Best of Vancouver 2008
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
RSS 2.0 comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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crabman Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Did I miss one?
How about:
http://robchipman.net/blog
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crunky Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Sweetness! I voted for ‘Home Depot’ as best public makeout place.
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Drachen Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I picked you for best blog pope.
And Paul for best realtor.
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Dave Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
How can you pick the best realtor when you have sat on the sidelines your whole life?
It would be like me saying Gotham’s has the best steak without having eaten there.
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Phil Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
“How can you pick the best realtor when you have sat on the sidelines your whole life?”
Honesty is a start…
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DoDo1975 Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
How can you pick the best anything when you haven’t tried every option?
The answer Dave, is you can’t; so you choose the best that you know of. People here see Paul as semi realistic, which pretty much puts him top notch in the realtor book for people around here!!
I don’t think someone who has bought 5 houses is any more qualified than someone who has bought one. So go away!
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crunky Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
“How can you pick the best anything when you haven’t tried every option?” My girlfriend left me using the same logic. I miss her. Anyway this is silly conversation. Go vote for who you like.
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the source Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
This is the best blog, top rate bloggers like The Source and Dave. You know you are good when people talk about you endlessly, steal your handle, and all round want to be you!
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browntown Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 1:30 am
hey nutbags! hey draken, good to see you weren’t the chinese guy on greyhound bus! paul appreciates your vote, you help him pay bills for sure! ha ha i’m gonna vote for garth turner as nutslap of the year!
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Vansanity Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Why stop there, maybe we should have a: Best Blogger Award
My vote – browntown, I just get him. The use of “nutslap” inside his late night/early morning tirades just speaks to me. A box of wine and a keyboard, eh buddy? We’re sympatico!
Best blog? Come on..too easy Pope!
In other news – good read about homeless and the olympics, not beijing but right here:
http://www.utne.com/2008-08-04.....?blogid=30
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Anonymous Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Someone should really call the source/daves wife and tell him how many people he’s pissing off with his babbling rhetoric
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Anonymous Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 8:58 am
http://vancouvercondo.info/for.....3&t=48
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paulb Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 9:04 am
You have my vote Pope! This blog is the Godfather of the local RE Blogs. Thanks very much for your thumbs up in the realtor category. Keep voting people!
The other blogs you mention are other favs of mine also. Good luck everyone.
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Vansanity Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 9:09 am
In the category for Most Entertaining Blogger After a Box of Wine… browntown!
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John Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 9:34 am
With the price of oil declining we are sure to see a huge rally in real estate. Anecdotally, I was in Calgary over the weekend and everyone there is saying house prices will rise once winter hits because that’s when the drilling will start again. Oil was too high for companies to spend money on drilling, they had to focus on selling the oil instead. Meanwhile in Vancouver things are looking very good. The condo market is on fire on the east side. I hear Burnaby is really taking off right now too.
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Chincy Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 9:51 am
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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Julie Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 10:04 am
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. We share our stories of real estate investing in a FREE newsletter and a FREE blog in our spare time. Aside from a few dollars from ads, we don’t make money from the venture. We do it because we’re interested in it. We’ve built a large list of readers over the last few years, not because we know it all, but because we’re passionate about real estate, and people appreciate the real advice we give them. Even in a booming market it’s easy to lose money – and we tell our stories of how we messed up just as much as we tell the stories of where we went right. As we head into a tough market I think we’ll all need to be very careful in the investing decisions we make, as the market will be much less forgiving of bad decisions.
I don’t know if this clears any confusion up or not. But, I need to get back to work, and I hope that next time I check this blog we’ve returned to quality discussions instead of trash talking because I really do enjoy reading this blog, and many of the regular contributors bring up good points that I usually enjoy reading (one only needs to read the comments under STICKER FLICKER to know that there is usually some really good stuff in this blog!).
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The Pope Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 11:20 am
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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Dave Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 11:26 am
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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Dave Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 11:28 am
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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Snark Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 11:29 am
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.realpagema.....aPageId=14
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Drachen Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 11:51 am
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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Drachen Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
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 data and your methods. So consistently that it has become obvious that you are not interested in a two way debate, you are here merely to push your ideas down other people’s throats and really could care less about what we have to say.
That said you’ve been much better recently, I’m just pointing out why you’ve been accused of these things since it seems you don’t remember.
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The Pope Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
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-.....n=register
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Lager not Logger Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
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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pundit bandit Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
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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jesse Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
“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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Drachen Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
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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Lager not Logger Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Drachen, is there a difference? No reason he can’t be both.
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Lager not Logger Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
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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8765309 Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
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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Drachen Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
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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JJ Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I can’t believe that MSM has the comments open on their Real estate article !
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Drachen Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
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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Anonymous Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
http://www.canada.com/vancouve.....5c01f47826
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pundit bandit Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
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 and shop for themselves.
Also, it’s not that ‘When I grow up I want to be a mortgage broker!’. I think people doing this are usually driven by money/greed. Who’d honestly enjoy being a mortgage broker if it wasn’t for the money? Honest mortgage brokers are like honest real estate agents, they’re extinct (almost, after all there’s Paul
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pundit bandit Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
btw sorry for dragging the blog of topic. I’ll shut up now
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pundit bandit Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
#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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that guy Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
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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M- Says:
August 5th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
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.