The saddest part is not that we have came to this. It’s the fact that even if you rent everything out at the higher end of market rent, one might still not be cash flow positive.

5.29% for 5 year.

That's just tier A cities no matter where you are

So I went to an open house today in Richmond for funzys. Price range was 3.5 million dollars on camsell road. Not only did it have like 5 groups of chinamen lined up outside to view but I couldn’t even find parking remotely close to the damn house.

Recession ? Home prices dropping ? I call bullshit.

Went to brentwood open house, tons of interest in 1M+ 850sq ft condos. Slower than 5 years ago? Probably. Will they sell out? Probably.

i think the majority of us are home owners here so hopefully its bs. But i kinda gauge how the market is doing by what the prices in my TH complex in Surrey is going for. I think in the spring, list price was as high as 1.1mil and selling for 1.25mil. Thats what i believe was the All Time High. It settled around the 950k list price by the end of summer. Today i noticed there was an open house and i looked up thr price and it was listed for 780k... so it seems like its dropping alil...

Maybe they're looking for a deal,

7780 eperson road Richmond sold at a 500k loss

Everything is relative if you're swapping sell high, buy high, buy low sell low. Unless you're thinking of moving the current value shouldn't matter. In 6 months when the rates finally chill out the market should stabilize. I mean the Ukrainian refugees and immigrants need to live somewhere. Unless they choose that free water front crab park:lawl:

The refugees are all going to Manitoba and Regina

I’m hoping the prices drop a bit so we can buy something interesting but every house I see has little crappy things that make me question the build quality. Like ikea curtain & rods on 3 million dollar house, or mismatching appliances, or Home Depot vanity sets in most of the bathrooms. It’s frustrating as all hell.

Maybe I’m pointing out the obvious, but if you don’t like anything that’s out there, have you considered doing a custom build yourself? It’s not an easy journey but at least you’ll get what you (mostly) want…

went to two open houses in the past 2 weeks. Older detached homes but sitting on double lots. one in Poco (1.170) and one in Coquitlam (1.298). Both had multiple offers already before the open house even though they're priced as they should be and were not under listed. Euro luxury vehicles lined the block. Seems like the new thing is getting the offers started as the listing goes live from private showings. The initial open house is just to get backup offers. Might have something to do with the cooling off period and ppl just putting an offer in... Was use to most agents telling everyone to wait for the open house, no private showings and then put in offers on this date only, etc

My buddy has a triplex fully rented out, and right now with current rates he's negative $5k monthly

Buyers lining up for 3.5mil houses don't need to worry about recessions. They got the money no matter what.

Cooling off period aka Rescission Period, has a 0.25% fee attached if a buyer decides to pull their accepted offer. I'm not sure how many of them are willing to pay a fee just to put an offer in.

That’s a rabbit hole I rather not go down. Will likely lead to divorce. Our lot is barely over 6000sqft so the new house will be barely 3000sqft interior and that’s just not big enough for me and the wife. We need minimum 3600sqft in order for the house to have enough space and the exterior to have that “grand” feel she’s looking for.

First world problems man.

I thought the classification of Grande in Vancouver is a box with some pillars on the outside? Lol

Saying that, if you build a new “Green House,” the build envelopes are quite opened up a bit and may help you out in your situation. For Vancouver at least.

^thats vancouver for sure. One of the reasons why we hate vancouver properties. At least in Richmond you get that lousy "L" shape cookie cutter mansion that works great for car storage (3 in the garage, and then 3-4 outside).

She likes the looks of those L shaped mansions so thats what we are aiming for.

I was actually researching prefab w/ steel structure as it seems they are able to do everything in an controlled environment and then just ship to site and erect quickly :ifyouknow:
but i got scared off because it seems like nobody does this. Also shes not a huge fan of modern design and thats pretty much all they do.

https://bonestructure.ca/en/

Steel structured homes don’t work in this climate, that’s why they aren’t common here

There’s a thing called inside rain or reverse condensation that happens where it’s basically raining in your attic/insulated spaces because it’s almost
Impossible to control the temperature and humidity when you have nothing but steel trusses and framing

i didnt know that. thanks!

I saw that these dudes built quite a bit in BC so i didnt even bother researching about the pro/cons of steel structure. I just assumed its better than wood and with all the horrible framers in GVRD, it sounded like a better idea.

I’ve only seen 1 home like this ever and it’s in my parent’s neighborhood. Steel everything, studs, trusses, joists, etc.

It may be possible but like a flat roof, it’s probably not worth the risk

Isn't it just because steel structured homes are significantly more expensive than wood ones?

A modern home should utilizes a combination of vapor retarders, air sealing, HVAC, and insulation to control the interior's air quality, temperature and humidity. Those seem to be independent whether it is a steel structured or a wooden one. Is there a specific reason why you can't properly condition a steel structured home?

I have done a few commercial projects with steel frames and I will offer my 0.02.

Steel frames are usually easier to maintain, cheaper (overall) and much quicker (main reason why it's cheaper) to build than wood frames because of its natural properties. It is also extremely stronger than wooden frame buildings allowing much more open design as the need for weight-bearing walls is much less likely given the same dimension since it's not only stronger, it's also lighter (wood vs. steel frame) for the same load.

However, its natural property also causes problems. Steel is an incredibly efficient heat/cold conducting agent compared to wood. And therefore, in our climate, special attention needs to be taken into consideration in order to create energy-efficient homes or buildings.

The usual step is to create a barrier or some sort to cut the transfer at some point. And wall/roof insulation is usually added as well as an electronically controlled venting system to control the condensation issue along with a proper vapor barrier. Nevertheless, there aren't many things that you'd do to steel frame building that you wouldn't for wood frame.

It is true that it's harder to find people who know their way around steels. But with the surge in lumber prices in the last few years, steel framing is becoming very competitive and even in some cases cheaper to build because it can hold so much more weight. You can even add some H steel beams to achieve some extreme load bearing and design that would otherwise be very difficult with wooden structure.

Wood doesn’t conduct heat or cold like steel does. So people build these homes with steel trusses supporting a metal roof, how do you go about insulating enough or creating barriers to control temperature fluctuations.

As hehe said, it gets done, and people do it. But people I know who are high up into building sciences and things like waranties, insurance etc. don’t want anything to do with these fully steel homes

The way homes are built now yes, there are a lot of factors to add controls to these environments, you could have heaters, condensers, etc. in spaces that need them. But really, to what end.

My house is 110 years old, there’s no vapour barrier, there’s no temperature regulation in attic spaces, there’s no interior positive pressure etc. and there’s never been an issue in its entire life it would seem. No mold, no rot, etc. because the house breathes. If water does get in it eventually dries out there isn’t a climate to create and trap condensation.

New builds are almost like this game of well yea, let’s build a “green” high Efficiency steel frame house. Now we need alllll this shit to make it function properly and healthy and all the upkeep that brings with it. On top of trusting whoever is building it is actually doing it correctly

I know this but I don't believe modern homes rely on wood itself to provide insulation. The wood is just the structure and other aspects of the building envelope provides the conditioning.

Closed cell-spray foam is an option.

I understand, I live in a 83 year old home as well. However, the downside is that the home is very energy inefficient.

Well yea, my place is fucking freezing lol

I dunno, in terms of material science I’d say the general consensus is that this is not the climate for those types of builds.

I know of a few cases I’ve been told about in Calgary where a homeowner thought a pipe had burst in their attic due to how much water was coming onto the ceiling of the top floor and when they investigated into the attic it was just the condensation dripping off the steel trusses and through the insulation.

Gotta remember, it’s not only about keeping the cold out, but also the hot air from getting into the attic space. Or even the heat radiation of the interior living spaces transferring into attic spaces

Older homes with older lumber has this kind of benefit. But with new planted lumbers, the quality just isn't the same. Hence our switch to a full steel frame for the last few projects. All the beams are pre-cut and delivered on site clearly marked. All the contractors are doing is putting every beam to where they are supposed to be. Everything is always flat as there is no give in shape.

And one of the benefits that apply heavily in a commercial setting that I can see benefiting residential builds is that as there aren't many load-bearing walls, if any, re-configurations of walls and space is super simple.