Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Paint and caulking for sure. How old are the appliances/ what exactly do you have right now?

If the house is in good shape, I don't see how newer appliances are going to swing a buyer or I don't see how it's going to add more value. Unless the appliances you have are like 20 years old.

I actually just done repainting the interior. Not sure if I should do the exterior too. I'd definitely get on the caulking.

The idea is this... the area that I'm in is on the higher end of the market within our neighborhood. Thus, would most people shopping in my market expect to be live-in ready or they'd look for something that's a tad cheaper, but they can do the works?

My appliances aren't old, but except the dishwasher, which I replaced after I moved in, they aren't that new but doesn't show too bad either (still all SS).

[Razor Ramon HG]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

That 4 month thing is retarded so all deals takes 4+ months to close?

Probably closer to 5 months from the sounds of it. 4 months just to take possession again.

God forbid your tenant does some stupid ass shit.

[Badhobz]

Originally Posted by Hehe

I actually just done repainting the interior. Not sure if I should do the exterior too. I'd definitely get on the caulking.

The idea is this... the area that I'm in is on the higher end of the market within our neighborhood. Thus, would most people shopping in my market expect to be live-in ready or they'd look for something that's a tad cheaper, but they can do the works?

My appliances aren't old, but except the dishwasher, which I replaced after I moved in, they aren't that new but doesn't show too bad either (still all SS).

How old is your place ? In this market if you’re below 4mil I think it’ll move quite quickly. Anything above 4 mil seems to be very very slow.

[HonestTea]

Since there's a few people on the strata council here, what's considered a 'healthy' contingency fund?

My friend saw a 8yr old building with $880K CRF, she's wondering where that ranks.

[Traum]

The legal requirement is an annual contribution of a minimum of 10% of the annual operating fund to the CRF. In the past, my strata has aimed to build a 15% contribution, but I didn't actually pay attention to how big the total sum was.

So in your friend's case, a strict number on its own is probably not useful enough. You'd want to compare that against the annual operating expenses to get an idea of how far that CRF would actually go.

[donk.]

Too many variables, it comes down to building age X number of units X amount per condo

With that said, our 60 unit condo, 1990 build, has 350k and is considered healthy.
Only thing that is "overdue" for the past 7 years is the roof, but there has only been a few leaks.

Old shitty building + small reserve = out of pocket special assessments are going to happen

[winson604]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Since there's a few people on the strata council here, what's considered a 'healthy' contingency fund?

My friend saw a 8yr old building with $880K CRF, she's wondering where that ranks.

I mean it sounds nice but how big is this building? That being said just based on number alone doesn't necessarily say if it's healthy or not there are other factors I.e. current health of building.

[Razor Ramon HG]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Since there's a few people on the strata council here, what's considered a 'healthy' contingency fund?

My friend saw a 8yr old building with $880K CRF, she's wondering where that ranks.

Link to the building.

[HonestTea]

Originally Posted by Razor Ramon HG

Link to the building.

It's the River Park Place by Intracorp in Richmond. It looks like 219 units?

[GLOW]

fortunate to never have to deal with stratas, but as a buyer do you get access to look at their capital renewal plan?

going off what Donk says, you look at the life cycle of the major building elements when they're EOL or history of prematurely crap out and needing repair/replacement. You'll have to have an idea of costs vs contingency and then you see how at risk the building is.

if they don't show you that info, then you have to find out key questions on when (if at all) major building elements/infrastructure have been replaced, and have to sort of know when said building elements are due for renewal due to the standard useful life. Common one is the roof but you can go down the list of all the other major ones, elevator, building envelope, piping, etc.

if nothing's been done, you compare it back to the date the building was originally built, and the materials used (if applicable, eg piping) and guestimate how much life is left and when it's due, assuming it doesn't crap out early.

[jing]

Originally Posted by GLOW

fortunate to never have to deal with stratas, but as a buyer do you get access to look at their capital renewal plan?

going off what Donk says, you look at the life cycle of the major building elements when they're EOL or history of prematurely crap out and needing repair/replacement. You'll have to have an idea of costs vs contingency and then you see how at risk the building is.

if they don't show you that info, then you have to find out key questions on when (if at all) major building elements/infrastructure have been replaced, and have to sort of know when said building elements are due for renewal due to the standard useful life. Common one is the roof but you can go down the list of all the other major ones, elevator, building envelope, piping, etc.

if nothing's been done, you compare it back to the date the building was originally built, and the materials used (if applicable, eg piping) and guestimate how much life is left and when it's due, assuming it doesn't crap out early.

Depreciation report

[Eff-1]

Originally Posted by HonestTea

Since there's a few people on the strata council here, what's considered a 'healthy' contingency fund?

My friend saw a 8yr old building with $880K CRF, she's wondering where that ranks.

Our 5 year old building as a CRF of about $400k and I've seen real estate listings promoting our building as one with a healthy CRF so take that for what it's worth, I guess?

An 8 year building still has 2-5-10 warranty left on it, so keep that in mind too.

Without reading minutes and seeing a depreciation report, on the surface i'd say an $800k CRF is better than most, especially since the requirement to contibute 10% per year only started in 2024.

[PeanutButter]

We have a practical student/intern for a few weeks at our work and we always make them do this exercise where they write down what their perfect life would look like, how much money they want to make, where they want to live, vacations, etc.

He's 22 years old, just graduated.

His perfect life is:
$300k household income
Five bedroom house with backyard
Two to Three children
Two cars, mini-van + sedan (toyota's he wants reliability)
Four weeks vacation per year, holidays off.
Five hours a week of hobby's
Three days a week to work out

[sonick]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

We have a practical student/intern for a few weeks at our work and we always make them do this exercise where they write down what their perfect life would look like, how much money they want to make, where they want to live, vacations, etc.

He's 22 years old, just graduated.

His perfect life is:
$300k household income
Five bedroom house with backyard
Two to Three children
Two cars, mini-van + sedan (toyota's he wants reliability)
Four weeks vacation per year, holidays off.
Five hours a week of hobby's
Three days a week to work out

Honestly this is a great exercise for somebody of any age of they haven't done it before. Or at least some version of actually thinking about what happiness / fulfillment would feel like.

So often someone gets a big promotion, or a job, or a dream car or hut some kind of milestone, only to not feel as fulfilled or as happy as they thought they would be and feel even more depressed as a result. It's because they never really thought about what happiness meant to them or what would be a fulfilling life.

In so many things I've read , true happiness and fulfillment is more about gratitude and contentment of what you do have and not conditional of getting that next "thing".

[PeanutButter]

I was going to add, while we were listening to his "Perfect Life", I was looking at a colleague knowing that we're sitting there listening to this kid that is literally describing our lives.

I knew we were blessed, but when this kid was talking about his perfect life and I was looking at my own life, It really put things into perspective for me.

[whitev70r]

22 yo forgot a hot trophy wife ... you need a wife to have 2-3 children. At least it used to be that way.

[donk.]

Maybe 22 yo is a fudgepacker, can still have 2-3 kids.......

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

22 yo forgot a hot trophy wife ... you need a wife to have 2-3 children. At least it used to be that way.

I guess this is relevant. He told me he's been with this vietnamese girl for the past two years. He's a mainlander that went to highschool in Richmond. He said she's great and he could see himself marrying her.

His mother doesn't like his current gf because her status and her families status is low. The gf works in admin, her dad is a cook and her mom is also an admin. The mother has not even met the girl before. But, being from the mainland, his mom only cares about status. He said he doesn't care about that stuff.

He's torn because he really loves and respects his mother, but really wants to be with this viet girl. So that's his biggest dilemma right now.

[whitev70r]

Again ... I just have to chuckle ... how the hell do you know SO much about this intern ??!! Do you just shoot the breeze with every one in the office and they just naturally tell you all their secrets?

Pretty soon, you're going to be counselling this kid about marriage.

[JDMDreams]

^^ so is his family rich? He can technically duck off to butt fuck no where in northern bc, buy a place for $300-500k live the lifestyle he wants and not need $300k household income. His girl can either open a pho shop, nail hair salon, not sure if the bud is still a lucrative business anymore, and make dat cash money's

[Tapioca]

300K is very "traditional middle class" in Vancouver, which is a sad and stark reality.

But yes, everything else that he mentions - some of us in this thread have what this 22 Y/O wants and more and it's a good reminder that at least a few of us are blessed.

The only thing I wish we had was more money and time for vacations...

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

Again ... I just have to chuckle ... how the hell do you know SO much about this intern ??!! Do you just shoot the breeze with every one in the office and they just naturally tell you all their secrets?

Pretty soon, you're going to be counselling this kid about marriage.

Pretty much. This is the way I look at it, if I'm going to spend my precious time with you, I'm going to try my darndest to make a real connection with you.

I feel like I can build rapport quickly because I'm naturally curious, so I try to figure out what you're into and then I focus on that and try to learn more about whatever you're into (as long as I'm actually interested in it), which means I can ask you engaging intelligent questions.

And because I'm genuinely curious about things, I feel like I create a pretty natural social environment for people. This might be the reason why people feel comfortable around me. I'm also a pretty nice guy =D

With interns it's even easier because I'm in the position they want to be in, so when i go out of my way to talk to them they get real buddy buddy quickly because the other people in the office just give them that surface level, "Hey, how's it going, are you enjoying yourself, where you from, that's cool, yeah, etc." That conversation lasts about one minute and it's just a formality and everyone knows it. It's very rare I'll ever ask someone how's it going, I think that's the most useless question to ask anyone. The answer is always going to be some variation of, "I'm good" and people know it's just a formality and you don't really care how they're doing.

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

^^ so is his family rich? He can technically duck off to butt fuck no where in northern bc, buy a place for $300-500k live the lifestyle he wants and not need $300k household income. His girl can either open a pho shop, nail hair salon, not sure if the bud is still a lucrative business anymore, and make dat cash money's

Depends on what you think rich is, but he said his mom put a down payment on a brand new pre-sale condo (one bedroom) in Metrotown for him. He's also a mainlander, so without knowing anything else about him, I stereotype him as pretty rich. I've never met a "poor" mainlander in Vancouver.

[jcmaz]

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

Depends on what you think rich is, but he said his mom put a down payment on a brand new pre-sale condo (one bedroom) in Metrotown for him. He's also a mainlander, so without knowing anything else about him, I stereotype him as pretty rich. I've never met a "poor" mainlander in Vancouver.

You need to visit some random Richmond mall, like RPM, in the middle of a weekday and then you'll find some poor mainlanders.

[Badhobz]

Poor mainlanders ? Easy. Find the ones that came in the early 90s or 80s. We dirt poor.

This kid is lame. When I was 22 all I wanted was my head up a blonde bitch’s ass (im 40 now and that hasn’t really changed) His “dream life” isn’t all that much of a dream. Dream bigger you dumb ass.

[whitev70r]

PeanutButter ... that's wild! You're the kind of person I stayed the hell away from in the office because I don't trust people like you with my personal info ... eg. I might come onto a forum and read about my life ... .