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Best of Vancouver 2008

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It’s that time of year again – The Georgia Straight is asking for your votes on the ‘Best of Vancouver’ and our friend CondoHype has a great idea: Why not vote for your favorite real estate blog?

There are 238 questions on this years ballot – the one that interests us is in the section for “Media, Arts and Culture” and the category is “Best Local Blog Page“, although there’s also a spot for “Best Local Realtor” (Hi Paul!).

You have to answer a minimum of 25 questions out of the 238 for your vote to be counted and the the voting page can be found here: http://www.straight.com/bov

You’ve got a lot of good options, so I won’t try to influence your vote other than to say these are a few of my favorites:

http://vancouvercondo.info – you are here and I want your vote
http://condohype.wordpress.com – exposing the ‘con’ in ‘condo’
http://langley-financial-planning.blogspot.com – best charts around
http://vancouverunrealestate.blogspot.com –  blogging the disbelief

Did I miss one? Feel free to argue for your favorite or advocate for votes in any of the other categories in the comment section below!

Once again the voting page is at http://www.straight.com/bov

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M-

pundit bandit / that guy:

The REBGV (Real Estate Board of Greater Van) doesn't include Surrey's statistics because Surrey is part of the FVREB's (Fraser Valley Real Estate Board) territory.

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that guy

i hate to willful manipulation of the numbers, but maybe they exclude Surrey because:

"…. Surrey [posted] the biggest decline in average house price. Surrey's average detached-home sale, at $520,232, was down six per cent from June." (quote from the sun article)

i'd rather believe it has something to do with how the REBGV and FVREB are defined. anyone?

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pundit bandit

#35, thanks for posting the link. Now the news really hit mainstream. Does anyone know why they exclude Surrey in the 2.1% drop they mention? “price for all property types in Metro, excluding Surrey, hit $556,605 in July, down 2.1 per cent from May.”
Anyone know the % including Surrey?

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pundit bandit

btw sorry for dragging the blog of topic. I'll shut up now 😉

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pundit bandit

Lager, not sure i agree with you. Top task of a mortgage broker is Marketing to attract clients: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_broker#Tasks_of_mortgage_broker). He makes more money the more people he gets to sign up. If you go buy a car, I wonder, do you go to a car broker that looks at car deals for you and finds the best car deal for your needs and helps you with the hassle of finding a dealership that offers the best deal? I'd assume not, you'd go on the WWW or on the street and find out yourself. So why are people able and willing to compare car deals but not mortgage deal/conditions? After all when taking out a mortgage they're likely going to spend a good chunk more than on buying a car. Time for the avg consumer to grow up, be less naive… Read more »

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Drachen

8765309 (is your real name Jenny?)

"when she pops, there won’t be buyers at any price."

That's not entirely accurate. Even in the hardest hit places there will still be transactions. Technically prices actually can't go down without those transactions. If nobody buys then prices are set according to the last recorded sale.

There will always be buyers, many of them on the downside will be convinced that things are about to turn around, others are driving prices downwards by getting what they think is a great deal.

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JJ

I can't believe that MSM has the comments open on their Real estate article !

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Drachen

Lager

But they can and often do get people to do something that they will later regret. Whether it's paying too much or overlooking flaws in the product that the slick salesman glossed over, it's still dishonest and immoral behaviour.

However, I'm sure some mortgage brokers are honest and forthright, just as some real estate agents are.

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8765309

Rob, as usual , great googly gook.

Jeff it hasn’t made sense to buy in Vancouver in a long time. Why would anyone be still buying?

There will be people buying until the 11th hour and 59 min and 59sec, that is- until there are no fools left.

This is the beauty (or ugliness of this bubble) when she pops, there won’t be buyers at any price.

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Lager not Logger

Pundit Bandit, brokers don't 'talk people into mortgages' – you're free to go to every bank to try to find the best rate, a good mortgage broker just makes that easier for you.

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Lager not Logger

Drachen, is there a difference? No reason he can't be both. 😀

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Drachen

Lager

"I like condohypes endorsement of Rennie as ‘Best Used Car Salesman’ too."

Oh, I thought we were all going to put Rennie down for 'Vancouverite closest to Hell'.

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jesse

"So consistently that it has become obvious that you are not interested in a two way debate."

One's motives and biases are completely irrelevant if debating in good faith. It is when this faith is compromised do personal motives become relevant. Unfortunately some of the last 2 posts' comments crossed over this line.

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pundit bandit

Julie,

Mortgage brokers are called credit sharks in Europe. Talking people into mortgages is wrong. If someone needs to borrow they can go to a bank, I see no need for Mortgage Brokers' existance. Maybe ask your husband to get a real job that he can be proud of.

cheers

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Lager not Logger

I voted for ‘Home Depot’ as best public makeout place.

Hahaha.

I like condohypes endorsement of Rennie as 'Best Used Car Salesman' too. Here's a few of the other categories I voted for:

Best New Condo Development: Gardenia Villa

Best local comedian: Cameron Muir

Most outrageous Olympic cost overrun: condo prices

Best Neighborhood: Main and Hastings

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admin

Dave- Drachen pretty much covered it, they may be the same poster but I doubt it. Some people get a kick out of impersonating other people. Registration is not required to leave comments on this blog, but anyone concerned about another poster using their name to post under can register to claim thier nickname here:
http://vancouvercondo.info/wp-login.php?action=re…

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Drachen

Dave "Some of the bears here accused me of being a shill or having some type of hidden agenda, which is patently false." Perhaps you don't know what patently false means. It means something is obviously or inherently false. If it were patently false then nobody acting in good faith would have accused you of having a hidden agenda. I can confirm that at least one person did accuse you of having a hidden agenda in good faith, therefore it is not patently false. So, either use terminology you understand and don't try to use words that are beyond you; or, stop saying things that you know are inherently untrue. The latter, I might point out is a big part of the reason you've been accused of these things in the first place, you have consistently misrepresented your positions, your… Read more »

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Drachen

Dave

"Are you sure that that ‘The source’ and ‘Dave @ Revnyou’ are not the same poster?"

There's no way he can be all he knows is that they're not connecting through the same network. For all the Pope knows The Source is Dave@Revnyou when he's at work.

However I suspect The Source is just dicking around, saw Dave@revnyou posted his website here publicly and figured he'd just jerk us around a bit.

No matter, this is why it's pointless to discuss identity unless the two are obviously the same person (ie Krrish's many handles).

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Snark

I hear Burnaby is really taking off right now too.

That's old news, Burnaby inventory started really taking off several month ago. There's almost twice as many places for sale in North Burnaby than theres' ever been in the last few years.

http://www.nvcondos.realpagemaker.com/aPage.jsp?a…

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Dave

Lets put an end to the conspiracy theories: I can confirm that ‘Dave’, ‘The Source’ and ‘Dave @ Revnyou’ are all different people.

Can I ask how you confirmed that? IP addresses?

Are you sure that that 'The source' and 'Dave @ Revnyou' are not the same poster?

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Dave

You don’t have it completely correct. Your husband was also posting under the handle of, ‘the source’.

I have been posting on this site for only a couple months using the handle, ‘Dave’, which is my real first name. Some of the bears here accused me of being a shill or having some type of hidden agenda, which is patently false. When your husband posted his website, many of the bears concluded that it was my supposed hidden identity. Further compounding matters are some coincidental similarities between your husband and I including our first names, places we have lived (Victoria, Burnaby) and our posting information about endurance races. I have only ever posted under one name, which is Dave. My first few posts may have been under ‘anonymous’, but I can’t recall. Nobody has been posing as your husband.

Clear?

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admin

Wow, that'll teach me to go where there's no internet access for the weekend. Lets put an end to the conspiracy theories: I can confirm that 'Dave', 'The Source' and 'Dave @ Revnyou' are all different people. As Julie said 'Dave @ Revnyou' only posted once. Lets tone down the personal attacks please, you just weaken your own argument if your only debating points are insults.

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Julie

I sat down to check my RSS feeder today to see what's happening on my favourite blogs and I see a whole lot of crap being said about my husband and myself. First, I want to set the record straight… Dave, my husband, made one post on this blog (ONE POST ONLY – with reference to fixed vs. floating mortgage rates I believe – his post shows up as Dave @ revnyou). He was trying to contribute to quality conversations. I guess it all got out of hand with the different Dave's and someone posing as him?? It's hard to follow and I don't have time to sort it all out. Yes he is a commercial mortgage broker, (and he was a residential mortgage broker before that, and he worked at Scotiabank before that) but we're also real estate investors.… Read more »

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Chincy

John,

Put the crack pipe down…and stay away from the glue…you are about to witness the other side of the rollercoaster over the coming 2-3 years…fasten up. We are going to witness how sheep get slaughtered…

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