In this blog I’m going to address some recent comments from my Youtube channel. I will also discuss the current state of the Vancouver market and why, when we finally do get a correction it won’t be as a result of lack of demand or desire to own a home. It will more than likely be a temporary correction as a result of the provincial and federal governments implementing more restrictions to curb that demand. I would look at any short term pullbacks as excellent buying opportunities provided you have a long term holding period which you should always have when buying your principal residence.

There was a recent story in the Vancouver Sun of a buyer who purchased a pre-sale condo in the Trump Tower and put down her first deposit payment of $275,000. For whatever reason prior to the second deposit being due, the buyer decided they did not want to go thru with the purchase and decided to not pay the second deposit. This was a critical mistake! By doing this she was in breach of the contract and immediately forfeited the deposit. She should have consulted a lawyer who would have explained her legal liabilities and her options. The lesson to be learned is never buy a pre-sale unit directly from the developer. Always use a Realtor who will give you fiduciary duty and legally represent you in the transaction. Remember, once you ...

There are plenty of good reasons to sell a home. There are also plenty of bad ones. The one I see the most is investors selling good investment properties after only holding them for a year or two. In my new book "Along for the Ride", I call it playing small. You're only in the first inning of a nine inning game. Why not keep the property rented and wait for the BIG payday in 20 or 25 years? Here is a short excerpt from Chapter 3 where I talk about avoiding the temptation of playing small: Leverage means being able to do things with your money that would normally be impossible. Real estate gives you ample opportunities for leverage. Chapter One demonstrated this with the example of buying a condo. We saw that you could pay 5% of a co ...

Are you wondering how it’s possible that Vancouver condo prices just keep going up and up? Local agent Owen Bigland says it’s all to do with the huge demand and lack of inventory, leading to multiple-bid scenarios with offers over asking – and then agents using comparative pricing on the units that follow. Speaking on the September 16 edition Real Estate Therapist show on Roundhouse Radio 98.3FM, Bigland explained that there’s an upward spiral effect on prices in a competitive market. He cites a real-life example of a series of condos in the same New Westminster building, each selling for higher than the last over just a few months. Here's a link to the show where Owen discusses this and other real estate topics: http://bit.ly/2xOEZl ...

It’s back! The European bank UBS is out with their annual world housing report and as usual Vancouver is one of there top 10 most overvalued markets. This year Vancouver comes in at #4. Last year we were #2. UBS and many others has been calling for a correction in Vancouver RE for about 8 or 10 years years now. The market has since gone up well over 100% since... One of these days they're going to get it right. Part of their miscalculation is that they continue to look at our market based on fundamentals. i.e. what the average persons earns vs what it costs to buy a home. When you use that metric of course Vancouver looks like it’s in a bubble! Somebody needs to tell them that Vancouver unhinged from fundamentals a decade ago. Vancou ...

The market for Vancouver detached homes has slipped into a balanced and even a buyers market in most of the higher price brackets. Buyers who own a 2 or 3 bedroom condo or townhouse may want to take a look at moving up the ladder into the detached market. I’m seeing good livable homes of 2000 to 2200sq ft on 33X122 lots listed in the 1.4 mil area these homes were selling at $200k more just 18 months ago. This type of opposite moving market don’t come around all that often -- where the price of condos is at all time highs and competition is fierce and the price of detached is on sale at 10-15% off it’s highs. And you can negotiate the price.

Effective January 1, 2018, first-time home buyers who don’t require mortgage insurance — those with a down payment of 20 per cent or more — must qualify for their mortgage at a higher rate. This new stress test won’t apply to people renewing their uninsured mortgage. Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) announced these rule changes today. Draft changes were released in the summer for public feedback. (The Canadian Real Estate Association submitted this response to the draft rules in August on behalf of REALTORS® across the country.) Under the new rules, the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages will be the greater of the Bank of Canada’s five-year benchmark rate or the contractual mortgage ...

I’m hearing stories of a pre-sale condo gold rush going on in Surrey and parts of the Fraser Valley. One story that was relayed to me was of a person who bought 4 pre-construction 1 bedroom units with the plan to flip or assign them over the next 18 to 20 months before the units were completed. Apparently this buyer had not even talked to a mortgage broker or had the additional funds to close on these units. In my opinion this is a recipe for disaster. This buyer has no idea of the risk he is taking without having the financial ability to close on these units in the event that the market does not continue to increase.

There have been a number of new reports stating that Canadians are taking on too much dept. Much of it in the form of residential mortgages. In this blog I will explain the difference between good debt and bad debt. Provided you're not over-extending yourself, there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the historic low interest rates we currently have. I will also discuss why all Canadians should own shares in the big 5 Canadian banks and why there like a printing press for cash!

In this blog I will address some viewers' opinions as to why anyone would buy a Vancouver condo in this record high market. Why not wait for the market to crash then buy back in at a much cheaper price. Aside from the fact that I have heard this strategy for the past 25 years and Vancouver condo prices have continued to rise 3 fold in the past 20 years. I will explain why it’s so difficult to try and time a market and why I advocate a simple strategy of buying and holding for the long term and taking the guess work out of what the market will do in the short term.