Real Estate
As far as investments go, real estate is a pretty solid bet. Year over year almost anyone who bought a house five years ago has made money on their investment. Still, the headlines can be frightening: Home sales slow to near historic levels in Fraser Valley as buyers watch and wait...
If you sprained your ankle—so badly that you couldn’t drive—could you still get to work, conveniently and affordably? Could you hobble safely to a grocery store on your new crutches? Could you get as far as the pharmacy to fill a prescription for painkillers? These are thoughts we don’t want...
Today City Hall is being given a proposal which would see three lots on 33rd Ave in east Vancouver rezoned in order to create a co-housing complex. As opposed to a co-operative housing complex, wherein a corporation or association owns units and residents own shares in that corporation, co-housing allows...
On February 6, 2013 Vancouver’s City Hall launched a database listing all of the single occupancy hotels and private apartments that have received bylaw infractions or violations during the past year. The database, which came from a motion passed last January, allows potential renters to check the database for any...
Realtor ethics is bandied about as an oxymoron. But as real estate is a self-regulated industry, as are other professions such as law, accounting and pharmacy, realtors are subject to a strict set of standards and guidelines and it’s important that any potential buyer or seller know these rules before...
Now that the New Year has come, it’s time to look at the state of Vancouver’s favourite sports. By that I mean, of course, hockey and real estate. Both are obsessions here in B.C., particularly in Vancouver. And both are buoyed by delusion. Hockey’s back, or soon will be, and the...
Will the new year bring softer prices and slower sales for housing in the Lower Mainland? December always brings out the crystal ball to predict the next year’s real estate market performance. So, if we make it through December (assuming the Mayans were wrong), here is what I’ve cobbled together for a 2013 outlook.
I had a client who was interested in buying a grow op as an investment. They were sure that if they did all the remediation required by the municipality and upgraded the interior that they would easily flip the property...
Buying condos to rent isn’t always the road to riches. In fact, it can lead to near ruin. Ever wonder about those long lines at new condo development sales offices, or curious as to how condo developments can be sold out within hours? Most of us have. One clue is that more than half the buyers are wearing suits and seem to spend all their time chatting furiously into their smartphones.