I had the same thought, but the developer appears to have a good reputation.

I don't think it is that rare to offer a "buying bonus" or discount when you purchase, but the second option was really not expected. I wish I could find out how many people have opted for it.

so the developer didn't make a 'shell' puppet company to manage the deal in case it shit goes south the developer is protected b/c the shell company just disappears?

i dunno

Was your final selling price the adjusted asking price, or did the offers still come in below that? How much lower %wise did you list relative to other units?

Some people may not have that option to be able to drop the price that significantly to make it a deal for buyers. For others, if they don't get the price they are looking for, maybe they are just fine keeping the property.

If you have enough time and not in a rush to sell, a bit of luck may find the right buyer who will pay a higher price. You never know, other sellers may get that significantly higher selling price and you may regret dropping it so much so quickly.

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Phoenix, you?

I'm sure u saw the same as me, but for others who still think its time to buy in the US:

While it is better to buy in the US than Canada, the best deals are gone - gone about 12 months ago.. Inventory is down, best deals got eaten up a long time ago.

Being Canadian, you don't get the good US mortgages, and there are tax issues, cross border - that's a nightmare for Canadians... Also, finding a good property manager isn't the easiest.

I bought a handful of properties 18-24 months ago, value has gone up 50% and they yield some great cash flow - I stopped buying 18 months ago for a reason, I could see with my own eyes that the quality was going down, inventory down, prices up... Rents have gone down or stayed flat - as the big boys came in and bought up everything and made them rentals - all the hot cities (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta) now have a glut of rental properties which have taken out the increase in renters - no more pent up rental demand.

So there's the big thing - in Vancouver u can leverage 4:1 - in the US, basically it's a no go, heloc would have to be used... But with the new rules and everything - well, I'd make sure to keep some room for equity grind down in the Vancouver house...

I'm so happy to see rates creep up, this, coined with slowing sales numbers will push prices down as ppl get more 'realistic' and as rates go up, affordability goes down, which puts pressure on prices to equate the monthly payments (remember ppl - a house price isn't what most ppl buy, they buy a monthly payment)

Just want to repeat something...

a house price isn't what most ppl buy, they buy a monthly payment - mark those words as interest rates increase, slowly, but shortly


In the US, long term treasury/ bond rates have creeped up, 30 yr fixed have gone up from 3.375% to 4% ish in 1 month... That's one fucking huge effect on affordability - and there are reports that ppl in the states are rushing to buy while they have their fixed rates available from last month. I foresee a small scale hesitation in the US housing market for used homes as rates creep up

May stats were out and sales were down 20% from 10 yr averages. If June stats come out low then it is a sign of things to come, prices always lag behind # of sales.

Inventory is at a high, especially for condo units, there's many more projects and buildings coming up, and I just don't see the demand for them. Speculators have basically dissipated as you can't buy a pre-sale condo and then sell it for 30% profit like you can in prior years.

Interest rates are going up, making homes less affordable.

I just see way too many people with a herd mentality, where they want to be like their friends or families that recently purchased a property and now they want one too. But they don't fully know the true costs of ownership.

I see kids in their early 20s buying condos without a stable career. Borrowing money from their parents for the down payment, and these are not the rich families either, but average earning ones. These people will be affected most by increases in interest rates, or any changes in their employment.

list was around 15-20% below and final sell was about 10-15% below that. details are hazy cuz it's been over a year ago. it was unoccupied so the strata fees were also affecting us so i calculated that in to our decision.

no regrets as i knew the market and what we were competing with. i just had to face reality vs unprobable the best case scenario

I follow this pretty good blog on RE, and there was an interesting posts today regarding re-listings and price drops:


Whispers from the Edge of the Rainforest

^In some of those cases, it is possible that the unsold home is just being re-listed by a new agent and therefore would receive a new MLS number. For example, there has been a house sitting on my block that hasn't sold in almost a year and recently the realtor has been changed.

edit: Yeah, there has definitely been a drop in sales for sure that is quite noticeable (i.e. 30%) but homes are still selling nonetheless. There were 8 homes sitting unsold in my neighborhood for quite a while (many months if not a year) but I noticed within the last month or two, 2 of these homes are now sold.

I was also told that despite re-listings, you can still see the past history (i.e. days on market, former asking prices) but you need to be licensed to access the information on the database. So I would assume that the realtor working with the buyer would inform his/her client, which would still influence their offer. Thus, the only ones not privy to these details would possibly be buyers without their own agent.

^ There's also a house on my block that hasn't been sold for 2 to 3 years. They change realtor 3 times

My realtor had a cute little ipad presentation for me that had a bunch of graphs showing how great their sales were.

Fantastic.

He shows me how their days on market are 30 days below average for the real estate board.

So I say to him, "..because you pull your stale listings and re-list to keep your numbers up(or down)"

"well....yes"

So, I'm just going to do you a solid and ignore the graph. I don't care...you want to re-list every 21 days at your expense, go nuts. Make it look fresh for everyone.

My favorite is how Global is quite happy to take a 5 minute survey of the real estate boards numbers and turn it into a (puff)piece for the news. Global news: quite entertaining, but not exactly hard hitting.

well they also did a story on a girl getting her bunnies stolen i was sitting there thinking :seriously:

This is probably the case, most developers have a different 'shell' company for each property they develop in case something goes wrong.

hey man...bunnies srs business. mine goes in for dental surgery on Wednesday.

Live At West

Any thoughts?

^^ doesn't look like anything special. And, whats with developers removing balconies or enclosing them? Why are people so afraid of fresh air? I also really despise "U" shaped kitchens and bedroom doors in the living room....I like my sleeping area and living area separate.

whats the pricing?

also, how are they avoiding the cmhc insurance with only 5% down?

Can someone school me on purchasing an apartment and renting it out? I am currently in Alberta and in a smaller town. The apartments here are around 200-300k for either 0-5 years old. I was thinking of purchasing a two bedroom and renting it out which would yield around $1500-$1700 depending on the quality and age of the building. I have talked to some people and they said that it would most likely cover all or more than the mortgage payments. I am definitely new to this, but how would stuff work if I am not (in the future) in the province? Would I need to hire a property management company to help me look after the property? How do fees work etc etc?

It seems like a good way to hold my money and invest but slightly new to this stuff.

One of the floorplans has the even better no window in bedroom, so here's some frosted white track doors that open to give it that loft feel, which is really a "I can no longer afford a fucking window in this city feel"

And they wouldn't avoid CMHC. The only reason developers usually take a 20% deposit is so they can borrow against it.

No.

Read the thread.

And, come on dude....do the math. Use an online mortgage calculator. Add everything up (mortgage, property tax, utilities, strata, insurance) and then imagine not being able to rent it to someone because you are in a "small town" in Alberta. That is what you will be paying for an empty apt every month.

I just wanted to know what other people have experienced, especially out of province investments and the use of property managers.

READ THE FREAKING THREAD!

lul, damn, everyone is so butthurt. Seems like you guys talk about real estate all over the world in this thread.

I guess I should rephrase my question then: Has anyone dealt with property managers etc with their investments/properties in Vancouver?