Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[68style]

Pros for 2024 from a RE perspective: I am now mortgage free!!!

Cons for 2024 from a RE perspective: I only own a condo

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Traum

But an apartment's strata fee would cover a good bit of rainy day funds for maintenance -- at least it is supposed to in a well-managed strata. Whereas with a detached, you're totally on your own as far as maintenance is concerned.

I know people neglect maintenance all the time, but there are things you can't cheap out on.

-from a home owner getting dinged to death by home maintenance costs

I know people who bought 2 year old condos who have seen their insurance go up 300% and already been assessed a special assessment.

With a detached home you have none of that. Of course if you’re completely useless and can’t paint a wall or change a light fixture then yea, a condo is for you.

But as an example, when we built our basement suite I preemptively did a bunch of shit to try and get ahead of major maintenance items. Ie. new hot water tank, new water distribution lines, furnace service, etc. that was in 2016

Since then I’ve done zero maintenance items that cost more than a couple hundred bucks, and most of that is basic aesthetic stuff I didn’t need to do.

Whereas the condo we sold before moving into our house, the insurance sky rocketed, and they had a 50k assessment to change the windows.

I don’t see myself ever moving back into a condo because I hate the uncertainty of things being out of my control. An ok problem to have I guess.

[snowball]

Originally Posted by 68style

Pros for 2024 from a RE perspective: I am now mortgage free!!!

Cons for 2024 from a RE perspective: I only own a condo

HELOC the sht out of that mffker

[68style]

I need to talk to a financial advisor, I know nothing about HELOC's and the pros/cons of that stuff

[Badhobz]

I wouldn’t borrow any money if you didn’t have to. Just keep the cash or go buy assets that are appreciating like certain watches or grab another house.

[bcrdukes]

Just give us everything in your HELOC.

We'll pay you back.

[68style]

I'm not that worried IF you would pay me back... I'm more worried HOW you would want to

[jcmaz]

Heloc and buy a house. Rent out the condo. Profit

[68style]

Originally Posted by jcmaz

Heloc and buy a house. Rent out the condo. Profit

Me: Yay I'm finally out of crushing debt!

Also Me: Yay I'm back in crushing debt ???

It's been covered many times in this thread, but in particular for condos, I don't know a single person in my circle of friends who has owned a condo that they rented out without major drama and/or destruction to their property at some point. I could do without that grief.

[Badhobz]

or you could just not buy jack shit, save your money into a high rate interest and then be like fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you to all your co-workers. Your job is just an eccentric hobby now.

Then you can join my cocaine and hooker fest 2044 with the saved $$$$.

[Hondaracer]

Speaking of Helocs etc. does anyone actually “save” money outside of investments?

I guess this is sonthing we should probably consult with our investment advisor but we never save a dime into an actual savings account etc. my mentality is always that it should be doing sonthing whether it’s in RRSP, TFSA, etc. we invest quite a bit over the year, between 35-60k pre-auth deposits.

Why I’m saying that is occasionally we will pull from our HELOC to pay major bills etc. as our money is tied up elsewhere, and even borrowing like 4-5k for a couple weeks until we pay it back the interest is minuscule, as opposed to pulling out of TFSA and all that involves.

I’ve never been of the mind of having money just sit somewhere, even if it’s in a “high interest” savings account

[SSM_DC5]

^where do you keep your day to day or leisure spending? If everything goes into RRSP, TFSA, stonks? You keep zero in your chequing account?

[68style]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Then you can join my cocaine and hooker fest 2044 with the saved $$$$.

This sounds like a solid plan.

Speaking of solid, can we do it a bit sooner than 2044? Not sure much about me will be solid by then.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by 68style

I'm not that worried IF you would pay me back... I'm more worried HOW you would want to

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by SSM_DC5

^where do you keep your day to day or leisure spending? If everything goes into RRSP, TFSA, stonks? You keep zero in your chequing account?

Just the float of the balance of our income, 4-5k sitting there usually

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by snowball

HELOC the sht out of that mffker

Not sure if this is a joke, but there are not many investments that warrant taking out a HELOC for.
ie. stocks? No not worth it.
Real estate? BC and ON definitely do not cash flow. Maybe some areas of Sask and Alberta, but there is a lot of work to be involved.
The only investment i've seen that have 15%+ returns is private equity deals, like developers needing cash. So I guess you could arbitrage that, take a HELOC at 7% and then make 15%. I guess.

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Speaking of Helocs etc. does anyone actually “save” money outside of investments?

I guess this is sonthing we should probably consult with our investment advisor but we never save a dime into an actual savings account etc. my mentality is always that it should be doing sonthing whether it’s in RRSP, TFSA, etc. we invest quite a bit over the year, between 35-60k pre-auth deposits.

Why I’m saying that is occasionally we will pull from our HELOC to pay major bills etc. as our money is tied up elsewhere, and even borrowing like 4-5k for a couple weeks until we pay it back the interest is minuscule, as opposed to pulling out of TFSA and all that involves.

I’ve never been of the mind of having money just sit somewhere, even if it’s in a “high interest” savings account

You put $35-60k a year in pre-auth investments and you don't have cash sitting around? In regards to portfolio theory, you should always have an allocation to cash.

Even an aggressive portfolio should still have at least 10% cash in your portfolio.

[CivicBlues]

68style I'll be in your situation in about 2 years if all goes according to plan. Plus you seem to be in a similar situation as DINKs right?

Ever consider: Coast FIRE?

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Not sure if this is a joke, but there are not many investments that warrant taking out a HELOC for.
ie. stocks? No not worth it.
Real estate? BC and ON definitely do not cash flow. Maybe some areas of Sask and Alberta, but there is a lot of work to be involved.
The only investment i've seen that have 15%+ returns is private equity deals, like developers needing cash. So I guess you could arbitrage that, take a HELOC at 7% and then make 15%. I guess.



You put $35-60k a year in pre-auth investments and you don't have cash sitting around? In regards to portfolio theory, you should always have an allocation to cash.

Even an aggressive portfolio should still have at least 10% cash in your portfolio.

75% of our investments are professionally managed. The other 25% is done by me, I’m sure between the two there is right about 10% cash.

So actually I guess I’m just an idiot.. lol.. it’s moreso I guess I’m not pulling from those accounts to pay bills as the transfer etc. takes effort as opposed to using the HELOC.

And your assessment of HELOC interest is about right, ours has been bouncing between 7-8% over the last year or so

[JDMDreams]

Heloc is the rainy day fund heloc doesn't really need to be paid down as the capital appreciation/ inflation will pay it off for you when you die

[Hondaracer]

That’s the buddy guy mortgage.

15 co-signers on a 3 million dollar line of credit. My mom wrote mortgages for coast capital for 25 years, that was their bread and butter

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

75% of our investments are professionally managed. The other 25% is done by me, I’m sure between the two there is right about 10% cash.

So actually I guess I’m just an idiot.. lol.. it’s moreso I guess I’m not pulling from those accounts to pay bills as the transfer etc. takes effort as opposed to using the HELOC.

And your assessment of HELOC interest is about right, ours has been bouncing between 7-8% over the last year or so

I always wondered about people who have both managed funds and personal accounts.

Why do you have both? Generally people who are confident enough to invest on their own just do that. I'm sure you could easily just copy your professionally managed portfolio and get rid of your advisor and save the MER fee.

And have you looked at your 2023 performance of your personal account and your professional account, which account had better performance?

[JDMDreams]

^^ sadly the professional accounts, I'm still trying to make up losses on my personal

[Badhobz]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Speaking of Helocs etc. does anyone actually “save” money outside of investments?

Ive basically always spent 1 pay cheque and saved the other. The other "saved" one is then redeposited into stonks or high rate savings depending on if we feel like there's a need for a topper. In most recent cases its always just saved in high rate interest as the stonks account is pretty high already.

The wife has all the RRSPs, i dont have any as i only buy spousal RRSPs for her so i can get the tax credit. She then takes out the RRSP after 3 years because fuck you government, the whole RRSP bullshit is a scam.

Why the hell would i lock my own money away, just to save a few grand on taxes, and then you tax me back when i take it out when i retire? yeah sure the bracket will be lower, but i got a pension and shit so it wont be THAT low either. By that time the money will already be worthless.

[JDMDreams]

^^ not everyone has union pension like you, most true Asians don't China Man kitchen worker, construction guy and seamstress mom won't have any pension.

[Badhobz]

i dont have a union pension, im not union i am management.

We got a defined benefits pension which has a set amount when you retire... i think they bumped it to 85k this year.