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

Every situation provides opportunity and future benefit if dealt with properly.

Read more on this in the Tri-City News.

There is an interesting article in the Vancouver Sun that may help those thinking of making this move. Read more at “Condo living can be liberating”

In the past Developers would not have had much case as they usually gained from being able to re-sell units in a higher market. Now they are on the other end. If you have a pre-sale contract and you are considering not completing on it, it is best to go through all options with the developer and get legal advice before making any moves.

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.

Well it looks like there could be more hold ups for such transit projects as noted in the Vancouver Sun article “Evergreen Line delay feared” This simply points out that when making any investment or purchasing choice, you can never fully count on future plans to happen, you need to focus on the present as well to make a informed choice. That’s what risk is all about, there is always the hope and chance that future events will increase the value of what you have purchased, but there is always the other side, the lack of such event s may have the opposite effect.

Good news is, for projects like these it is just a matter of time, just like the economy, so we may have to sit tight a little longer.