We’re now 2 months into the 2020 Vancouver Real Estate market. Wanted to give you an update from the front lines on where I’m currently listing and selling homes compared to the 2020 BC assessment values that were released in early January.

Time for my viewer mailbag questions. In this video I will answer questions regarding buying older condos how to avoid or minimize costly special assessments and levy’s and finish up with Land Assemblies.

I’m going to cover a bunch of topics in this blog. The Spring market is looking to be very hot. Sales up, prices up and and lack of inventory. Multiple offers are back and it’s not much fun being a buyer. I’m also going to address some of the fake news stories regarding Canadians' debt levels and the number of foreclosures (or lack thereof) we currently have. I will finish up with a few stories on the passing on the great Kobe Bryant and his incredible work ethic and outlook on life.

I have been reporting on the increased home insurance rates for several years now. Lately it’s been in the news that several Lower Mainland strata’s have been hit with 200-300% insurance rate increases. I’m here to report that these kind of massive increases are not the norm and these strata’s appear to be outliers because of excessive claims (fire, water damage claims). Make no mistake, strata insurance rates have been increasing at a double digit rates here the past 2-3 years. Keep in mind these increased rates are shared amongst the 100 or 200 other owners in your strata and the majority of the increases I have seen in Vancouver equate to an extra $3 or $4 more a month on your monthly strata fees.

I have posted several articles lately on twitter regarding the unprecedented downtown Vancouver office boom that’s currently underway. It’s been many decades since new office towers have been built in Vancouver but that’s finally changed. We're now seeing millions of new sq footage and dozens of office buildings currently under construction. Many of the tenants in these buildings are going to be tech companies. It’s another reason why I continue to be bullish long term on Vancouver Real Estate.

I continue to see stories and statistics on the current Vancouver Real estate market that are wrong (made up) and cherry picked. They make it seem like the market is in correction or crash mode or simply presented with a heavy bias towards painting an overall dark and negative outlook. People need to be careful on where they're getting their information from. When it comes to market statistics there is only one source and that’s the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board that puts out a monthly stats package. One of the best statistics to look at is the Active sale to Listings ratio. It lets you know straight up if we are in a buyers , sellers or balanced market. As this ratio goes up inventory goes down and prices will rise. When you s ...

Time for one of my motivational blogs. In this video I talk about the importance of a long term investors mindset and the optimistic attitude you need to have if your want to become successful. I also highly recommend my viewers go to youtube.com and watch a video by Earl Nightingale called the Strangest Secret. It’s a video that had a big impact on my thinking 35 years ago when I first listened to it and I think it still will have a big impact on people today.

Time for my much anticipated annual market forecast. In this video Ii will explain the catalysts that I feel are going to propel Vancouver Real estate prices higher for all categories in 2020

It’s that time of year again. The 2020 BC Property Assessments have just arrived in the mail. As I have reminded people for the past 8 years… The BC property assessed value has little resemblance to what a property is actually worth (Market Value). It's simply a very conservative estimate of what your home is worth based on sales as of July 1 2019. Homes generally sell above and sometimes well above the assessed value about 80% of the time. This year will be no exception as the values on most Vancouver homes and condos has gone down anywhere from 6-15% in 2020.

This will be the first in a series of videos I’m going to do this winter on some of the basics of buying and selling RE. In this blog I go thru some of the steps in listing and selling your home. It all starts with selecting the right Realtor and I always recommend you interview several for the job.