Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

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JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Edited out. That teach me to just look for the CANADA tag in my favorites again.

JawKnee fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Feb 19, 2013

# ¿ Feb 19, 2013 20:09

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:22

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Baronjutter posted:

Did he mention housing bubbles at all??

Well poo poo. Wrong thread entirely.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2013 23:33

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

jet sanchEz posted:

Also, Vancouver is not the best place in the world to live but that is for another thread.

It's a joke, one of tourism BC's catchphrases that they pushed in every ad was 'best place on earth'.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2013 16:37

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Now now, we're far too polite for that

# ¿ Feb 25, 2013 03:09

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Baronjutter posted:

I'd love to rent but this isn't europe and renting is for lazy failed poors and students, who have to live in sub-standard old buildings with lovely shared-laundry and stinky elevators. I know buying is expensive but I don't look at it as an investment, it's a luxury, it's a thing to make one happy. I hate renting, I hate the uncertainty, the lack of any sense of ownership or control. You go into a condo building and no one vandalizes poo poo because it's their own building, people have a sense of ownership and it shows. Something breaks, you can fix it and fix it right. I looked at some not-shitbox apartments and town-houses for rent but the rents are insane, higher than mortage+strata+utilities. So it's either shared-laundry apartments where you have to do guard-duty or your clothes will all be stolen, or really high-end units marketed more towards rich professionals here for a season or two.

If I could find a 2 bedroom apartment with in-suite laundry, up to date fire safety equipment, decent sound-proofing, and a management company that doesn't take months to fix broken light switches and faucets (replacing them of course with the cheapest shittiest things they can) I'd probably jump on it. But there's like no middle-ground here. It's either 50 year old poo poo-boxes full of students and drug addicts, or super high-end luxury stuff.

This is loving ridiculous, goddamn.

A hell of a lot of people rent in Vancouver, many of whom are not poors, thieves, or drug addicts. It sounds like you've had lovely neighbors and that sucks, and yes there are of course bad landlords and neighbors in every city. When you're renting, don't rent in a building that looks like poo poo - chances are it won't start magically degrading after you move in. Also renting from a strata building is a great way to make sure repairs are timely.

And who the gently caress steals laundry?

# ¿ Mar 18, 2013 22:23

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Man I'm renting in Kits (admittedly with my partner which reduces rent by 1/2) and I'm super happy with my place. Like OSI said, you just have to look around and have a bit of luck.

I've definitely forgotten about my laundry numerous times, no one dumps laundry on the floor in any building I've lived in - that's anecdotal sure, but any neighbor who is willing to do that poo poo is a lovely neighbor. Every repair problem I've ever had (plumbing, leaky roof, oven stuff) has been taken care of within a couple days by my current strata - Atira property management if you care.

And rental building's aren't all bad - I'm in one. You could also try and find a coop (good luck).

# ¿ Mar 18, 2013 23:29

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Want to live like a student the rest of your life? Here's a solution for you! http://www.vancouverobserver.com/real-estate/cohousing-vancouver-living-outside-box

I don't think that's really fair, it's essentially your own apartment with an additional (much larger) shared kitchen, storage area, and guest bedroom thing. Also apparently the screening is fairly rigorous so I doubt you'd have to put up with student bullshit. From what I've heard the units would pretty much be around the same cost as comparable apartments, but that article seems to say that they'd go for 20% less than going cost?

Sounds pretty good to me actually.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2013 03:53

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

How large are the individual unit's kitchens?

# ¿ Mar 19, 2013 04:11

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Dude, shared resources implied shared decision making. Have you ever attended a strata meeting? I have heard horror stories about stratas full of idiots who can barely afford their units who want to defer mandatory maintenance. gently caress. That. poo poo.

Right but that article you posted said very clearly that each unit has its own kitchen in addition to the shared one. I'm wondering how large those individual kitchens are.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2013 04:16

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Pinterest Mom posted:

In this case, it's the minister telling a bank that it has to charge more money for its product, not less, leaving home-buyers worse off. I don't know why anyone would support the minister doing this.

I'm not very well informed on how mortgages work, but this struck me as trying to avoid propping up an ailing housing market by making mortgages easier to get regardless of whether they ought to be easier to get or not.

I agree though that it is really weird how it went down.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2013 00:24

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Oh please, spare me your sanctimonious bullshit about 'community'. Vancouverites are humungous assholes who don't give a poo poo about anything other than themselves.

Are you... from here? I've lived here a good chunk of my life and we're far from the most impolite city around. It's not Victoria, but still, every time I hear this it baffles me - are you just always on Granville street during club hours or something?

# ¿ Mar 20, 2013 07:08

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Throatwarbler posted:

Eh, Someone paid money for all that poo poo to be built, so where did that money go? Unless all the construction workers and interior designers and condo developers move to China Vancouver is still ahead.

At least until demand disappears, because it doesn't seem to be a density fueled demand for housing, and it looks like actual residents are being out-priced by speculative activity. At that point it seems like the construction industry would be impacted heavily (to the tune of 'no one is buying, so no one is building').

Also I'm not sure what racism you're referring to. Is that in response to the article on foreign investment?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 17:47

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Nobody is saying that :psyduck:

And 'giving money to poor people' does not rule out utilizing taxes to encourage development.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 18:24

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Imagine if the money dumped into those stupid fast ferries had been used on transit instead? loving hell

That is remarkably depressing. Flying trains could have been everywhere, but no.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 22:23

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

So we should just let road infrastructure fall apart so we can realize your urban hipster utopia?

Nobody said we should stop upkeep on existing roads. When I was living out in South Delta I would have killed for a Skytrain that ran to Bridgeport like the new Canada Line. I still fantasize about Translink extending the new line out to the Ferries (I am well aware this will never happen). There are perfectly good travel solutions that favor suburbs that are not ADD MORE LANES.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2013 00:37

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

oh dear.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/the-great-unoccupied-condo-scandal-get-over-it/article10251782/

So this author is okay with regulations to curtail speculative activity (at least in the short term), presumably because that results in a baseless increase in prices, but his response to complaints about this is to imply that people taking issue with activity in Vancouver are racist, or "you either believe in a free market system, or you don't"?

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 06:12

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

shots shots shots posted:

Vancouver is a nice place to live, so nice in fact, that they have attracted a lot of international buyers. This sucks if you are a Vancouverite because the foreigners are generally high-income individuals from top-income cities, and have more money than you to pay for housing. Hawaii is a great example of this sort of phenomenon. Not much you can do about that reality other than dissuade people from coming to the city.

The article posted suggests that most of the absentee investment is by Canadians - though Canada is a big place so to my mind there's not a huge amount of difference between absentee owners. While I don't think there should be restrictions on foreign ownership, I would like to see some kind of regulation with respect to people actually living in the units they've purchased, rather than treating them solely as a commodity, difficult though that might be to achieve.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2013 17:15

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Fine-able Offense posted:

Also, anecdotally, the rental market is soft as gently caress right now. Nobody I know is getting increase notices at their anniversary, stuff like that.

I've gotten an increase 2 times in the last 3 years, but I live in a purpose-built rental apartment building that had it's roof replaced last year, so I guess that's not unreasonable.

# ¿ May 17, 2013 18:40

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

As far as newer condos go, you can't live in some of those, and soon won't be able to get much utility out of them either!

# ¿ Jul 9, 2013 10:15

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

iv46vi posted:

It's more E/N than real estate really.

His wife's desire to get out is the primary driving force. No adult woman wants to live within an earshot of her parents in law and be indebted to them. She might not phrase it directly and use other reasons that she thinks might appeal to him to convince him.

He's perfectly happy to live as is and resistant to change. As a defence mechanism he constructed a one true condo dream that has to fit all the parameters of a perfect place before he even considers to move. Deep down it bothers him so he seeks validation of his choice by repeatedly asking this same question on SA about his "special unique situation".

A solution here is to figure out how much you can afford to spend on rent and start looking at good condos in that range. In the worst case you'll make her happy, in the best case you'll find something that you both like.

This is a questionable and thoroughly western assumption. As you noted, this isn't E/N, so keep the amateur psychology where it belongs.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2013 23:06

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

PT6A posted:

I'll take an amateur landlord over the average rental company, which has already figured out the legal and least-risky illegal ways to gently caress me and has it down to a science.

My rental company is fantastic about everything from repairs to never ever coming to check on me.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2013 06:27

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Why is vancouver better?

The last time I was in downtown Toronto for a few days (which was like... 6 years ago or so) the air-quality was terrible; not exactly hazy, but definitely worse than back here in Van. Is it like that regularly?

The only time I remember the air-quality here being like that was when forest fires were going on somewhere up the Fraser.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2013 07:27

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Cmon man. Do you really judge the quality of a city by its air quality? I guess that means London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Nyc will never be world class like vancouver.

Partially yes? Also I'm not seriously taking a crack at making such an argument because it will inevitably reduce to personal taste. I happen to think that Vancouver is a better city than Toronto (which was what you were replying to originally. I can't speak for Paris, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, as I've never been there, and the last time I was in NYC I was like 3 years old)

Does that aspect of the environment around you not matter to you at all?

# ¿ Oct 22, 2013 08:01

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

No it doesn't. Qualities like economy, transportation, infrastructure and proximity to other cities of comparable caliber rate far higher on my list. It just so happens that I've decided to settle (for the time being) in Vancouver because I (mostly) grew up here and my immediate family also resides here.

Living in Vancouver was like a stimulus death sentence until I picked up cycling and snowboarding.

As an aside, for a city that pumps out hundreds of BFA grads a year,and supposedly erudite patron of modern art with infinitely deep pockets Iike Bob Rennie and chip Wilson, vancouver has an absolutely pathetic arts scene. No really, it loving sucks rear end.

Fair enough, while I agree with the sentiments that Vancouver's economy/infrastructure sucks (believe me, I'm not looking forward to the job market when I graduate from my second degree), I tend to like the transportation in the city proper if not outside of it (and I grew up in the suburbs so I understand the frustration with Translink there), and I don't much care about how close Vancouver is to other cities like it. I'm not too sure what you mean about it being a stimulus death - do you mean you lacked motivation to do things? What other cities have you lived in that have been better on this front?

Also, yeah the arts scene sucks here. I don't remember off hand the last time a band I liked scheduled a stop here. That being said, there are grass roots theatre scenes here that can be interesting if not particularly fecund.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2013 08:58

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Lexicon posted:

Some Vancouverites like to claim it's the Jesus of transit systems, but I curse everything about it any time I'm in Vancouver, either when I visit now or back when I lived there.

I'm probably going to regret getting into this discussion, but why exactly? I've been using the transit system to get into Vancouver since grade 8 from loving Tsawwassen and it's always gotten me wherever I needed to go. Were you commuting from Langley or something?

# ¿ Oct 31, 2013 21:28

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Well gently caress YOU AND YOUR loving BEARD AND YOUR loving FLANNEL AND YOUR loving SS OFFICER HAIRCUT

~*Main Street*~

# ¿ Nov 2, 2013 01:48

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Throatwarbler posted:

I guess Alberta isn't such a terrible place when you consider that it pay for the rest of the country's healthcare.

Nope, still terrible.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2013 09:14

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

bathroom sounds posted:

Y'all are crazy. I averaged $30.00-$40.00 a week at Uni.
I'd go on Sunday nights, load up on marked down meats (and freeze them), and pad out meals with salads and cheap veggies like cabbage and potatoes. I mean a head of cabbage is about $1.00/lbs. Potatoes and onions are cheap. $30.00/week is completely doable for one person.

Famine veggies

for real though, I spend about 200/month on groceries, and I could do less if I wasn't buying some of the organic/grain/grass fed such stuff. Also I rarely eat red meat nowadays due to expense - go for tri-tip, chuck, ground and other cheap stuff when I do.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 04:22

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Baronjutter posted:

I don't know any of the details just the general plan to buy now, fix it up and ride the boom to make big big money.

Would your friends perhaps be interested in investing in a libertarian dragon-island-paradise?

It sounds like they are being very thorough in considering all the developmental obstacles here, so I can imagine they'd be thrilled to hear about such an opportunity.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2014 03:26

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

I went to First Tech Credit Union in Seattle today to get pre-approved for a mortgage. The rules that have been created to prevent another housing meltdown are quite remarkable. Some things that stood out in my head:

1) It's more expensive to borrow money to buy a condo than a single family home. 0.5% more in fact. The mortgage officer told me that this is a new rule designed to discourage speculators who are poorly capitalized.
2) Condo Homeowners Associations are required to disclose all finances.
3) In King County, all sale and assessment information is maintained by the county and available online to everyone.
4) Your credit rating has a direct impact on your mortgage interest rate. And it's not trivial, let me loving tell you. Since I have no credit rating in the USA, I was told that I'd be given an assumed FICO of 720 based upon my income. I was preapproved for a 30 year rate of 4.3% IF I bought a house today. For some reason, my company doesn't show up in First Tech's preferred list of members, thus I don't qualify for their tech worker relocation program that would give me a FICO of 760 which would have given me a lower interest rate - something like 4%.

From my extremely layman's knowledge perspective, weren't there a bunch of online businesses offering to improve your credit score through fairly shady means pre-2008, basically avoiding credit scores being a viable way of determining what you were approved for in terms of financing?

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 06:01

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Pixelboy posted:

Aside from the fact, you know, the entire economy will be a smoking wreck.

what does he care, he's living in ~*SeAtTlE*~

# ¿ Feb 1, 2014 07:38

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Rime posted:

This is why I'll probably retire to the prairies rather than BC. Outside of the sub-arctic, or towns of less than 1000, hours from civilization, that doesn't exist here anywhere. Hell, chucklefucks want $500,000 for their air-access-only collapsing log cabin in bumblefuck nowhere in this circus of a province.

If that's the kind of thing you want, Ladner might be right up your alley. Not sure what the housing prices are like there, but it's quiet suburbia with outskirts of farmland, and a 30 minute drive to the city. It's also boring as all hell for a kid to grow up in.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 07:28

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Baronjutter posted:

Sometimes when there isn't an express bus from the ferry the bus has to go through ladner... it seems like a place people go to give up. I always feel depressed there.

I hated it. My folks love it. It takes a certain kind of mentality to enjoy quiet towns I think and I just don't have it in me. Get out young or die there seems appropriate.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 07:36

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Baronjutter posted:

Other people bought an "investment" house in a real poo poo suburb north of town that they fixed up, badly, them selves, and held out for over a year because they didn't feel any of the offers were "fair". They ended up being forced to sell at a bigger loss than if they took the first fair offers.

Ahh Langford :allears:

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 21:22

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

I'm practically making money just by buying this condo! :downs:

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 17:21

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Baronjutter posted:

Wow that's lovely, I guess even places with good intention are invariably corrupted when they try to exist within a capitalist system.

I did some work for them recently changing their logo and I thought it was dumb but the staff were all "no this is good we want to appeal to normal consumers not just outdoors people!". "Outdoors people" was said with disdain.
Also made is Israel? Some slave factory on occupied land? BLOOD BACKPACKS ? Conflict Crampons?

\/ I'd love to support costco more, if they only had one remotely near me. I wish we could get an urban costco, right now it's not worth a 30 min drive.

We're getting our 2nd costco soon but once again it's wayyyy out in the burbs, heck it's past the burbs it's basically in the country. The grocery game in Victoria is awful, it's quickly turning into an over-priced low-quality monopoly.

Nice, that's the Costco nearest to my place, smaller than the other stores they have, but usually less crowded too.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 04:59

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Rime posted:

I can just imagine the shitstorm coming from 10 Million units hitting the market over the next 15 years. A lot of people are going to discover their parents were utterly retarded and are now completely impoverished, leaving the children with no inheritance and holding the bag for keeping their parents from living on the street.

A very real worry for a lot of people, but apparently not for you?

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 21:18

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

tagesschau posted:

I'm pretty sure my in-laws aren't relying on their house to fund their retirement. My parents don't live in Canada. There will be major macroeconomic implications, of course, but I don't see how I will be directly screwed by anyone near me counting on a million dollars that never really existed to begin with.

Not everyone's house is worth 1 million. Some folks who've owned their homes for years and planned to sell shortly before or after retirement and live on whatever they got are going to be severely impacted by this, quite aside from other implications of a potential crash. Assuming that no equity in your home ever existed to begin with is foolish, though I do think that planning for the future based on what housing prices are now is also foolish, but to say that the wealth present in your home never really existed is silly.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 07:24

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Throatwarbler posted:

Until they steal your car, since it *is* the car theft capital of Canada right?

Now back your regularly scheduled Canadian regionalism shitfest.

Good thing Victoria's got DANGER locked down

# ¿ Feb 22, 2014 05:28

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 12:22

JawKnee: Mar 24, 2007; You'll take the ride to leave this town along that yellow line

Cultural Imperial posted:

Wasn't there a vancouver version of that show?

Keep pumping the market up. As far as I'm concerned, it'll just make the collapse hurt that much more.

Flip that house or whatever, there's still radio ads for going to the hosts seminars on selling real-estate too, real snake-oil stuff

# ¿ Mar 5, 2014 07:39

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