This a a great example of the purpose and usefulness of condoadvisory.com and we thank the user for posting this review. Read it here.

Seems that all the doom and gloom may come around after all. In Florida there has been a recent surge in condo sales, although by recent I mean 7 days so not sure how useful this is for long term trending, but an interesting shift none the less.

I think you are seeing similar activity here in the lower mainland, that does not mean the market all Rosy and has hit bottom, but what is does mean is people still see value in owning real estate as a solid investment.

Some of the reasons sited in the Florida example are the fact that people are seeing prices now that make sense from an investment standpoint, as well some are taking money out of a volatile stock market and putting in real estate which they see as a more solid bricks and mortar investment.

If you step back and look at this it makes sense, and I think it is only a matter if time until we see the same thing here, in fact there are some signs of it already. Again, I am not saying that the market has bottomed out and we are in a recovery, but what I am saying is that all the news out there that says the world is basically coming to an end is a little much, we need to put things in perspective.

The key here is you need to look at the condo at different times of the day, and even weekends vs weekdays. This may seem like a bit much and maybe a pain, as well your realtor may not be thrilled with going in multiple times but really this is as close as you can get to test driving your potential new home, and considering the importance of a home purchase it makes perfect sense.

When you go in is up to you, I would suggest daytime and evening, as well as maybe a weekend during the day. Of course it is also useful to talk to the sellers about the noise, but of course they may not be motivated to tell you about noise problems. Also reading the minutes can alert you to noise complaints and issues, and of course look on condoadvisory.com to see what people are saying about the complex.

Bottom line is you want to do your homework when buying, remember when you are buying a condo, you need to consider not only the neighborhood it is in, but the neighborhood that is the complex you are in.

Now whether this sits well or not is another issue. Developers are greedy when times are good, they have cancelled projects, returned deposits, and resold for more because costs went up. No protection for the buyers in these cases. Now the market has turned and they want to recover losses due to the lower values, again they are the ones that are protected here.

Bottom line, They protect themselves in their contracts and there is little protection for the buyers. Whose fault is this, well unfortunately if a buyer signs the contract who can they really blame. Of course these developers have to remember that times will be good again and I am quite sure there will be many people that remember what is happening now and they may prefer not to deal with some developers. Business 101, treat clients well in good times and bad!

Read more about the Onni example in the Vancouver Sun

I have now noticed that Millennium has come out with prices on units left over in OMA 2 that are now at attractive market prices. They have been priced well above market from the beginning.

I imagine we will see more of this and it is a good thing for Buyers. It represents a more realistic  market, but not a fire sale as many would like you to believe. It is nice to see that Millennium di not take the

Photo Courtesy of: Ma1974

when buying a condo there are a number of things to take into consideration, the bylaws, the rules and regulations, how much money is in the contingency fund, how old is the roof etc.

Now lets say you are in a wheelchair, there are probably a few other things to take into consideration, like how wide are the doors in the unit, how big is the kitchen and bathrooms etc. But the one thing I expected not to be an issue would be, will I be able to get a handicap parking spot. All developments need to have a minimum number of handicap spots so there really should not be a problem.

Think again, just because they build a certain number of spots does not mean that they are going to make them available. In many cases these spots are assigned to buyers who are not handicap, and then when a handicap person buys into the building later they find that they are not able to switch the spot that comes with their unit with a handicap spot. This hardly seems like what the city would have had in mind when it set the requirement for handicap stalls.

It seems to me that these stalls should be set aside and not assigned to anyone unless they are handicap. They should be kept until such a time as a owner or buyer needs one, at which time they can swap the stall assigned to the unit with one of these stalls.

The good news is that there are some cases where this is what happens, but there are other cases where this is not the case.

The point here is if you are buying, find out this information before removing subjects, in fact you can even make it a subject.

NEVER ASSUME anything.

Roatan Condominium Buyers Guide

Again it is always wise to do your own homework but good to see that the Real Estate Associations, Boards and Realtors are concerned as well and keep up to speed on these issues.

Always wise to use a professional when something is not your area of expertise

Toronto may be a place to watch in the investment condo market as pointed out in the following Metro article “A-level investments in a buyers market”

Seems the market there has been more stable than the ever increasing Vancouver market was for example, so with it being a more affordable market already there is less room to fall and possible more room to increase in the nearer future than other markets. As we keep saying, we will come out of this downturn, it is really just a matter of when.

As I have said before, this does not mean prices will start increasing at that time, in fact they may continue to decline but at a slower rate, and will probably move to a more stable pricing environment for a while.

Where am I getting this idea form, well from talking to different people in the mortgage world, it seems that people are getting pre-approvals in large numbers and just waiting for the right time to jump in. This means there is a pent up demand and it is just a matter of time.

Bottom line is, we are still in tough times and the real estate market is still being affected and will continue to be, but there are always buyers and sellers and I think there is a sense that some confidence may be starting to return, or at least will be in the nearer future and that may put us in a more balanced environment than we are in now.

Will be interesting to see!