Vancouver Condo Info

With more and more noise in the media about Vancouver real estate being overpriced you may be surprised to find a local real estate investment that appears quite inexpensive by comparison – The Timeshare.  Vlad writes in to share his experience:

I’ve made a costly mistake – I bought a timeshare from Point To Point Destinations (PTP Destinations, West Coast Timeshare) in Vancouver, BC and I regret it ever since.  Check the facts before you buy a timeshare from any company to avoid making the same mistake I did.
I posted my experience and facts on this web site: TimeshareRevealed.com  Please go to the “Investment Calculator” page, it is more than just a calculator. There I share facts about the following:

•    Real cost of timeshare comparing to an investment.
•    Examples from eBay about resell value.
•    How it can be cheaper to buy for cash.
•    Maintenance fees of a timeshare comparing to a condo.
•    Transaction and other fees.
•    Assets value of the company comparing to the cost of the shares.
•    Using points for car rentals, cruises, airline tickets, entertainment and so on.
•    Limitations of  booking timeframe.
•    Unused points taken away while maintenance fees not refunded.
•    Deed and title.
•    Using RCI membership for home resorts.
•    Collections practices.
•    The right of first refusal.
•    How much of your money paid to sales representatives.
•    PROFIT 100 guide compared to audited financial statements.
•    Lack of warranties or guarantees.

I wish someone explained this to me before I bought my timeshare from Point To Point Destinations (PTP Destinations, West Coast Timeshare) in Vancouver, BC. During sales presentation I understood some of it much differently and I do not remember other important things mentioned at all. If I knew all this I would never buy it to begin with. I hope these facts will help you make your own decision.

Vlads website is at www.TimeshareRevealed.com

It’s Friday again and that means its time for another open topic friday free-for-all post.  Here are a few stories from the week:

-Merrill Lynch: Vancouver houses 35% overvalued
-Van west median house sales price drops $298,500 since Feb
-Building permits take a plunge in BC
-BC economy losing some zip
-Revisiting the great Canadian housing myth
-Expensive? Just split the house down the middle
-Floating condos, just like Florida
-Want to talk about your money & retirement?
-US Stimulus effect fades quickly

So what are you seeing out there?  Is it a good time to buy or sell?  Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

note: any conversation on Vancouver, real estate or economics is allowed, please keep it civilized. When posting articles please only quote pertinent points and link to the original instead of pasting the entire article here. Pasting a link will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Thanks!

Deflate.  That’s the word the Vancouver Sun is using in their report of July sales data from the REBGV:

The so-called benchmark price for all property types in Metro, excluding Surrey, hit $556,605 in July, down 2.1 per cent from May.

“We’re seeing more price reductions in properties listed on the market, which is a levelling impact on the housing price increases experienced at the end of last year and into the first quarter of 2008,” Dave Watt, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, said in a news release.

The numbers from out in the Fraser valley are in as well and looking at least as bad. The Surrey average detached-home sale price is down six percent from June.  As Mohican brings to our attention Chilliwack saw the average house sales price drop 9 percent last month and is now negative year-over-year.

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