Vancouver's Real Estate Market

[Hondaracer]

Problem with the north shore is as soon as you have to go anywhere but the north shore..at almost any time lol

Took me 1.5 hours one day to get from park and tillford to cassiar and Hastings

[vash13]

Originally Posted by westopher

I absolutely love North van. Iirc 27 North is near queensbury? Dope sandwich shop and restaurant nearby, close to the breweries, tons of green space. Traffic is terrible at times, but most of the time it’s good. Issues on either bridge can really fuck things up on any east/west roads in central NV though. Honestly I can’t think of a better place to raise kids if you are the outdoorsy type. When you get over here shoot me a message and I can give you the rundown of the good spots to eat and see.
I think North van has a great community feel, people who say hello, lots of young families etc.

The only reason why I considered North Vancouver is because I work in North Burnaby and drive to and from there during non rush hour times. I have to be at work by 7am to 2pm and later days I start at 10:30 to 8:30pm.

27 North is right in front of Northland golf course.

I had to compromise with the wife on a location that was similar to Vancouver island since she was born and raised there. It was great to live in the city but since covid hit, we had the opportunity to live with her parents on the island for 5 months and it was an eye opening experience especially having a kid. The chance to have open space and less people around changed our perspective of living and raising kids in the city. I'm hoping North Vancouver can give a little bit of that especially when you mentioned about people saying "hello" when you walk past them. People in Vancouver suck at that.

[chinook79]

I hate north shore period. Every now and then, some idiot used to create suicide scene that shuts down the bridge completely for hours if not longer. Once I remember being stuck in traffic for 8 hours because one bridge was shut down due to accident and another due to crazy threatening to suicide. I know things have gotten much better since then with suicide prevention guard etc.. but still, to be honest, I'd pick Surrey before I pick North Vancouver

[westopher]

Oh ok. I totally know where you mean now. I was thinking it was the new developments up third. You definitely should be better off traffic wise. A little more driving or long walks to the restaurants and breweries other than a couple over there, but quick jaunt to Seymour is the best thing anyone can ask for imo. I looked into those places a while back too but never perused it as I didn’t think we were going to upsize, but looking back would have been a nice choice.

[Presto]

Yep.
Those 20-25% of offers with subjects are just wasting time, at this point.

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Given how hot the real estate market is in Metro Vancouver, if you want to win a bidding war, there’s a good chance you’ll have to put in a subject-free offer.

Stephen Johnson, who recently bought a home, made five unsuccessful offers on various properties in less than two months and had planned to stick with the requirement of getting an inspection. But eventually he buckled, making a successful no-subject offer last week.

He’s not thrilled it’s come to this. In his case, there was some urgency to find a home, as his partner is expecting their first child.

“It really kind of took advantage of buyers,” he said. “If I was a seller, for example, in this market, and I have a property that I know has problems or I know has issues — this is the time to sell.”

He feels many sellers will be offered well over asking, without requiring an inspection.

“That’s really dangerous for regular people like me, who don’t have a boatload of cash — that I get a 15-minute appointment and I have to go in, no-subject for a $1.1 million property that’s 100 years old,” Johnson said.

Johnson feels something needs to be done to “level the playing field” for buyers.

“There’s just too much leverage that the seller has right now, in my opinion,” he said.

Mortgage broker Katy Mackenzie tells us the majority (75 to 80 per cent) of offers she’s seeing are subject-free.

“Even if you have a pre-approval and you have been vetted by your broker or your lender, the property has not yet been vetted. So, the lender can decline to finance that property,” she said.

Steve Saretsky with Oakwyn Realty says given the desperation out there, there will be some buyers who run into problems.

“There’s going to be, I think, some regret and some people making mistakes. But that’s sort of the nature of the market right now,” he said.

“I’m sure we’ll hear stories down the road, where you went in subject-free — you didn’t do a lot of due diligence, you made a rush decision — and maybe there are more problems with the house down the road,” Saretsky said.

Earlier this week, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said increased competition for homes has meant more bidding wars, pushing prices up even further — despite the pandemic.

The board said February home sales for the Metro Vancouver region were more than 40 per cent above the 10-year average, with a 26.1 per cent increase of newly listed homes. In the Fraser Valley, sales were up by 88 per cent above the 10-year average.

[JDMDreams]

Can buy a $1.1m property no subject but say he doesn't have a boat load of cash?

[punkwax]

Originally Posted by sonick

Fair enough, tactless joke. Edited.

Lol I was just kidding around. Didn’t have to edit

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by chinook79

I hate north shore period. Every now and then, some idiot used to create suicide scene that shuts down the bridge completely for hours if not longer. Once I remember being stuck in traffic for 8 hours because one bridge was shut down due to accident and another due to crazy threatening to suicide. I know things have gotten much better since then with suicide prevention guard etc.. but still, to be honest, I'd pick Surrey before I pick North Vancouver

When I was still living at my parents in Fraser heights we had a job in British properties, almost the very last road at the top. One day it took me 4 fucking hours to get home, no exaggeration I timed it because I always left at the exact same time in an attempt to beat traffic lol

[quasi]

Originally Posted by GGnoRE

Noob question here... can you shut off the main water supply while the water heater and the in-floor heat (connected to the water heater) is still on? In principle, everything should be a closed loop as long as the taps aren't turned on but I was wondering if I need to turn everything off I'm closing the main water supply.

I would think if you did that the most water that could come out if something in that closed loop went would be the water in that loop. Still not great but a lot better then a continuous supply of never ending water.

[Great68]

And because the system is no longer under mains pressure, it's a lot less likely for something to just burst out of nowhere.

If you want to be even more careful, turn off your pump to your radiant floor as well. Not only does that reduce risk of spontaneous leaks even further, and what leaks out will only be due to gravity.

(IE your water heater isn't going to empty out if the leak happens above it)

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by vash13

^Westopher. I'm moving to a pre sale townhouse (27North) in July/August near Parkgate Village. Just wanting your opinion on the area for raising a family (expecting baby number 2 by the end of the month) I've been born and raised in Vancouver my whole life and is currently living in Kits.

I couldn't have made a better decision to put money down on a pre sale in January vs hoping for the right SFH to come up in North Vancouver with the way the market is going. The weekly updates on SFH sold property in the area of North Vancouver is so ridiculous, I am glad to not have to bid and compete with these crazy prices.

I don't live in North Van but know lots of people who do and they swear by it for the family friendly nature. If it weren't for the fact my parents and in-laws live in East Van I'd seriously consider it. My wife and I really enjoy popping over there with our kid, just more fun and open on that side of the water.

The dining is nowhere near as good (in sum) and I would dearly miss having more Asian stores nearby but the lifestyle suits us (I lived in Victoria for 5.5 years and loved it there).

[westopher]

Dining over here is definitely getting better. Lift, nook, farina, the gull are all solid choices. Even the new joeys is dope if that’s your thing. Too much pizza and pasta but it’s getting better, and as the market gets younger over here I think it can only continue. Definitely doesn’t have the awesome markets of east van though. The Persian markets are pretty rad but totally different.

[Tapioca]

In hindsight, it seems that the market really took a turn for the worst in August/September. Prior to that, you could still negotiate with sellers. It's 2016 all over again with even lower interest rates.

There definitely seems to be a lack of outrage these days though, compared to the heated days of 2015/2016.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...s-the-outrage/

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by sonick

Yup this is exactly our thought process when we decided the recent uptick in housing prices has pushed it out of our reach to be comfortable with.

Living responsibly with a rule of thumb of 50% take-home pay for living expenses means mortgage would only about 30%.

That said, we own a 3-bed 2-bath condo that is the size of some SFH that we've seen, so it's not the shithole that GS8 makes all apartments make it out to be (at least for me, maybe for him it still is a shithole lol).

I was pointing out that perception that any living besides SFH is 'for the poors' despite having what would be considered a very comfortable income. When you really crunch the numbers, unfortunately that income does not go very far (or rather, it goes too far when you have to buy in North Delta and still be over-leveraged).

I'm now curious what you removed.

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Problem with the north shore is as soon as you have to go anywhere but the north shore..at almost any time lol

Took me 1.5 hours one day to get from park and tillford to cassiar and Hastings

My wife wants to move to North Van, but I have exactly the same reservations. Compound that with having a fairly Asian palette for food, we'd be spending a lot of time and gas crossing the bridges.

[donk.]

Originally Posted by carsncars

Has anyone looked into these smart water shut off systems? https://www.moen.com/flo

In my opinion, these, or similar to, should be installed in every condo, home, room, etc. And made mandatory, with an audible alarm that is heard by your neighbor.

May be a piss off, but in reality, all these $2,000,000 and $200,000,000 insurance claims for 20 flooded floors would never exist. Might put out 30% of the labour force for renovation companies, but save millions annually

[GLOW]

i haven't read the fine print on moen, but i've seen a lot of companies shopping smart shut off valves and the problem is they want pricy monitoring fees...while no floods sound great, "yay", the ongoing cost of monitoring fees makes maintenance managers a little gun shy. when you run the numbers, it's not an immediate no brainer unfortunately. these companies are trying to maximize their profit which i get...but if they can tone it down a notch i think you can really see it take off...especially if insurance companies look at it and adjust rates

[donk.]

Nah, you dont need fancy with paid monitoring or shut off valves. That would mean a shut off at all faucets, or a main shut off, noone going to pay to install thousands of dollars in plumbing

Condos > 12V wired in series with an alarm and a "NO" dry contact, when water hits it, alarm goes off.
Houses > same thing, but with a wifi to network adapter, no plan required. Same as those cameras that you can monitor your house from anywhere

Not home? No problem, get your neighbor to break your door down, cheaper than paying 5000$ in flooring, or flooding the 20 floors below you

So anyways, about those craaaaazy home prices

[GLOW]

oh i totally agree...but as i'm involved with asset management to an extent, the vendors that approach us try to sell this, and my 1st question when i hear about their great product is, can i opt out of the monitoring and use your product stand alone...usually they dance around the question or say monitoring is a must as they know where the revenue stream is coming from, and give me a price where i'm like

if it's something a building manager/owner can monitor on their own and control, without ongoing monitoring fees, i'm all for it, if the upfront capital cost makes sense. labour cost of installing it to control the main shut off isn't that bad. i just don't like committing to these guys as the #'s don't convince me of their business case.

[Alpine]

Originally Posted by Presto

Yep.
Those 20-25% of offers with subjects are just wasting time, at this point.

The news is actually really slow to pick up on that. I started my search for an entry detached in Vancouver/BBY around Aug 2019, and there was a very short window of time where you could offer with subjects. By Nov/Dec 2019 every desirable entry detached house we bid on was in multiples, and the winning offer was always subject free. There was even a 1.35m Van Special in North BBY in early 2020 that had 7 offers on the night it was listed, before any showings. March 2020-early April 2020 (peak pandemic fear) presented another opportunity to offer with subjects, but since May 2020 it's only become more competitive. Now, the best strategy is a subject-free bully offer to try and get in before the listing agent can set the offer presentation night and play offers against each other.

[Traum]

Is the subject-free offer madness mostly only happening in the hot hot $1M - $1.5M+ range? (We all know how those $1.5M+list prices can easily balloon to $2M+.) Or is the sub-$1M townhouse and condo market still generally OK with subject-included offers?

[JDMDreams]

Maybe on condos, but I'm sure there's multiple offers on town houses. I've already seen a $50k price increase in sold listings between last Nov till now. And the busy season hasn't even begun

[Great68]

Originally Posted by donk.

Nah, you dont need fancy with paid monitoring or shut off valves. That would mean a shut off at all faucets, or a main shut off, noone going to pay to install thousands of dollars in plumbing

Condos > 12V wired in series with an alarm and a "NO" dry contact, when water hits it, alarm goes off.
Houses > same thing, but with a wifi to network adapter, no plan required. Same as those cameras that you can monitor your house from anywhere

Not home? No problem, get your neighbor to break your door down, cheaper than paying 5000$ in flooring, or flooding the 20 floors below you

So anyways, about those craaaaazy home prices

Something like this floodstop system is good. Multiple sensors you can place around the house, but only one valve to cut in on your primary water supply: FloodStop for Whole House (Wireless with 1" valve)

Any plumber worth their salt should be able to cut in a valve in less than an hour.

[donk.]

1hr, jeeeezus man

As an hvac that does plumbing, in reality your looking at a 4hr bill minimum
Drive time, draining of house or nitro freeze, set up, cut, solder in, pressure test (then open can of worms for the 2 leaks i just caused on your 30 year old piping) clean up, paperwork. 400$ minimum

Or get uncle joe to do it for 50$

That multi sensor system should be made mandatory for all new builds, condos and houses

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by Traum

Is the subject-free offer madness mostly only happening in the hot hot $1M - $1.5M+ range? (We all know how those $1.5M+list prices can easily balloon to $2M+.) Or is the sub-$1M townhouse and condo market still generally OK with subject-included offers?

I was already competing with subject-free offers in May - July 2020, in the $750K - $1.1M range, single family home. Even out in Maple Ridge, Poco and North Delta LOL

[Hondaracer]

Went into the brand new Br3ntwood tower, 4650 Brentwood Blvd...hoooooo boy..

All I can say is have fun, and be thankful one of those 5 elevators is working