definitely don't want to be a landlord and no matter what we aren't losing money on it. Even if we fire sale it we will still be in the positive after factoring commissions etc. But just worried since the condo market is not moving at all an we are very risk averse!!

[JDMDreams]

Go to Buddy Guy lender, hold the condo till it sells, there should at least be 2 more rate cuts this year.

[Traum]

I am not saying this to diminish your situation or the pressure you're under -- in most cases for normal people, the need to sell the current place to have enough money for the new place is something that everyone goes through, and ultimately, we all find different ways to make it work.

Have you looked into bridge financing at all? It was an optioned that had been brought to my attention at the time when I was buying my current place. Ultimately I didn't need it bcos I managed to have my apartment unit sold. But potentially, it could be something you use to buy you some extra time before your current place sells.

Originally Posted by zetazeta

Forgot to mention - unfortunately we will need the proceeds of sale from our current home to afford the new one. Will not be able to carry both mortgages if it doesn't sell come September.

[zetazeta]

Originally Posted by Traum

I am not saying this to diminish your situation or the pressure you're under -- in most cases for normal people, the need to sell the current place to have enough money for the new place is something that everyone goes through, and ultimately, we all find different ways to make it work.

Have you looked into bridge financing at all? It was an optioned that had been brought to my attention at the time when I was buying my current place. Ultimately I didn't need it bcos I managed to have my apartment unit sold. But potentially, it could be something you use to buy you some extra time before your current place sells.

I was under the assumption that bridge financing only works if you have a firm sale contract in place with subjects removed. And the bridge financing is to basically tie the two completion dates so that you are able to have funding for the purchase before the sale of your home happens. I have never done this before so my info could be totally wrong!

[JDMDreams]

Yes you need both firm sell and buy contacts cuz they need to know how long to bridge you for.

[GS8]

Back in 2019, I was demovicted from my lowrise in Burquitlam. I was given first rights to the rental only mid-rise that would replace it. This tower would be beside the main highrise.

Took 6 years but the towers are slated to be completed by this summer. Lo and behold the developer did indeed reach out to me with the offer to move in. Obviously a lot has changed and I have no intention of living in that Jinju nuffin building but here's the '25% below market rates' I was given:

• Studio from $1,475/month
• 1 Bedroom from $1,675/month
• 2 Bedroom from $2,150/month
• 3 Bedroom from $2,750/month

I do not know sq/ft but I did walk around the building. With there being 135 units in the building, I imagine they'll be the usual straight & narrow design, considering the blueprints for this were crafted almost a decade ago.

A maximum gross household income of $87k qualfies for these units. $87k isn't bad eleswhere in the country, but here it gets you a Premium Plus cracker quality rental build. Also, I can say the 25% below average 1 bedroom is roughly what the market was 6 years ago (keep in mind 2 years of rent freeze due to Covid).

Insanity. The dying condo market is indicative of where people want to put their money. If anyone can dump theirs, just do it and run.

[JDMDreams]

$87000 according to online calculator in bc is $5466.60 net a month, -$1675 = $3791 left. Not bad, you can still afford cactus everyday.

[Fafine]

Should take the 1675 offer then rent it out at 2190
https://www.facebook.com/share/1FHGYhu9Ft/

Pocket the difference

[SSM_DC5]

Link to your condo?

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by zetazeta

I was under the assumption that bridge financing only works if you have a firm sale contract in place with subjects removed. And the bridge financing is to basically tie the two completion dates so that you are able to have funding for the purchase before the sale of your home happens. I have never done this before so my info could be totally wrong!

There are tricks that a mortgage broker can do that can potentially not use a bridge, but you definitely need a closed offer.

[carsncars]

Well, purchase offer accepted on a home in Marpole. Despite the talk of the market slump the area has been very competitive for anything decent, so we're relieved.

[RabidRat]

Congrats!!

I guess it's competitive because it's undervalued. Seems like a nice neighborhood with convenient access to a ton of stuff, for relatively reasonable pricing.

[JDMDreams]

Isn't that rich people #West side

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by zetazeta

I was under the assumption that bridge financing only works if you have a firm sale contract in place with subjects removed. And the bridge financing is to basically tie the two completion dates so that you are able to have funding for the purchase before the sale of your home happens. I have never done this before so my info could be totally wrong!

Bridge financing comes with ridiculously high fees. I'd avoid at all costs if you can.

We had a similar situation last year. Bought our new place before selling our condo. Coincidentially, our condo hit the market in May 2024 with possession of our new house in September, giving us the summer to find a buyer.

My take is this: Figure out what the absolute minimum price you need to sell your condo to make the new purchase agreable. Once you know your bottom line number, take the first offer you get that is above that amount.

You'll always ask yourself later if you could have got more, but you'll never regret taking an offer that is above your minimum. The sooner you get peace of mind that your condo is sold, and you can focus on the excitement of moving into your new place, the better.

The first offer we received was a total lowball and so we didn't entertain it, but the second offer we received was in our acceptable range so we took it. Could we have gotten more if we waited? Maybe, but we don't have any regrets because we avoided the risk of waiting it out.

[westopher]

Good advice. Greed and the wouldofs couldofs can really end up putting you in a shitty spot and is the mentality where the "investment" part of homeownership starts to outweigh the fact you need to live somewhere, and it's going to be a hell of a lot more beneficial to your quality of life to enjoy it than it is to squeeze and extra 20-30 or even 100k would. Don't get me wrong, you need to be able to afford it, and afford to live, but you need to have reasonable expectations and not be motivated by the investment side of it. If it's your home, you aren't an investor. Lifestyle needs to be put above profits.
We negotiated to asking price from the first offer, and also negotiated payment date being 2 days before possession date, so we had EVERYTHING in order to move over 2 days and already have the money in our account on the day we needed to pay for the new place. That was where our realtor was invaluable. No dicking around with storage, or bringing mortgage or anything, which was well worth the extra 10k or whatever we maybe could have squeezed.

[Traum]

Good advice from Eff-1 about taking the first acceptable offer (above your minimal price). Esp for your primary residence, you are probably going to live there for a good number of years, and whatever monetary amount you ended up "missing out" on will get spread over the total number of years you live in your new place. So at the end of the day, it isn't going to amount to very much on a per annual basis. But the peace of mind you get from not having to stress over anything will be well worth the "cost".

Good luck with the sale!

[Great68]

So I'm getting a new roof on my House & Garage this week.

I had to transfer money from some of my accounts into my chequing. Banks must have a flag in their system that notifies them when someone's chequing is over $20k because the next day we got a call from the bank: "We were just wondering if we could talk to you about investment plans?".

I replied "Oh I already have an investment plan, it's into my house!" LOL.

[quasi]

I received my property tax assessment, it went up $45 which is the smallest increase I've seen years, not sure I'd call it a win but I've been seeing $350-400 increases the last bunch of years.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by Great68

So I'm getting a new roof on my House & Garage this week.

I had to transfer money from some of my accounts into my chequing. Banks must have a flag in their system that notifies them when someone's chequing is over $20k because the next day we got a call from the bank: "We were just wondering if we could talk to you about investment plans?".

I replied "Oh I already have an investment plan, it's into my house!" LOL.

Same thing happened to us when we renovated our lower level / home office. Took out some cash to pay the contractors and the kid behind the counter asked us if we wanted to buy some GICs and stuff.

[Mikoyan]

Yeah, they flag it for sure. We were getting cash out for contractors as well. My bank stopped cold calling me or offering other financial services after this:

Bank Teller: We can arrange for you to meet with a financial planner!

Me: no thank you, I'm working with one already.

BT: Oh, well, it wouldn't hurt to have our bank's planners give you a second opinion.

Me: Haha, actually it would.... I'm married to my planner. She's a Certified Financial Planner.

BT: oh! Haha.

It also stops the insurance upsell at mortgage renewal time. Except for the last time... That kid was new and a bit of screw up. But he did screw up in our favour so it worked out.