floe

A Vancouver real estate developer is making an unprecedented move to offer a liquidation sale of $350 million worth of its condominiums throughout the Lower Mainland.

The marketing strategy by Onni Group of Companies is aimed at selling off hundreds of condos in its inventory.

About 375 unsold condominiums in cities such as Richmond and New Westminster will be offered at 20 to 40 per cent off...
link

There goes the neighbourhood. Pity the fools who bought at full price. I caught a brief news clip, and the condo "owner" was flipping out. The poor bastidge probably thought that he would be selling at a tidy profit in a year, and now his condo is worth at least 20% less. This flo development is more like an ice floe that people were cast off on to perish.



In my not-so-humble opinion, the suckers buying at the sale prices will also be finding that they have bought depreciating assets. Then comes the earth quake that will literally put them underwater.

After a 20 hour "emergency session" of the Legislature, Vancouver has received the go-ahead to borrow the money to finish the Millenium (Under) Water fiasco. You, nor I, will be consulted. That will be at least $456 million, and the latest is that it could be as much as $750 million. The limit imposed by the Leg. is to be found somewhere between the Sea and the Sky. In other words, there is no limit. I don't know about you, but I don't think that a billion dollar decision should be made after 20 hours of deliberation. I know that my own head is not very clear after an hour of debate, let alone 20 hours. The silver lining is that the City of Vancouver can borrow the money at "around 4%", while the developer (and us since September) pays 11%. So how is it good that I can borrow money cheaper than you, to cover your arse?

Who did the 52% that voted for the Olympics think was going to pay for this? Who got a Senate seat? Why do we have to have a 60% majority to have proportional representation, but only a 51% majority to put on a party for the rich, that costs us untold billions - directly and indirectly - disrupts our city and lives for 7 years, fuels an RE bubble that sucks in tens of thousands of slogan-addled believers into a lifetime of servitude to own a decaying, poorly built, and over-priced condo.

After 21 years in Vancouver, I have finally had enough. I don't want to pay for this. I'm going to buy a windmill, some hens and a rooster, hand tools, ammo, seeds, some goats, a few dogs, a few friends, a ukelele, an electric 4X4, 99 bottles of beer, buy a lease, build a sod house, learn to love potatoes, trade them for corn liquor, trade that for tobacco, trade that for dental floss and boots, and maybe a paper clip. What? You think that's crazy talk?, Yeah, well, real estate never goes down, you know.

This is going to be one of my last posts here, I think. I still have some photoshops that I just have to do, and a few comments to make, but let's face it, RE is dying an ignoble death. There is no joy or fun in that, and I am over taken by other, more pressing things. I just don't have the time to put in a decent effort anymore, and I'm just embarrassing myself now. Grin.

mull

Oh!
Hey!
Hi! How ya doin'?
Still there?
Ya, me too.

I have not written much lately, I've been considering where to go from here. I've had a lot of fun with the zany, the zowie, the zip and the zing. Jertains in my curtains, and zillows on my pillows... but the RE market is toast. That is not news anymore. Well, maybe it is - to some...

I got an e-mail yesterday from condohype alerting me to this article in The Gastritis and Mal-absorbed. I suppose I ought to be more charitable - given the Season of Blissful Consumption, and given that the writer, Timothy Taylor, gave a (favourable?) mention of condohype and vancouver (un)real estate - let's call it The Globe and Mail.

THE CITY: A BIWEEKLY LOOK AT LIFE IN VANCOUVER

The upside to the bubble bursting: Sanity returns
The bloggers had it right - B.C.'s real estate market was due for a correction. At least we can stop obsessing about house listings
TIMOTHY TAYLOR

I could not agree more. Further, he writes;

...Meanwhile, bloggers are gloating. I'm talking about those real estate death watch sites such as Vancouver (un) Real Estate (vancouverunrealestate.blogspot.com) and Condohype (condohype.word- press.com). After the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver called off its 2009 conference and trade show two weeks ago because of the downturn, the blogger-in-chief of Condohype wrote, "Too bad the party's cancelled because that activity sounds awesome. In my book, it's an invitation to show up in my 'The Blogger Was Right' T-shirt with my dogs Case and Shiller. I'm devastated this can't happen now."

The sarcasm is perhaps a little undignified, but you can hardly blame them for feeling satisfied. They diagnosed market madness. And, with varying degrees of insight and eloquence, they were correct. That bull market really had distorted our view of certain things. It had changed us, or at the very least it had changed the way we relate to the places where we live.

It's nice to be noticed by such (an august) publication as the Gripe and Mewl, but I have to say that, well never mind, it's Crassmess, after all. Personally though, I think that the hypster's sarcasm is brilliant, prolific, and consistent, but never undignified. And Timothy, it's all lower case on the title for a reason. Do I feel sorry for flippers caught with their trousers down? No. I do, however, feel for the naive and ovine - whom were sucked in by the hype. I feel for those who have no idea what a recession is, let alone a depression, and have a huge mortgage with no equity, and will lose their jobs.

We were right - all of us; VHB, the pope, me, mohican,... Even Rob Chipman hedged his bets. You the readers were right too, and that is why you sought a different view. But gloating? Nah.

Now, where to go from here?

There is much to write about, always. Politically, I could dedicate to a career in print. I alienated a lot of readers in that though, because I expressed my very explicit views of Harper, and a good bunch of the Conservative Party. There is little gained from such rants though, it just tires me, and inflames others. Most couldn't give a hoot.

I could write about the coming depression, but that would just depress all of us, and waste a bunch of time that could be spent more judiciously - like canning fish, and salting pork, and stewing fruits, and pickling eggs, and learning how to plow with a dog in harness, or darning socks, or repairing boots, or distilling corn mash.

Maybe, I could just continue to post whatever suits my fancy. It might be about gay penguins. It might be severed Internet cables under the sea (and the perceived portent). Maybe you need an herbal cure for halitosis, or want to know about non-local effect. How to skin a rabbit, or pull a grouse's head through it's rectum. Maybe I will relate something that you have already read over at The Turner Report, or Greater Fool. I ripped this from there -



The Detroit house, on the left is going for $300 (three hundred dollars). The Vancouver house on the right is going for $998,000. Detroit must be the Worst Place on Earth, wot? They need some steenking Oleempics.

For now, this will remain vancouver (un)realestate (because it is still unreal), but in the future, it may morph into something like vancouver re-instated, and I will report on Bridge scores, or such. Who knows?

If you send me money, I might even be compelled to write more. If the Grey and Mangy wants to hire me, great! In the meantime, you can hook up for the RSS feed so to save a fruitless click - only to find nothing new.

Best of the season to all, whatever your affiliation.

enforcers

REBEL ENGLISH BIKERS GETTING VESPAS

I wrote about the pope packing it in, but it seems that due to popular demand, he is considering other avenues (an assumption that the pope is XY, and not XX). condohype has made an excellent comment today, and the pope reproduced the affair here.

Prior to sending a cease and desist regarding the language via our Legal staff, if the matter can be resolved internal it would be preferred.
————————————
FROM: xxxxxxx@rebgv.org
RE: Identification of site management

Further to the changes as outlined below which we expect to be implemented immediately, we also request that...

...this email will serve as notification with respect to our requests and will be kept on file and further forwarded to our legal department. (bolding is mine)

That is threatening language, thinly veiled, in my view.


I was surprised by the pope's announcement, but at the same time, was not. I became somewhat bored with RE when the top was in, and now it seems a slow fall to bottom - like a feather from a humming bird. La-la-la. Big news would be the whole danged flock of humming birds falling from the sky like so much hail. Further, I have either alienated, or bored, many readers. Having these kinds of bombs dropped on you can dampen ones enthusiasm, and instill cynicism further. I too have had a letter with mention of libel, civil proceedings, subpoena, etc. - in regard to some anonymous comments that did verge on libel. I removed the comments, but did not alter my post. That satisfied the complainant, and the pope has done similarly.

It can be daunting to keep it fresh, and RE related, which his eminence did well. There has been so much financial and political intrigue too, it is almost useless trying to write about either - they are both so colossally fragged up. I'm just finding everything to be surreal, if predicted, these days. I have had a hard time keeping up - my toddler is a terror (in the best of ways), and demands and deserves a lot of attention. I often start posts that end up saved as drafts, because I lose the rhythm, and the post becomes senseless (this is one of those). Pages sit open for days awaiting comment, until the news is stale, and there are 10 new essays to write every day.

I seem to have misrepresented the situation with VCI this AM (as pointed out by Many Franks), and hope that I have done better in my redaction. It was really about the photoshop, and I rushed the writing. I was distracted.

All the best, your eminence, and thanks for all the laughs, news, and traffic.

not nanos

put yer mouse over the picky, and clicky, and it will get biggy.

Thanks to everyone for voting. I am gratified by the interest, and the discussion. I am so, because it seems that more people are invested in our social futures than not. I hope that those who are not interested in this election are visitors from other countries, and not Canadians (but then again, I am always interested in their elections, so why not?). I feel everyone ought to take an interest, because so much is dependent on what our governments (and agencies, like Health Canada, CFIA, BoC, CMHC, EI, for starters) are doing. A new Free Trade Pact with the EU if Harper is re-elected? (I'll get to that)

I have to disclose that I made the first answer on the poll @ There is an election?. I put the question about Obama in for fun, and I don't know if the votes are from American visitors who are actually voting for him, or people having fun back. Both are totally cool with me. Overall though, it seems that there is an interest, and so I will rant on as I can. Mostly, it will be a deluge of links, with some commentary (I really don't have a lot of time!) I like that the comments have been measured and reasonable too. I don't mind what your brand of politics, it's great that you have them! I like debate, so I will counter stuff like "a tax on everything", "he can't speak English", "she's a fat American who worked for Brian Mulroney"... you get it. I admit to being facile with my photoshop, but that was just the artist in me. Plus, it was funny! Harper didn't look sinister at all, he looked like a kid - all dressed up. My point is, let's not make slurs and such. Let's talk about facts, with links. I am obviously not too keen on Hapless and his henchmen though.

I'll toss a bone to those who just want RE, and do my best to illustrate how RE and this election are joined at the hip. And I will intersperse it with Vancouver RE stuff - 'cause I still care. Besides, it's only 3 more weeks, so house prices will only slide $15 G's or so. Inventory will start to swell even more, Foreclosures will start kicking in. Employment will be down a bit. A couple of projects will go into receivership, or be cancelled... Further, more people are going to vote for Obama, and the other two that didn't know there is an election (unless of course everyone is pulling my leg!) beat out the Survivor fan and CTV.

And that is why this is not Nanos (but here is a link )

Tomorrow: Debunking the Green Shift Prevarications. And Turning The Corner - Only To Find a Washed-Out Bridge.

Oh, and farewell to summer. Tomorrow there will be more night than day, and it won't be equitable again until The Waters of March. Sigh.

vote here

We are all wondering quite a few things these days;

What on Earth is going on with the financial markets? Down 1500 one day, up 800 the next. Why did the US bail out private companies to the tune of hundreds billions of dollars? Will this spill over into Canada?

The BoC ponied up with $12 billion the other day to stabilize things - hey! isn't that our money? What about the billions in ABCP that the BoC bought over the last while? Did we get that back? What would happen to us if the Gov't of Canada de-regulated banks? Would we be in the same mess? Are we headed for the same mess?

Steve Hapless promised some kind of tax refund, or a rebate, or a grant (or whatever the heck it was) to first-time home buyers, to help with the closing costs. Is this a good idea? Do the poor bastidges that bought at the peak with 0% down really want to subsidize my home purchase when I buy at the bottom? Is it just like a cash-back mortgage? Is it an attempt to re-ignite the flagging RE market? Will that save it?

Are we on the verge of a recession, or worse? Are tanking housing prices, volatile (to the extreme) markets, declining oil demand and prices (but not so much for gasoline), job losses, plant closures, and all that other wild stuff, just background noise?

I have some questions too.

The other day, I ventured into talking about politics, and I'm not so sure that is what you want to read about here. I did so because I am concerned about all of what is mentioned above, and more, and I think that our government policies are quite relevant to them. I feel like I am watching a train hurtling towards a washed out bridge, and the engineer can't hear me yelling to stop because he is asleep.

Are you glad to get more in-depth/background information on what the issues, and the candidates/parties' backgrounds? Do you like it that I stray from the narrow confines of inventory, prices, and such?

I don't want to end up just ranting at myself (the last time I did that, I ended up in a jacket with extraordinarily long arms), so I made a poll about the polls. Have your say!

Are you interested in the October 14th federal election, and do you want to read about it here?
	No, I'm not, and I wish you would stick to sell/list ratios and inventory.
	Mildly interested, but I don't think it matters that much. I just want to read about RE
	I'll make a decision based on CanWest Global's newscasts.
	Not that interested, but I enjoyed reading about it here.
	Very interested, and I would like to read more about it here.
	There is an election?
	I don't care what you write about., some of it I like, some of it I don't.
	I'm voting for Obama.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

bill's overdue

Do we need some tragi-comic relief?

Well, maybe a trip down memory lane to January 31st of this year, when semi-anonymous bill left the nuggets quoted below, along with some other stuff about how he bought a place by borrowing the down payment from his parents, and it will only go up, and he will never lose his job, and the economy is solid, and other stuff like that. He promised to come back in the summer, and he only has 19 days left to do so.

I've got a crow on the barbie for him, and he is overdue. The crow is pretty well smoked too.

Anonymous said...
Anyways, enough of my ramblings. I will leave you boys alone to discuss *when* the market will crash, as you all have been for the past few years. Must be like waiting for paint to dry, eh?

1/31/2008 12:02 AM
Anonymous said...
PS: Please remember my posts. Really. Please do. My name's Bill. I will check back in the summertime, when things get *ugly*, as you say. Haha. In the meantime, keep posting, keep the ideas flowing, and never forget - there's two sides to every coin.

I have not forgotten your posts Bill. What a sexist! In assuming that we are all "boys" here, you excluded mk-kids, and a lot of other women. Good luck with the girls, you swinging bachelor, you.

Oh, and Bill, the paint is peeling off the facade.

Heads I win, tails you lose.

"W" is for Winner (or wiener).

the jean gibson fan club

It is still a buyer's market. The number of homes on the market has increased and the asking prices have adjusted to the market. Now is a great time to buy, while Vancouver homes are at rock-bottom prices.

Good grief.They must have started adding mind-addling fluoride (or something) to the water when I was not looking. The above quote is from the Kerrisdale Real Estate blog. The picture is a screen-shot of the blog page.

The previous article, entitled Buy The Dream has seven things that jean (the realtor/author) has learned about Real Estate. They sound to be from Ozzie Jurock's latest $1599 RE Action Week-end, or maybe just from his Insider Alerts.

Now, I'm not usually vindictive, or even nasty, but I am feeling a bit ornery lately (I have my reasons). Jean looks to be a nice, grandmotherly type (In a W.A.S.P.ish way), but how can she believe the crap that she is writing? Will anybody else believe it?

I would like to see every person, who reads this, own their own home. Preferably using me as their realtor.
I hope I have nudged you to go out and buy that dream!

Now, that is just elitest. She wishes every person who reads her article will own their own home. What about the other 3.999999 million people in BC who will never read those words? Too bad. And I love the plug to use her as your realtor. (She forgot the capitalization, and TM. I am more deliberate)

I don't get a huge number of comments here, and I appreciate the ones that I do get, but this lady had ZERO comments until today (other than spam), when a bunch of readers of Rob Chipman's blog trooped over there and started laying on a bunch of snark for her. So, why not join the jean gibson fan club, and mosey on over to leave your good wishes? I am sure that she will be gratified by the traffic.

Just be nice, she is, after all, someones Grandma.

dada

My posting here has been getting slower and slower, while the residential listings come faster and faster. An incongruity to be sure. I have a good reason - as seen above. My kid is now 15 months old, and demands more and more attention. I can't, in good conscience, neglect the precious moments of growth and development of my progeny to stoke my own self through regular posting.

So what, beyond the obvious, does dada have to do with the RE market? Why, lots of course (no matter how oblique).

The dictionary provides some congruity (it's saved my butt a few times);

n. A European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.

dada

1920, from Fr. dada "hobbyhorse," child's nonsense word, selected 1916 by Romanian poet Tristan Tzara, leader of the movement, for its resemblance to meaningless babble.

dada

noun
1. an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk [syn: dad]
2. a nihilistic art movement (especially in painting) that flourished in Europe early in the 20th century; based on irrationality and negation of the accepted laws of beauty

nonsense, travesty, and incongruity - Yes, the marketing nonsense perpetuates a travesty in pricing that is incongruous to the real value of a home.

irrationality and negation of the accepted laws - Hmm, does that not describe the RE market in Vancouver (and indeed, elsewhere)?

meaningless babble - That describes all the hyperbole about mountains, weather, Olympics, "it's different this time, ...here", "the fundamentals are strong", and indeed, a lot of the meaningless babble written on this blog.

nihilistic - Would describe the attitudes of those of us who saw that it was all a bunch of hyped bull crackers.

OK, so that is it about dada.

Now, I find myself wondering if I should wait for another 5 or 10 years for the bottom to buy a home to raise my kid in, or whether I should just save my money, and give it to him to buy a place (or two) for cash, when all of the boomers have died off and there is no one left to buy over-priced real estate.

I dunno, but time will tell.

My postings are much more sparse, and I have struggled with the idea of quitting the blog, but I have decided to keep it going for at least a while longer. It is just starting to get interesting.

fool on the hill

the pope already wrote about Garth Turner's new book: Greater Fool - the troubled future of real estate, and there is a blog that goes with it. He did a post on Vancouver (you have to check it out), and I was compelled to reproduce some of his commentary here.

I own a downtown [westend] Vancouver condo in a very good building within 3 blocks of the seawall and many other amenities. At 750 sq ft. it is pefect for a young couple or retirees. The market value is currently about 440K and I have about 110K equity. Is this type of property going to be affected to the same degree as other properties? Would you advise to sell now and wait out the coming crash?
Thank you in advance,
Al

You have a condo the size of my garage, worth $440,000, with condo fees, property taxes and other carrying costs, and you ask if this is a solid long-term investment in an over-valued market teetering at the tipping point of unaffordability? Are you serious?

This is exactly the kind of unit which has an uncertain future since there are scads of competing condos in the area, and a limited universe of “young couples or retirees” able or silly enough to buy one of them. Unless your unit is unique, with a full water view or the latest in amenities, or on the trendiest block, then there’s no reason to believe it will escape the coming correction in Vancouver prices. Get used to it. Or get out.

What is remarkable, is that Turner is an MP in Ottawa, and is quite vocal about the impending downturn in the economy, and the concomitant RE melt-down.

Mr. Turner is best known (lately) for being kicked out of the Conservative party by Herr Harper for being...too vocal. He sat as an Independent for a while, and since joined with the Liberals. He also was an MP in the short-lived Kim Campbell gov't (hey - she's from Vancouver) after losing a bid for the PC leadership to Ms. Campbell. He had a regular column in the Toronto Sun, and has written numerous articles published in other major Canadian daily newspapers.

Turner also has a political blog (link at Greater Fool), that is filled with mostly tedious comments, and Turner's reportage of events on Parliament Hill. Mr. Turner is a great advocate of Mr. Turner. Vexatious, and often vituperative, but both of his blogs are worth checking out.

I just like him because Charles McVety despises him.

happy new year!

Here we are at the eve of a new year. It has been a good year for me, with the arrival of a bundle of joy, and the accompanying patter of little, bare feet. The RE correction so long anticipated has not come to be realized, but, oh well. Maybe in 2008?

I would like to interrupt myself here to thank each and every one of you that have made this humble little blog a continuing interest and joy for me to write. Over 190,000 hits in the last year. So much more than I could have hoped for when I undertook the production. Thank you for sticking with me when I have under-produced, ranted, and occasionally been snarky. And thank you for the decorum exhibited through it all.

I hope for the very best for all of us, everywhere - bull, bear, ambivalent, home-owner, renter, homeless, but I do hope that all the specuvestors get burned (just kidding...sort of). I believe that we have huge challenges coming to us in the near future.

I picked the picture above because it seemed to have many pertinent elements - a sign warning of a fork in the road, a character (specuvestor?) with a target on his hat, and a generic, uninspiring metro backdrop.

trotter made a few predictions in the last post, which I will bring over here to open up the commentary. Feel free to post your own predictions, rants, kudos, kvetches, etc.

I predict a steady slide in prices beginning in February/March, much hand-wringing and recriminations, a few bank collapses, a stock market crash, and my own committal to a nut-house near you.

Have a happy, healthy New Year. My resolution is to be a bit more regular in my postings.

Let the prognostications begin!

property rights through copyright

I realize that some of my posts are overly self-indulgent (the bitch-slap post being a case in point), but ultimately, I am writing, and fiddling with photo's, for my own amusement. I still want you, the reader, to take something away though...

A year or so ago, there was a lot of talk about oil and gas and mining companies staking private property, and making resource claims on same. A lot of people found this to be outrageous, and I certainly did. There was the guy out in Vernon exercising these staking rights, and was very busy traipsing over people's lands and there was nothing the property owners could do about it. Then there was the ranch up near Ashcroft that had a company mining kitty litter, and generally destroying the land. Again, the property owners had no legal recourse. It gave me pause for thought in buying raw land. Most of the province is being staked, and it would be difficult to protect against such intrusions and trespasses.

Perhaps one could stake claims on any land one chose to buy, but the "companies" have already staked most of it. How to deal with that? I read an article in Canadian Art magazine about one artist's way of protecting his land...he copyrighted his property as an autonomous piece of art.

Peter von Tiesenhausen, in 2005

"...set a legal precedent by successfully claiming copyright of his land as an autonomous piece of art, thereby protecting it from encroaching oil and gas interests." Again, one might view such legal safeguarding as the politico-legal incarnation of the romantic desireto parcel up and control the landscape. But really, when urgent and large-scale legal reforms seem like a pipe dream for environmentalists and concerned artist-citizens alike,how can one resist the legal system by operating in it's extant, if flawed, strictures? Von Thiesenhausen's legal success offers a glimmer of hope in an ever-more-hopeless world. His paintings,like totems salvaged from a fire in the studio of his beleaguered mind, stand as a bittersweet celebration, a small victory for art over the big murder of economic progress.

That same small victory could be claimed by whomsoever would make a mineral claim on Gordon Campbell's land on the Sunshine Coast, and proceed to quarry it for gravel. It was after all, the Campbell government that made it so easy for big business interests to lay claim on the private lands of British Columbians... And since property rights were omitted from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we must protect those rights in any way that we can.

Hurrah for Peter von Tiesenhausen!

when is a deal not a deal?

I'm proffering a deal of the week that is relative. I write "relative" in the sense that there are no good deals around by my measure.

This house sits on a huge (for East Van.) 57'x115', 6581 sq. ft. lot. That could be subdivided, built on, and turned around for profit. The blurb claims the possibility to live on the main, while renting out the top floor and 4 basement "suites for a gross of $3k/month. Their arithmetic is a bit unsteady though - they claim that 4x$450 = $1900, so they might really be asking $749K for the place.

It is interesting that the house is built of "stone and brick", that is very uncommon here. You can indeed see a stone foundation, but the brick has disappeared behind some hideous plastic siding. The house is 3150 sq. feet, so it is big, and the numbers do kinda work - you could end up paying about $600/month to live on the main, while having a rooming house atmosphere in the rest. Too bad, because it might be a nice place to buy and restore, with a nice big yard for my kids. Not for $828K though.

The blurb (below) mentions a 150 sq' basement too - perfect for a little grow-op to augment the mortgage payments. While I'm on the topic of the blurb, it is a bit over-blown - nestled in quiet alcove, I found jarring. How do you nestle a 3150 sq' house anywhere? - let alone an alcove. And the mention that the house will stand for at least another 40 years is comforting - especially if one opts for a 40 year amortization.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that the picture seems to be from last fall/winter, and the MLS# is 50,000 older than current, so this place has been on the market for quite a while. I wonder if it has some heritage designation or covenant prohibiting subdivision.

listing

Price $828,000.00
Incredible 1910 brick & stone farmhouse w/panoramic views, nestled in quiet alcove & steps from ALRT Skytrain. Totally rebuilt inside the brick outer shell - new fibreglass roof, all new plumbing, electrical & wiring, studs, drywall, insulation, baths, kitchen, flrg, 2 hot water tanks, high efficiency furnace & wndws. Feels like a new home, must see inside to appreciate. Has front entry driveway usually mistaken for side lane, but is actually part of huge lot. Solid & has stood the test of time. Live on the main flr (9 ft ceils) & rent out top AND bsmt & get $3,000 in rent!! Work the numbers. Needs new deck, but can be worked into the price. Check out the antique walnut F/P & some of the original 5 ft high wainscotting/fir flrs, 3 bdrm (possible to convert to 4!!) main flr suite. Top floor separate 3 bdrm unit w/gable balcony; Basement 4 bdrm houses 4 students @ $450 each ($1900/mo). One of the biggest lot sizes in Renfrew Heights. This house will stand a minimum of another 40 years. Unfin bsmt 150 SF.

I've been deep in the doo lately - computer troubles have been overwhelming, and led to major data confusion. I have not yet totally worked it out, but will post as I am able. I'm juggling an incredible amount these days. Babby Solipsist is crawling around like a crazed hyena, The Missus is knee-deep in naps and nappies, business is booming, cyber reconfiguration has etched the blue screen of death into my being, and even though I am the administrator, I cannot figure out how to give myself universal privileges. I have not given up, just been overwhelmed. Blogging seems to be a challenge for many right now. Mercury retrograde perhaps?

up to me arse in alligators

Sorry folks, I'm up to me arse in alligators again...configuring computer, configuring network, configuring babby, etc.

I'll be right back...soon.

becoming rich while waiting for the denouemente

aleks posted up a link to Digital Luddite's One-Step Guide to Becoming Rich over at mohican's place that is worth reading. Maybe you will be curious to take the link trip. It's not RE related, but the writing is a good diversion.

This whole RE/financial thing is getting wearying. It's like waiting for the denouemente in the Russian version of War and Peace.

Here is the One-Step Guide to Becoming Rich (redacted), and it is not flipping real estate.

Becoming rich is not complicated. Calculating the launch vector to send a rocket to Pluto is complicated, involving all sorts of higher level math (ie grade 10 and above). Becoming rich involves no math more complicated than addition and subtraction.

The reason most people don't do it is that it's difficult...

The One-Step Guide to Becoming Rich is this: Spend less than you earn. The more you earn and the less you spend, the richer you become.

It sounds like common sense. It should be common sense. And yet, as sense goes it's anything but common. The...collective US citizenry...are in fact following the One-Step Guide to Becoming Poor.

Probably because if you are like most people,... you want to appear rich. You want...to make your neighbours jealous. You don't even know how to calculate your net worth, or what it means when the number is negative.

And ironically, it's the desire to appear rich that prevents people from becoming rich. Trying to impress your neighbours is the very first thing on the list of 10 Reasons You Aren't Rich.

Another good one is #6: You Try to Make a Quick Buck. Gambling is more popular now than ever...

CONdo flipping is gambling

Sure, you can probably do basic addition with a calculator, and some of you may remember what a ratio is, but on a fundamental level you don't understand how numbers work....

...Today's hip internet slacker doesn't want to "save," you want to "invest" and buy "stocks" and "currency hedged mutual funds whose asset mix and investment strategy you don't understand."

...If you spend less than you earn, you can't help becoming rich. Maybe you would become richer faster if you made better investment decisions, but there's a corollary for that too: You are not Warren Buffett.

Every month that you follow the One-Step Guide, you will be richer than the month before. It's a virtually foolproof system.

The only flaw is... Once you spend the money, you're not rich anymore. Like the One-Step Guide itself, it's pretty much common sense, but it's a bit of a catch-22.

In a future rantenspiel I'll outline the Two-Step Guide to Becoming Slightly Less Rich But Still Getting to Go Out Occasionally and Buy New Versions of Guitar Hero.

It's not quite as catchy.

Couldn'a said it better myself.

From the same site -

Of course, what's really happening is that journalists are acting more like bloggers.

Which was pretty much inevitable, if you think about it. The internet at large is always at least five years behind the porn industry, and what is a blog except a low budget, grainy, amateur hand-held version of real journalism?

I like that! Grainy and hand-held is us.

bad blogger

Oooh. I'm a bad blogger. I'm chest-deep in chihuahuas these days. Child, churlishness, chicanery, choices, chumps, chicks, and chutneys. In other words - it's summer, and I've been really busy. Did I mention the chihuahuas?

On top of all of that, WTF is going on? The RE market is nothing short of surreal. I pass "For Sale" signs daily that have been there for months. Some are sporting "Price Reduced", but it looks like the summer doldrums, and buyers' fatigue. Chipman's numbers are all over the map. The stock markets are again accelerating, my contrarian holdings are holding, energy stocks are up and down, I see moving trucks and construction cranes all over the place, business is picking up...

I have little time to read, but I see new characters "on the blogs", and the "old" ones fading away. Even "bulls" are quiet. Is it just the summer doldrums? Then why is the market still so active? We are seeing near-record sales. What's with that? I just can't get a real pulse of the market. Is this a "calm before the storm"? Is the storm a cyclone of dropping RE values?, or a storm of new buying?

I haven't got a clue. Do You?

breaking the silence

Helloooo.

I regret my week of incommunicado status, and thanks to all for continuing to visit, and to comment.

I have been having a bit of a health crisis as of late, which has precluded activity here and elsewhere. My wife always tells me to tell people how I am feeling, so I am breaking my silence.

I feel like yesterday's fish left out in the sun, and my brain is oozing out through my eye sockets. OK - not really, but, I have been quite under the weather. I will resume my incoherent rants as soon as I am able.

In the meantime, here is your chance to break your silence. Rant about whatever you would like. I would be especially glad to hear tales of those who have bit off more than they can chew, and are sweating cod fish, or whatever. Those are high hopes, but...

Feed me some schadenfreude, and make us all feel better.

I'll be back soon.

the tenant

Well, that last post was a sleeper...

Van-City Slumlords is a new blog taking on specuvestors(?) who are trying for ridiculous amounts of rent. The blogger is choked. Understandably.

I don't have much trouble with my tenancy. I have lived in the house for 7 1/2 years, and have had only 2 rent increases (in line with the RTA). Management changed a couple of years ago, and the accountant now collecting the rent tried to raise it by about 13% last winter. I told him that he had a choice between not raising the rent, and keeping us, or having to make some hefty modernizations, and good luck that the new tenants don't turn it into a grow-op. He didn't raise the rent.

I am lucky though, I have been here quite a while, so the rent was reasonable in the first place. I am glad that he didn't call my bluff though, because by all accounts, trying to rent right now is a nightmare. Amateur LL's trying to cover ridiculous mortgages with ridiculous rents on ridiculous hamster cages with ridiculous terms, and other pieces of like shite. I definitely would not buy anything. I would leave town - much as I do really like it here.

I really think that with the squeezing of tenants to cover just a part of the mortgage, the game is well nigh over. Idiots may be "happy" enough to drop 70% of take-home pay on their own abode, but there is no way on earth that people are going to pay that kind of money to rent a hell-hole. The buck stops with the tenant. That is the margin.

Check this blog out (link in sidebar). It's full of vitriol and foul language, but is a good measure of what is going to happen. At least that's what I think. The blog has video, and links that show that this is not just a local phenomenon either.

Let them eat cake indeed.

skulking

Well, I've been skulking about, not posting much - blaming it on new fatherhood...



It is true - it has stolen my "time", but I have also been at somewhat of a loss for words in discussing the RE scene in Van. these days.

We all know it will crash - even the bullish amongst us. But when? Will it crash like the gas prices - dream on... There is something in the water, I think.

Anecdotally; business sucks lately. Decidedly un-busy. My income relies on discretionary spending, and it seems to be in decline. Not just me, but others in the same business are reporting similar results.

Restaurants seem less busy, stores seem less busy. New car sales are on the decline. Anything else?

On a bright note, condo hype is doing really well. If you haven't checked it out yet, it is a recommended read. If only I was so funny, well read, and had a little more time...

I am going to start opening up the soapbox again because I think that the commentary is often better than the scribing - here, and other places too. So think of what you want to say, and in the spirit of Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, Sundays will be your chance to have your say.

I noticed last week that the hit counter here was 6's right across the board. What does that mean? Not much, really, but that some of you are still interested in my pontification(s). I will try to satisfy that interest in the coming days.

Being a new parent does indeed change one's life. I'm so tired...

condohype. a hip, modern, urban commentary

condohype

There's a new blog online - condohype, and it's very worth perusing. Thanks to the pope for pointing it out. Like the pope, I really like the maxim of disown the lifestyle. I'll put a permo-link up in the sidebar.

It's clean, it's sarcastic, and the author thinks like me do. I actually have a little bit of blog envy. I bet it's written on a Mac...

I'm such a Luddite - stuck in the stone age of PC and blogger beta/binary/new blogger/old blogger/Google cookie heaven. Hey Pal, I don't do PayPal. Get yer friggin' cookie off my browser. One of these days, I will get with the programme.

Back to condohype - it's a good read. Check it out. Most of you probably knew that before I did.

no more heroes

off topic/on topic, vhb, cap'n america and dyspepsia

Captain America assassinated by sniper after 66 years of comic history

NEW YORK (AP) - Holy home-icide, Batman!

Captain America is dead! Assassinated, in fact, as he walks into a federal courthouse in New York, under arrest and in handcuffs, headed to his arraignment for refusing to sign the government's Superhero Registration Act and forcibly revealing his true identity.

It's eerie! Is there a connection to the Legend of VHB?

A sniper, firing a high-powered rifle from a rooftop, hits the famed red, white and blue leader of the Real Estate Avengers with three bullets and escapes the scene, leaving the weapon behind Oswald-style, as bears and Captain VHB's military escort cope with chaos in the streets.

What does this mean? Can the pulverizing patriot really be dead, shot down on the courthouse steps after years of battling villains from Scameron S'more to the Red Velvet? Will the killer or killers be captured?

The only way to find out, says Dan Buckley, president and publisher of Marvel Entertainment, is to "read the book" as the story line unfolds.

Jeez-us. It is rumoured that VHB has left the city (I can't blame him for that), and Cap'n America has been assassinated.

I just can't take it any more.

I got into blogging on RE a bit late (the story of my life), and really enjoyed myself doing it. I am not giving up just yet, but changes in my life have certainly curtailed my posting.

Over all, I am quite jaded, disgusted, and just a little bemused. My wife and I have been muttering about going away after 19 years of living here, but as my daffodils bloom, the trees begin to leaf, the robins hop around for my amusement, and the news of the weather in the rest of the country is FRIGID, I wonder where we'll go. Brazil? Portugal? France? Victoria? I dunno... All I know is that I am a bit long in the tooth to sign up for a 100 year mortgage, and have too much sense to do so anyhow. I've got an accomodating downpayment ready to go, but I might as well have nothing - prices here being what they are.

I'm disgusted by the Olympic crap, the Olympic toilet ring, the Olympic ring-around-the-collar, Flash, the traffic, the transit, the municipal guvmint, the provincial guvmint, the hubris and stupidity, the federal guvmint, mossy cars, Cuban exiles, avian flu and beeswax. I oughtn't be feeling so, but I am. The assassination of Cap'n Amurikkka just tears it for me though.

I will continue to post here, but it will be at a much slower pace. Once or twice a week... I may get more excited if things change soon.

the pope seems to be weary of this sordid spectacle too.

The laughs here have become hollow, forced, and much more rare. I'm not so sure I want to live in such a wanton place as Vancouver anymore.

My apologies to the original author for the hack job.

EDIT: the pope does not plan on packing in his blog any time soon. I regret the mis-representation.