2556 TRINITY Street, Vancouver, BC, V5K 1E2
“The house above, at 2556 Trinity Street, frame covered with a coat of stucco, was built 60 years ago. It has two tiny bedrooms, one bath, contains just 940 square feet and is butt-ugly. It was listed in March 2011 and sold in two days to a realtor who paid $773,000. Now it’s back on the market, this time aimed at Asian buyers – at the ‘lucky’ price of $888,000. That’s an increase of 15% in 75 days, and multiple offers are expected. Says blog dog Doug: “It’s one thing for Joe Public to be speculating on real estate, but when realtors are effectively buying and selling to each other pocketing the commissions or cutting them out completely while inflating the price adds another level to the pyramid and one more ball in the air.”
Well, guess what? It’s still for sale. Now for $868,000 and on the market for 205 days. MMMMMM things seem to have slowed a bit in those parts.”
- Ronaldo at greaterfool.ca 9 Nov 2011 8:58pm
[featured here 17 Jun 2011]
Math on this, anybody?
At what price level does the flipper start losing?
- vreaa
Listing already expired – 10-Nov. Hmm . . . Let’s see if it comes back on
If this were California, the realtor would sell it to another realtor in their group, pocket the commissions and then offer the thing on some lease to own deal that avoided outside financing. The group would be doing this with ten or eleven properties at a time. It collapses when the carrying costs exceed the commissions and the bank forecloses so they can’t keep the scheme alive with another flip.
Weird rent and lease deals direct from realtors proliferated in the last months before the collapse.
well, even in hot markets, ridiculous asking prices won’t work. I was monitoring some prices in Coquitlam recently. Houses that were going for 650K last year are now asking 750K, of course that won’t sell cause it’s ridiculous to be raising prices by 15% YOY. However, houses that are now asking for 700K or 680K, more in line with what I would expect to be a slight price increase get sold very quickly. You don’t just jack the price up 15% in one year and expect people to pay for it. No one works like that. But if you price your house about 10 to 15% above assessment then they get moved very quickly.
I have long been interested in the stats around realtors owning/ flipping properties during the past 10 years. Especially when these transactions are happening between realtors. The occassional anecdote and my poor opinion of realtors, the way the cartel operates to control/ manipulate data, members and the message, all of these things led me to believe that deliberate and rather shady deals amongst realtors aimed at continuing to inflate the market have been a part of this speculative mania all along.
Realtors paying people to lineup for presale condos is not a myth. My friend was paid to lineup for TV towers on robson.
What a piece of shit home! Only in Vancouver for almost a million dollars.
Indeed. Where I come from, this thing would be in one of the worst parts of town and would be going for pocket change.
It’s all about perspective. And most Vancouverites have none.
Was in Florida two weeks ago on a client site one of the people I worked with commutes home on the weekends 5 hour drive because after the housing crash he can’t sell his house and move to where he was able to find work. Something to think about before taking out loans for 800K or more.
Yup, I know a couple of people like that.
#1) Renting in Boston, owns an unsalable house in Connecticut.
#2) Renting in Montreal, spent a long time trying to sell his house in New Jersey, eventually sold with a massive haircut.
don’t people understand flipping, holding multiple ppties pretty dangerous? it’s not like most states where loans are non-recourse. getting caught out when the music stops is that much worse. can anyone detail how much more skin is in the game? what are bankruptcy conditions like?
People don’t understand because, for the last ten years, those taking more and more outrageous bets have been rewarded by increasing prices.
These guys clearly don’t read much.
But then, reading is for losers! The game goes to those who are bold; those who act!
Janet Leigh’s house in Beverly Hills $3.75 mil vs Cambie corridor house $3.88 mil
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1625-Summitridge-Dr-Beverly-Hills-CA-90210/20523031_zpid/
http://www.realtor.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=11139511&PidKey=-277315423
Movie history aside; 0.69 acres in Beverely Hills: that’s 7 standard West Side lots. Like the Seattle examples, you get very serious homes at these price levels in the US.
(Of course, as everyone here knows, the Cambie example is a speculative bet on future development value of that lot. So not apples to apples. But, worth the sport nonetheless.)
Notice the $3.888 million on the Vancouver property. Why not $8.888? Prices don’t make any sense anyway…
The sad thing about those spec bets on Cambie is that if the City doesn’t bend over on CAC the lots aren’t viable for a profit. This is either pure dumb money or a giant gambit to hold the city over a barrel. Either way the spot application of CAC may have contributed to this, something Geller has argued, and something at least the NPA has campaigned to change.
The basement suite is currently for rent in the Cambie house, asking $1800 (!) p/m
The only thing that home is fit for is nuking from orbit.
Or for bankrupting our government with crap real estate loans…
sweet then we can have some austerity measures
hospitals and pensions are so socialist
All a part of the madness…it may seem like a dump to most people, but that type of home has allowed many people to get into the sfh in east van. market or moving up from a condo etc. Those homes are much better made than newer ones. I have witnessed and seen many friend’s homes in langley etc with leaks – one had to tear up whole main floor hardwood and the house was only 1 year old. Had another friend whose fascia and gutter blew off one side of his house. The price they are asking is ridiculous though
The only winners in this sad real-estate tragedy will be the banks.
When interest rates increase or there is a global economic slowdown causing people to lose their jobs, foreclosures will skyrocket and people’s net worth will collapse. There is no solid economic foundation in Vancouver to justify such ludicrous prices. Everyone will lose in the long term, including banks. There is no happy ending for anyone.
“There is no happy ending for anyone.”
Not true if:
a) You have Schadenfreude
b) You have cash. Lots of cash.
c) Both a and b
lol