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Thanks.

This weekend the Vancouver Sun ran a story about the top 15 real estate myths and realities which generated a lot of reader feedback. As of last night their website had many comments, the majority of which disagreed with some of the points in that article or the way that it was presented.

Today the comment section looks different. This morning all but two comments had disappeared, with many readers here claiming to have re-submitted comments that have not showed up. I’ve personally submitted a comment that has not yet appeared on their site. Since this morning one additional comment has been posted (congratulations ‘crabman!’).

I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is a temporary technical problem rather than a concerted effort to censor public feedback and appease real estate advertisers. If they are experiencing technical difficulties I’m sure they would want to keep the conversation going, so please feel free to post your comments here while we wait for them to solve the problem and re-post reader comments on their website.

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What you are about to witness in this city is going to crush you like a stale bitter melon. Those of us who have lived in this city for a generation know exactly what I mean.

And it always happens when it is least desireable for the hypers. The Olympics are going to be a major flop leaving us with a giant bill and not nearly as many visitors as they expected due to 200.00 oil and food shortages and riots around the world. No one will care about Vancouver by then.

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But this essay

http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking…

by Clay Shirky about …about… um…, well, the ability of the internet to channel "cognitive surplus" rather than relying on TV or gin to anaesthetize the general public. He has a book about organizing without organizations, which is kinda what's going on with VHB — vancondo — mohican — Chipman (commenters) — solipsist, fish et al. Not that it's a cause or anything, but it is a bunch of folks with cognitive surplus that collaborate in a particular area to create collaborative channels of meaning. And these channels recently interacted with Old Media on the 15 Myths thing, and … well, you know the rest.

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Most of points are irrelevant or don’t say enough to form an opinion.

#3 -Real estate prices in Greater Vancouver can’t keep going up; they’re too high already. No one can predict for certain, but I would guess that realtors and lenders would love for everyone to think this statement is untrue so they can keep on making lots of money. I bet that’s where the info came from.

#5: A bathroom or kitchen renovation is the best way to add lasting resale value to your home. Whoever wrote this doesn’t understand simple depreciation. Everything in your home depreciates in value. The appliances, the drywall, the plumbing, everything. The only thing that has been appreciating (and won’t forever) is the land value. The only renovations that pay for themselves are paint (if you do it yourself and you do a nice job), flooring, and inexpensive landscaping. Everything else is a net loser. Don’t do it for a profit. It doesn’t pay.

#9 New condominiums are commonly flipped for a profit before they have even been occupied. There are so many residences under construction right now, I believe we will soon see a vast number of condos coming on the rental market. This cannot be called either way right now. I suspect we will find it to be true soon enough.

#11 Buying a home outside the city and commuting to work is a good way to save money. It’s good while transportation is cheap. Just you wait.

#12: Buying an additional property to rent out is a solid investment. Once again this is only true in a growth economy. In a receding economy, this will produce some big losers.

#14: The bank owns my house. Semantics. Sure you own your home. If you don’t pay your mortgage, the bank take it away from you. Then they will own it. If you don’t have a mortgage and you don’t pay your taxes, the city can take your home away from you.

#15: You’ve just sold your house and have made a ton of money off it. What a silly thing to say. I think this was put in to entice people to buy with the sole intent of making money. Foolishness. These types of investors are often “caught holding the bag”.

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