Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

But fuck..watching HGTV and shows like “my lottery dream home” people in the states winning the fucking lottery and “we have a budget of $425,000!” And here we are just like regular condo in Port Moody at 699 with many priced in the same area

to be fair, there's apparently 200 US cities with median above 1M USD (suburbs of tech hubs)
then you have places in Indiana that are 66k...no i'm not missing a zero

[68style]

You realize... like... when you’re older ( I’m 40)... and particularly married that’s a key too... you spend so much more time just inside your house chilling almost every night and you go out it’s for hiking and stuff... don’t even have kids but if I did that’s another step... suddenly the idea of living somewhere remote doesn’t matter cuz your environment is inside the place you live, not what’s in the 5-20km around you.

Gets you thinking how sweet a place and awesome toys you could have just selling the condo in Richmond/Vancouver and fucking off hahaha... main problem being gainful employment I guess? But at that point with no mortgage who cares can even work in customer service somewhere.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

to be fair, there's apparently 200 US cities with median above 1M USD (suburbs of tech hubs)
then you have places in Indiana that are 66k...no i'm not missing a zero

In those places those houses are probably as much, if not more than here.

In a lot of places in the states you’re buying a house and the property for a price that you couldn’t even build the house for here lol

[Acurapinoy]

Originally Posted by lowside67

Unrelated - but today is the first day of opens for our condo in Port Moody:
https://www.rew.ca/properties/R23062...-port-moody-bc

-Mark

Damn im usually not a fan of lower level condos but seeing that yard to go with it would probably convince me. This should sell with no problem. Goodluck!

[twitchyzero]

while having a yard like that helps you feel less claustrophobic, I can't see myself in that much

zero privacy

but I agree...i'm sure it'll be pending in a day or two

[Nabatron]

Originally Posted by 68style

You realize... like... when you’re older ( I’m 40)... and particularly married that’s a key too... you spend so much more time just inside your house chilling almost every night and you go out it’s for hiking and stuff... don’t even have kids but if I did that’s another step... suddenly the idea of living somewhere remote doesn’t matter cuz your environment is inside the place you live, not what’s in the 5-20km around you.

Gets you thinking how sweet a place and awesome toys you could have just selling the condo in Richmond/Vancouver and fucking off hahaha... main problem being gainful employment I guess? But at that point with no mortgage who cares can even work in customer service somewhere.

yeah hear what you are saying! I am only 31 and getting out of the lower, we don't really go out to clubs or bars and shit now haha. Just going to enjoy a detached home and some property which will be good for the daughter and new baby.

[lowside67]

Originally Posted by lowside67

Ironically there are 3 units on the ground floor in my building listed - all three at 699. We have the most square footage (by about 80sf - the den and pantry which the others don't have) and the most private back yard.

Today we had our first day of opens, apparently about 25 groups through, a few came back for second viewings. Will be interesting to see tomorrow.

-Mark

Looks like we had about the same, another 25 groups through today including a handful of repeats. We are feeling good but haven't accepted an offer yet.

-Mark

[van_driver]

Originally Posted by lowside67

Looks like we had about the same, another 25 groups through today including a handful of repeats. We are feeling good but haven't accepted an offer yet.

-Mark

25 groups in this market is insane, especially with 3 other available in the same building. Have you received any offers yet? Keep us posted.

[Hondaracer]

We didn’t have 25 groups over 3 open houses when we sold our last place.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by van_driver

25 groups in this market is insane, especially with 3 other available in the same building. Have you received any offers yet? Keep us posted.

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

We didn’t have 25 groups over 3 open houses when we sold our last place.

I have 10 groups came for open house and 1 open house (a few private showings) before the unit is sold.

[GS8]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

^^ You do know that it takes years and I mean years and years to get all the permits, docs, the go ahead light to build a large complex. If the developer needs to change the land use or need some rezoning permits it could even take longer. By the time to get all the paper work done it will be 5 years if they were lucky. Some of the low raise I see around town is like empty for at least a year waiting to be torn down.

It might be a waste to torn down buildings that's only 9 years old but they could build an apartment with a few hundred units to house a lot more people.

And that's how developer works. They start buying the land piece by piece and slowly wait for the permits. Coz the gov like to take things slow. I do feel bad for the seniors who have to move and now have to pay a much higher rent. I only hope they get a good compensation package or maybe the gov can even put them in care homes.

I always wonder what will the gov do with older apartments that's like 40 or 50 years old. We haven't really reach that point yet but it will one day. I mean those buildings can't be standing forever and the cost to maintain them will only get higher and higher each year. Will the gov have some plan force buildings over a certain time needs to be taken down and rebuild? Or they will be left to rot till the structure is not safe anymore then step in. What will happens to all those that's living there? I feel this is something the gov should looking into it as more and more high raise are being built it will come soon. Some buildings I seen in the market are around 20 years old (think of the older apartments around Joyce is been around as far as I remember). Some on them are in pretty bad shape.

I'm fully aware of how the process works. In fact, I know we were supposed to be out of this building by June of 2019, but they pushed it to Dec 2019 due to how many seniors there are. It doesn't matter if they start demolishing the building on Jan 1, 2020 or Jan 1, 2021. Either way, the building will be cordoned off like the strip mall nearby already is. I'm merely providing an insider's POV should anyone be curious about what it's like to deal with. This is a very popular thread after all. Second most popular RS thread possibly?

Originally Posted by Traum

First thing I thought of when I started reading your post was -- that's exactly what is happening to those who are getting evicted around the Metrotown neighbourhood. I obviously do not know where you live, but I sympathsize with your situation as much as I do with those getting demovicted around Metrotown.

One thing that struck me as add though is -- why did the building owner not dispute the property tax hike? Granted, the disputing process is almost certainly worthless anyway. But for the property tax of your lowrise to be equivalent to that of a large tower -- either that doesn't make any sense, or the property tax of the said large tower would be even bigger.


This point kind of hits home for me as well, since I have witnessed similar incidents happening in HK at a semi-personal level. Esp for the long time residents, the move is devastating because it is literally destroying the community and way of life that they have grown so accustomed to. I can't speak for your situation here, but in the one that I had some familiarity with, the neighbours have really grown to know the majority of other residents, and in some cases, the neighbours have grown to become an informal support network for one another. When people get displaced and dispersed, even when they have been compensated appropriately, the destruction of that community and the bonds that existed were really all gone. And along with it, that support network and way of life were all gone too.

One question that I've always had though -- for those who are renting, what sort of assistance is the new developer providing at all? Since the residents are renting, I personally don't see any legal obligations that might bind the purchasing developer to follow through on. They are obviously serving you with a ton of advanced notice. Does that mean you are SOL on the assistance front?

Best of luck with your apartment hunting.

Thanks.

It's possible the former owners did try to dispute it (I didn't ask) but it would probably be an SOL outcome.

Our developer is providing some assistance. I can't remember all of them but the ones off the top of my head are moving expenses being covered and the first month's rent at a tenant's new dwelling will be covered as well. They hired a third party tenant relocation group who's job is to relocate people to new places. I'd be very curious to know where they plan to transfer people to. Can't be anywhere too close by since the whole area is transitioning.

I have a friend who lives in a building going through a renoviction process and all tenants have banded together to find some sort of legality that could work in their favour. The property managers' intents are too remove them from the building and give them first dibs after the renos are complete (with much higher rent than they were paying prior). No grandfathering.

Originally Posted by lowside67

With respect - while property taxes are certainly going up based on appreciating land value, I bet that's primarily just a sob story they fed you.

What's the address? The property tax amount is publicly available for last year and this year - let's find out.

-Mark

As of now, I won't post building details yet but it looks like Quasi's friend experienced the same thing and in the same city no less. I'll look at the numbers but the person who gave me this information was not some random rambling tenant but someone who would have access to that sort of information from its original source.

When I was living in Richmond, I rented a strata property. It wasn't bad though the suite's layout was awkward as hell to navigate around. I might just rent a strata in Coquitlam for my next place.

Either that or be a nomad.

[Ch28]

Interesting post by a realtor on r/vancouver. Obviously, we need to take what they're saying with a grain of salt, though.

The truth about being a realtor... (self.vancouver)

Hi everyone, I am a realtor in Vancouver and it makes me sad to see all the hate for our profession on this subreddit. Here is my reality and the reality for many of my friends and colleagues that I hope will clear up some misconceptions and stereotypes. Like every profession, there are many of us who care deeply, take our work seriously and try to go above and beyond in our professionalism and service, and then there are many who make the rest look bad.

Misconceptions:

• Income: My income before tax this year will be $30,000 and I work full time as a real estate agent in a team. I had a good year compared to many realtors and am very happy with this. This salary is the norm for many of us working 60 hours a week and what a moderately successful working realtor can expect (under 50k per year), especially in the beginning and depending on the market. Gaining this success as a new realtor without connections will take all of your blood, sweat and tears to gain any kind of client base and trust as the competition is immense.

On a sale of $1,000,000 which is still a luxury property and very hard to obtain, the selling commission is approximately $20,000. As a new realtor or to remain competitive, you often have to discount your service 10 to 25% as well. 25% goes to our brokerage so now we're at $15,000. I work in a team so I get 50% of the commission, now we are at $7500. I pay out of pocket for all expenses with no guarantee of a sale, and my typical individual expenses per listing $1500 but can easily be more, so now we are at 6000$. If it was discounted which half are in the beginning, I'd end up with about $4000. Most listings don't sell overnight, and many can last two months or more months. I will put approximately 200 overall hours of work into a listing over this time frame with no guarantee of any return. My last two listings didn't sell so I worked about 400 hours and lost $5000 dollars with no income over a 4 month period. Of every 100 leads you managed to generate you will be lucky to get a couple listing appts., and you will be lucky if one of these becomes a real listing, regardless of whether it sells.

• Marketing expenses: Please note that to obtain new business, realtors pay marketing expenses out of pocket, along with expenses for their listings from their own savings, and all realtors, especially newer ones, have no guarantee of any return. Many realtors I know work full time and then nights at a restaurant and other retail jobs but don't advertise this of course as it would look bad to their clients. No realtor wants to tell people they have a second job but it's very, very common. It's extremely expensive to do any kind of outbound marketing and most newer realtors cannot.

The realtors you see who gets licensed just to sell a friends multimillion dollar house and gets a quick windfall, or is able to make hundreds of thousands seemingly doing no work are not at all the norm but perhaps the most hyped and shared.

The realtors I see and work with care DEEPLY about real estate, the home buying and selling process and about the happiness of their clients. I am a realtor because I love selling homes and helping my clients find the perfect home for their family. I do not do it for the riches, but of course I always want to grow my income, and I know many times will be hard, rough and unprofitable and there will also be great years with hard work and dedication.

Expenses: Our yearly fees are thousands of dollars and getting licensed also costs about $5,000 overall. Again, this has to be paid out of pocket from your savings, often while doing other jobs to get by, with no guarantee of a return. You need to spend at least $1000 a month on advertising, including website expenses, signs, flyers etc. just to get by, so you're looking at likely 15k a year minimum. If you are newer, the market is slow or you are struggling, it will be VERY difficult to stay afloat and that's why the majority of realtors cannot last. The top 1% you see are either the hardest working, the longest in the business or the luckiest in their existing networks...very few of these realtors use the terrible tactics you hear of to pressure and deceive. A successful realtor lives off of referrals and their client base they build. To be successful in the long-term, you cannot deceive your clients, pressure them into bad purchases etc., otherwise they will not be repeat clients, and repeat clients and referrals are a requirement to succeed.

• Working with buyers: We can work with buyers for 6 months to a year with no income until they purchase (if they purchase). Our last buyers we showed them approximately 30 units and researched each building and strata for them to ensure they were protected and making a secure purchase. Buyers agents will care deeply about the success of their buyers and protecting the most important purchase of their life. We love working with buyers and will provide full service with no expectation of a return. We encourage them to take their time, learn as much as possible and consider all the options. I would lose sleep at night thinking a buyer was either unhappy with their purchase or with our service.

• Safeguarding data and tax measures: I have truly not met one realtor who has been against making sales data public or the new measures by the government to try to combat the housing madness and stabilize prices. It is not the norm.

• Making 100k on a sale etc. Yes this does happen, but please understand luxury realtors selling multi-million dollars houses are the TOP of their profession. Newer realtors have no opportunities to get these listings and some may never. The most expensive house in Vancouver I've had a listing appointment for was 1.2 million and I've had many listing appointments... People with a house over 2 million will not consider a new or unknown realtor without an extremely established history, or someone without experience selling luxury real estate. Obviously if you get a 4 million dollar listing and sell it overnight, it's an insane windfall and many realtors have been able to do this successfully. But how many?

There are 20,000 realtors in BC amounting to an insane amount of competition. Imagine the income distribution among these....there are only so many houses and condos selling over $2,000,000 and many are repeat luxury agents. This is not the norm and you are seeing the top .01%. A vast majority have 0 sales, 1 or 2 sales, or under 10. Even with over 10 sales my income before tax is $30,000 and I am a successful (self-sustaining, not out of business), full-time realtor.

Anyway, I hope this sheds some light on the other side of the equation. I would love for our profession and its oversight to continue evolving and for the ones with bad practices to face discipline and consequences. The vast majority agree with this but the bad apples are the most public.

Thanks very much for reading and all the best.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by Ch28

Interesting post by a realtor on r/vancouver. Obviously, we need to take what they're saying with a grain of salt, though.

The truth about being a realtor... (self.vancouver)

Taking it with a grain of salt is right! I don't think I am biased towards or against realtors, but I am already seeing a couple of questionable points in the soliloquy.

[Gerbs]

That's crazy how there's only 20,000 realtors in there and what I am guessing probably < 10 to 15k homes sold every year in the lower mainland? I wonder how many homes are sold per year?

[lowside67]

Originally Posted by van_driver

25 groups in this market is insane, especially with 3 other available in the same building. Have you received any offers yet? Keep us posted.

We have set a deadline of tomorrow at 7pm to review offers - will keep this updated. We have a private showing tonight and another tomorrow.

Cheers

[JDMStyo]

Originally Posted by Ch28

Interesting post by a realtor on r/vancouver. Obviously, we need to take what they're saying with a grain of salt, though.

The truth about being a realtor... (self.vancouver)

Definitely some truths there, but I'd have to say more often than not the ones that stick it out past 2-3 years and have a proper game plan and strategy usually do average $80K+ and more than fair living wages. Team revenue split takes a chunk so for the $30K junior the listing (team lead) usually get 70/30, it's unfair but it's their listing end of day.

Stick with 40+ calls a day, 10 meetings a week, and generate 100+ deals a year. Like any business, 20% of the top guys get 80% of the sales. Like any sales role you get what you put in.

Like any business - you have to invest - whether its in marketing, outreach, social media, etc. Gone are the days where you can put $3,000 ad in Chinese newspaper and expect your phone to ring off the hook.
Yearly fee for licensing & various courses is about $2-3K.

Presales on a good day I've seen realtors book $100-300K in commissions.
10 units at $10K each. Payable in 1/2 tranches 1/2 upfront in 3-4 months 1/2 in 3 years. It sounds amazing for one days' worth of work, but there's a lot leading up to the sale.

If it's so easy, everyone would do it, right?

[van_driver]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

That's crazy how there's only 20,000 realtors in there and what I am guessing probably < 10 to 15k homes sold every year in the lower mainland? I wonder how many homes are sold per year?

From Jan 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017

Detached Sold: 10,302 (4,898 Sold in 2018 so far)

Attached (condos/townhouses/duplex): 23,671

This is for Greater Vancouver only (From West Vancouver to Maple Ridge and down to Ladner/Tsawwassen but not including Surrey as that is considered Fraser Valley board).

There's 14,000 Realtors with the Vancouver Board. But you have to take into account all the licensed Realtors that have other full time jobs/not full time, or just give up after not selling anything for 1-2 years but continue to hold their license. And the Realtors making a killing with 20+ listings at any given time.

[winson604]

It's probably mentioned in the article but add to the fact that they get no benefits, paid vacation time, sick time etc

[Energy]

Well that puts things into perspective. I wonder if its the same for commercial realtors.

Now I want to see something like that for other jobs like car saleperson.

[Hakkaboy]

30k gross and working 60 hours a week is the norm?

I don't know about you, but I'd be looking for a different job if that was truly the case...

[Hondaracer]

you'd be making more pushing a broom doing temp labour..

i love when people try to position themselves in some sob story like that. Why in the fuck would you be working 60 hours to make 30k? Because you think youre gonna be some big shot down the road? if thats the case then shut up and do your job. No ones forcing you into that

[CivicBlues]

no kidding, is this guy showing clients around on his bike?

[Ludepower]

Hes getting no sympathy from me. Glorified car salesman who requires no education to get a real estate license.

They ain't smarter than you or me..just chasing that quick paper. With the incoming slow down...lots of these agents arent gonna make their german car lease payments.

[twitchyzero]

30k from 60 hours a week is not even minimum wage?

[GS8]

I know a few meatheads I went to high school with who became realtors.

They flaunt the wealthy lifestyle. Aston Martins, gym days fer days, 5 star meals etc. Not sure if it's a front because social media or they're actually doing well for being meatheads.

Either way, I put them in the same category as Albertan oil workers.