Down by the River Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Anybody with experience buying older condo units in Vancouver? Finding that none have a depreciation report, which becomes problematic because I heard that CMHC might not finance your mortgage if you are a first time home buyer and there is no depreciation report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken. Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 1 hour ago, Down by the River said: Anybody with experience buying older condo units in Vancouver? Finding that none have a depreciation report, which becomes problematic because I heard that CMHC might not finance your mortgage if you are a first time home buyer and there is no depreciation report. I was under the impression that depreciation reports for Strata complexes are now mandatory? I would sure be wary buying in without one to review first.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 4 minutes ago, Chicken. said: I was under the impression that depreciation reports for Strata complexes are now mandatory? I would sure be wary buying in without one to review first.. Yes, I believe it is. And check on the contingency fund, could indicate how well the strata is managed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Spector Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 Depreciation reports are not mandatory. A 3/4 vote by the strata corporation can be used to waive the requirement for the report. The vote must be held each year. It is not common but some Strata's have done it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 1 minute ago, Harvey Spector said: Depreciation reports are not mandatory. A 3/4 vote by the strata corporation can be used to waive the requirement for the report. The vote must be held each year. It is not common but some Strata's have done it. wow, really? thanks for the info. That's interesting. They should be I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Spector Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 (edited) 2 minutes ago, bishopshodan said: wow, really? thanks for the info. That's interesting. They should be I think! Yeah they should be mandatory but they actually are not. I'd be wary if there isn't a report unless the building is fairly new and still under the 2-5-10 new home warranty. Edited January 14, 2018 by Harvey Spector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Just now, Harvey Spector said: Yeah they should be mandatory but they actually are not. I'd be wary if there isn't a report unless the building is fairly new and still under the 2-5-10 new home warranty. ha, i was just about ask about the 2-5-10 warranty. I remember in the 90's a lot of buildings going up around that time were getting the leaky condo tag. Then I started hearing about that 2-5-10. I still would avoid places built around that time. I would rather buy no older than the last 10years or at least 30 years old ( cement of course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Spector Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 4 minutes ago, bishopshodan said: ha, i was just about ask about the 2-5-10 warranty. I remember in the 90's a lot of buildings going up around that time were getting the leaky condo tag. Then I started hearing about that 2-5-10. I still would avoid places built around that time. I would rather buy no older than the last 10years or at least 30 years old ( cement of course) The leaky condo crisis was brutal. Thank God those days are over. Personally I wouldn't by anything older than 10 years old unless it is a reputable builder and the building has been well maintained. Unfortunately because of the rising prices some people can only afford an older building. If that is the case then be very diligent in reviewing all the minutes and the depreciation report. Especially on a wood frame lowrise building. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 3 minutes ago, Harvey Spector said: The leaky condo crisis was brutal. Thank God those days are over. Personally I wouldn't by anything older than 10 years old unless it is a reputable builder and the building has been well maintained. Unfortunately because of the rising prices some people can only afford an older building. If that is the case then be very diligent in reviewing all the minutes and the depreciation report. Especially on a wood frame lowrise building. Agreed, Rennie did the old one I have. Its great, cement (commercial convert), huge units and hallways, high ceilings. My sister does a lot of real estate on the side. She still owns a bachelor unit that I sold her 15yrs ago , another cement building dt. Its not a well run place and has had some issues. Still wish I'd held on to it... a developer is currently trying to buy up the whole block and her early offers are silly high. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Spector Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 24 minutes ago, bishopshodan said: Agreed, Rennie did the old one I have. Its great, cement (commercial convert), huge units and hallways, high ceilings. My sister does a lot of real estate on the side. She still owns a bachelor unit that I sold her 15yrs ago , another cement building dt. Its not a well run place and has had some issues. Still wish I'd held on to it... a developer is currently trying to buy up the whole block and her early offers are silly high. Bob Rennie is the marketing company. The developer might be Francesco Aquilini or Peter Wall. Bob does a lot of business with both of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down by the River Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 1 hour ago, bishopshodan said: wow, really? thanks for the info. That's interesting. They should be I think! Yeah, I've been reading strata minutes for a few buildings and the depreciation reports are routinely voted down. I also read the minutes of one strata where some of the initial results coming out of the depreciation report weren't looking good regarding balconies and so the strata voted to forego the depreciation report. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 3 minutes ago, Harvey Spector said: Bob Rennie is the marketing company. The developer might be Francesco Aquilini or Peter Wall. Bob does a lot of business with both of them. oh, must have been Bob using Peter, they did the convert in '94 I think. Bought in '01. My best friend bought a unit in the same building at the same time. He knew Bob a bit and worked for Peter, anyway it was Bob that gave us the details after we purchased and maybe why he was in my head as developer ( thx for the 2nd correction of the day!). My bud went on to buy another spot in Yaletown with a nice big discount from Peter. That Mr. Wall is quite a unique person! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 10 minutes ago, Down by the River said: Yeah, I've been reading strata minutes for a few buildings and the depreciation reports are routinely voted down. I also read the minutes of one strata where some of the initial results coming out of the depreciation report weren't looking good regarding balconies and so the strata voted to forego the depreciation report. yuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Spector Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 31 minutes ago, bishopshodan said: oh, must have been Bob using Peter, they did the convert in '94 I think. Bought in '01. My best friend bought a unit in the same building at the same time. He knew Bob a bit and worked for Peter, anyway it was Bob that gave us the details after we purchased and maybe why he was in my head as developer ( thx for the 2nd correction of the day!). My bud went on to buy another spot in Yaletown with a nice big discount from Peter. That Mr. Wall is quite a unique person! Yeah Peter is great. Did a lot for the city as well as Bob. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kragar Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 On 1/10/2018 at 11:56 PM, Harvey Spector said: Hi Kragar, That’s a good question. Property tax increases are directly related to the price of the home. The more expensive the property the higher the taxes. There is a formula that they use but essentially this is true. There is a grant of $570 that gets deducted if you live in the home, but the grant is cut off at the $1.6 million price point. Considering most homes now in Vancouver are above that threshold, most people will not qualify for the grant. This has definitely hurt seniors on the Vancouver Westside. They are sitting on large lots of land with small bungalows that they lived in for 30 years or so. And now because that land has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, their property taxes have gone through the roof. As an example, on the Vancouver Westside a 2 bedroom bungalow that is 1900sf sititing on a 6000sf lot priced at $3 million would cost you around $7000 per year in property taxes. That doesn’t include your water bill, garbage bill, electricity, hot water, etc. as well as any monthly maintence that is needed on the home, i.e. grass cutting, gutter cleaning, landscaping, etc. In total it would cost well over $12,000 per year just to live in that small bungalow. For a senio on a regular pension with not a lot of savings who is house rich and cash poor, it is tremendously difficult to be able to afford to live in that house. Consequently, what we are seeing is a lot of these seniors downsizing into smaller townhouses or even condos and putting the extra money into the bank for cash flow or giving the money to their kids. One thing about Vancouver real estate that is different then the US is that if you sell your principal residence the entire capital gain is tax free. However you can’t write off any mortgage interest. In the US it is the opposite. You have a capital gains tax even when you sell your principal residence but the interest on your mortgage is tax deductible. The US also has a death tax, which I can’t remember if Trump has eliminated or not which I believe was around 30%. In Vancouver your estate tax is only 1.4%, but doesn’t include your principal residence and also your RRSP’s or RRIF’s as long as they are transferred directly to your spouse. So there is a lot of tax savings there. I’ve said this in the Trump thread that US citizens are taxed much more heavily than people living in Canada. The elimination of the death tax if true and also the lowering of the corporate tax rate to 21% as well as some of the personal tax rates in the new tax reform bill has simply put the US on equal status with the rest of the world. A 35% corporate tax rate was insane. In Canada it’s only around 15%. There is no incentive for a small business to incorporate if your tax rate is the same as the personal tax rate. As a Realtor who is incorporated I save thousands of dollars a year in taxes because my corporate rate is 15% on all my income versus over 35% if I simply filed my taxes as a sole proprietor. In the real estate industry we talk about it a lot. Most Realtors who make good money form a corporation called a PREC, personal real estate corporation, so within that corporation our tax rates are the same as any large publicly traded company. We literally save thousands of dollars a year if you are at a six figure income. There is not much we can do in regards to the property tax situation. It is a government cash cow just like the property transfer tax, which is paid each time someone buys or sells a home. I don’t see even the NDP changing these tax laws anytime in the future. It would hurt government revenue too much. Hope that helps. Not sure what your tax status would be if you sold your place in the US and bought up here in Vancouver. Talk to a tax accountant. Sorry I missed your detailed reply the other day. I thought you hadn't responded, but I guess the notification got lost in a bunch of others that day. The capital gains taxes aren't that big a deal in this case. We're not taxed on the first 500K in gains. By the time we sell (plan is about 10 years away), there better be a lot more than that, but all in all it won't be too big a deal. And, the taxes saved on the mortgage all these years should outweigh what we pay in capital gains at that point. Death taxes aren't that big a deal. A family trust takes care of that from what I understand, and they aren't expensive to set up, so anyone that would have enough to worry about death taxes could easily take care of that issue. Registered retirement accounts here are treated similarly upon death. There's a lot of pressure from a lot of Dems to repeal Prop 13, since it impacts tax revenues. But honestly, is it fair? Property values do not impact the cost of services that the city and province/state governments provide. When property values go down, our property taxes can still increase, which makes sense, so limiting the impact of property values seems fair. Those dreaming of skyrocketing revenues see it differently... as usual I'm not expecting to move back to Canada. Never say never, but it's a hassle, especially since my wife is not a dual citizen like me. Maybe if property values got back to normal there, but I know that's a pipe dream. I do know we would have to file both Canadian and US taxes. That's one thing Canada has right... taxing on residency. US taxes on citizenship, so even when you leave, they still make sure they get their piece. There's no double taxation on income (the Canadian taxes paid would be deductible, for the most part), but it's still a pain dealing with both sets of tax rules. Thanks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofsurrey Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Not the time to buy. Vancouver / BC home prices about to plummet... ??? In B.C., 4 in 10 people say they’re $200 away from not being able to pay the bills: survey https://globalnews.ca/news/3962951/british-columbia-household-debt-mnp/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofsurrey Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Time to sell , SELL and SELL. Bubble about to burst.... ??? One in three Canadians say they are unable to cover their monthly bills as rate hike looms http://vancouversun.com/personal-finance/debt/one-in-three-canadians-say-they-are-unable-to-cover-their-monthly-bills-as-rate-hike-looms/wcm/b85d731b-766e-4bf0-a937-a4bbf98483d6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOgRook Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 2 hours ago, kingofsurrey said: Time to sell , SELL and SELL. Bubble about to burst.... ??? One in three Canadians say they are unable to cover their monthly bills as rate hike looms http://vancouversun.com/personal-finance/debt/one-in-three-canadians-say-they-are-unable-to-cover-their-monthly-bills-as-rate-hike-looms/wcm/b85d731b-766e-4bf0-a937-a4bbf98483d6 Good maybe people will stop crowding my nice little town lol. So many people coming from the city with their city attitudes and their city ways Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kragar Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Maybe that third of Canadians should stop borrowing so much that the rate hike makes such a difference on their lives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken. Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 4 minutes ago, Kragar said: Maybe that third of Canadians should stop borrowing so much that the rate hike makes such a difference on their lives. If only common sense were so common 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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