Watched ABC's 20/20 tonite. Shouldn't have. Talk about a disjointed, waste of an hour dedicated to Real Estate sensationalism.Here's what we learned:
- If you want to be rich, apparently you have to own a home
- If you want to out smart a Realtor, you have to understand their language
- In the future, all Realtors will only get $500 to sell your house
- In a stagnate market, apparently buyers only look at the outside of your house
- Buyer Beware (of the neighbours, they may kill you)
- If they do kill (the previous tenant) don't worry, selling is just a matter of time
- Never, ever buy a house built on a subdivision that used to be a WWII Air Force practice bombing range. If you do, you may find not 1, but 19 unexploded bombs in your yard
15 comments:
Hah ha, I saw that too, don't forget those Seattle women who were staging houses, or was that later on the news?
As the market goes into the tank in the US, the pump jobs flow!
What will they do on all the house flipping shows next year, when everybody loses money, every time!
This is an interesting article on how most Americans still think their homes are going up in price, won't curb their spending and listen to every postiive comment anyone throws at them. They refuse to accept the fact that it is over.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/070621/062107_housing_perception_gap.html?.v=1&.pf=real-estate
Caught part of that show,somehow they missed the points by alot of the smart money this week saying the bottom is far from over and the worst is still to come.
Those $180,000 places in Michigan look about what the real prices should be here,sooner or later they will be.
Update on the people I know that bought a rental investment property in a very nice area of town. Been a month now and they still have no one willing to subsidize their mortgage at $2000 per month even though the place needs a little updating. What does that tell ya when the renters are balking ?
I see the provinces financial ministers were told to take a hike by the Bank Of Canada,rates are going up,get used to it.
vg,
that's the best news I've heard all week... about the BoC.
hhv,
Made my week too. Forgot to mention I was just in Vancouver the past 2 days and I tell ya the place is booming alright but my sense was this has "overbuilding" written all over it. I counted 5 condo towers nearing completion within eyeshot to where we were staying and can't help but think that there has to be a high percentage of speculators in those towers and they look close to coming on stream,not to mention the others you can see from the crane tops. As you drove around town the condos were going up everywhere,even Richmond had condos going up all over the place.
It's a happening place over there for sure but gut feel says way too much boom which only means too much bust when things get too expensive.
VG,
i was there last w/e... or the week before. it is crazy. i'm not so sure about overbuilt though. i'm not seeing the same kind of 'deals' as we have advertised over here. i'm thinking Van will correct, but it will happen fastest starting around April 2010.
I guess "overbuilt" as per the amount of new buyer pool there is left with this drawn out boom. I see someone on Vancouver Condo saying they are an agent in the Yaletown area and is only acting as a selling agent and is advising his clients to lower prices to get the sale as the top is clearly in there.
Wether this guy is for real who knows but if he is, then we have reached that affordability peak we all know but guys like Cameron Muir say will find a way to keep his RE machine going, I say we are right and he will wear some serious egg on the face.
I see the Chipman numbers this week are very bearish and increasing daily,time will tell if it is a clear trend starting.
Hey VG,
I must have missed your earlier post about your friends with the rental investment. So is this a ho-hum place for $2,000? or is it in-line with other rentals in this price range?
this is interesting that it is not renting because as you know one of the arguments on the bull side is the "very low rental vacancy here" and "increasing rents".
olives,
I haven't seen it but it is in need of updating to get what you would expect for that price. I understand it wil be updated as they go along,to me it sounds like people are not snapping them up in that range unless they are up to snuff.
I also seen a duplex in James By that is in a nice location near the ocean and is a decent size for $1975 but has been up for rent for 3 months now with no takers.
I know someone who was looking at rental townhouses in Bear Mountain last fall. These were investments also, and they were asking $1,900 or $2,000 per month I believe. Anyways, my friend said that even though they were brand new they were total crap and he would have never lived in them, even at a much lower price.
I wonder if the out-of-town investors knew what they were buying?
VG,
On another thread you mentioned Canadian Banks' investment in the U.S. Do you know, is there direct exposure to Canadian Banks from U.S. hedge funds?
Thanks
My friend was just telling me that her and her husband are only going to live in the overpriced piece of crap, in one of the worst parts of Victoria, that they bought in 2006 for 5 years and then they are going to sell it and move to a big acreage. I didn't have the heart to tell her that they will be living there for a lot longer than 5 years.
S2
Good question olives, I have never thought of that too deep. I just Googled it, looks like it's the US investments that are indeed exposing us to the hedge funds. Kinda scary but I am not sure what percentage of a Canadian bank' investments would be in the US, it would take a hit for sure if they decided to bail.
Here's a series of articles about a couple of hedge funds causing some stir with TD Ameritrade and the TD bank and the merger with Charles Shwab. It's a little lengthy but it gives you an idea that they are in there if theres money to be made and they call the shots if it is their money on the line.
http://financialsector.blogspot.com/2007/06/hedge-funds-push-for-td-ameritrade-to_07.html
Thanks VG! There obviously is an exposure to the TD. Very interesting....
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