data, Holiday, hype, supply

Hypey Valentines Day!

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148 Comments

A few random tidbits today:

First off we’re right up around 15,000 listings for sale and we’re not even half way through the month. According to numbers from inventory we’re at 15,007 but Paulb’s numbers show 14,993.

So today will either be a record breaking sales day or we’ll get nudged over the 15k mark no matter how you count it.

If you’re the sort that just can’t wait, VHB is hosting a 15k party over at the Vancouver Peak now.

In other news earlier this week the question was “hey, isn’t that supposed foreign buyer on the evening news a local condo marketing employee?”

Turns out the answer is yes, according to Village Whisperer.

Over on the MAC Marketing Facebook page a CBC reporter is asking for clarification on this issue.

Matthew Black I was the CBC reporter on this story and feel some clarification is in order:

*Can you confirm that Amanda is the employee you refer to in the post above?
*Is Chris Lee (from the TV pieces) actually Amanda Lee’s sister?
*Is Chris Lee a genuine prospective buyer from China, or, is she also a MAC employee?

I trust you still have my contact information…

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patriotz

“Tyler Davies, communications officer at the Real Estate Council of British Columbia, said he had never heard of any situation similar to this before, but that as the provincial regulating body for realtors”

The RECoBC is the provincial regulating body for real estate agents, not realtors.

http://www.recbc.ca/

Realtor is a trademark owned by the real estate boards and they have their own procedures (or non-procedures) for dealing with real estate agents who use this trademark.

Sloppy reporting and no it’s not a nitpick.

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Devore

“And it’s not like he could call Amanda and Chis into his office and ask, “What happened?”. I guess it will forever be a mystery.”

Why would he need to? CTV and CBC are on site at the same time to do a story on their flagship project, it’s not like Amanda came up with the idea in the shower that morning. This was set up ahead of time, and everyone knew what they were doing.

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gokou3

Re #145:

The bears didn’t buy –> good decision –> good luck for the rest of year –> yay!

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Apocarypse Mao

Chris Lee says;

“In Chinese tradition, if you make good decisions at the beginning of this year and the whole year, it will be good luck.”

I guess that’s a year of bad luck for the Lee ‘sisters’.

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Anonymous

IMF just said housing prices still over-valued in Canada by 10%. Huh?

In my circle, the guys that did best money-wise were the ones that got a job right after high school and bought a house right away (10+ years ago). Those that went to university screwed themselves over.

Guy SKIPPED University: $300,000 house now worth $1 Million. $15 dollar and hour job initially, Now $15. $210,000 mortgage remaining. Suite income $750 tax free monthly. Minimal income taxes payable, maximum child benefits!

Guy WENT TO UNIVERSITY: Renting now. Wants to buy $1 Million house. $25/hr job now. Pays more income taxes. No suite income. Doesn’t qualify for max child benefits.

Who’s better off??

****These types of imbalances will be the undoing of Canada!****

What you going to do about it?

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yvr2zrh

Quick summary comment on this week’s numbers. With the holiday Monday, we get strange stat patterns as it takes time to book the sales and listings (mostly listings). Once this week is done, we are still showing worse comparisons (compared to last year) than last week. So – – the trend is still on and I am forecasting abou 1700 sales this month.

CBC put MAC on TV. That was great. Once thing I want to know is with multiple media outlets being duped – it could not have been harmless spontanaity. . . This will at least put the public in a heightened level of suspicion . . . Globe article was also good. – – Stats to come this weekend.

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Girlbear

Why would Cressey cut ties? The developers pay these guys to take inventory off their books so developments look pre-sold. This has been the game for a long time.
Oh and ya, Cam M without a doubt is part of this. I would put he and his wife into the category of “promoters”. It is what it is. 🙂
$20k fine meaningless to them btw. Bigger issue would be suspension of license.

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gokou3

Re #138:

Is it a mystery that a phone call or two can’t solve?

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AlanL

TI: 150006??!???
Seriously? That is a MOI of 100+.

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oneangryslav2

“But McNeil says just how the incident happened may never be solved.”

It’s like the statues on Easter Island, or the assassination of JFK. Maybe Jimmy Hoffa did it.

I can sympathize with McNeil’s frustration. I mean stunts like this without the knowledge of upper-level management are an everyday occurrence in the business world. Stuff happens! No need to dwell on it. There’s too much too look forward to in life, like another cloudy February day tomorrow with Vancouver condos getting more and more affordable by the day.

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N

@137

Fair enough. How can he be expected to know what happened? He obviously didn’t plan it or sign off on it. And it’s not like he could call Amanda and Chis into his office and ask, “What happened?”. I guess it will forever be a mystery.

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vangrl

“Cameron McNeill, the head of MAC Marketing Solutions admits the story was a fake and says sorry. But McNeil says just how the incident happened may never be solved.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/14/bc-mac-marketeting-solutions-deception.html

om fucking g

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Anonymous

“I found it interesting that the CBC reporter says he intentionally went out of his way to find Chinese buyers to make the story. Which goes to show how manufactured the news is.”

Agree. A lot of the “news” you see on TV or in the papers is stuff reporters seek out because of some hypothesis they have or some rumour they hear … or something somebody wants them to hype for whatever reason. And when you go out purposely looking for examples to verify something, they are often easy to find … or fake.

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Krusty the Clown

I found it interesting that the CBC reporter says he intentionally went out of his way to find Chinese buyers to make the story. Which goes to show how manufactured the news is. I would like to know how this CNY story came about. Was it pitched to him by Mac or did he come by it himself? Either way CBC deserves some blame for this. They claim they were duped but that’s what happens when you shill for the RE industry.

Kudos to those of you here and at Whispers for sleuthing this out, and more importantly for following this up and making this a MSM story. Yay to Andrea Woo at G&M as well.

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Short'em High

Anonymous Says:
February 14th, 2013 at 9:12 pm

So, amidst all this outrage over mac and Ms. Lee, did anybody even notice the HUGE spike is sales today? 174 sales!

PARTY TIME!

Party time starts after realtors have fully liquidated their RE positions and begin selling other people’s property. Then we will see the real churn as a statistically significant percentage of inventory and steep price declines.

Be sure to follow the advice of prominent realtors on TV and withhold your listing until they tell you it’s “OK” for you to list your property.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jO_w6f8Ck

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Anonymous

Hate to tell you guys this, but based on today’s sales the MOI just plummeted to approx. 3 months.

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Anonymous

C’mon Groundhog, don’t rain on my parade! Killjoy.

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Groundhog

@Anonymous

174 sales is not all that unusual for February. What is unusual is that 174 sales is considered a huge spike.

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Anonymous

Why it’s not Paul posted the number today? Who is this Anonymous?

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Anonymous

bears`mentality is that if they dont have them, might as well smash them. silly bears with too much time on their hand.

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Anonymous

So, amidst all this outrage over mac and Ms. Lee, did anybody even notice the HUGE spike is sales today? 174 sales!

PARTY TIME!

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crashcow

Makaya – I posted some links and they worked. Try commenting on the links instead of in a new post – it should work.

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Makaya

It looks like their facebook is set up in such a way that messages posted on the Key facebook page are automatically deleted…

At least they are a little bit smarter than Mac…

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Makaya

Oops. Here is what I posted:

“How does The Key reply to the allegations of MAC planting employees as prospective buyers in news stories? http://whispersfromtheedgeoftherainforest.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mon-post-2-more-on-latest-cam.html”

Now everybody goes there and like and comment on top of it! Let’s continue the fight for truth and honesty…

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Makaya

:

Done!

“How does The Key reply to the allegations of MAC planting employees as prospective buyers in news stories? http://whispersfromtheedgeoftherainforest.blogspot.ca/2012/04/mon-post-2-more-on-latest-cam.html“

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