“I’m not an economist, I don’t understand any of that, I am very uneducated when it come to the economy, what I do know, though… I don’t like to do predictions on real estate, I’m hired, basically, to market, expose and facilitate a transaction, that’s pretty much it.. that’s all I’m hired for… I’m hired to get the best dollar, at the best price, for the present market conditions, no matter what’s going on”
“So, I don’t really know the answer.. if we’re in a bubble or not. But, I don’t think there’s anything that indicates that our real estate can go up any higher in the next year or two… probably, if I were to bet if it were to go up or down, I’d probably say that it has better chances of going down than going up, in the next year… Having said that, I do own a few properties, and I’m not selling them anytime soon. My plan is to hold them for the long term.”
- Ian Watt, local realtor, self-posted video at youtube, 25 Feb 2012
—
The first paragraph is very, very smart realtor talk. We believe that that is precisely how good realtors should present themselves… as expert deal facilitators and not market predictors. Most don’t, of course, and can’t resist predicting future market strength.
Ian is himself on record as having made statements like “I don’t think that [Vancouver RE prices] are going to drop 30% back to prices of 15, 20 years ago. I just don’t see it happening” [VREAA 9 Nov 2010], so he seems to at times break his own rules.
Ian tells us he owns “a few properties” and it would be interesting to know what percentage of his net-worth is in Vancouver RE.
Also, it’d be interesting to know how strong his hands are… would he keep holding at 20%-, 25%-, 30%-, 35%-off?
- vreaa
[PS: Yes, connoisseurs, that's another gorgeous back-alley shot that Ian has scouted. He remains Vancouver RE's "undisputed King of the DashCam", and more of his work can be seen in our 'Realtor DashCam Gallery', where he still holds poll-position. -ed.]
Ian owns a few properties himself, and he’s holding them for the long run. Because…
Real estate only goes up
in the loooooong run
I linked to a video containing Ian’s 2008 comments on RET. Lest we forget.
Thanks for the link, jesse.
This is transcription worthy.
Perhaps will do, but that means listening to it again.
Yes, hard on the ears and the mind. Sorry to say but Ian is on drugs. I don’t mean that in any philosophical sense either. I mean Ian is high on dope and it shows on the video from his demeanor and style from what I know about it. Vancouver sucks.
Nobody said being an archivist wouldn’t involve some unpleasantries.
Oh let me put these typing skills to use for you then.
“Hi, good afternoon it’s Ian Watt in downtown Vancouver. I was chatting with some people and these people were saying “well we’ve been waiting for a long time to get into the market” and now they’re out looking, because we’ve never seen this in Vancouver, we’ve never seen the situation where we have super low mortgage rates. We have tons of inventory and price reductions that’s making Vancouver affordable again. Everything has been dropped about 10-15% at the peak that it was and now people are starting to realize the value. And that’s great! If you have the economic means you should do what my clients are doing, get into the market if you’ve never been. Get those first time buyer grants the property transfer tax up to 425 you should look at those things and think about why it’d be great to own your own place. But if you’re not interested and you’ve been bitching about the market for so long and now you have the opportunity and the economic means you should really think about it, you should think about what your life is all about,and it’s fine it’s fine if you want to rent you can rent and it’s not a big deal because the affluent financially independent people in Vancouver need people like you to pay their mortgages, they need renters like you forever, now, and that’s fine if you want to be a renter and look in the mirror and face up, own up to it and say I’m going to be a renter even though I have economic means to do so and buy into the market, I don’t care, I’m going to be a renter and I’m going to be happy with that and I will love to pay somebody elses mortage for the rest of my life.
My name’s Ian Watt, unless you’re a renter at ianwatt@ianwatt.ca have a great day.”
Typed as one giant long run on sentence, because it comes across that way in the video. There should be more quotes to inflect ‘self-dialogue’ in there, but I can’t be arsed.
[Aldus -> Thank you, thank you, thank you. -ed.]
Farmer
And the guy is annoying as hell.
It is amazing how mass greed and delusion brings forth so much froth and fluff
lol what an asshole
Unless you’re a renter. My my that wasn’t very nice. Forever enshrined on the interweb for future potential clients to view. But you know what they say, nice guys finish last.
I think we have a quorum. Ian is a loser.
OK, now lets all show up together at one of his open houses just for fun!
Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!! Now THAT would be funny.
“people in Vancouver need people like you to pay their mortgages, they need renters like you forever” Wow, forever? That’s a long time to have a mortgage to pay.
He’s definitely on the booger sugar, look at him pratically chewing his own face off.
Sorry all. Earlier today I wrote “Vancouver Sucks” but I want to take that back. What I really meant to say was “drugs suck” and I actually feel sorry for Ian because he seems to be a victim of that culture in my opinion. No way of knowing for sure but just a best guess based on how he talks and acts and looks and displays with images and background props. Dope is for losers and if Ian is one of those then he is a big loser too. Sorry Ian, but drugs suck.
What the independent wealthy people of Vancouver need is more people like Ian Watt – to buy up over-priced properties and then rent them out to us for a fraction of the carrying cost. What a douche.
RR: “independent wealthy people” is a good choice of words. Mr. Ian doesn’t understand the product he’s selling. Only if you hold tangible assets, you are independently wealthy.
However, there are no “home-owners” in British Columbia unless they are sleeping in a cardboard box. Mr. Ian acts to transact common law title to a residence. At which point, if mortgage and taxes are due, it becomes a liability and not a tangible asset. A ‘person’ under the law assumes title to the profit or loss and abides by the regulations of the municipality. The natural person acts as agent.
In order to “own” a residence, you must have allodial title, and assume private property rights. The queen asserts this right, some churches, and some land owners, but no residential buyers in the Lower Mainland. This is compounded even further by strata title, which Mr. Ian promotes through condo sales. If Mr. Ian professes to secure residential ownership for a client, he’s lying. Most renters know this intuitively, leaving the titleholder on the hook for liability.
A human cannot claim wealth in a residential asset unless they can kick the Queen’s representative off their land. Talk to a judge.
@debtless is this anything like admiralty law and how i’m just a piece of a chattel owned by the house of Saxe Gothe?
Sounds more glamorous when you put it like that.
I can’t believe the guy still has his fingernails. Running them down the chalkboard as often as he does, wouldn’t they just wear down to nothing?
Honestly, who cares what this idiot thinks?
He seems to think its all a joke. Ian found the road to riches by satisfying the demands of even bigger idiots than himself. He feeds greed and obviously enjoys every minute of it. And why would he not? Big ponds of guppies always attract a few sharks.
It’s hard to fault him. He does what he needs to do for a living. If you’re standing in a meadow teaming with lemmings, why not herd lemmings?
Meanwhile, in the LA area, there was a party this last week-end. Jim announced to a group of young professionals that he just closed on a house. Two girls giggled, another asked “Why would you do that?”
When Jim left, one in the group muttered “I knew Jim was a loser, but I never thought he would want to actually buy a house…”
Home ownership is decidedly not cool here anymore.
When an asset is truly despised, that is the time to buy. Jim may end up the smart one here. (Not that it’s difficult to be smarter than giggling scenesters in LA.)
Some traders seem to think so. Chart of one year IYR-nyse real estate ETF from ishares looks like growing price support. A QE perk. I don’t particularly agree with the analyst, but this is someone looking to hedge commodities.
http://www.gracelandupdates.com/images/stories/feb12/2012feb28iyr1.png
I would argue that giggling scenesters in LA are smarter then the throngs of Vancouverites who have bought into Vancouver. Also, regardless of whether it is time to buy or not – no one here considers housing an “asset” anymore. People just see housing as a silly lifestyle choice in a modern world that necessitates mobility.
XYVR, that’s called being young. It’s a common condition that you get over it sooner than you’d like.
would you expect a realtor to be anything but bullish on real estate?
If his statements are genuine and he’s in long on Vancouver real estate he’s simply following “the book” of real estate investment. No news here VREAA – posting irrelevance is irrelavant
“I’m not an economist, I don’t understand any of that, I am very uneducated when it come to the economy” – realtor
That’s like a pilot saying he doesn’t have a clue what keeps a plane in the air.
flying a plane with a dead stick is a lot like an economy with super low interest rates… sooner or later
Check out his latest listing. 2 million dollar partial penthouse in BURNABY. Nothing wrong with burnaby, but good luck with that…
http://www.ianwatt.ca/ActiveListings.php/Details/446/ph1-6888-station-hill-savoy-carleton-burnaby-bc#viewdetail
Also, his videos are the worst! Does he honestly think making those annoying little dash mounted videos is good for business? I wouldnt hire someone even if they were a good agent if they made god awful vblogs every week.
I’ve only watched this one comment from Ian Watt and I already don’t like him. Not only is he a bad salesman, he’s also conspicuously disingenuous
Ian has most of his net worth in his 3 series
He’s a fan of rapidly depreciating assets.
“I’m hired to… market, expose and facilitate.” – Ian Watt
Yet another DashCam ‘expose’ – explicating his personal involvement in the promotion and administration of CommonBawdyHouses…
Bad news for Ian – it’s still an indictable offence in Canada [CCC C46.210~213].
Is there anything more symptomatic of the real estate bubble than the realtor dashcam video? I can think of nothing that says “bubble” more than some preening narcissist driving around in their BMW talking into a camera and assuming that someone is interested in what they have to say….. and being right in that assumption. They wouldn’t be making these videos if there weren’t any suckers watching them. The dashcam realtor video will soon become a cheesy, dated icon of the bubble era. They become little nuggets of history the very second they’re posted on the Internet. Like instant fossils.
Good god, I wouldn’t hire this guy to throw me a rope if I was falling off a cliff. That voice…
Realtors as podcast superstars will be a time capsule of an era of flagrant excess. So long as they keep saying the soothing words “I can’t see a bubble” people will tune it as it’s what they want to hear. What gets me is how so many realtors need snazzy gimmicks to compensate for their lack of skill or expertise. Or how many young attractive female realtors there are who emphasize their looks over their home listings.
Check out the web page for Winnipeg realtor Rod Peeler http://www.rodpeelerineversleep.com/4a_about_me.php. They guy is a Rod Stewart look-a-like and wannabe who revels in his adulation for him. His billboards have a large letters for Rod and small letters for Peeler to emphasize the Rod Stewart motif. His motto is “I never sleep.” I’m sure if you called him at 4:00 AM he’d be sleeping though.
HAHAHHAHA! Rod Peeler. I remember his Rod Stewart-esque face adorning numerous REMAX ads on bus stop benches and bus shacks along Pembina Highway in Winnipeg back in the 90s. He did love to play up his “Rod-ishness”. I can’t believe he’s still doing it. Not even Rod Stewart does that anymore!
Forgive me for pointing this out, but… his stage name is, “Peeler”… and he offers “24HR Service!”…
You just can’t write this s**t.
Stranger than fiction.
He “never sleeps” as well. If I went to bed with that spikey hair and assortment of toxic hair chemicals I wouldn’t sleep either.
If Iyou’re ever in the market for a speakeasy in the Winnipeg area, you could probably do a lot worse than call Rod.
Apparently hes not a big fan of critical emails either…
Surprised he didn’t call the guy a “renter”. We all know that’s a pejorative in the real estate world. “This stupid RENTER visited my site 17 times….”
Hey… you got to give it to Ian. He comes out and tells you he doesn’t have a clue, he’s just very pro-real estate. Bottom line… he’s admitting he’s just a salesman.
He’s annoying, but you have to respect him for at least coming out and saying that.
First we have the $600,000 strata titled basement suite near Kingsway…. what do you think of this: 928 East 22nd avenue selling for $1,575,000 when the asking price was $1,300,000. It is nice enough looking house and all but there are a lot of signs that the crazy market is continuing. I don’t want to believe it but there sure is evidence of it.
Crazy.
Doesn’t matter how “nice” it is. Nothing in East Van is $1.5 million worth of nice.
In Sep 2010, this same property was listed for $619,900. I’m sure there was some renovation.
http://parkgeorgia.com/vancouver-agents.html/al=19796/details-14447042
Ugly… though not the worst that I’ve seen by any stretch. However, even renovated with real gold leaf for wallpaper it ain’t worth $1.5 million. Unless you’re in Vancouver in early-2012, I guess.
Note RT-10 zoning. This sale is “justified” by the $600,000 price for the basement suite last week. House has been renovated, now buyer just has to set up the basement suite (if it’s not already installed), build an infill house, and sell off the three strata properties for a total of 2.5 (plus) million. But they’d better do all that quickly. Is it possible that the REALTOR’s payment of $600,000 for that basement suite was part of a strategy to juice the market for RT-10 properties on the east side?
He once listed a condo near Broadway where all the MLS pictures were full of garbage and dirty dishes. It looked like the Vancouver Condo edition of “Hoarders”. I guess the “homeowner” had done a runner and the place had gone into foreclosure. I couldn’t believe he didn’t hire a cleanup crew to at least tidy up the place… Then again, that’s a sunk expense for this used condo salesmen…
Looks like Ian has lost some weight and stopped shaving…I wonder if the pressure of owning a couple places in a declining market is getting to him? Might explain the choice of back alley locale – the only place he can afford to get his rocks off anymore…
He does have a sort of “manic” energy about him… Too many Red Bulls? Amphetamines? Uppers?
I think Ian should quit mixing his meds….
OK. I have just started reading vreaa a few weeks back, because I was told that it provides a good reference point on the web for the real estate market in Vancouver. Quite often, there are really interesting articles posted, interesting 1st hand accounts, and other good stuff posted to the site. This is the first post (Mr Witt’s) in awhile where somebody has tried to articulate a less pessimistic opinion on what is happening out there in the market, whether right or wrong. This trail of replies is an utter embarrassment to this website. It’s disappointing that as soon as somebody disagrees with the doomsday scenario outlined by most of the people who respond to articles and posts on this site, an all out personal attack happens to the guy. Criticizing his spelling and grammar? Come on….
I would like to think that vreaa is a place where both sides of the coin can be investigated, articulated, and debated, but it appears that when somebody (granted not the most articulate individual) tries to offer a different opinion from the status quo fear-mongering responses, his opinion is trashed like an american political campaign ad.
You know what,…..we need a real estate optimist here. You can be our own “Appraiser” or “Devils advocate” if you like. I won’t even bug you if you can come through with a good case and a sensible argument.
You might even be surprised that I will back you up when you argue well and I would even offer encouragement. Every issue with Canadian real estate has two sides and you are quite correct that we are not hearing the other side often enough anymore.
This site should not ever become that which it despises most…… a one sided documentary and statement of history that is biased completely to one dimensional arguments. I hope that the host will agree, we are preaching to the converted with each other. This place clearly needs some new blood. (and turn off the filters please)
So. What have you got REO? Let’s talk.
Anyone else have objections to that? Or should we just talk to ourselves?
Okay REO..let’s see what you got?
What are the economic and job growth fundamentals that will continue to support such high RE prices in Van? Can you name 3?
Can you name something specific and special about Vancouver tht people would think of when talking about Van?
somewhat concur. many just adapt and do what works – gotta make a living at something. otoh, the prevailing, msm-approved propaganda is just a teensy bit more outrageous than the vreaa site’s “fear-mongering status quo” – nice one there btw. so really, what’s the harm in a bit of intellectual self defense turned rant? what would you expect, if you were to voluntarily broadcast vids of yourself doing op-eds?
If you have a case for why Vancouver is different, that “the truth is somewhere in the middle” and prices can remain at current levels, state it here.
I suppose anything is possible, but that does not make it probable.
Don’t be too misled by my title. It should probably read ‘Optimistic Real Estate Realist’. Couldn’t think of another name to provoke the message to be read.
For the record, I’m less of an ’80′s style’ bubble burst and more of a ‘slow burn’ in my own interpretation of the Vancouver RE Market. But I do believe that things like 590k basement suites are great! More power to the developer.
My only point here is that, as Farmer points out, this forum appears (to an outsider) as a completely one sided real estate bashing fest. As an outsider, and someone who generally doesn’t partake in the post article dialogue, I felt it simply needs to be pointed out that that it is a very one-sided forum (which I believe is not the intent of vreaa). Maybe that’s just the way it is, but I would like to think it’s not.
Okay, then stop with the opinions about the opinions and tell us why you’re a ‘Real Estate Optimist’.
Lay out your thesis for why one should be ‘optimistic’ about Vancouver RE.
C’mon… do it.
Easy there. Give him time.
So true. There is nothing that irks me more than comments about other comments. Doh!
So… what is the argument, that some person so resolved in their conviction that prices might be permanently higher is scared away by… online comments? I’ll wear a pink shirt today in protest of this travesty of humanity.
Anyone have a pink shirt?
It is only one sided if we don’t have the opinions of people like you. I think anyone who buys a 590k basement is crazy but that is quite a subjective point of view. Nobody here even argues with me when I write that those buyers are a lunatic. I did however see one comment where the author noted there was very little difference between a “side by side” versus and “up and down” division of property and that condos with no land whatsoever cost much more in other parts of town. In other words….what were we all smoking by objecting?!!!. That was actually a good argument in my books.
Hopefully you will stick around REO.and the locals will be respectful of your opinion.
In all fairness, I’d much rather buy the $590 basement with use of the yard than a $590 condo box in the sky. But that’s like a choice between the hot tongs and the cattle prod. Sure, the cattle prod hurts, but at least it leaves less of a mark.
As shelter is a fundamental necessity, more so than health care, I believe the government should be able to tax speculators into the dirt. And I will vote to raise your taxes and bleed you dry on all property sold for profit. How’s thems bananas?
Have a nice day, see you at election time.
Dear Christie,
I have figured out how to get you re-elected, bear with me…
it’s one-sided because there aren’t any compelling bull arguments left. of course, f1 still shows up regularly with his bizarro world chicken little posts. there’s no meat left on this carcass, just picking through bones now. if you don’t believe, survey the fate of RE bubbles planet-wide? the attitudes you are sampling here will eventually prevail city-wide and nation-wide, as they have everywhere else.
I’m actually less bullish than most home owners on this site. I’m bearish short term but bullish long.
Besides, “bull” definition uses the assumption of selling for a profit. I’m not a buyer (due to my bearish short term forecast) nor am I a bull (selling for profit). Nor have I made my real estate decisions with the belief that it will return x profit…I’m simply providing a home for my family to live
Well that’s OK then. As long as you put families first no matter the cost.
Ian wasn’t getting bashed for his pro-RE comments as much as he was getting bashed for his method & delivery and for being dishonest and disingenuous (as evidenced by previous clips resourceful posters dug up & posted). Sure he is spewing a message that many here revel in challenging and that was part of the commentary. The rest, well, that was entertainment IMHO and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like CondoHype… gosh I miss him. His stuff was gold and very useful in the “debate” for educative and entertainment purposes.