Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by roastpuff

I have one - near SFU. Tons of space, fairly solid structure, always do research on your strata. Biggest problem for us is the service, it's not even 100 amp so no EV charging at home.

We basically gutted ours and did a major reno, so it feels very modern inside.

This may be a stupid question, but can you upgrade your service to 200amps for a town house?

[roastpuff]

Nope. The whole complex would have to be upgraded which would be a couple million and a bunch of special levies and etc.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

The only "problem" i've heard is that he's too thorough and nit picks on a lot of things, which is why a lot of realtors don't like him because if the buyer doesn't know much, they get scared of his report. Based on his videos it seems like he knows what's up.

can't recall if it was this guy, but i remember a famous local inspector was like that, every little thing, including non-issues. to the point it probably scared potential buyers that don't know anything off.

one example was a toilet was too small in his report. thing is, is that it was a small/narrow washroom, like how the f is that relevant or going to help? what do you expect to happen?

[Hondaracer]

Buddy guy low voltage work when all your runs are laying in puddles?

[Gumby]

Serious question - what's the proper way to manage those cables?

[Great68]

Putting it in a proper conduit/raceway.

Even the teck/liquidtite coming poking straight out the side bothers me. Such shit work. Make it come out with an LB and some EMT.

[Badhobz]

man all these new houses are garbage. Like i said before, it aint gonna be decent quality unless youre in the 10-20 mill range. Its so disheartening seeing the level of finishing that's out there nowadays.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Gumby

Serious question - what's the proper way to manage those cables?

Telus and other service providers will also provide you with the NIBS/boxes preemptively if you ask for them, generally free of charges so you can run the wires into a sealed enclosure as opposed to this..

[68style]

But they're killing it in life, saving enough money to buy all those same shit houses they're building out from under all of us!

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by Great68

Putting it in a proper conduit/raceway.

Even the teck/liquidtite coming poking straight out the side bothers me. Such shit work. Make it come out with an LB and some EMT.

Is the problem they don't know the proper protocols or do you think they know but they don't give a crap?

[68style]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Is the problem they don't know the proper protocols or do you think they know but they don't give a crap?

If it costs $10 extra or even worse takes 10 more minutes............. TIME IS MONEY! lol

[Great68]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Is the problem they don't know the proper protocols or do you think they know but they don't give a crap?

What they've done is not against code and it'll work as intended. It's the cheapest and fastest, and as a result the ugliest way to do it.

A little bit of extra time, effort and materials would make it look much nicer, it's one of those you get what you pay for kind of things.

Admittedly it's one of those things that few laypeople would probably even notice or know there's a nicer way to do it.

There's a pub in town that had a reno, and whoever did the electrical just did everything in BX (Flexible armoured cable) it just looks like ugly wavy spaghetti on the ceiling, you can see it feeding the big chandelier in the pic:



It would look so much better in EMT (Steel tubing). It would look nice, straight and clean. There's probably some electrical contractor that bid it that way, but lost the job because his price was high and the owner didn't specify otherwise.
I don't know how whoever did that job the way they did could be proud of their work.

[GLOW]

they had to run it dead center of the bulkhead eh? not even trying to tuck it away. maybe they figure painting it over would help hide it...at least they did that

look up at a lot of asian restaurants in e.van/richmond with open ceiling industrial concept, i find they have runs of all bx and LV wiring and the entire ceiling is just painted completely black so its not as noticeable

i find it common commercially in non-franchise these days when i go out. no spec to follow, just cheapest way in and out.

when i was a noob i'd get flogged for bidding a small job with pipe & wire when spec didn't call for it b/c i'd never get the job and was just wasting time.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Great68

What they've done is not against code and it'll work as intended. It's the cheapest and fastest, and as a result the ugliest way to do it.

A little bit of extra time, effort and materials would make it look much nicer, it's one of those you get what you pay for kind of things.

Admittedly it's one of those things that few laypeople would probably even notice or know there's a nicer way to do it.

There's a pub in town that had a reno, and whoever did the electrical just did everything in BX (Flexible armoured cable) it just looks like ugly wavy spaghetti on the ceiling, you can see it feeding the big chandelier in the pic:



It would look so much better in EMT (Steel tubing). It would look nice, straight and clean. There's probably some electrical contractor that bid it that way, but lost the job because his price was high and the owner didn't specify otherwise.
I don't know how whoever did that job the way they did could be proud of their work.

Yeah, this is the frustrating thing about construction in general. I won't bid certain projects if I know X or Y contractor is my competition because I know they're going to be so much cheaper than we are and it's mainly due to them cutting corners.

In Commercial construction you try and stay away from the GC's that use and abuse these guys, the bigger GC's (PCL, Graham, Bird, SBW, ect..) although low price is very important they do a better job of vetting the bidders because at the end of the day they don't want to deal with it and would rather have better subs which makes their job easier.

A little Pub or Restaurant Reno, goodluck the GC is usually inviting every Tom Dick and Manjinder with a pickup truck to bid the work. Fuck that job, lol.

[jing]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Buddy guy low voltage work when all your runs are laying in puddles?

Judging by the quantity, cable length, hole height, and proximity to the PVC pipe, I would say as a reasonable guess that those are meant for a laneway property not pictured. I doubt the cables are gel filled so that would not be Code compliant. Not the worst install I've seen but far from the best. Pretty clear that the house is still under construction so lots of opportunity for correction still though I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Hondaracer]

That PVC pipe is a rain water lead, or a drain tile clean out, not a duct.

Also of every single buddy guy build I ever worked on at Telus, no builder -ever- pulled proper cable from a laneway to a junction. It was almost always multiple splices from laneway to panel inside the home. IE. splice outside, splice within the wall in the home, then to the panel.

You’re giving them far too much credit lol

[blkgsr]

that's garbage install and in no way how to do that.

little caulking supposed to be the envelope for the massive hole? brutal

[Great68]

Originally Posted by quasi

In Commercial construction you try and stay away from the GC's that use and abuse these guys, the bigger GC's (PCL, Graham, Bird, SBW, ect..) although low price is very important they do a better job of vetting the bidders because at the end of the day they don't want to deal with it and would rather have better subs which makes their job easier.

Agreed. You kind of have to on the big job, the risk is so much higher. You can't afford to have some trunkslammer take a stab a massive job and fold halfway through it.

Funny you mention Graham, I have a set of plans for a big they're looking after on my desk right now!

[Great68]

Originally Posted by jing

. I doubt the cables are gel filled so that would not be Code compliant.

Are you maybe thinking of IEEE standards for network cabling?

The Canadian Electrical Code doesn't have any stipulations on (Extra-)Low Voltage cabling (nothing indication gel filled is required, nothing about Cat 5 at all). Their only concern is fire and electrocution, which isn't an issue with low voltage. They don't give a shit if your underground cat5 stops working because water seeped into it.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Buddy guy low voltage work when all your runs are laying in puddles?

So here’s a fun comparison lol.. so this house is probably.. 3M all said and done with a laneway? It’s kinda Fraserview east

Those runs are moreso backbone runs to get the data from the nib to inside the house, maybe one or two go into the basement suites. Let’s say 10. Then inside whatever “smart panel” they have inside the home might have 30-40 runs. Each room, some cameras maybe, I’d say the biggest, nicest homes I ever went into had MAX 100 Ethernet runs, for some homes that were upwards of 4-5 mill (keep in mind homes older than 15 years or so likely will never be retrofit with runs unless they are gutted because how hard it is to pull runs after the fact.

This is in a 18 million dollar home I worked on in 2009

[PeanutButter]

Hey RS,

In regards to new build condos, does anyone have an idea on what the best value units are in high rises if you're going to use it as an investment and rent it out?

Like, is the studio the best value because it's usually the cheapest and you can still get decent rent from it? or is it better to get a one bedroom + den that you can use as a secondary bedroom?

Any ideas?

[donk.]

Too poor to afford new build, DONK OUT

[jing]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Hey RS,

In regards to new build condos, does anyone have an idea on what the best value units are in high rises if you're going to use it as an investment and rent it out?

Like, is the studio the best value because it's usually the cheapest and you can still get decent rent from it? or is it better to get a one bedroom + den that you can use as a secondary bedroom?

Any ideas?

A guy I used to work with ran the numbers and went all in on studios about 10 years ago now. Bought about 5 or 6 units when they were around $200K. Believe those units were built in the mid 2000s so a few years old then.

[6793026]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Hey RS,

In regards to new build condos, does anyone have an idea on what the best value units are in high rises if you're going to use it as an investment and rent it out?

Like, is the studio the best value because it's usually the cheapest and you can still get decent rent from it? or is it better to get a one bedroom + den that you can use as a secondary bedroom?

Math was passed down to me -
Cash 200k
Mortgage 200k - 7% interest = payment $1166 a month
Other cost - property tax etc $3000 / yr = 250 a month
property fee - 350 / mth to be conservative.
Your monthly cost = ~1750 = Rent at ~1800 to break even.

Tenant moving out, minor fixes, etc.. it's what i call "cost of doing business"
I used this method and paid off my apartments with help of tenants.

The GAIN is not having it 'cover' your rent. They key is that after 15 years, your apartment 2X in value.

What was 223k is now worth 450k. I have now been able to refinance lump sum to buy a house etc. 2) I am now getting residual income 3) i have a roof over my shoulders and live rent free.

[68style]

Vancouver market is dead for renting if you want to make money being a landlord not a speculator... I know all the people renting are whining about how much it costs to rent, but they should do the math on owning and they'll see it's twice as expensive as renting, so rent actually isn't that bad lol