Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

How old are your kids? Whistler is just as much a party town as a snowboarding town. IMO you have much better snowboarding in the interior, Big White, Sun Peaks, Silverstar are all hands down better ACTUAL snowboarding experiences.

They are pre-teen.

The reason not considering the interiors is that they are too far. For Whistler, we can go after school on Friday and come back on Sunday. The 4hr vs. 9hr round-trip might no be much for a single trip, but for every weekend, it's a big difference.

And the idea is that if we have a unit this close, we just go whenever we feel like, even for a day is fine.

[westopher]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

How old are your kids? Whistler is just as much a party town as a snowboarding town. IMO you have much better snowboarding in the interior, Big White, Sun Peaks, Silverstar are all hands down better ACTUAL snowboarding experiences.

Depends on what you're looking for. Whistler has far more consistent snowfall (not as good of snow, but pow days more often) has an absolute world class park to ride when there isn't great snow, has some decent restaurants, and more advanced terrain than all those mountains combined.
Negatives are obviously the crowds, and that 4 hr round trip can easily become the same 9 hour trip as an interior trip almost any given weekend due to fucking moron drivers.
As far as interior mountains go, I wouldn't give any a second thought over Whistler short of revelstoke.

[whitev70r]

c'mon, no way you'd be going EVERY weekend in the winter. That's just not realistic, don't the kids have other weekend activities, don't you have a life other than revolving it around your kids? You'd be lucky if you go every other. Find a quarter share unit, go once every 4 weeks, more than enough. Then Whistler becomes special. Every weekend gets tiring real fast. Take them to Cypress occasionally and be home in 45 mins. You'll thank me.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

c'mon, no way you'd be going EVERY weekend in the winter. That's just not realistic, don't the kids have other weekend activities, don't you have a life other than revolving it around your kids? You'd be lucky if you go every other. Find a quarter share unit, go once every 4 weeks, more than enough. Then Whistler becomes special. Every weekend gets tiring real fast. Take them to Cypress occasionally and be home in 45 mins. You'll thank me.

We did that this season with cypress and spent much of the free days taking kids to resort hopping with our ikon pass and edge card. Originally wanted to just make do with my parents cabin out in Revelstoke, we thought it’s just too far.

For next season, we got epic pass instead and wanted to make the most out of it. So, that’s the reason of checking. We also rented a place for the whole month in August to really check out the area before making any offer. Just thought to check here for any insight.

[JDMDreams]

Yea the 2h+ drive in winter conditions sounds pretty brutal twice a week.

[underscore]

How far is the place from the actual slopes? Years ago I tried to plan a trip to there and most of the places "at Whistler" were still a 45 minute drive from the parking lot. That's not staying at the hill, I can get to Big White or Silver Star from my house in that amount of time lol.

Even if it's closer, for day trips unless it's ski-in/ski-out there's not much point, you'll more likely end up just driving straight to the actual ski area parking.

Originally Posted by westopher

more advanced terrain than all those mountains combined.

How many kids that are new to boarding are actually capable of doing any of that advanced terrain? I'd rather be somewhere like Revelstoke or Whitewater, but for skiing with casuals and kids the smaller hills are way better.

[westopher]

I mean, it was about 3-4 years for me before I was competing. 5 years of riding before I worked at a shop, 8 years before I was a freestyle snowboard coach. Some of the kids I coached ended up moving to Whistler and going to the snowboard academy, ending up with interviews on snowboard Canada and such. It depends how much of a lifestyle it is for them. I will definitely be pressuring my daughter to live my failed dreams of becoming a pro snowboarder.
When I lived there I lived in 2 places that were both 10 minute walks to the lifts. A 45 minute drive to the lifts is either Squamish or pemberton.
Whistler makes all that stuff an option if they are that into it.

[underscore]

You're pretty clearly the exception to the rule though. Very few people are that into it. I've been skiing since I was 3, I'm comfortable on any terrain, but even among my friends who also had seasons passes for years most people end up being pretty casual about it and never go beyond blue runs.

[westopher]

Yeah that’s true, just saying, when kids get into something heavily and you’ve got the means to have them committed to it, it’s great for them. I got into enough trouble when I was younger, but nothing compared to friends that didn’t have hobbies like this. No different than all the kids playing rep hockey or whatever. It’s just like the only thing more expensive lol.

[xxxrsxxx]

Originally Posted by 6793026

not joking, this is my friend's actual unit. oh shiiit***

I'm sure the realtors discussed this with your friend and they agreed that this "tactic" is the way to go?

[6793026]

^ yeha they did it, he didn't think it was going to be a joking manner...
it did create some discussion but never woudl you imagein it's the exact unit your friend is selling.

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by Hehe

Anyone watching Whistler property care to share some insight?

Thinking about grabbing a small unit as kids are getting more serious with snowboarding.

Ideally it's in phase 1 so that we can rent out when not using and below 1M. Any building I should avoid? And one thing I noticed that there's a huge difference in maintenance fees from one building to another. Any particular reason for that? If mostly equal, I'd prefer buildings with lower maintenance fee (duh), but not sure what I'm missing.

Few things to consider:

If you're buying in a strata in whistler, some of the key things I'd look for:

- In a lot of cases, phase 1 is older, and older typically requires more maintenance, and higher strata fees. It's very important to review the depreciation report thoroughly to know what kind of special levies might be in your future.

- Building maintenance trades are expensive in the Sea to Sky corridor, putting upward pressure on strata fees

- Common area heating costs are high. Not every property is going to be serviced by natural gas (like ours), meaning you'll rely more on hydro for heating in the winter which is $$$$

- Snow removal is a huge cost for stratas. Only a few guys in town corner the whole market. Same with garbage removal.

Long story short, Whistler is a perfect storm of cold climate and labour shortage which together will make for high strata fees.

As for why one building might be way higher than the other, that's going to come down to the individual building's history, amenities, and how well it has been managed up to this point. You'd need to dig into the depreciation report and strata minutes to figure it out.

Last thing I'd mention is if you are planning to use the place to take your family skiing often, definitely look for something walking distance to the lifts.

[westopher]

Eff-1 pass me that RS bro deal on a rental when you aren’t using it.
I’ll even meal prep the fridge for you if you’re coming right up after.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by Eff-1

Few things to consider:

If you're buying in a strata in whistler, some of the key things I'd look for:

- In a lot of cases, phase 1 is older, and older typically requires more maintenance, and higher strata fees. It's very important to review the depreciation report thoroughly to know what kind of special levies might be in your future.

- Building maintenance trades are expensive in the Sea to Sky corridor, putting upward pressure on strata fees

- Common area heating costs are high. Not every property is going to be serviced by natural gas (like ours), meaning you'll rely more on hydro for heating in the winter which is $$$$

- Snow removal is a huge cost for stratas. Only a few guys in town corner the whole market. Same with garbage removal.

Long story short, Whistler is a perfect storm of cold climate and labour shortage which together will make for high strata fees.

As for why one building might be way higher than the other, that's going to come down to the individual building's history, amenities, and how well it has been managed up to this point. You'd need to dig into the depreciation report and strata minutes to figure it out.

Last thing I'd mention is if you are planning to use the place to take your family skiing often, definitely look for something walking distance to the lifts.

Thx, a lot of interesting comments here.

Yes, the idea for phase 1, besides the nightly rentability is the proximity to lifts.

I don't think I'd snowboard everyday when I'm up there. Thus the plan is let kids to roam on their own while carrying their phones/walkies.

I think the gas thing is quite interesting. But many of the units I have my eyes on that have direct gas connection usually have electric baseboard as heating while having gas fireplace. How hard is it to have it switched to gas heating all-around for strata units?

[noclue]

For the price of a condo you can live in luxury at the fairmont/fourseasons/Westin for a long time, dont feel the pressure of always visiting the vacation property to get your moneys worth no?

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by westopher

Eff-1 pass me that RS bro deal on a rental when you aren’t using it.
I’ll even meal prep the fridge for you if you’re coming right up after.

If you can handle my wife's long list of allergies (peanuts, celiac, soy, legumes and she's on a FODMAP diet right now) you have a deal haha

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by Hehe

Thx, a lot of interesting comments here.

Yes, the idea for phase 1, besides the nightly rentability is the proximity to lifts.

I don't think I'd snowboard everyday when I'm up there. Thus the plan is let kids to roam on their own while carrying their phones/walkies.

I think the gas thing is quite interesting. But many of the units I have my eyes on that have direct gas connection usually have electric baseboard as heating while having gas fireplace. How hard is it to have it switched to gas heating all-around for strata units?

Admittedly i'm not entirely sure what the gas/hydro infrastructure is like in the various condo neighbourhoods. I think like 90% of Whistler has fortis service, our place is in one of the larger original, residential neighbourhoods and the gas main for some reason doesnt service our place. Without gas, hydro costs a truckload every winter, so it's just worth keeping in the back of your mind.

Doing any kind of alterations to a strata unit's heating system is going to require strata approval (which they likely won't). You'll be stuck with whatever comes with the unit.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by noclue

For the price of a condo you can live in luxury at the fairmont/fourseasons/Westin for a long time, dont feel the pressure of always visiting the vacation property to get your moneys worth no?

I've roughly explained my math before, but I'll be more precise here.

If we were to go up the mountain every weekend+kids' day off (Pro-D, holiday... etc), I think I'm looking at around 2.5-3k a month for accommodation (Average about 10days a month from Dec-Apr, 50 days in total at roughly 250-300 a night once I factor in parking and whatever fee hotel/AirBNB charge)

The units I'm narrowing down is anywhere between 700k-900k, which translates to 3.6-4.3k mortgage payment. Add strata fee and property taxes, roughly 5k a month.

Assuming I can rent 60% of the time I'm not using for $150 net a night, that means 12days a month for $1800.

Furthermore, by setting the place as investment property, we get to write off most of expenses and if any losses is created, we get to transfer that loss to offset other incomes.

Thus, what I end up paying is almost exactly the same. With the only difference is that after 25yrs of mortgage payment, I'd own the unit eventually.

[JDMDreams]

Are you allowed to short term rent there? Who's gonna manage the air BNB?

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

Are you allowed to short term rent there? Who's gonna manage the air BNB?

Phase 1, yes. We'd hire a management company. They take about 20%, which is deductible from rental income for tax purpose. And that's why I said about $150/night net on average.

We are surely going to skip the absolute peak of season (x'mas+new year+major long weekends) but send the kids up there fully during their Winter/Spring breaks outside of those dates.

The idea of having our own place up there is so that we could just check the booking situation and go whenever there's no booking and the kids can go.

[rb]

Private Banking, Weekend units at Whistler... RS members have come long a way from the days of making home depot PVC piping intakes on an EF civic to save a few bucks.

[Manic!]

Great to see another Asian parent spending a ton of money so their kids can excel at a sport.

[68style]

Aren’t you moving to Europe? Condo in Whistler won’t be much help to you from there!

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by 68style

Aren’t you moving to Europe? Condo in Whistler won’t be much help to you from there!

Won’t be moving to Europe any time soon. Got a project now that’s going to take about 2 years to complete. Well, technically I’m not even in Canada but only come back for my breaks, in a sense I already moved just not with the family.

But still, my work/investment has always been real estate. It’d just be another part of the portfolio. With the market sentiment being bad, it’s a great time to be buyers.

[mikemhg]

^Funny that, all bark and no bite.