Leaky condo buyers blame the guru
Ozzie Jurock is in the news lately as buyers of leaky condo units around BC blame him for their money losing investments.
In a 2001 newspaper column, Jurock addressed “scams and shams,” saying, “Someone comes along and sings a seductive song and there it is. People simply hand over their money because they believe. All the victim has to do is make the judgment that the other person knows what he’s doing and is a good person who will take care of them.”
When real-estate markets heat up, “the marketers come out of the woodworks,” Jurock wrote. “You know, you go to a seminar and are told that in this city or that city in the United States, Europe or elsewhere, there is this great deal. While some of them are legitimate, caveat emptor [‘buyer beware’] . . . on the rest.”
Jurock’s media appearances had caught the attention of Shannon Stange of Vancouver, who owns an office-construction business.
“He was promoting himself as this real-estate guru,” said Stange, 43. “So I went to his ‘Real Estate Action Weekend’ then joined his ‘Real Estate Action Group.’”
Stange said he had “zero knowledge” about real-estate investment before he became involved with Jurock. “I was a total greenhorn,” Stange said.
In early 2007, Stange and a business partner bought six condos from Jurock for about $450,000, which included three condos in the Roosevelt Apartments and three others in Merritt.
“I said, ‘Let’s buy from Ozzie; he seems like an honest guy,’” Stange said.
The Merritt investment has also been a money-loser, but Stange blames himself for believing values there would rise. He and other buyers of the Roosevelt Apartments have done research and concluded that the condos weren’t worth what they paid, Stange said. Putting the $35,000 into their units for the repairs and selling them would still mean a loss, but a smaller one, Stange said.
Stange hadn’t travelled to look at any of the properties before buying, he said. “I believed in Ozzie too much to go out and do my own due diligence.”
Read the full article in The Province.
July 25th, 2011 at 7:17 am 1
Bosworth, Dom, Stachniak, Stange et, all:
It's karma and may your greed take you to whatever nightmare you deserve.
Homes are for families to live in,, not for speculating.
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July 25th, 2011 at 7:18 am 2
In today's Sun
"One important policy field that must be re-examined in light of the 2008 financial crisis, and the U.S. housing bubble and its collapse, is the role played by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation in the rapidly appreciating housing market that some analysts argue is producing a similar Canadian housing bubble."
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Time+rein+po…
The author, Ian Lee, a professor from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, also made an appearance on BNN.
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July 25th, 2011 at 7:20 am 3
Newsflash: population blames the pied piper instead of their own magical thinking.
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July 25th, 2011 at 8:36 am 4
behhh
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July 25th, 2011 at 8:42 am 5
Re Ozzie:
No sympathy….to many Pied Pipers.
Have any of these investors been to say Williams Lake.
Doesn't it have a high crime rate ?
Merritt ? LOL….
I wouldn't care if Ozzie gave it to me….it's a liability.
Extreme weather climates ie ranging from 30+ to -30 Celsius are very hard on buildings….
Perhaps this is a good lesson to others not to follow these deals.
I always found Ozzie as sounding like a carny blathering at the mouth about all these deals….all he did was attract sheep. By the time he blathers…the deals are long g-o-n-e.
PS patriots…how many did Ozzie sell you?
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July 25th, 2011 at 9:25 am 6
When a Realturd® industry "all star" turns out to be a crook like the rest of them, you know a much needed overhaul is imminent.
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July 25th, 2011 at 9:30 am 7
@Manna from heaven:
"In today’s Sun"
Amazing how the CanTurd Propaganda machine NEVER allows comments on ANY real estate story. In their attempt to appear transparent and objective, they still subtly control the minds of the many minions they helped to make.
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July 25th, 2011 at 9:36 am 8
I'm surprised Ozzie got duped into buying leaky condos. With the amount of years of experience he has the number one criteria for buying on his list should be "does the thing leak"?
Sounds like it may hurt his reputation big time. It will be interesting to see if he comments on this on MoneyTalks where he appears on a weekly basis.
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July 25th, 2011 at 9:46 am 9
@4444 4444 4444 4444:
"Bosworth, Dom, Stachniak, Stange et, all:
It’s karma and may your greed take you to whatever nightmare you deserve.
Homes are for families to live in,, not for speculating."
It would be so cool if Bill Slut & co, got fukced into a deal like this.
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July 25th, 2011 at 10:27 am 10
Patiently Waiting…
I'm not so sure its re: Hospice….Asians buy blindly and pay the price.
A few years ago, in Richmond ( SouthWest corner of Cooney and Lansdowne )a twin Hi- Rise was built.
A few years later, a Hi – Rise development was proposed immediately EAST of it, on an adjoining property.
The residents of the twin hi – rises (mostly Asian) started making protests re: how this new project would affect their health, blah blah…….and hung banners.
Ultimately, the new Hi Rise was built…
Perhaps this is simply an example of lack of due diligence which is the result of blind buying.
Its a typical develop trick to sell the shite with a perception the best view is eternal….then build in front of it.
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July 25th, 2011 at 10:29 am 11
@Keeping An Eye On The Pimps:
Can't you spell fukced properly?
Hooly shyt !
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July 25th, 2011 at 10:50 am 12
@900kCrackHouse:
He didn't buy leaky condos, he just sold them.
If the above puzzles you, read the news story carefully.
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July 25th, 2011 at 11:37 am 13
@900kCrackHouse:
>>>It will be interesting to see if he comments on this on MoneyTalks where he appears on a weekly basis.<<<
I doubt you'll see him there again. Judging by the headline alone he's been thrown under the bus by Postmedia Network.
I'll bet he misses his old friends from Canwest.
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July 25th, 2011 at 11:53 am 14
@Best place on meth: Ozzie is Campbell's lap dog. They will bury it and keep the bullshit flowing real thick as always.
When has there ever been one single real estate bear allowed on that show ? Never. Stock market bears galore,but not a RE bear to be seen, that would put poor Ozzie in a spot. Except for the odd guest, the show is crap.
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July 25th, 2011 at 12:14 pm 15
Listen…
Are you guys closing or not ?
If not…I have Cam Good with HAM in posse' riding horseback coming to Williams Lake…then Merritt
Buy yesturday …….or be priced out today.
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July 25th, 2011 at 12:14 pm 16
prices fall this month and next, and down 5
% over the next 180 days fucktarts
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July 25th, 2011 at 12:35 pm 17
Completely off topic:
Two waterfront homes were sold to mainlanders (the PRC kind) on Salt Spring Island in the last week or so.
The realtor says they are going to spread the word about Salt Spring properties to their friends.
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July 25th, 2011 at 12:50 pm 18
@Westside Hag:
Makes no sense, no shopping, no high profile schools, etc. Only thing to do on Saltspring is take the ferry somewhere else, or grow/smoke weed
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:01 pm 19
@Anonymous
Perhaps they are unusual.
It could be just another place to park money.
A Gulf Island Land Bank.
It does seem weird I admit, although I did see quite a large group of them on the main floor of Mouats quite recently.
Strange times.
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:10 pm 20
@Anonymous:
>>>Makes no sense, no shopping, no high profile schools, etc<<<
Nobody looking for you there either.
Saltspring has long been a haven for people fleeing their governments.
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:11 pm 21
@Westside Hag: HAHAHA the rich white people there are NIMBY as hell. They better not even think of cutting a single tree, never mind build a ghetto mansion. They will be watched like a hawk.
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:17 pm 22
@Westside Hag:
This on the Saltspring market from Just Jack over at HouseHuntVictoria:
"3 house sales in the last 30 days and 221 properties listed for sale. That's 6 YEARS of inventory! Of course that is ridiculous, evened out over the last year its more like 2 years of inventory. But the point is the same. You may own a million dollar property on Salt Spring. – you just can't sell it in a reasonable time, unless you discount the property heavily. "
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:17 pm 23
This pimp story could have some far reaching implications for many of the local Re pimps.
Note the well coached words of the Specuvestor Whores?
They seem to imply that they were duped because RE Pimp Ozzie had superior knowledge and established a fiduciary relationship.
If the Judge who hears the case happens to be drunk that day and buys the BS, instead of realizing the only reason, the specuvestors are looking for recourse, is that prices have only one way to go, then perhaps the pimps on the radio, and the condo marketers could all find themselves liable.
And there could be a case made that these “experts” did present themselves as “experts” and they did claim that prices can only go up in the best place on earth.
A huge body evidence lies on bear blogs across the country!
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:27 pm 24
Creating a large pool of stable, non-market housing will help cool the market in my opinion, so a lot of what's in here is a good thing for all:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+housin…
I really hope the funds from the "rent bank" don't go to slumlords. The city should demand some standard of housing before they allow the transaction. As soon as a tenant asks for help, the City is now aware of the rental unit.
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:49 pm 25
@Patiently Waiting:
Build it and they will come. More homeless, that is.
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July 25th, 2011 at 2:40 pm 26
Losers…
I warned you….
Now I am giving the title back to the First Nations
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July 25th, 2011 at 2:45 pm 27
Gulf Islands….
Now that'll be one to watch…..especially Saltspring..the epicenter of bestiality …baaaahhhh
De Facto…..they are the equivalent of Interior.
Funny psychology….if Ferry prices go up $ 10…bet R.E. there goes down $100,000. Anyone done a study ?
Islands Trust = Uber NIMBY…f*ck -em.
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July 25th, 2011 at 5:27 pm 28
@Westside Hag:
i thought they didn't like 'islands off islands'
not to mention, the hippies will scare the shit out of them
or maybe they'll start eating mescaline and go back to china and topple the CCP?
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July 25th, 2011 at 5:32 pm 29
anyone read this?? lol
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Comment+first+na…
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July 25th, 2011 at 5:52 pm 30
@chip: Most of that housing would not be geared to the homeless.
I got the inside scoop from a shelter worker who told me some pretty shocking stuff about how sweet life can be for some who get into the transitional housing system. They get free meals, free laundry service, free safekeeping for their weed etc. etc. etc. And, yes, some people are lingering too long in the system because its better than living in some rat-infested basement suite like a regular welfare recipient.
The problem up until now, IMHO, has been the narrow focus on the homeless while ignoring the housing stability problems of the working poor and "priced out" middle class. If you look closely, most of this announcement is about addressing that problem.
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July 25th, 2011 at 6:07 pm 31
Those Roosevelt Apartments aren't your typical leaky condos. They were built in 1966 and were probably well made. They are just freaking old, that's all. A wood-frame building that age in Prince Rupert is simply at the end of its lifespan. Those buyers deserve their fate.
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July 25th, 2011 at 9:29 pm 32
New Listings 231
Price Changes 152
Sold Listings 141
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July 25th, 2011 at 10:12 pm 33
@Patiently Waiting:
Condo conversions don't make economic sense, period.
You have an existing rental building with a single owner who directly handles management and maintenance issues. Then you spend a bunch of money on lawyers and accountants turning it into a strata, a bunch on money on renos which can't be recovered from rents because the rental demand isn't there, and then spend a bunch of money selling to individual owners who will spend a bunch of money on strata fees and aren't capable of making informed management decisions.
Note that the province with the biggest number of condo conversions has been Alberta because it faces the least legal obstacles. But Alberta has no rent controls at all and landlords can ask for any rent they want any time they want. So why would an existing apartment owner want to convert to condos? The answer is obvious.
It's inherently a scam to get easy money from suckers.
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July 26th, 2011 at 12:29 am 34
i’m suprised ozzie stooped so low because he had a good career without having to flog crap condos in crap markets. the buyers need to primarily blame themselves. there’s no free lunch in real estate right now, a good yield can turn to no yield. i have friends who bought in phoenix who thought they were geniuses but now can’t find tenants (after the original tenant moved out).
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July 26th, 2011 at 7:41 am 35
@patriotz: Same reason condos get built. If developers could make more money building and managing rental properties, they’d be doing it.
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July 26th, 2011 at 8:46 am 36
Oddly enough, my allegedly sophisticated real estate lawyer sister decided to buy into condos in Williams Lake. Despite having grown up in the interior, someone managed to convince her that it was a great investment. Returns dancing in her eyes, she never bothered to do any research or think for herself. Now she is angry at the lawyer friend who convinced her to invest.
A fool and their money are soon parted, I guess.
Williams Lake and Merritt. Luxury condos. Right.
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July 31st, 2011 at 10:02 am 37
[...] “Salt Spring: 3 house sales in the last 30 days and 221 properties listed for sale. That’s 6 YEARS of inventory! Of course that is ridiculous, evened out over the last year its more like 2 years of inventory. But the point is the same. You may own a million dollar property on Salt Spring, – you just can’t sell it in a reasonable time, unless you discount the property heavily.” – JustJack at HouseHuntVictoria, as cited by chip at VCI, 25 July 2011 9:17pm [...]
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