Realtors are just like the rest of us, contrary to what some people on this pathetic blog believe. It’s no easy profession. Nobody pays you for driving them around to look at sixteen houses and get decorating ideas. Your broker only likes you when you sell stuff. Every seller wants to screw you out of commission. You probably work for a company that pays you no salary and charges you to have a desk and a phone. You pay for your own business cards and assistant, plus your car and gas. No sales, no money. It’s the ultimate eat-what-you-kill job.
Truth is, most people couldn’t hack it. Too much uncertainty and stress. No pension and almost no benefits. Market conditions beyond your control. Picky, idiot first-time buyers. Vendors who think they live in castles. Clients who are a nauseating cocktail of emotions – greed, fear, suspicion, lust and doubt. Then, of course, there’s Garth Turner.
Some realtors, like this one in Calgary, can’t function without worrying about me, reacting to me or trashing me. He chafes when I mention Cowtown, and then chafes when I don’t.
Why do you think the correction is not underway in Calgary? Why would the new mortgage rules affect everyone else and not us? Something’s different here, because Greater Fool Garth Turner won’t even mention Calgary in the same breath with other cities, “In short, there are a spate of negatives about to befall housing. The big slump in BC is the warm-up act for places like Winnipeg, Ottawa and Edmonton, as well as most of the GTA and poor Montreal.”
Of course, Calgary’s no more immune from the lousy economics underlying the Canadian real estate market than anywhere else. Just as everyone in Vancouver said a year ago, “it’s different here”, when it wasn’t, there are people living in Calgary (or Winnipeg or Saskatoon) who don’t get it. Any community in Canada with decent sales and sticky prices now or in the months to come is providing a rare chance to exit near the top. Take it.
Other realtors understand this with unobstructed clarity. They seem to be the ones who put clients’ interests ahead of their own, who will as happily tell people to wait as others blurt, ‘buy now or buy never.’ They tend to be younger, less jaded, leaner and analytical. And right now, in Vancouver.
I’ve twice mentioned Sam Wyatt on this site, who three months ago sounded the alarm for people looking to grab a piece of that city’s fabled west side. His torch is being shared now by Keith Roy, also making waves in the business by chronicling the collapse of the country’s most delusional real estate market. In a recent blog post he revealed why he bailed out of his own house, (“I sold because in 6 months my home will be worth less than it is today”), and why 2012 is probably turning into another 2008 for property.
As I’ve spelled out enough times to bore even myself, real estate’s all about supply and demand. But housing is not just another asset priced in an efficient marketplace. Instead we have imbued it with intense social meaning unlike, say, shares in Scotiabank. So real estate can be sexy or revolting, just as it can make a statement about our tastes, financial stature or culture. People buy houses for reasons entirely different than those driving them to get mutual funds or gold coins.
That means supply goes up when people feel like selling, or demand falls when others fear buying. Some realtors try to coax or push, berating those who parse local conditions. Others accept the ebb and flow and try to minimize the damage to the unsuspecting.
“I would suggest that good times have passed in the Vancouver real estate market, at least for the foreseeable future,” says Roy, and for good reason. In his area there have only been four months in the past ten years when the supply of houses for sales pushed past a critical point – two of them were in 2008, and the other two have just happened, in 2012.
As for demand, an equally telling story. It’s fallen for the last six months, off about 40% from the 10-year average, and on its way (it seems) to 2008 levels. So the conclusion is obvious – supply overwhelming demand, suggesting price reductions. And this is a pattern which is seldom broken, of sales declines leading to even more listings, higher days-on-market counts and cheaper houses.
But it doesn’t happen simultaneously. Markets like Calgary can continue to crest so long as enough people drink the local Kool-Aid. This is exactly how the average SFH in Vancouver achieved the $1.2 million mark, despite household incomes trailing the national average. The ‘it’s different here’ mantra is so powerful it can repel the laws of economics for months, or even years. But this only makes the trip back down more painful.
Every market is unique, but none are different. Mountains, oil or immigration are no match for rising household debt, swampy earnings, economic torpor, scary demographics or rule changes which whack the virgins. Time will prove this so.
So, yeah, realtors are just like the rest of us. And that should scare you.
153 comments ↓
The realtors I like dealing with are the ones who generally don’t like realtors.
My First pathetic comment.
Marco top this one, hunting fishing man.
The difference between a Bank President, and the guy who cleans his toilets.
Confidence and balls the size of Jupiter. Mechanically both dogs can easily be trained to do each others jobs.
It’s that simple.
I wonder what Einstein would have end up doing if he grew up with a stutter or a teacher that slapped him in front of all his friends for having a planted stolen pen by a batman car thief, he would have probably not ended up in the patent office , married a Serbian woman who taught him everything he knows. Remember my tour of the universe.
Humans have but 4 main needs, sex, food, shelter and water. Everything we do in life is motivated by getting better quality of water, food, shelter and partner. The games and roles we act out are all driven by the above needs. We are taught to mask our needs in hopes of achieving them. Not that’s f-ed but it is what it is.
Our confidence, ball size, and self-worth determines the quality we end up with.
Some swallow the cool aid the teacher swears will work, some phyco’s just take it. Others just float through life not knowing. And then there are the few, The Smoking Men. We rule the world.
We have a system in play geared to maintain the current hierarchy, outliers are watched like never before. (Especial Blog owner x MP’s) We are at the cycle in the system where the few have it all. And the opponents are arming themselves to take it back.
On my near death experience where I took a tour of the universe, I past a Giant Asteroid on a collision course with earth, almost missed it, gawking at the beauty boobs of my angle (Becky) showing me around.
Our species and all life will be wiped out in less than 200 years. Telescopes don’t see it yet, it’s hiding behind a black hole, when it passes and the Black Holes sling shot gravity changes it’s direction, then we will all know, but it will be to late.
Yet we have the Left vs Right, Mozzies vs the (Zios) Blacks vs white.
The new one recently engineered by the machine Young vs. Old.
All motivated deep inside by the primal need for, FOOD , SEX, SHELTER and WATER. But they all fail to see the big one coming.
We have time to all work together AS A TEAM to change the trajectory, but sadly it won’t happen, that’s why I drink in my gazebo, trying to hitch a ride on the next UFO that passes by the hood.
Humanity has no chance.
Enjoy your time, do what you want, take no prisoners. No fairy tale happy BOOK ending.
Good news is, been to the other side, it anit that bad.
You think the voice would get pissed if I did Becky?
4.9 wines am IS THIS making any sense.
I caaan’t resist. FIIIIRRRRRSST
Whilst on this subject, check out Ben Rabidoux’s response to this pumping Vancouver realtor. Priceless.
http://t.co/ozy4nR0X
You were very nice to them.
I thought you were gonna rip em a new new one.
The only problem with realtors is that there’s too many bad ones out there.
I do sincerely hope that many realtors have bought their own spin and are now over invested in real estate.
Thank you Garth, everytime I get emotional and lusty over a house, I’m glad I can come back here and put it on ice. I found an acreage with the same payment as rent while looking at house porn today. But I just remember the REIT’s and ETF’s I’m going to invest in instead, till the time is right anyway.
Garth, What are your thoughts on cottages in ontario? how hard will they get hit? Thanks D
I was a realtor for 10 years, always in the top 20% sales range, and would have been higher if I didn’t have a bunch of kids. It was a terrible job, just like you said. The worst was when the market was dropping and you had to tell people to buy. I quit. Lots of others didn’t though, and spun whatever they could to get the sale. Don’t know how they could (can) sleep at night
The federal goverment has limited the investor class visa to 700 a year. How will this affect the market in Vancouver?
I can not help but think of this guy:
http://deadhomersociety.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/realtybites2.png
“Coffee is for closers!”
Step outside Calgary’s city limits to the south and it is a very different tale! Lot’s of houses have been for sale for over a year, especially if they are over $600K. The large influx of listings is occurring, although prices aren’t adjusting too much yet. Of course, most of the Realtors we have encountered are full of BS and are trying their best to keep prices inflated.
I see houses in Calgary’s premium old neighbourhoods sitting since winter. Lake Bonavista, Parkland, Mapleridge, all have the same houses for sale for months. Some reduced numerous times.
Things are not rosy here. Maybe the new houses are selling good, but I wouldn’t touch one with a ten foot pole, pure garbage on tiny lots. Those sell to kids and we know they lack any kind of sense.
Airdrie and their one tree per square mile is already in the tank. More to come.
We have oil, but I don’t believe that’s going to save us. Most people I know are overextended financially. They will be doomed soon. Poor souls won’t even know what hit them.
Nice pic you got there! I only hope I can save enough when the realty market reach bottom.
Aussie Headlines
Aussie sub-prime mortgages hitting the fan
HOME loans classed as “sub-prime” accounted for about one in 10 of the nation’s mortgages when the global financial crisis hit, with those loans now more than six times as likely to be in arrears as normal loans.
The figures reveal that claims Australia was insulated from the worst of the GFC due to vastly superior lending standards, a notion encouraged by many of the biggest banks, are exaggerated.
Following the GFC, the Reserve Bank repeatedly moved to distance Australia’s mortgage market from that of the US, claiming fewer than 1 per cent of loans here were sub-prime, compared with about 14 per cent in the US.
However, that analysis failed to account for high-risk “no-doc” and “low-doc” loans, now officially recognised as “sub-prime” in the US…
According to Reserve Bank figures, low-doc loans represented 7.85 per cent of all bank loans in September 2008, as the GFC took hold. Those figures do not include non-bank lenders, who were proportionally far more active in writing low-doc and no-doc loans, and the loans the RBA had originally identified as sub-prime…
The latest figures from ratings agency Standard & Poors shows 6.07 per cent of low-doc loans are more than 30 days in arrears – almost five times the rate for normal loans – with those arrears rates doubling in the past two years. Low-doc loans are currently more than six times as likely to be 90 days past due, compared with normal loans…
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/09/uncovering-australias-sub-prime-lending/
While it’s not outside the realm of possibility that a realtor could be just like me, in 30 years I’ve yet to meet one who was. Of course the same goes for the rest of you too. lol
really no way!
I have a feeling im going to be sad
No comments yet it says, so I will try it….first?
The real estate shysters and their newspaper “reporter” toadies continue to blow smoke about Calgary. Calgary has peaked. Listings are ripening, prices are dropping. It’s obvious.
I also work for commission, you are bang on, it’s not for the faint hearted. I also work in residential sales (bathroom renos) I know I couldn’t hack real estate though. You need to have a very thick skin to ride the roller coaster. Lucky for me my clients decisions are the very low 4 figures, not thehigh 6’s. Lucky for me that the town I work in is relatively stable and affordable (London) A far cry from that other English sounding town I just bailed on (and just in time – thanks Garth) Victoria BC
Garth, any thoughts on the construction industry? This article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/26/canadian-housing-bubble-unemployment_n_1916681.html?utm_hp_ref=canada-business
Says that Canada has over 7.4% of its employment in construction, which is higher than the US at its pre-bubl peak. So if housing slows down and the construction stops, then those workers get laid off, which impacts the economy, which slows down the house market…downward spiral?
Anyway for all us bears something to think about on the careful what you wish for theme.
FIRST?
Most people are financial morons. The new rules should let the air out of the RE market, but I don’t think they go far enough to protect most borrowers from themselves.
Gartho what the hell do you think your doing ,, making realtors semi human. Laughingcon will never forgive you.
You have just crushed him.
I have a great real estate agent. She listens well, is not pushy, and is a great negotiator and backs up her position with facts. She doesn’t spout out cheesy, naive lines of ‘why it’s a good time to buy’. In fact she’s told me the Ottawa market is heading south. It’s refreshing to work with someone like that.
In 2008-2009 Calgary house prices dipped about 20% before the government came to the rescue and made mortgages much easier to get and lowered interest rates to emergency levels. Alberta cities led the correction/crash of 2008-2009.
Most of this happened while oil was above $100.
They said it couldn’t happen then just as they say it cannot happen now.
If you are thinking of buying in Calgary right now, don’t. Wait 9 to 12 months and then reconsider your options. By then you will see significantly lower prices. This will be the beginning of multi-year house price correction/crash.
The new mortgage rules will affect Calgary as much as any other city in Canada. Realtors, mortgage brokers and real estate boards across the country are kicking and screaming about these new rules. Clearly, they are saying that the new lending standards will result in less houses sold and significantly lower prices. Less people qualifying for mortgages and less money per mortgage spells lower prices. Calgary will not be spared.
Wait at least 9 to 12 months and then reconsider your options. You will thank yourself.
#9 Duisburg on 09.27.12 at 9:42 pm
—————————————–
Buy Garth’s books. He discusses in there what he thinks (and often has said so here).
Cottages are the first to go. Think about it — in a period of deleveraging, the expendable assets are the first to go. People sell cottages, boats, cars etc. to raise cash when needed.
The future of the cottage is dead. Who is going to buy all those cottages? The first time buyers that are spending $500,000 on their first home? LMFAO
Glengarry Glen Ross
Almost says it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZg_ALxEz0
Due to a recent move, and all my free time taken up with house renovation work, I could only read Garth’s comments and not the doggy ones. For the first time in a couple of weeks decided to look at some comments, only to be greeted by #3 Smoking Man. I’m going back to reno work.
7.2. I’m done for the night. Blog dogs. Oct 23. The bar.
Viewpoint stats today
-New 80
-Sold 36
-New Price 84
Odd thing is all new prices are reductions, except for a much larger number then normal price increases by developers for new houses!!??? Most in areas with very little selling, and some have had multiple increase??
You can check it out within the next 15mins before viewpoint resets it’s data for tomorrow.
Keith Roy bragging about selling his house to a greater fool and be proud of it. What a deceitful immoral individual. It’s like someone selling a defective car and not revealing its defects. He just finished taking a run at a sucker in his opinion. Just another dishonest RE salesman. I guess bragging about it may help him get more listings?
Interesting,
Adding more info to the above viewpoint post for NS
– 22 of the 36 sold are under $200,000, many under $100,000
It was rare to see more then a few sell under $200,000 a few months ago.
You know it’s NOT different here when the listings have photos with snow in them from last year.
I live in southern Alberta. Nothing is moving. Listings are increasing. Prices have yet to drop.
Lethbridge has over 700 listings on mls. Tonight there are 801 listings on Kijiji. There is one crazy house we’ve been watching. It started in the spring at $699,000. Now it sits at $499,000. I bet they’ll be very lucky to get 200K for it. It’s an old house built in the 70’s now needing all the major repairs. Butt ugly interior. Pics have been removed from the listing they’re so bad.
Some of these people were late to the increase party, they’ll be late to the price drops too.
#47 Devore (yesterday)
Good call being a renter in Canada for the present time.
Save a few bucks, maybe you’ll want to own something when prices correct. Maybe owning is not in your best interests, it is NOT in everyones best interest.
Further Comments…
Here in cow country of the US prices have been steady (and relatively low throughout our RE run & melt).
Locally, some have been buying bank foreclosures at a deal, but most need 30-50K in work and the sale price reductions reflect that reality. Result, you either pay the market for a decent place, or you buy a relative dump, and put in the repairs / renovations needed. Yes, you can save on sweat equity, but then you almost always could do that. Bottom line: not a hell of a lot has changed.
So, what have we learned boys & girls asked the Smoking Man’s teacher…..
I know this is a World Class Blog, whereby all posters must pass an “HQ “test.
That said..is it really fair and honourable to post a photo of Comrade Smokinky Mans’ “For Sale” sign ?
Have some empathy ..Sir Garth !!!!
Garth, I don’t envy the B.S. realtors have to put up with but they would get more respect if they dropped the pumper attitude and tell the truth about what they think about the markets.
I know a bunch of agents, many well … and it IS a tough and ruthless, backstabbing way to make a living. So you think during good years they would sock some money away for bad times. The old wise ones (over 55) have and are more humble ….. most of the younger ones go “all in” and live the dream … right until the plane hits the side of the mountain ….. invested up their nostrils. It blows me away. Many aren’t lying when they tell you things are ok … they genuinely believe it … although in BC I’m sure even the most Tony Robins entranced agents have one eye quivering. Anyway …. in this (905) town even the average agents I know have been making 6 figure incomes for 8-10 years …. yet most couldn’t go a month or two without firing up their lines of credit to live off of. So we’ll soon see how many finally relinquish the fake smile.
Are you a potential first time buyer in Calgary?
Garth predicted the 2008-2009 housing correction/crash in Calgary and across Canada before it happened (it’s archived). As I mentioned in my last comment, the only thing that turned that 20% correction/crash around was the unprecedented, dramatic, emergency intervention by the government at that time. Suddenly mortgages were much easier to get and interest rates were lowered to emergency levels. That resulted in more sales and somewhat of a recovery in Calgary house prices.
Nobody could have predicted the intervention by the government in 2009. Garth did not and Calgary realtors certainly did not. If the real estate market in Calgary had been left on its own at that time, prices would have continued down for years. This is about to happen again.
Realtors will always tell you that prices are about to go higher. As the US housing market crashed, do you think realtors told potential buyers that it was not a good time to buy?
Garth owns real estate, yet he is telling you that house prices are about to enter a multi-year slide across Canada, including Caglary. He was right in 2008 while Calgary realtors were wrong. Who do you believe now?
I’ve been living on straight commission as a salesman since 1989, and wouldn’t have it any other way.
In fact, when you think long and hard about it, we are all salespeople if the truth was to be told. After all, you have to sell your boss that you are a valuable worker and an asset to the company that employs you…..you have to sell the customer’s you interact with that it is a good company…….you have to sell your coworkers that you are their friend, and a valuable member of the team. Some of us are just much, much, better at it than the rest of you who choose to accept a salary for doing exactly the same thing that what we get very highly paid for.
You are all on commission, it is just that yours is limited and our’s is not.
So realtors are not like us, because if you had to lie, cheat and steal almost every single day of your life to earn an income, you’d have been fired from your salaried job long ago…..whereas realtors and those in the REIC get away scot free with the criminal and civil frauds that they commit in order to earn a living. Sure, one or two, here or there, eventually get prosecuted after much pressure and way too much negative press that the industry is forced to disow and to sacrifice one of it’s own every once in a while, simply to present a public face that they are an honorable and trustworthy bunch of “professionals” who look out for your best interests, when nothing in realit could be even further from the truth.
Don’t believe me ? Just look at the raft of “how realtors help” TV spots that are so full of lies and falsehoods that it isn’t even funny anymore……and then try to name one other “profession” that has had a similar and very PR campaign ongoing for years now……….
Anyone ???
How doctor’s help ?
How accountants help ?
How geologists help ?
How Starbucks baristas help ?
ROFL…….
Torpor… This is why I like reading this blog. I learn words I never knew. Now I’m gonna use it in an email at work and impress my colleagues.
#16 Aussie Roy
That’s funny, because as recently as a year ago there was no subprime in Australia, even as 1/3 of Aussies were deemed “financially unfit”, with little or no savings.
Hey, that sounds just like Canada. In a year, we’ll be reading the same kind of headlines in G&M.
Do i buy garth,s version of the future or chris hedges?
.
.
he costs of our most basic needs, from food to education to health care, are at the same time being pushed upward with no control or regulation. Tuition and fees at four-year colleges climbed 300 percent between 1990 and 2011, fueling the college loan crisis that has left graduates, most of them underemployed or unemployed, with more than $1 trillion in debt. Health care costs over the same period have risen 150 percent. Food prices have climbed 10 percent since June, according to the World Bank. There are now 46.7 million U.S. citizens, and one in three children, who depend on food stamps. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under Obama has, meanwhile, expelled 1.5 million immigrants, a number that dwarfs deportations carried out by his Republican predecessor. And while we are being fleeced, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Bank has since 2008 doled out $16 trillion to national and global financial institutions and corporations.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_do_you_take_your_poison_20120924//
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Realtors. The funny thing about buying a house in Europe, there is no functioning MLS system.
http://theceliachusband.blogspot.fr/2011/11/house-hunters-international.html
Realtors have their listings, but won’t show others. Which when you hunt for your dream home, is quite comical. One town, meet three realtors.
Sometimes the same property is listed with three different agencies, with three different info sheets and often a different price too.
There are property finders, a new breed of “realtors” they go out on your behalfand try to find a place for you.
As with any commissioned job, there are good ones and bad ones. We lucked out without one alltogether, as 50% of all transactions in real estate are still done privately or with a notary public.
Hi Bob,
Garth’s message right.
Your message wrong.
Please listen.
(And no, I didn’t bribe Garth to back me up on the little debate you and I have been having. Honest:)
Average agent grossing 6 figures after paying taxes expenses and share to the Broker may net 55,000
It’s no wonder then they are no different to average salary worker who if they found themselves unemployed would likely have only a few months cash flow. A six figure income in Real Estes every QTR might provide a Realtor with a comfortable living. Most don’t come even close to this figure.
In 2008, I sold my home in Vancouver and moved to stable Ottawa. I bought a nice home with park land on all sides of cul-de-sac. A mecca in Kanata.
In 2010, I sold this home. The awesome park was smaller than I thought and the Beaver Pond Forest targeted to be chopped for lots of townhomes. I also found out out that less an a kilometer away, Nordion was playing with radio-active material. I pity folks in Kanata Lakes that have no clue of this. I also had friends not to far having to deal with Radon … buyer beware of Radon in Ottawa West if your home is on a rock (Kanata, Carp …)
Kanata Lakes – the place where homes are semi-castle suck for so many reasons. (But some crazy people that I know still crave living here and will pay a premium).
In 2012, a home in front of my old place is up for sale.
It had seen 5% drop and my guess will see atleast another 10% before it sells under what I bought in 2008.
Ottawa-West .. such an interesting place. Lots of $700K homes in West Carlton …. so few buyers. I have my popcorn ready.
Regina people would disagree with you Garth…. 20000 people moved to sask in the last 12 months. Most are building homes of course but its different here…. ;)
or rule changes which whack the virgins
…………………………………………………………………
While the rule changes certainly impact the time line they do not change the ultimate destination of this bubble which is the same as all bubbles, COLLAPSE. There were cracks in the bubble even before the rule changes were announced if I am not mistaken. Even if there were no rule changes or the rule changes are entirely rescinded for that matter, it is my shot in the dark guess that the whole HELOC, sell, buy thing would have collapsed entirely on its own weight within a few more years at best. Bubbles are very simple life forms, they inflate, consuming all resources while doing so, and then collapse.
It’s like this in Toronto. There is a huge over-supply of condominiums. Most of these are bought up and not actually used for living, i.e. investment purposes. Problem is when SHTF there will be a huge price reduction.
It will suck to be realtor in these next few coming years.
____
DZ
Is Garth insinuating that the Calgary market will spike like Vancouver and then crash? I certainly hope this doesn’t happen or I’m going to be beraded by my idiot line of credit baller friends for another few yrs.
#10 Ex Realtor on 09.27.12 at 9:44 pm
I was a realtor for 10 years, always in the top 20% sales range, and would have been higher if I didn’t have a bunch of kids. It was a terrible job, just like you said. The worst was when the market was dropping and you had to tell people to buy. I quit. Lots of others didn’t though, and spun whatever they could to get the sale. Don’t know how they could (can) sleep at night
===================================
Don’t feel bad.
Met a lot of realtors..THE ATTRITION RATE IS H-U-G-E.
I recall one decent dude…who ,told me that his Realtor class of 30 had only him and another left…and that was 20 years ago.
IMHO..a good realtor is REALTOR-istic….gives you the straight goods on the market in “Real Time”…and not be a whore for the almighty $$$$.
Otherwise. ….the system ultimately has an inherent in-built purging system, sooner or later.
Uhhhhh, does mentioning S’toon 3 times in the past week mean a post of S’toon is coming or was that it??? Please don’t confuse me Garth.
Realtor smokingman is now waiting all night just to be one of the first to post. Are sales really that slow??? Smokingman I have family and a friend in the biz who are honest and hard working. The problem is the other 85% who are bad apples. Anyhow they all are saying to stay far away from the RE mess thats unfolding. When I ask how much downside? They say who really knows but todays prices are above reality and thats going to come down to a price point where the average person can afford an average home. Something to that effect .
THere may be hope for Canadians yet. A financial literacy website was set up by the government and they actually show the numbers how renting can work out better than owning. It’s nice to see.
http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/ft-of/mortgages-1-3-eng.html
If we are returning to 2008 levels,… wasn’t that a great time to buy?
#3 Smoking Man on 09.27.12 at 9:31 pm…
I’m still not buying a house from you!
….Next stop…time share sales in Cancun….
Emails point to reasons behind TREB resistance to online competitors
Never mind all the privacy issues,” says the realtor, who can’t be named, in a May 30, 2011 email to fellow TREB board members. “What type of mess would we all be in if they have their way…”
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1263543–emails-point-to-reasons-behind-treb-resistance-to-online-competitors
It becomes clear from the emails that a key concern is really money: That the decades-old MLS system was created through realtors’ annual dues and, at the least, TREB members should be compensated if Ottawa’s former competition watchdog proves to be successful in forcing more open access.
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1263543–emails-point-to-reasons-behind-treb-resistance-to-online-competitors
just listed my home in greater vancouver area… will keep you posted! fingers crossed xx
Realtors are no different to salesmen (and women). The entry bar is low and in a normal, rational market the success bar is very high.
In sales you have two types of salespeople, those who sell and those who take orders. Sellers have to work the business and generate demand that would not be there without their effort. Order takers fulfill demand that is already exists, eg. Retail.
In easy markets, many order takers fool themselves into believing they are salesmen/women. When demand outstrips supply prices rise and even poor performers who were there at the “right time” rise to the top and arrogance follows suit…
When demand wanes, those who know how to get the job done and fight for it still perform (survival of the fittest)… Those who floated to the top on the wave of momentum fall with its waning…
Smoking Man… I’m not sure what to make of your post. I am in state of confusion, your post (#3) was of unusually better spelling, but the content was somewhat confusing.
I know Einstein’s history and theories, though remind you there were flaws he himself admitted to specifically in connecting two sets of forces – the strong intra-atomic forces and weak gravitational ones. Stephen Hawkins and other modern day genii have developed several grand unification theories some of which were substantiated by the results from the Hadron collider experiment.
As for the rest, your interplanetary trip, asteroids targeting the earth and the only bring me to two comments…
If you meant it as a jibe, fine, I get it, let’s drop the pissing contest and let the blog get back to its own agenda.
If, on the other hand, you really meant it, I feel really bad dude… Really… Get some help – as a human being to another, I hope you get better.
Otherwise remember never to mis-read the label on the stuff you drink, the safe one has no “M” in front of “Ethanol”
I learned a valuable lesson as a young man that has stood the test of time. Never trust anyone who would wear a suit. Anyone.
Calgary/Edmonton prices should be similar to Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix…you can build out in all directions.
Seems like the RE lobby is controlling land use thereby restricting development.
–
Indeed, realtors do have it tough and it isn’t an easy job. But, “So, yeah, realtors are just like the rest of us.” — Shouldn’t paint us all with the same brush. Dingledongs like Smoking Man, disciple and myself tend to walk to the beat of our own drummers, and we enjoy life for what it is — a blast!
*
Good story on CHBC news just now about Derek Foster, The Idiot Millionaire who retired at 34. Seems to have figured out Garth’s plan, plus doesn’t bother with market intricacies. Just dividend-paying stocks like Colgate, REITs, bank preferreds, etc. I shoulda thunked of that as well! Also, Dividend Growth.
#3 Smoking Man — “Good news is, been to the other side, it anit that bad.”
Been coming and going from my physical body, or uniform for nearly all my life, so I confirm (without being able to prove a single word of what I’m saying), that SM is right — once one leaves the noise and crap of this world behind, the other worlds are beautiful.
This planet is an excellent classroom for each of us to get as many adventures in life as possible, but that’s it.
*
14 Signs the world economy is getting weaker; ‘Net FF One of the banks in the pic is Chase Manhattan, owned by the Rockefellers. Obviously they want the ‘net controlled or shut down; Bank complaints rise; RIM Good news? UK in red And it’s not a sun burn either; 17 Steps to make money last a lifetime; Campbell closing plants Soup sales down; Durable Goods down 13%; Unmanageable Not the blog dogs, the EZone; Smartphone Spending not so smart; 11:14 audio clip Driving the world over (incl. chart); Secession What if the world decided to separate from itself? Riots, Revolutions and Inflation It doesn’t get any better than this!
Emerging Markets Debt sweet spot; McDonald’s launches TV channel; Deutsche Bank cuts growth forecasts for world; Nike’s China orders fall; Oil up on China speculation; Cash registers Going out of style? Charts Forget stock markets, the bond market is the one that counts; Chart of person standing next to all the known gold in the world; Argentina’s currency rules backfire; Is China burning. French unemployment and Less Pro-Euro.
*
Interesting Conundrum Even if Obomba wins the popular vote, Romney could still be the next prez. by virtue of the GOP governors. As well, TPTB have indicated they want Romney in, but the one way for Obomba to get around that is to stage a FF, declare martial law and suspend the election, but Soros More than just a multi-billionaire, he’s also counting the votes in Nov. plus this, which if true, would bring Russia, China, Pakistan and India into the fray, plus Czech Minister West losing to Putin; Agenda 21 (UN) moves into San F.; Assange enemy of state; Eroding Civil Liberties starting in the EU; Monsanto The Top Ten breakfast cereals likely to contain Monsanto’s trash; Concorde was first, SST on its way; 1:03 clip Poodle playing the piano and singing. Must have been a bartender in a previous life; Draculas A gallery of ugly criminal’s pix; Some men are not worth commenting on; Electric supercar breaks speed record; Monsanto is an annoying biohazard; Hubble Going where no hubble has ever been before; Dr. Pepper How new flavors are created; Hackers could shut down power in most of the world within a decade.
#11 RON,
There is a 7 year backlog (tens of thousands of applications in waiting.) That’s why only 700 applications per year now. So it doesn’t grow.
Spoke to a friend today who bought a house on the westside of Vancouver (Kerrisdale) in 2008 for $680,000. Big lot, $200,000 in renos and now could be listed for 2.4 million; mortgage/HELOC of around $800,000 I think. I asked him why he is not selling now and he said there is only so much dirt on the westside and besides his area will never go down.
He’s close to 60, kids out of the house in the next year or two. He has an economics degree and 28 years of commercial real estate leasing experience.
He told me that they say the prices will remain stable. I asked who ‘they’ are and he said the people that understand and work in real estate. I said that many economists in Canada and around the world believe we are in a bubble and that his home appreciation is a text book example. He said economists know nothing about business and finance and don’t live in the real world.
Denial is a cruel bitch.
Van Realtor here love your blog Garth. Your right you do need a thick skin to play in this game. For the record not all of us tell people and client’s alike that it a good time to buy and a great time to sell just so we can get paid. For well over a year now I have been telling family friends and client’s to hold off and not buy. Conversely I have encouraged people to sell and rent when able to do so. As far as Im concerned wether Im working with a buyer or seller I represent their best interests. For sellers it’s a no brainer but for buyers even when you run the cost benefit analysis of buying VS renting some still wanna buy. Let me be clear, I am motivated to earn a good living however the way I see it by discouraging someone from buying now I get to sleep well at night while deferring my potential income down the road. Holding someone’s hand to their financial grave just doesn’t make good business sense. It would be no different than encouraging someone to invest in a junior mining company that had no upside potential. Morally and ethically I have no problem in putting forth a solid effort to sell and market someone’s property in today’s market because in that instance Im working for the seller best interest. PS Vision Vancouver has just pulled a big arrow out of their quiver and it’s called “Vancouver’s affordable housing initiative” This initiative could distort prices and data to the upside for Vancouver’s west side. Not because prices are going up for the average SFH but rather certain areas of the city are soon to be re-zoned for higher density. This re zoning will potentially lead to an uptick in Values on a select group of properties. Once again government intervention will distort the market place. If you really wanna make Vancouver Affordable start charging capital gains tax on all sales.
I think it’s high time most Realtors are smoked out. Through any bubble-like period, more and more fast money agents are looking to capitalize. How many realtors are there now? Maybe it’s time once again, the dedicated and responsible agents will tough it out and the rest move onto selling the next big trend. The realtor has had a great run, but it’s time for a big market flushing.
Though construction, as reported in the Huffington Post accounts for 7.4%, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about them in a slow down. As long as they
Garth, why won’t you start using the term ‘patriotic’ instead of ‘pathetic’ as the right, worthy and righteous qualifier for your blog?!
I think that what you have been doing over the years is to help Canada and Canadians avoid financial and economic disaster. What could be more patriotic than that?!
Yes I think you are right about the lifestyle of realtors. It is definitely not an easy job.
But everyone has to remember that they are basically sales people who are working solely on commission .. the only difference being that the products they are selling are houses and real estate instead of cars, TV’s and stereos.
Just as you would be wary of any used car sales person, you should be wary of realtors as well .. or at least be aware of their stake in the deal. I don’t know why everyone seems to credit them with so much power over the buyer because the buyer should know better than to implicitly trust a salesperson.
Sure they’re going to make it look attractive and make you picture yourself in that house, drinking your coffee on the porch or whatever but that’s their job.
I think if you think of realtors as facilitators and use them for what they are paid for, they can be a wonderful asset. They can get you the story behind that house that is for sale (a good realtor will know why a house is being sold and perhaps know of any problems encountered in the past etc..). They can help you to price your home based on similar sales in the neighbourhood. They can perhaps make you aware of something you didn’t see or couldn’t find on your own. And they help with the contractual stuff. But they only HELP, as any professional or consultant would, so you still have to read the contracts and be sure of what you are signing AND you have to know what you want and what you can afford.
As for the sleaseball realtors, just give them a pass and find one that you can work with .. just as you would when you are buying a car or a stereo or … choosing a contractor, a physician or dare I say it … a financial advisor. There are sleaseballs in any profession, real estate agents included.
HHHW
Ron wrote:
“The federal goverment has limited the investor class visa to 700 a year. How will this affect the market in Vancouver?”
—–
There is no “Vancouver market”. Do you understand the bubble?
The blog has some ethical issues. For sure.
Damn it LaughingCon I’m not a Realtor. I would say so if I was.
I’m a righter with a broken pen.
Marco from Van. do you not see the art, it could have been a tit for tat post or hell it was real. I’m suprised an intelect like you can’t decide which one it is. Art my freind.
Vlad. You rock. Best link this week was the one on mind control.
Been watching the real estate market in Ottawa for a few years now. Things here are not looking good if you need to sell. My neighbour’s house has been for sale since the beginning of May, and he has had no offers. We live in a decent neighborhood in Barrhaven and the house is six years old, so it isn’t the house that is the problem.
Yesterday I noticed a Canada Post delivery slip on the front door of his house, so I called his Realtor to pick it up (he moved out a month ago). The lady who came to pick up the slip stopped by my house to thank me, and as we were talking she told me NOT to list my house now as nothing is moving. (not planning on moving or selling for another 5-6 years).
I then went to check the Realtor app on my iphone to see what is available in my area. For the first time since I started using the app a few years ago, it told me that there are too many listing’s and my search area would be reduced. Altogether, just from my personal observations, I would say the market in Ottawa has collapsed. I feel sorry for anyone looking to sell now. By December as a buyer there should be some really great deals available.
Mythbuster wrote:
“Garth, why won’t you start using the term ‘patriotic’ instead of ‘pathetic’ as the right, worthy and righteous qualifier for your blog?!
I think that what you have been doing over the years is to help Canada and Canadians avoid financial and economic disaster. What could be more patriotic than that?!”
This is an open and public space which has ( this year) offered me a lot of value. Although it is my opinion that the blog does not support Canada and Canadians at all, it has accidentally pushed things in that direction.
The real estate bubble is about a seamless set of global factors, aligning and acting on Canada and Canadians. Since the choice has been made to act “politically” in this context, the blog (IMO) has become illegitimate. Much more due to rationalization than anything else. Still. It’s not working. It’s steadfastedly trying to pump air into a baloon with a hole in it.
The good news? The more reality is underplayed, the more it is revealed. So we get there anyway. In stages. Step by step. Undoing all the illusions about “real estate”, economic and socio-cultural dynamics.
The “un-doing” is a tough one. The current belief system has been installed at all levels since the end of WW2. Plus, what could take it’s place? I don’t like this question.
Holding on to a lie is a natural reaction to the prospect of a much higher level of personal responsibility.
Mythbuster, a message for you: You aint no mythbuster.
Smokey Dude, i am not your fan, but you nailed it this time.
Einsteins wife at that time was very famous in Science World, vs him, being a clerk in Patent Office.
Her work and thesis were amazing for that time, and now, but because she was Woman and Syrian the history got rewritten…
And now plagiarist is winner? huh…
I hope that you are genuine, and not fake Smoker..
:-)
MIA. Missing in Action
Gloom and Doom real estate news in MSM
Realtors, it is true, are no different from anyone else. However, conditions have been extremely good for them for the past decade- so much so, that they have come to believe that they own the market. That their spin is unassailable. Many realtards have a scrap of decency in them, but this is one profession for which I will never feel the slightest trust.
They are entitled to nothing. Their job is to show people properties. They accept and know that going into the business. They are commission-based and they, like any and all of us, must produce or do without lunch. So, no, I have absolutely no sympathy, none, for any of them. They can all suck it up and deal with market conditions just like the rest of humanity.
People are realizing that in buying this over-hyped asset, they can impoverish themselves for life with one stroke of the pen. Being goaded into a tragic financial mistake by the likes of a realtard is tragic in the extreme. They will suck their percentage off of the deal whilst moving on to the next one.
“In his area there have only been four months in the past ten years when the supply of houses for sales pushed past a critical point – two of them were in 2008, and the other two have just happened, in 2012.”
Aka a “double top”, or batman ears (SM), or “blow off top/parabolic top”. Lower highs, lower lows.
Hey,
Reading the blog today I was thinking in the back of my mind “that’s okay, if trouble comes the government can lower the interest rates” – hahaha oh like 2008 we already did that. The market is drunk on this easy cheap money, once money is respected, then all will be well – after the hangover of course.
TGIF.
A double top in prices, I mean.
#48 Carpe Diem on 09.27.12 at 11:57 pm
In 2008, I sold my home in Vancouver and moved to stable Ottawa. I bought a nice home with park land on all sides of cul-de-sac. A mecca in Kanata.
In 2010, I sold this home. The awesome park was smaller than I thought and the Beaver Pond Forest targeted to be chopped for lots of townhomes. I also found out out that less an a kilometer away, Nordion was playing with radio-active material. I pity folks in Kanata Lakes that have no clue of this. I also had friends not to far having to deal with Radon … buyer beware of Radon in Ottawa West if your home is on a rock (Kanata, Carp …)
Kanata Lakes – the place where homes are semi-castle suck for so many reasons. (But some crazy people that I know still crave living here and will pay a premium).
In 2012, a home in front of my old place is up for sale.
It had seen 5% drop and my guess will see atleast another 10% before it sells under what I bought in 2008.
Ottawa-West .. such an interesting place. Lots of $700K homes in West Carlton …. so few buyers. I have my popcorn ready.
…………………………..
Ah Kanata – couple I’ve known for 42+ yrs (DINKS) bought a home there several years ago. They sold their home on Grange Ave. after they retired. Made big bucks on it. She & I had been room mates on Holland Ave. They popped in this summer & her DH made a really derogative comment about Kanata – the only utterance he made – not unusual for him. We’ve visited them over the years. Well, at least they spend their summers at their cottage on the lake in the Gatineau (which he bought for $13K before they met & renovated). Winters are spent travelling & time skiing out west in the winter. They sold both their rental home in Kelowna years ago as well as their rental condo near Tunney’s Pasture for a good profit. Was their timing just good luck? They’ve always been frugal in many ways, yet did a lot of travelling overseas. I remember her making her own wedding dress while we lived together.
#11Ron on 09.27.12 at 9:45 pm
The federal goverment has limited the investor class visa to 700 a year. How will this affect the market in Vancouver?
They did that last July. It took until February to reach that quota this year. It shouldn’t surpise anyone that Vancouver starting cliff diving a month later.
To RE Observer:
Of course “The lady who came to pick up the slip stopped by my house to thank me, and as we were talking she told me NOT to list my house now as nothing is moving”.
She doesn’t want another listing dropping the value of the “clients” home or should I say greater fool?
REALTORS® are their own worst enemy as they perpetuate the myths about what gets a home sold.
What gets a home sold is the guidance of a knowledgeable professional REALTOR® who helps their client first determine an intelligent market price for their home and then co-operatively shares the listing with a sales force of thousands of other agents any one of which might sell your home. That’s called leverage.
Open houses, glossy magazine and newspaper ads, twitter and Linkedin and fancy personal REALTOR® websites don’t sell homes, they sell REALTORS®.
There is no tool anywhere in the world so effective at promoting your home in such a manner that it will more probably be seen by that perfect perspective buyer willing to pay top dollar for it because it meets their every want and need than the MLS®. Unfortunately the MLS® is being diluted daily as it is attacked by those who do not understand and perceive it as some menacing monopoly. The only monopoly it has is being the best tool for you to use to get the job done to your best advantage bar none.
A socket wrench works better than pliers at tightening a nut – why would you use pliers when you could use the better socket wrench? Because a plier is adjustable, fits many different sized nuts and costs a whole lot less, but it doesn’t do nearly such a good job as does the more expensive socket set. Same goes for the MLS. Why is the MLS expensive? Because it’s worth it! If it wasn’t 95% of buyers and sellers wouldn’t be using it.
‘Create a competitive similar system to give people a choice’ I hear you say. Sure, go ahead, see how that works for you. All it will do is make for two lesser systems ultimately leading to three and then four. There is NOTHING stopping anyone from trying to build a better MLS® and if they do you can be sure it will eventually take over and become the gold standard. But to legislate such competition flies in the face of everything the MLS® is about. The MLS® is about co-operative competition. Again, where else can you list your home for sale and have literally thousands of agents co-operatively trying to sell it? Where else can you get THAT kind of leverage?
I am quite sure some day there will be no more MLS® or if there is it will be a mere shadow of its former self. That seems to be the way this country is headed – socialism. Does it work? For a time, for many, it may seem the logical alternative I suppose, but sometime there-after that pendulum too swings too far left.
Garth, do you think most realtors are intentionally misleading people, or is it more that they’re just as ignorant as the rest of us and driven by self preservation?
#44 SGIP… Chris Hedges is most likely an actor. I am getting closer to identifying who Harper really is… if you can’t see that his wife has a latex mask on her face, then you are blind…
#57 Grampa Hindsight on 09.28.12 at 12:36 am
This difference is unlike 2008, this time the government can’t lower interest rates further (well…much further!) and ownership rates are over 70% and the CMHC caps are almost hit (over $580 BILLION of the $600 billion used).
@Wally Wingnut:
You said: “Keith Roy bragging about selling his house to a greater fool and be proud of it. What a deceitful immoral individual. It’s like someone selling a defective car and not revealing its defects.”
I can’t believe I am about to defend a real estate agent. First off, selling a house during a deflating bubble is NOT the same thing as selling a defective car. A defective car can kill you, your passengers, and other drivers on the road. An overpriced house will not kill anyone. It will cause financial pain, maybe even financial ruin for the fool who bought it, but not death.
I used to work in retail sales. I was pretty good at selling crap that I didn’t believe in. I never felt guilty once. If people are so stupid and so rich that they are willing to part with their money in exchange for the crap I am peddling then why shouldn’t I take their money? If not me, they will just spend their money to buy crap from someone else. If they can spend their money so freely on crap, I am willing to bet I need their money more than they do. I have bills to pay.
The real estate agents today do not owe their clients an education in economics. Most real estate agents are not qualified to provide such lessons. The warning signs of the real estate crash are all around us–the warnings are even in the mainstream media right now. If buyers chose to ignore all the warning signs they have no one to blame but themselves. I wouldn’t blame the real estate agents because they are in business to make money, not to be financial counsellors or friends with their clients. Buyers need to learn to take responsibility for their own purchase decisions.
Shiller Data Questions Housing Revival Power: Cutting Research
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-27/shiller-data-questions-housing-revival-power-cutting-research.html
My realtor neighbour told me the other day “would you rather have a $500K asset that’s appreciating at 5% a year, or a 1 Mil asset that appreciates at the same rate?” Well, duh, I’d rather have more mo… no wait. Isn’t that leveraged risk? And what happens if the assets depreciate? But she completely believes what she says. She owns her own home, renovates and sells others, has made out like a bandit doing so for decades. She works one season a year and makes more than me. She’s very successful in her field, and been a realtor for long enough to see the ups and downs and ups of the market. Why should she think that she’s lucky, and not a financial genius? Most people tend to make the same attribution error. At any rate, I’ll never convince her that there’s another side to this story. And a good sales agent always believes in their product, right?
On the flip side, a RE price avalanche can’t really gain momentum without sales. so even in a falling market, RE agents will be fed.
It is just the calm before the storm.. how long a calm? grab some dice and we can decide.
Still mind boggling to me that one of the MUST READ on Toronto Star online today is “Daniel Radcliffe gets naked” but they declined to run the article about ~70% decline in New Home Sales for August.
Journalism at its finest, folks.
“Every market is unique, but none are different.”
One of those lines that really sums it up.. Heck, it could be the tagline for this website.
Aussie Headlines
What your mortgage buys around the world
CONSIDERING an exotic move or just wondering how the other half lives?
Take a look at what an average Australian mortgage buys in other parts of the world.
While $400,000 is barely enough to sign the deal on a one-bedder in parts of Sydney, it would leave you with spare change on a manor in the French winelands, beach home in the Caribbean or an Italian villa with sweeping mountain views.
Here’s our pick on what’s on the market for $400,000 or less.
http://www.news.com.au/realestate/investing/what-your-mortgage-buys-around-the-world/story-fndbarft-1226483335074
Welcome back DA. How are things in your neck of the woods? Be fair.
Calgary IS different!
It’s colder and browner.
#34 Sparky55
“22 of the 36 sold are under $200,000, many under $100,000.”
What you need to understand is that real estate, much like the stock market, is a evil rich man’s poker game meant to screw the rest of us. Trust me, if you watch viewpoint daily and have a photographic memory, you’ll find out the people buying these “houses” for under 150k don’t plan to live in them. . .
Here are some of the strategies I’ve seen used:
A) Buy a large lot (say 10,000 sq ft.) with a junky 600 sq. ft. bungalow on it for about 150K. Then subdivide the lot into as follows: 2000 sq. ft. designated for the bungalow and 8000 sq. ft. designated for everything else. Then sell the bungalow for 100K and the 8000 sq. ft. lot for 100k. Congrats, you just made instant 50K profit without having to work, and you’ll be surprised how many people fall for this trap.
B) The classic flipper strategy, buy a junky 100K house and then renovate the kitchen with stainless steel and then sell it for 200K. How shall I put this, Gen-Y women are “vulnerable” to highly renovated kitchens. I’ve seen flippers throw in 50K on just the kitchen alone. If some sucker comes along, there’s another 50K profit. This strategy isn’t working as effectively as it used to (viewpoint gives it away), however it pains me when I still see some suckers falling for it: http://www.viewpoint.ca/sidebarmap#!/overview/00096289/zoom/16
C) Buy a large 1 acre lot just outside of Halifax for around 150K and then subdivide it into multiple parts. Order in a mobile home for around 20K, and put these mobile homes in each section. Then sell off each section for around 80K.
Never trust a rich person, they’re disgusting slimmy people who are parasites that we would be better off without. They get ahead by lying, cheating, stealing, and manipulating in clever ways and I’ve personally had enough of these “job creators.” They should go to work doing REAL PRODUCTIVE jobs like the rest of us.
And if anyone wonders, considering I possess the knowledge, why I haven’t used the same strategies with real estate if it pisses me off so much; the answer to that query is that unlike the slimmy rich parasites, I have ethics.
#39 2centsCdn on 09.27.12 at 11:03 pm
Very good points.
In this great big sea of emotion which we all transact in on a daily basis, nothing is ever forgotten, nor wasted. Good, bad and everything in between has an equal and opposite reaction within that sea. If realtards think that they are in for tea and sympathy, they are far more delusional than they are generally deemed to be.
Overwhelmingly, people will be grinning ear to ear like Cheshire cats, overjoyed that these catalytic distorters of reality are finally getting their comeuppance.
This will be Schadenfreude at its finest. Realtards have hunched their shoulders, palms up and exclaimed “market forces” and “buy now or buy never” long enough. It’s high time they experienced the full spectrum of the economy and its frequent, attendant fear.
…and if I ever recognize one begging in the streets, I’ll just smile straight through it and keep on walking…..
#78
I thought Einstein’s wife Mileva,was Serbian, not Syrian.
It might be a very good time stop talking and start listening,, realtor Bob in Calgary.. When prices begin to drop in Calgary, you are going to look very, very foolish !! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/growth/bc-property-prices-a-lesson-for-provinces/article4573288/
MASSIVE lineup and packed house at North Burnaby’s “AVIARA” opening yesterday.
Realtors on their twitter quoted as saying “It’s different here”, “What bubble”, “Don’t listen to mainstream media”,
But ___(realtor name)______, haven’t you read the GVREB news releases, or checked out Vancouver Price Drop website? Do you live in Ascuncion under a rock?
I still haven’t received my HST rebate from the government:
“The regulations that would give effect to the enhanced new housing rebate for the provincial part of the HST in respect of the qualifying housing in BC have not yet become law.”
-CRA
Fantastic
I will never understand why a young married couple would not be looking at a duplex or triplex in the GTA; just call it a starter home with cashflow. One day it would become an investment to hold, before buying something else with the white picket fence or the balcony in the sky.
Toronto_CA wrote:
“Still mind boggling to me that one of the MUST READ on Toronto Star online today is “Daniel Radcliffe gets naked” but they declined to run the article about ~70% decline in New Home Sales for August.”
—–
Do you realize the bigger picture? Why did the prices of houses go up the way they did? What’s happening now? Why not open up the discussion?
If not now, when?
Real Estate agent on vacation with the ladies.
http://i.imgur.com/qIy69.jpg
#93 Regan
“And a good sales agent always believes in their product, right?”
———————
A good sales agent believes in sales. The product is utterly immaterial.
#88 Subversive
Garth, do you think most realtors are intentionally misleading people, or is it more that they’re just as ignorant as the rest of us and driven by self preservation?
realtors are just like the rest of us. Some know and don’t care. They are looking out for themselves. Some don’t know and are putting the down turn down to HST or mortgage rule changes or whatever. I believe however, that the majority are willfully ignorant. They don’t know and they don’t want to know. I know of one realtor who covers his ears and leaves the room when downer stats are spoken about in office meetings. He fully admits that he doesn’t want the truth to cramp his style.
#78. I am a Smoker for now quiting Nov3
Or Oct 27
Einstien wife
Tesala
Smoking Man
Have somthing in common. Same jean pool.
Universe is swrinking
#33 Wally Wingnut on 09.27.12 at 10:49 pm
Did you read the link that Garth provided? He’s not bragging about selling his house, he mentions it in his first paragraph to set the tone of this article. I thought it was an excellent and ballsy posting for an RE agent, lots of facts and he’s not trying to strong arm people into buying a house.
Regarding Realtors, I know lots of people who abuse the RE services and try to play them on each other. It would suck to do 10 showings for a client just to find out they bought from another agent. Definitely not an easy job and there are good and bad ones. Its up to the buyer to do their due diligence when you are making such a big purchase, if you buy on emotion you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences of not informing yourself.
#64 Freedom First on 09.28.12 at 1:00 am
Garth wears a suit.
It is true: you are yet to say/write a sensible (truthful)
think about Calgary RE. Be a man and admit it :-)
I don’t think the people of the Uk seem to care about what their Property agents are saying.
Is this “investment”
tax dodging ,laundering,speculation when properties are often purchased through offshore vehicles
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/9159011/Budget-2012-New-stamp-duty-may-see-foreign-investors-abandon-London.html#disqus_thread
Only nine pay council tax in enclave for super-richLocal authority investigates ownership of world’s most expensive residential block where one-bedroom flat costs millions
Share 945
Email Daniel Boffey The Observer, Saturday 26 November 2011 22.15 GMT
#89 Disciple,
You said,”Chris Hedges is most likely an actor.”
Are you nuts? Really?
Chris Hedges was the NY Times War Bureau Chief in the Middle East for 5 years. He is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and one of the most insightful critics of the US Corporate State. What is wrong with you?
I was looking at the Toronto marketplace today with a different perception of Real Estate values; not to buy now, but at a future time. There is a great difference in value between the core area – now – to the west along the lakeshore going into what is called Mississauga area using Port Credit as the central focus going both east and west. Might be an interesting area to watch over the next few years for a bargain be it a home or a condo, and there will always be the Go Train going into the big city; not to mention the highway system – just a thought when the time is right.
maybe we are all just missing the big picture, garth included…
as “I” just opened the mail and found a urgent sounding letter from peter popoff, he wants to “position me(‘lil old me!) for my harvest breakthrough”
“after days of fasting and seeking god’s face” concerning my “financial release”, god has given him the answer to my money troubles
he continues “i have studied your need for financial deliverance” , wow, how generous of him …
i wonder if god’s portfolio can beat garth’s?
anyway the lowest, dirtiest RE agent alive looks like a saint compared to mr, uh, reverend, uh PROPHET peter popoff (it’s how he signs his name!)
#110 – Smoking Man it is time to come clean, so will you or not be attending Garth’s seminar at the big hotel? You promised the Weather Witch to meet her at the bar lounge afterwards, and would do her, and she wants to know one way or another.
If you are a real estate salesman, are some of you saying that you should turn down business because prices are dropping, rising, or sales are dropping or rising? If a customer comes along is the realtor to tell them you won’t show them properties but will give them a lecture instead. If they want to buy and that is their decision, I would think the realtor should do what is asked, in other words, do their job.
Why should realtors not do their job, which is to facilitate a purchase or sale? You may or may not buy, you may walk away, you may delay your purchase, but you may not abdicate all responsibility and say the realtor made the decision. The reason there are realtors is because most people are incapable of negotiating or selling anything. If you don’t like the idea of using a realtor, and you have confidence in your abilities, then do it yourself. Nothing wrong with that, and that’s what I do when it looks like the best option.
If you think you have an unethical realtor, then move on. And for heaven’s sake act like an adult, this is a big transaction so put some thought into it.
#100 DonDWest
” slimmy rich parasites”
——————————–
at least they are keeping fit and not causing a burden on the healthcare system.
#66 Nostra… Thanks, I looked into Foster and he is for sure, an idiot: He sold all his holdings on March 2009 (at bottom), and he advised his followers to sell their stock at bottom (Toronto star March 2009). He is not retired because he is still making money from people who don’t think. I like his ideas, but he didn’t follow them.
I have a huge revelation for those in the Miss Brampton South riding and will post as soon as Garth gives me the green light…
The last asking price was just grand. Bus fare out of here…
#114 Junius on 09.28.12 at 1:58 pm
#89 Disciple,
You said,”Chris Hedges is most likely an actor.”
Are you nuts? Really?
—————————————-
has not that already been made abundantly clear?
EVERYBODY is an actor/double/peewee herman dontcha know!
The shift towards a brewing language war is something that may affect pricing…particularily here on the left coast. Come November new applicants will have to prove themselves in English proficiency. This is going to slam the door on the HAM flocking out of the PRC with their ill gotten gains……as 99.999% need government services in Mandarin when they arrive due to their not being able to speak a word of English.
Of course this will not affect most other country files…like the Phip’s or Indian’s….they speak English as well as any native. But it’s not the poor Phlips that have been snapping up the $2 million dollar shacks. I’d say batten down the hatches in that market segment……the goose is cooked.
In Quebec the new premier has announced that the sound of English in the streets is ‘offensive’……so much for that new office tower in Montreal. That can’t be good for biz generally.
We are taking in a lot of Islamic refugee’s recently…..apprently they can’t stop themselves from murdering each other wholesale and Canada has decided to bring the fight over here….not very smart.
I saw a guy yesterday walking along in battle fatigues with the Chechen style beard…..looked like he’d been beamed up off the battlefield to starship Canada…..I wonder how good HIS english was…..maybe less able than his bomb making talent. Is it possible the bleeding hearts are misreading this immigrant thing…..can you turn a savage ideological religious killing machine into a good Canadian in the time it takes to fly across the Atlantic?
And even funnier….on a CBC doc about Palestine…..the crew had handed out Stephan Dion shirts to the fighters…..red…..oh what a laugh. Are we just nutz?
Now one last warning for you young married couples with cash, whereby, the wife is getting horny to buy a home. Just stay renting, and pile up cash savings in the GTA area, as the best will come like a gift from heaven in the next few years. Do not worry that you have been left at the train station, as your peer group is bragging and showing off their new homes.
Well, they are living the great illusion as cheap money bought them a debt nightmare with huge expenses to maintain the ‘high’ of an illusion, and they feel great about this all, but they hold their heads high, as the special ones in society who bought Real Estate, and you did not. They are the winners, and you become the losers, so why feel down and out?
You just wait, and in time do your homework for the drop in price, and one day it will pay off in the end, and look out for that false bottom; not the time to move, but be patient to make a final buy, and who will get the last laugh when your peer group goes underwater, and you will – think about it! No get excited about it all with research and patience to save capital for a future purchase.
Hi Bob Truman.
What I love about you is your fixation on using your blog to control the message about Calgary’s market.
When anyone has been brave enough to try posting a dissenting argument on your site, you cherry-pick what you will and won’t post. Balanced, fair commentary. My ass.
The one thing I know you absolutely hate Bob, is having no control over what others say about you.
Hence your battle with Squidly77, a former blogger who you are suing over alleged defamation charges.
Here’s the thing. You don’t allow dissenters to have a real voice on your site, and you use lawyers to shut down their own sites. You’re a bully. It’s the exact same arrogance and narcissism that you accuse Garth of, which you practice daily.
Here’s my cure. I won’t be posting on your site anymore (where you can control the message).
I’ll be starting my own blog.
Now here’s the twist. Unlike Squidly77, who was unfortunate enough to set up his albertabubbleblog site without using techniques to make his IP address anonymous, I will be making everything anonymous.
Have you heard of The Onion Router project? (TOR).
https://www.torproject.org/
TOR allows you to login to any website or blog with a randomly generated IP address. Each time you login using TOR, you have a whole different identity and IP address. No one can trace your past comments back to a username or IP address. You are truly anonymous.
Bob, you seem to like telling visitors to your site what IP address they logged in with, when they logged in, under what username, what operating system, which handset, etc.
You also like tracking what they looked at. Which articles and polls, etc. That’s typical behaviour from a control freak…
You’ll love my new blog then. I am setting up the site using an anonymous IP address. I’ll post all the articles anonymously, and all the replies as well.
I’ll even set up my e-mail address using an anonymous IP address, and will reply anonymously to any e-mails.
My new site will focus on the Alberta real estate market. Unlike the blog of your “drunk buddy” Squidly77, this one will be thoughtful and articulate.
Hope you enjoy visiting it, Bob.
We’ve been renting in Calgary since we moved back 2.5 years ago. Last weekend we made a lowball offer on a house in Willow Park that was on the market for several months and reduced from $575k to $499k. Thank goodness the negotiations did not go through – happily signed a lease for another year and continuing to diversify investments for the future…
By the way, these postings have been anonymized, Bob. No sense pressuring my Internet provider to divulge my IP address. They don’t have it.
I would encourgage everyone to use TOR, or something like it, when posting.
https://www.torproject.org/
Why Toronto Real Estate will never go down…..
Progressive high school proposed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nOBYmPHWgtQ
Junius, you are awesome!
Realtor slime…with houses spirling towards the sun, these outrageous % commissions on houses is obscene. 32k for slamming some house horny youngsters into a rathole on the ouskirts of Calgary, for a few days work, are you serious? I see those slime patrol filth all the time at the lawfirms, many are taking all those profits and pouring them into higher end developments of rathole Infills and “Executive” houses looking to make huge profits.
Its all going to be washed away in the end, also does a realtor who drives a super expensive car, put confidence in me? is that how it works?
Calgary is a shadow market, there are lots of houses that aren’t going anywhere, the only things that are moving are lower priced houses, to new buyers. Calgary is experience a bit of a rental surge as people relocate from around Canada and they import temp immigrant labor. People are taking big HELOC’s out to finance rental properties, but when the labor pool dries….well…..it’ll hit like a hammer here.
My response to the GUTLESS anonymous commenter “VT”. Get a life loser stop going through life as an anonymous wanker !
VT Said “Whilst on this subject, check out Ben Rabidoux’s response to this pumping Vancouver realtor. Priceless.”
My Response…
Well its the truth I had zero calls for 2 weeks then 4 in one day and also an offer so I would say that would be considered picking up – let the anonymous minions crawl back under their rocks and into their holes and let
us high tax paying adults get on with life and the business at hand which includes paying for the less fortunate human beings in our society. Get off your asses and do something – really – pathetic.
And that’s all I have to say about that !!
#116 financial release on 09.28.12 at 2:24 pm
”the amazing rand” [ a magician whose side interests is exposing fraud in the manner of houdini] did an expose on popoff .he was connected by radio with his shills who pumped the marks for info.
cant believe this swine is still around.
btw…do yourself a favour and read george Ures…comments on Urban Survival…..how can an economy expand with 1.3% growth and a negative savings rate while the flood of paper is over 15%?
http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm
your money is worth less every time you go to the grocery store…is anyone looking at this when buyibf into a 5% return etf?
#127 Guess Who – Tor is old news and have many ways to proxy worldwide to hide my IP, or can go into a VPN, whereby, I simply do not exist, but good try, as hide from nobody yet. Guess Who have been on the internet system when people didn’t even know it existed and the browser of choice was Netscape.
Men are simpletons, barely able to have an intellectually stimulating conversation with a hockey puck while women are like perpetual farts in a calendar, flitting from here to there, always worried about the outfits they’re wearing, do the shoes match the outfit have they lost enough weight and generally living on the far side of Pluto.
This leads to the true story of The Beverly JillyBillies, Humping Pumpkins or the best comeback line ever . . .
*
Police work must be entertaining as well as dangerous.
Recently, a female police officer arrested Patrick Lawrence, a 22 year old white male, for fornicating with a pumpkin in the middle of the night.
The next day, at the Gwinnett County (GA) courthouse, Lawrence was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, public indecency and public
intoxication.
The suspect explained that as he was passing a pumpkin patch on his way home from a drinking session when he decided to stop,
‘You know how a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one around for miles or at least I thought there wasn’t anyone around’ he stated.
Lawrence went on to say that he pulled over to the side of the road, picked out a pumpkin that he felt was appropriate to his purpose, cut a hole in it, and proceeded to satisfy his pressing need.
‘Guess I was really into it, you know?’ he commented with evident embarrassment.
In the process of doing the deed, Lawrence failed to notice an approaching police car and was unaware of his audience until Officer Brenda Taylor approached him.
‘It was an unusual situation, that’s for sure,’ said Officer Taylor.
‘I walked up to Lawrence and he’s just banging away at this pumpkin.’
Officer Taylor went on to describe what happened when she approached Lawrence .
‘I said: ‘Excuse me sir, but do you realize that you’re having sex with a pumpkin?
‘He froze and was clearly very surprised that I was there, and then he looked me straight in the face and said:
‘A pumpkin? Shit … is it midnight already?’
The Washington Post wrote an article describing this as ‘Best come-back line ever.’
*
#57 Grampa Hindsight — ” If we are returning to 2008 levels,… wasn’t that a great time to buy?”
Depending upon one’s needs. If I knew then what I know now, there is no question that we would have downsized, sold, re-invested then rented. But life usually has different plans for each of us.
#116 financial release — Interesting post, which leads to the line “If you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, then baffle ’em with bullshit!” Gawd, dooncha jes’ luv orthodox organized religion? No different than the Mafia.
First time home buyers – now you have bought yourselves into endless pain and struggle.
Keep fifteen hundred bucks aside for the bankruptcy.
Say… Are we looking at the formation of the classic “Head and Two Shoulders” on the TSX:
Nov 2011
http://tinyurl.com/8ne5q8h
Hey broadway, you still sore about peter schiff/pee wee, eh? well if you can’t get over that one, how the heck are you going to handle any of the other HUNDREDS already exposed as well…? Remember, ridicule is the first step…
This is important so I’m just going to spill it… Eve Adams MP, is none other than Eva Longoria… once you understand the truth of this, call her constituency office and let her know you feel…
Like I said, I won’t stop until the last of these criminals are rooted out… you know who you are…
You’ve come a long way, Baby??
“For a woman to make it to the top of an investment bank, she needs to be childless or pay for two nannies”
If you want to become a partner at Goldman Sachs, just get two nannies that work 12-hour shifts, said the Managing Director to the Vice President upon her return after maternity leave. “That way you’ll never be without coverage! It’s such a peace of mind. You’ll never have to rush home to relieve the nanny, and you can travel at the drop of a hat.”
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/us-en/118951/for-a-woman-to-make-it-to-the-top-of-an-investment-bank-she-needs-to-be-childless-or-pay-for-two-nannies/?
Realtors going to be real busy. Vancouver is Number 1 AGAIN! If your rich you wanna live in the most beautiful, reputable City in the World and thats a FACT!
The city has just been named the world’s most reputable city in an international poll of 100 global cities by the Copenhagen-based Reputation Institute.
The organization surveys more than 18,000 people in 15 countries for their views on a city’s transportation, administration, progressive social, economic and environmental policies, and quality of work and life.
Vancouver bested Vienna and Sydney, Australia, for top spot
For those interested in the Waterloo Region:
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.976141
Homeowners and farm owners will pay higher property taxes starting next year.
$$$BPOE#1
Where’s the link – it doesn’t matter – if the masses decide that real estate is over valued even the rich will go somewhere else. By the way – there are much more desirable places with no rain 9 months of the year. Get Ready for the RAIN BPOE – October is fast approaching and you know it. Time to invest in umbrella’s…
I read every single post today, and it just dawned on me — no comments from Garth, not a single one. LOL
I heard that. — Garth
DELETED
Vlad. ROF LMFGO. Good one
cummow garth all your sky id falling crap aint cuuttting the cheese were all living large in canadadada
#87};-) aka D.A. on 09.28.12 at 9:05 am
That seems to be the way this country is headed – socialism. Does it work? For a time, for many, it may seem the logical alternative I suppose, but sometime there-after that pendulum too swings too far left.
I would like to know how this MASSIVE swing to the RIGHT can in anyway be called a swing to the left.
Never in our recent history has so much been held by so few and it is excellerating. Get your head out of the sand and look CLEARLY at what is going on.
#140 $$$BPOE#1′ s missive – REALTOR CRAP!
…”Which is fine, and makes more sense than filling your garage with SILVER BARS. But it’s telling that the master of marketing – now vp of Model Suites Realty – has now decided that fear sells”
..I still have room for another layer of silver bars in the garage Garth….will let you know when it’s full..
Hi Junius – I want to thank you for alerting me further to Chris Hedges. His “call to arms” during Occupy Wall Street which was a total fraud, and his time spent as a War Correspondent a la Tolstoy bumps him to the top of my list for further investigation. How can one spend so many years on the front lines of war and not know about these actors? His spouse, Eunice Wong, is an actor… red flags going up everywhere….
Again, thanks, Junius. Your inability to refrain from responding to my posts has proved fruitful… catch ya later, old sport…
Look at this “you’re either with us or against us” speech. Another red flag.
http://vimeo.com/30648202
One thing, Junius, you have to keep in mind is that those celebrity figures who promote socialism, more often than not, and in fact, virtually always, come out of silver spoon families. Chris Hedges is no exception. Read carefully through this article below and Hedges will reveal his darker side, full of himself (to paraphrase: “I speak Arabic therefore I know the Arab world” Huh?), stating that those who don’t agree with him are stupid, etc..
http://www.alternet.org/chris-hedges-tells-dinesh-dsouza-his-obama-film-void-facts-reality-intellectual-depth?paging=off
I’ve just done a full ear biometric analysis before breakfast, and I’ll let you know once I’ve found a match…
Happiness seems to always live in the past, that’s why they invented alcohol. Yet unvarnished emotions always live in the moment, thus fistfights.
When the market is soaring, so are our spirits.
When a correction looms large, we’re rolling about clutching our guts.
I shoulda solddd..
Get over it!
The good times should be back before the end of the century.