Topic: Housing

[pi314]

Only one car garage though

$50k would fix that easily.

$50K.... whoa....thats a whole lot of garage!!!

quiet you....she does not need to know the details.

It didn't look like there was much space to do that, but if you can do it it's probably quite a bit nicer than you can get for a new-build.

[Snowman]

Only one car garage though

$50k would fix that easily.

$50K.... whoa....thats a whole lot of garage!!!

quiet you....she does not need to know the details.

It didn't look like there was much space to do that, but if you can do it it's probably quite a bit nicer than you can get for a new-build.

I read it again and it says one two place garage and a single carport.

[ArticSteve]

Guarantee the authorities would not let you increase the foot print of that garage or it's height.  Looks like it was original to the property and the original dwelling was torn down and replaced with the house you see.  Once you get that close to water the "rules" are murderous.

Move on.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I think our living room ceiling is 22' high at the peak. So, yeah, inefficient use of space, but it sure is nice.

And heating isn't an issue, because we've got radiant heat in the floor. Even some of the contractors didn't understand how radiant heat works. They kept saying we'd need fans up there to move the warm air down. Uh, nope: heat doesn't rise, warm air does, and radiant heat doesn't warm the air.

Anyway, no ugly ceiling fans, and the place stays at a nice, even temperature.

If you took the temperature at the ceiling and compare it to the floor, I'm sure there would be a significant gradient.

[HeliDriver]

I think our living room ceiling is 22' high at the peak. So, yeah, inefficient use of space, but it sure is nice.

And heating isn't an issue, because we've got radiant heat in the floor. Even some of the contractors didn't understand how radiant heat works. They kept saying we'd need fans up there to move the warm air down. Uh, nope: heat doesn't rise, warm air does, and radiant heat doesn't warm the air.

Anyway, no ugly ceiling fans, and the place stays at a nice, even temperature.

If you took the temperature at the ceiling and compare it to the floor, I'm sure there would be a significant gradient.

I'll get out the thermometer when I get home and check it out.

But for now, when the thermostat and another thermometer on the ground floor read 21, a thermometer on the second floor reads 19. So appears to be going the other way, but I'll get a long stick and take a reading right at the ceiling. Because science.

[Snowman]

http://www.bnn.ca/Video/player.aspx?vid=577428

[Snowman]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/life-video/video-done-deals-this-is-how-one-bully-bid-drew-out-three-more-offers-for-a-lytton-park-home/article23403057/

[Snowman]

Hudson Yards, hard to believe this is the biggest RE development in the history of the US and its being headed by Canadians and Canadian money.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/housing/canadian-investors-take-manhattan/article23878365/

http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/

[quadzilla]

I know somebody that just sold a house in Oshawa and got 50K OVER asking. Insane.

[Snowman]

Insane for sure. Just spotted the same model  house as ours a few streets over listed for $1,059,900. No pool, no hot tub, no patio, no decking, or trees like we have. Interior has been upgraded in a similar way. Who the fack can afford to move into this area now?......but they keep coming.

[pi314]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/average-canadian-home-price-is-440k-what-will-that-buy-1.3037502


So Moncton...  6% unemployment (much lower than the rest of the Maritimes), but I'd guess call-centre salaries would make owning a $440k house really tough.

[5 Wheel Drive]

I am not arguing the fact that the current building code, technology and quality of materials is much better today than even 20-30 years ago.
And, as many of you say, if you can pick the builder and oversee the construction process, you will very likely end up with an excellent quality home.

My argument was more around my real-life experience. I got married and we wanted to buy a house close to my in-laws and close to work. That severely limits the options. You either buy new or an older home. Mattamy was the ONLY thing available at the time in the area we were looking at. They bought this big peace of land by the Palladium that was under development. There was another once in Kanata Lakes but it was totally out of our price range. So we bit the bullet.

My biggest problem with them was not the quality of the building materials but the quality of work itself. There was huge shortage of trades and they were hiring anyone willing to pick up a hammer. It was truly appalling. Sloppy workmanship throughout.

At one point, I was at the site and saw, in the house across from mine, that they put the insulation and water barrier that was filled with rain water - literally tons and tons of rain water inside the wall frames. I took pictures and when I met the future owners, I told them I have evidence of this and they should act on it. They had major problems with mold, among other things.

The engineered floor joist - while I understand they are cheaper to make and stronger, it allowed the builders to put them at 19" on centre instead of 16" for solid joists. The floor deflection was so bad, it didn't allow for ceramic floor to be installed after we moved in. Also, I have been told (hearsay, I know, but I believe it) fire crews would not go into a burning house with engineers joists because fire eats them so quickly, the whole structure collapses in no time.

In my house they didn't let the varnish on my maple stairs cure (40 steps, no less) and boot prints were all over the stairs when I moved in. They forgot to put in the rough-in at my next door neighbours and had to install it after they'd moved in. We all had new-borns at the time (there were like 15 kids under 2 on our tiny street). This is the type of quality I am talking about.

After 3 years there, the house appreciated by more than $100k, and we had had enough by then. We moved and couldn't be happier in our "new" old home.

Whaddiknow...We were in the same neighborhood!  We're in phase 2. 

We experienced the same sort of thing.  Just workmanship that looked like crap.  They tried to do too much too fast.  3 weeks before closing, our house wasn't even drywalled yet.  When my Dad and I finished the basement, we did a better job of mudding and taping the drywall than areas in the house that were done by the "pros".  And that was my first time doing drywall!  Half our street had closings within a week of each other.  When we did our pdi, which was the same day as our closing, I believe my words to the guy was "This looks like shi!t, we waited a year and a half for this?".

Our's was fit and finish.  My next door neighbors experienced something like what your neighbors went through.  Mold, water leaks.  Their house should have been bulldozed and started over.  At one point they had a huge sign on their front lawn saying how unhappy they were.  Needless to say Mattamy was not impressed. 

[tooscoops]

just because this thread is back up... i'll vent a little on the real estate practice currently in place...

how can houses sell so ofeten and so drastically over asking price?! under contract law in canada, if something is offered for sale, and that offer is accepted without conditions, does that not make it a legal transaction?

if real estate "professionals" were any good at their job, and actually were looking out for anyone's best interest other than themselves, this would never happen. find out what the place should be worth.. find out what the current owner is willing to sell it for... then ask a bit more. all this low listing and hope for a higher bid makes the agents job so damn easy. they get lots of bids (because they list the house below market value) so they look good... they sell it for over "asking"... so they look good. but meanwhile, if they just asked for the right number and did more work to get proper bids at the right prices, it wouldn't waste peoples time and the end result would allow the seller to get the money they deserve.

/rant

[pi314]

The listing isn't a contract - I think it's much like how amazon can cancel a sale if the price is too low, or something

[tenpenny]

The key with real estate sales is the acceptance of the offer.


Sent from my Vic20 using Java Moose

[tooscoops]

comparing it to amazon or ebay or whatever.. if there is a buy it now price, and there is an offer of that price, they can't then renege on it and say, "sorry, but during the bidding, it went over the buy it now price"... it is sold for the amount asked.

i do understand though... i am just ranting. the listing is just an invitation to treat and isn't a contract until acceptance...

just complaining about the way real estate is handled... still have a beef on missing out on a house due to shoddy real estate agents.

[johngenx]

It's more akin to an auction with a "suggested pricing point."

[tooscoops]

but if the suggested price is 20%+ below current market estimates?... why bother listing a price at all?

that's my issue. as i said above, i really do understand the legalities of it... i just hate it and don't understand how it is an accepted way of doing business.

if i was acting as an agent for a car dealer and advertised a hellcat for 40 grand... i would have hundreds of offers... no one knowing what the other offers are, wasting a huge portion of these peoples time by having them put in offers of around 40-50 grand... if the highest offer was 65... they get a car... but i have upset hundreds(-1) people... not to mention the company i sold the car for because i got less than what they could have if they just asked for 70, or, what it's worth.

just attempting to put it in my line of business...

[johngenx]

The "problem" pricing a house is that there is often no such thing as a true comparable as each house/lot combination can be unique.

Then the asking price is a best guess as to what the market will actually pay for that combination.

[tooscoops]

so vmango, you in the real estate business? i'd love to actually hear you defend this practice...

here is what happened with me. found a house I liked. was listed about 5k lower than prime market would call it. i was there the day it went on the market... i was the second person through, i offered asking price, zero conditions. i had been looking for a while, so i knew the area and pricing better than the agent.

they said they wanted to wait until the weekend to see about more offers. i got a call on the sunday asking if i wanted to offer more. i said, "how much more?"... they said they "couldn't say".... so i told them i could go a bit more, but i wasn't prepared to blindly offer. so they sold it to the next guy who was at 3k more than my offer but with conditions...

were they looking out for the seller?... no. purely selfish. i was surprised considering my offer was no conditions...

so yeah.. that was my experience. so i looked into it and found it was the same thing that happened on almost every deal done by that agency (one of the biggest in my area).

so how was that somehow my fault, not a douchbag agent? (not all are bad, but i hate that they are seen as professionals when i'm a slimy car salesmen who would never pull that crap)... but i'd love to hear how that is supply and demand, or me buying too expensive a house or making a low offer...