$2500 a month will get you $450000 mortgage. A $550,000, condo won't be much nicer than a basement plus you have to be a real adult to pay your strata fees, property tax, insurance that goes up at least 10% a year and not 3% like the communist government insists.

If I was the friend I would have known I was getting a sick below market deal and be thankful and in return I would have wanted to friend to just be honest at some point and say hey bro sorry but it's time we try to get market rate or close to. I wouldn't even have an inch of hate and appreciate the last few years but I'd that conversation didn't happen and they lied and used a different reason then I'd be disappointed.

I'm starting to see full 2 story laneway houses being built in Vancouver.

That's going to be nice having a full sized second floor compared to my home, where my master bedroom ceiling is slopped, lowest point behind at 6 feet and highest at 8 feet :fuuuuu:

Moral of the story - don’t do anyone any favours lol.

Pretty sure we have enough of these people in Vancouver already

10% increase in insurance would be really nice, my home insurance went up over 100% last year

Mine just came in yesterday -- it's gone up by ~20% FailFish

And that's why having private insurance of motor vehicles in BC is a bad idea.

Yeah, my friends a realtor too. Decided to not start drama, not worth the battle.

Yeah, took his below market deal for 1-2 years, then accepted the $1,400 as a peace offering. He wasn't planning to stay too long either, max another 1-3 years.

Was told that insurance is going up across the board this year, and 10% is lucky because ours went up 10%. We changed providers going form wawanesa to family and dropped it from 3790 to 2990. We'll see what things look like next year.

Sometimes that "extra little bit" is hard to come by. It's easier said than done. It's like saying why would so and so pay X amount for rent when they can use that same amount of money to pay mortgage for their own place etc. It could be always that extra little bit that straggles things.

I didn't mean mortgage, I meant rent.

There are plenty of apartments available for $2000-$2500.

I've always been pretty bearish when it comes to basement suites, especially if the owner lives there, in my opinion basement suites should be far cheaper than an individual apartment unit.

You're at the behest of the owner when in a basement suite, you've heard enough comments in this thread about complaints about having a guest, arguments about laundry issues, you name it.

I remember when I was going to college at BCIT and renting a basement suite just off Kingsway and Willingdon, I had no access to the thermostat upstairs, and the Asian owner was a cheapskate, so I essentially had a winter of enjoying a freezing basement having to run the damn oven with the door open to stay warm. I moved out after the year lease, never looked at basement suite again.

In my opinion, unless the location is absolutely important, basement suites if priced anywhere near an actual separate condo unit are simply not worth it in my opinion. Much prefer to pay the extra few hundred to have your own autonomy.

Basement suite landlords be like "thanks for the rent but if you can pretend like you don't actually live here that would be great"

I'm pretty sure basement suites are cheaper and larger than apartments. I think for $2000 you can stretch a 2 bed vs you're paying that for a 1 bed apartment. If you need 3 bed then lol.

Larger sometimes but with 1 foot high windows, 7 foot ceilings and a floor plan designed and built by some asshole that uses adjustable wrenches and 7 different types of screw heads to cobble everything together.
I'll take the smaller space that isn't made out of old cardboard boxes.

I lived in a basement street off Fraser St for 3 years. Best landlord ever. Never raised rent, let me use the backyard if I wanted (to a degree). Was fine with my girlfriend, now wife, moving in with me. We still stay in touch. That is likely rare as I remember checking out a lot of basement suites that were shit and the owners seemed sketch.

had open houses on sat and sun. seems like there was a fair amount of interest.

about 19 groups between the 2 days, 1 i know was a neighbor

got one offer last night for $68K under asking, told my realtor to reject it

they're buying for an investment to rent out...i'd also prefer to sell to a family that will own and enjoy the house

Lowballs suck, investors suck, combine the two and it's real fuckin garbage. Good luck. I've seen lots hitting the market lately (totally different price points) but also the good stuff is flying. A well kept place will find a good buyer fast.

i may be biased but i have a pretty well reno'd and finished house. it showed very well in the photos and video.....kinda made me wonder why we're moving to be honest. just needed to clean the house lol

i'm not worried about it selling. I'm in no rush, i haven't found anything i'm even remotely interested about buying so i'm staying firm on my price.

i'm wondering if this guy isn't thinking long term for a land assembly. i just don't see how buying it (will have to have a lot of cash) would make sense to rent out. $1.55M vs $4000/month rent. they're also foreign (not asian if that matters) and maybe they just need to park some money???

wow my home insurance actually went down a few bucks this year

So you're saying you would be the type of seller who would appreciate a "family letter" submitted with the offer in multiples.

A guy at my church did that. He gave up close to $40k to give it to a young family who submitted a photo and a heartfelt letter.

I never thought those family letters would work..

Lol 40k loss for some BS letter.. I don’t get it

No one owes a family trying to buy your property anything. Being the nice guy never pays off. Watch the family just flip it after a year and snag that money the guy gave them

Doesn't necessarily have to mean taking a discount. If there's a bidding war with similar offers it could mean the difference between winning it vs not.

My buddy just closed on a house by writing a letter. Old widower selling their long term home, wanted her garden taken care of.

My original next door neighbours held out on an offer from obvious "overseas investor" people, and sold to a local couple who lived in it insead.

(I think I mentioned the story where during the showings those people would park in the middle of my driveway, and I had to tell them to get the fuck out)

I am personally glad I dodged the bullet of having a potential neglected rental next door.