We look hard for bull anecdotes*, really, we do… We’d post them if we found them, but there aren’t many new bull stories out there actually written down or otherwise stated. This is possibly simply the result of selection bias: perhaps the bears write and discuss, while the bulls get on with their lives, servicing their properties, spending paper profits, and so on. Regardless, we did come across two bull anecdotes in the Vancouver Sun comments section, 21 Aug 2010 -
turvey at 5:49pm – “I am Up .wayyyyy up.
Im in my early 40s have 3 places ,1 paid off Two with renters in.Even if the markets tank 50% I will still have $1.2m in collateral to go play with.I came here with 10 G 15 years ago.
Im retring at 45.I have had enough with working .Im blue coller non union.
I just bought here because its a bargain ! and its still a Bargain .
You will get nowhere in this life if you dont buy property.Thats a fact.
Enjoy your rental pad and keep paying losers like me !”
Zooper at 6:01pm – “I retired early as well and have done well in buying real estate. It’s funny how people don’t see it as such a good investment, especially if you are patient and view it long term. In a few years I bet people will think 400,000 for a 600 sq ft condo downtown was a bargain.”
[* Note that we are discussing bull anecdotes here (stories of actions), not the voicing of bullish opinion, which is very easy to find. -vreaa]
Really? What puzzles me about opinions like this is how people think other people will pay for this? Will the incomes in Vancouver rise at 10%+ each year just like house prices have? Sooner or later one or the other has to give.
Or maybe I am just not “getting it”?
“You will get nowhere in this life if you dont buy property.Thats a fact.”
Hear that everyone? It’s a FACT. He must have checked and every single successful person in the entire history of man owned property.
So unless you get out there and drop hundreds of thousands on property soon you will be a failure. This isn’t meant to scare anyone, it is simply a fact. He is trying to do us all a favour, we should thank him for this information.
“Enjoy your rental pad and keep paying losers like me!”
Losers like you?
I like the statement of 1.2MM equity after 50% drop. For this to be true the guy threaded the leverage needle: he must have been leveraged to the hilt and was able to keep the properties cash flowing. That’s what happens when you buy low with leverage. Guess what happens when you buy high?
The concept that real estate is a can’t lose investment is only now starting to take hold in the US, a full 5 years from the peak. It will likely take many more years of flat or falling prices before speculators give up. Vancouver is in for a long slow slog.
Not sure how turvey claims he will be able to “retire” on the rental income from two tenants. Are we about to witness a “lost decade” in RE similar to equity markets? Or worse yet, will have a serious downturn for the first time in decades (following the biggest asset bubble in generations)? I can’t imagine paying all that interest, tax, repair and util costs etc year after year only to find out that I may not be able to sell for “considerably” more than I paid. Just remember what all the so called experts said about owning blue chip stocks for the long run and how all that played out over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, the outlook for RE is far more grim considering how over leveraged owners are (since when did retail investors buy stocks with only 5% down?) and the lack of liquidity, which is typical in slow markets (even when the $hit was hitting the fan in fall ’08, stock investors could still recoup half of their cash instantly at the click of a button)
“He must have checked and every single successful person in the entire history of man owned property”
Yes but thats the funny thing about stats.
This could mean that successful people buy property because they are successful or property makes them successful. One implies that it doesnt matter until you become successful the later you should just go buy whenever because you’ll be super rich eventually. My guess is the former.
I could say that every person that can walk owns food. Does this mean that if I give food to a dead person we will have cornflake eating zombies among us? No, it means we hired a flunky statistician or have bias.