Vancouver Real Estate Blog - Vancouver Realtor » Home Selling Tips

The Thrill of Moving in Vancouver

Sebastian — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:15:08 +0000

Moving isn’t fun.

I had a month and a half to prepare ~ and prepare I did. Things were sorted. Bins of clothing were taken to big brothers. My already minimalist lifestyle was condensed down over the weeks to a concentrated pile of belongings I considered essential to my survival. I was determined to make this move a real downsize so that I could adjust comfortably into my little bungalow just off Main Street.

Yet, the truth remained: No one beats a move.
Despite my best efforts, my move kicked my butt ~ and to top it off the stream of frustrations were textbook in every way. Nothing is worse than thinking you’ve finished the last load of scattered little bits, and then you find a tumbleweed of random cable chords you have no idea what to do with and can’t give away. Or how about the false hope of believing all the cleaning is finally done, only to take one last look at some forgotten and find another task of serious scrubbing. And the stairs ~ oh, the apartment stairs. My knees are still recovering.

The only leg up I had on this move found it’s way to me through a friend, and I’d like to share the tip with you all. You see, I’ve always been a pack-it-on-the-day, move-it-with-a-buddy type of traveling nomad who kept the gadgets and moving trinkets to a minimum. But when my pal recommended that he lend me his frog boxes (large plastic bins with collapsible lids) and dollies (the kind with wheels, not pretty faces) I took him up on his offer. And let me tell you ~ they were so helpful in the move itself that I’m now going to recommend them to all my clients. As an added service, I’m purchasing a few sets that I will loan out to help you with your move.

The frog boxes are great because they’ve got great handles and are deep enough to accommodate a lot of items. They stack really well, and can be easily loaded onto the dollies in batches of six. It really makes a difference to be able to load up carts in uniform containers. The efficiency and time saved was… a life saver. Feel free to give me a call if you’d like to borrow them. I assure you, it’s worth it!

I’m going on seven days now and most of the mayhem has been at least temporarily stored. Now the real fun of decorating and outfitting my new place begins. Of course, I’m optimistic this will be my last move for a while. I suppose that’s what we all wish for… here’s hoping.

If you want to stay on top of the Vancouver real estate market, then you’ll want to keep an eye on my Vancouver real estate statistics. You can find detailed numbers on what’s happening broken down by month, week and even by day. In addition, you can see an overview for a variety of different communities in the city.

Contact Sebastian, Vancouver Realtor or send me a quick email.

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Buying or Selling Vancouver Real Estate? How to Avoid Conflict at Completion

Sebastian — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:25:07 +0000

Vancouver realtor, Sebastian Albrecht, video blogs about how to avoid conflict between buyers and sellers in Vancouver real estate. There is a great potential for conflict when a home changes hands. Sebastian has found that for both buyers and sellers there is a simple way to avoid any potential disagreements. When buying or selling real estate this simple step can go a long way to ensuring a smooth transaction and even save you time and money!

Please share your opinion on this, or any other Vancouver real estate topic by contacting Sebastian at sebastian@sebastianalbrecht.com. Sebastian Albrecht video blogs regularly about Vancouver real estate. You can find all of his Vancouver real estate video blogs here.

Copyright © 2009 Vancouver real estate in the Vancouver Real Estate Blog bySebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Vancouver ”Buying or Selling Vancouver Real Estate? How to Avoid Conflict at Closing”

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The Olympics and Vancouver Real Estate – Beware of Closing Dates

Sebastian — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:54:07 +0000

Sebastian Albrecht, Vancouver realtor, video blogs about another way that the host city of the 2010 Winter Olympics will be affected. Downtown Vancouver’s roads will be shutdown to traffic from February 4th, 2010 through to March 1st, 2010. If you are buying or selling a downtown Vancouver condo you won’t be able to move during this time. Make sure your closing + possession dates are either before or after the month of February 2010!

This is the City of Vancouver map highlighting the road closures and restrictions for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Copyright © 2009 Vancouver real estate in the Vancouver Real Estate Blog bySebastian Albrecht, Vancouver Realtor with Royal LePage Vancouver ”The Olympics and Vancouver Real Estate – Beware of Closing Dates”

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How to get an accurate CMA on your Vancouver home

Sebastian — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:35:43 +0000

Vancouver realtor, Sebastian Albrecht video blogs about CMAs (comparative market analysis) and what happens when you (and your realtor) have limited information on which to base the value of your home.

More Information

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What Won’t Sell in Today’s Vancouver Real Estate Market

Sebastian — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:53:52 +0000

We are in a slow Vancouver real estate market. Yes, it’s a buyer’s market but what exactly does being in a buyer’s market mean for sellers? That’s a question that I wanted to dig into a little bit. Why won’t homes sell in a slow real estate market?

As readers of the Vancouver Real Estate blog, and local residents not living in a bubble, know the Vancouver real estate market has slowed down dramatically over the last six months. We all know this. We see new evidence of this at every turn. In fact, you can read my latest analysis of the Vancouver real estate market MLS statistics right here.

What isn’t as evident or clear is exactly how this slowdown is affecting us. One affect that is quite self-evident is that homes become harder to sell in a slower market. General real estate wisdom says that a home does not sell in a slow market simply because of price. If it hasn’t sold yet it means that the price is not low enough.

However, it’s not always so simple. A good Vancouver realtor will tell you that there can be other reasons why a Vancouver home won’t sell. For instance, we generally believe that condos with rental restrictions, that are expensive, that are older, are not freehold, or are tenant occupied are harder to sell. In a slow market, most realtors would say any properties with these characteristics would be more difficult to sell. However, is it true?

To answer this question, I did an analysis of the MLS statistics for Vancouver in November 2008. This research was done exclusively for condominiums in Vancouver East and Vancouver West.

Let’s put our hypothesis to the test and see what the results were:

As you can see, the results aren’t as clear-cut as we would have predicted. The majority (3 out of 5) of our categories bucked our prediction.

Tenant occupied properties are only slightly more likely to have sold (14.37% of sales were tenant occupied while 13.42% of all active listings were tenant occupied).

Older properties (defined as more than five years old) were actually more likely to have sold last month (64.67% of sales were in older buildings while 54.82% of all active listings were).

Condos in buildings with rental restrictions were also more likely to have sold last month (31.14% of sales were condos that had rental restrictions while 25.39% of all active listings were).

The two categories that followed our prediction were the expensive listings and the properties that were not freehold ownership.

Non-Freehold properties were less likely to have sold (5.39% of sales last month were not Freehold ownership while 8.13% of all active listings were listed with ownership other than Freehold).

Expensive condominiums (defined as those asking more than $1,000,000 CAD) were much less likely to have sold (4.19% of sales were priced above $1,000,000 CAD while 12.05% of all active listings were asking above $1,000,000).

If you are thinking of buying or selling, or just have questions, contact me here or send me a quick email.

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