humor, Open Topic

Cube Living Showroom – invest in property 1 cubic foot at a time

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Readers of this blog may recall a story in July about Cube Living, an opportunity to invest in real estate 1 cubic foot at a time. This caught our attention when it stood out as a clever tongue-in-cheek submission to the city’s ReThink Housing competition.

One of the people behind the project has now launched Phase 2 by opening the CUBE Showroom where you can apparently purchase a cube of your own. Operating out of the 221a Gallery at 221 E Georgia, the showroom will be open from 1-6pm from February 19th to the 23rd. Act fast though, according to the Gallery’s website presales are hot.

There’s been unexpected volume of pre-sales over the weekend and the development is now 66% sold out—but don’t worry, we’re holding back some units to ensure there’s a reasonable supply still available when the sales centre opens on Tuesday.

You can find more information about the project at 221a’s website. There will be a talk by designer and artist Alex Grünenfelder on Wednesday, February 20th at 8pm and a closing reception on Saturday, February 23rd at 8pm.

On February 19 Grünenfelder will begin a limited release of micro-properties measuring 1 cubic foot. This innovative product addresses the stagnation and endemic unaffordability of Vancouver’s real estate market. In developing a spatial commodity that can be purchased in very small units, Cube Living is able to offer affordable properties at prices under $50! Micro-properties are an accessible solution to the inflated real estate market crisis that threatens to push Vancouver’s economy into decline.

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patriotz

” Moreover, I would love to see the city eliminate nominal dollar values when doing assessments.”

That would remove transparency from assessments. Using estimated market price for an assessment gives the owner the opportunity to compare it to sale prices of other properties and other assessments and appeal if it looks out of line. And of course it allows prospective buyers and sellers to compare an ask or bid price against assessments.

Also, the provincial government does assessments, not municipalities.

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oneangryslav2

@62

“No worries. If MAC can create a fake buyer, it can as easily create a fake Sr manager.”

Bingo. Nobody at MAC has lost their job. I’ll bet the “reporters” who were made to look foolish upon the original story have bought this new story hook, line, and sinker.

Here’s a thought: why doesn’t Matthew (or whatever his name is) from the CBC get off of his ass (and Facebook) long enough to actually do some investigative journalism. Ask the MAC boss for the name and contact info of the allegedly fired manager and interview him, promising to not release his or her name to the public.

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oneangryslav2

@48 Paraphrasing: 1000 persons/week moving to greater Vancouver.

Really?!? 52,000 a year are moving to the GVRD? Wow, are you out to lunch. As I mentioned in a thread a few days ago I have access to bits of some interesting new data that show some interesting things about the people of suburban Vancouver. One interesting data point is that the vacant rentals/vacant houses number is higher than it’s ever been. Landlords are freaking out about the increase in the vacancy rate, though these are institutional landlords and most of them haven’t purchased during the bubble.

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oneangryslav2

@42

“A rental doesn’t have the risk of deficiencies, so subtracting the cost of contructing a new minimal building on the property could be used to model a risk free price rather than the off the cuff percent per year discount formula I suggested earlier.”

I’ve been thinking along similar lines. Moreover, I would love to see the city eliminate nominal dollar values when doing assessments. Given that property tax is a function of relative value it doesn’t matter what the denomination is. Therefore, simply an index would suffice with the average (i.e. mean) assessed home taking the value 1000 with other homes taking higher or lower values.

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gokou3

“What is this person’s name? What did he do? What were his responsibilities? How long had he been with the company?”

No worries. If MAC can create a fake buyer, it can as easily create a fake Sr manager.

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mclovin

“Senior manager resigns after real estate company employees caught posing as customers for TV’

Senior manager in a real estate company hmmmm…..what does a Sr. Manager do in in a real estate company?

This guy was likely a marginal producer who hadn’t made a sale since June of last year and was on his way back to Canadian Tire.

He was the sacrificial lamb.

No one with a meaningful job resigned. What is this person’s name? What did he do? What were his responsibilities? How long had he been with the company?

If it was a real person or a Sr. Manager MAC should have no issue answering the questions.

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jesse

Incoming! CBC: Buyers left with big bills when home inspectors miss defects A CBC News investigation has discovered it’s almost impossible for homeowners to get compensation if something is missed during a home inspection, despite new regulations introduced by the B.C. government in 2009 requiring all home inspectors to be licenced and insured. Buyers like Lindsay Denton, a 39-year-old single mother, are finding out the hard way they have little recourse if they believe an inspector misses an obvious, visible defect. Complaints to the inspectors’ association might cost an inspector the loss of his or her license for a week, but financial settlements are only awarded through the courts. Denton was battling breast cancer when she bought a $750,000 home in East Vancouver after an inspector’s report found no structural defects. “It’s been a nightmare, like I wish I’d never… Read more »

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mclovin

“Inventory is now at the highest point it has been in the last 8 years for this time of year.

Would that also make it the highest point it has been for this time of year in the last 1000 years?”

Ha ha hah haha ah aha aha hahah

Nice one!

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jesse

It looks to be a horse race to 16000 listings by the end of February. Those are some great vancouverpeak graphs on inventory growth, it looks like 2012 redux so far, just a little bit worse. The double bite of lower demand (lower pop growth and tighter credit) and higher inventory is approaching what I would consider def-con 3.

This is kind of like watching engineers doing tests to failure on aircraft wingspans. Is this market going to dramatically explode or just pathetically deflate like one of my souffles? My graphs are showing lots of disturbing stress concentrations…

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Short'em High

@g …ex “to the cleaners”and is doing well…

What goes around comes around. She obviously overpaid for the building and probably the land too.

Generally though, this is interesting relative to the rent equivalent price of any SFH property. Judging by the downvotes, realtors are pretty touchy about buyers becoming aware that deducting the value of old buildings and construction costs is a valid way of preparing a bid offer on a SFH property. The sensitivity on this issue is even funnier than desperate pumper #48’s idea that a number that amounts to statistical error on the number people passing through town every week will want to buy his excess overpriced POS teardown SFH’s.

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Anonymous

#51 Renters rule

Joke is on you!

Surrey just announced a new Recreation center to be built in Clayton heights…Guildford rec center expanding…all due to rapid population increases.

We welcome your income taxes!! Joke is on you!

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Romeo Jordan

watch for the line of demarcation at ten percent

declines

coming up soon

within 75 days

then what?

it only gets worse

we are already down 15%, the stats are bullshit

but at ten percent the shitbowlers can’t claim buy now or be priced out forever anymore

then what

they can stick their head up their ass

that’s what

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g

She can afford to spend 750000 on a POS house and we’re supposed to feel sorry for her? 50 year old shacks will always need repairs.Yes the inspector was a doufus and should be held partially liable.Oh and shes a single parent,just like half the population in Vancouver(including myself),so what?She obviously took her ex “to the cleaners”and is doing well.

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Vote Down The Facts

No high paying jobs here? Right.

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real_professional

The chart book was all done with excel. There are limitations of excel charts, but there are also add ins and macros that can be coded to get excel to do exactly what you want in most cases.

http://pacificapartners.ca/blog/2012/12/08/canadian-real-estate-correction-chartbook/

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renters rule

hahahaha @ desperate #48 Anonymous

newsflash jack*ss… no one is moving here, in fact, many are bailing.

This town is too expensive and there are NO high paying jobs here. This RE market is done done done. Stick a fork in us, we are so done.

News flash, you need to find a new career that is NOT related to Vancouver area residential real estate.

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Boombust

CHIPMAN.

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Boombust

Aw, shut up.

So pathetic.

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Anonymous

In the last 7 days:

You: keep posting about a so called crash.

Reality: 1000 people have permanently moved into Metro Vancouver.

Result: nit-pick stats harder to make your arguments ‘valid’. Keep posting bears!

Oh, another 1000 in the next 7 days. REMEMBER THAT!!!

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b5baxter

@Guy Smiley

It may have been higher in 1998. I don’t have the data for that year (but I think someone else here might have it).

Also maybe 1792….

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AlanL

‘Senior manager resigns after real estate company employees caught posing as customers for TV’

The manager probably enjoying EI now and waiting for a higher position when the issue cool down…

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Short'em High

#42 …all houses in the 750K range in Vancouver are basically tare downs…

Does anyone have an opinion on the accuracy of the assessed building value? Given present inflated contruction costs, are the assessed building values too high?

It would be interesting to model the cost of replacing the building when calculating the risk free rent equivalent price of the total property. A rental doesn’t have the risk of deficiencies, so subtracting the cost of contructing a new minimal building on the property could be used to model a risk free price rather than the off the cuff percent per year discount formula I suggested earlier.

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Anonymous

‘Senior manager resigns after real estate company employees caught posing as customers for TV’

Looks like someone from MAC was sacrificed * forced resigned * to save their public image …

http://www.theprovince.com/business/Senior+manager+resigns+after+real+estate+company+employees+caught+posing+customers/7999235/story.html#ixzz2LaoKaTab

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Short'em High

: Did they wait for CNY to list?

According to Wikipedia, CNY’s last day (15 days) of festivities this year is Feb 25, next week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

It would be interesting to know exactly what memo, cattle prod voltage, or event caused these ones to wake up and list. Two more possibilities: Teranet released a very negative headline and the dollar depreciated considerably.

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Anonymous

Short’em High Says: “Comments section has the horror stories and why home inspectors aren’t really qualifed to provide a sound opinion on every property.” What did this lady think she was getting when she bought the POS house? You can tell by looking at it that it is a POS before stepping inside. I also don’t get how people think a $500 inspection will detect every problem with a old house and they should have some recourse where the inspector should pay for any defects they do not document. On a house like that you could spend 2 days finding and documenting defects. If you wanted a guarantee the house was perfect she would be spending $5000 not $500 and would quickly find out all houses in the 750K range in Vancouver are basically tare downs. A house like this… Read more »

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