Agent Will

That new listing I got at 318-2320 West 4oth in Kerrisdale?  Have you seen the new page created just for it?  Check it out at http://agentwill.com/318-2320-west-40th/

I can’t stress how cool a place this is.  Kerrisdale is one of the most charming neighbourhoods in the city (the “most charming” according to the Kerrisdale Business Improvement Association) and this is one of the best looking one bedroom suites I have ever been in.  The building, aptly named Manor Gardens, was completed in 1979 but definitely is not dated like many from that era.  Its brick facade, archways, and plentiful flora give it a warm sense of home and character sadly lacking from many buildings that exist in Vancouver.

Inside is simply gorgeous and is touched with a sense “old world charm” along every square inch of the 560 Sq.ft..  Being open plan (ie lacking walls which would break up a suite and create a claustrophobic sensation amongst many) breathes a sense of space and purpose.  The purpose?  Enjoyment.  Pure, simple enjoyment.

An on those days when you want to be outside you just head one block over to 41st where all the shops, cafes, bitros, and services you could need reside among one of the most pleasant village streets in the city.  Then there’s also the Kerrisdale Arena for skating in the winter or taking kids to in the summer.

A storage locker is included, as is parking.  But will you even use your car?  If you don’t have one, no worries.  There are bus routes a block or two away to go to UBC, East, or downtown.  More likely you’ll just use them to get to work or school.  When home I’d be surprised to find you inside (as nice as it is).

Of course, if you did decide to spend the day in or to entertain at night you’d be doing it in style.  And there is a balcony that can fit good sized BBQ and a few friends to enjoy the afternoon sun.  Don’t worry about it getting too hot (I know the past few days have been terrific) as the West facing balcony has a treed outlook providing shade and privacy.

So what are you waiting for?  Go take a look and let me know what you think.  There’s a video and lots of photography produced by Arbutus Design (click here for them) as well as a listing feature sheet.  You can check out all the details by clicking the link above or here.

Aren’t sunfilled long weekends just the best! Hope you all are able to get away and enjou the sun.

Just listed a 560 sq.ft. 1 bed in Kerrisdale. Beautiful place! Asking an amazing $275,000. More details to come on agentwill.com

This is cool! Concrete that can change colour. Imagine what designs could come of this. http://snipr.com/2od8y

Yay! Bell has unlimited data plans for $30! Must be afraid of the iPhone coming. Whatever. My PDA phone is now actually useful.

From the CBC:

London is to get a dose of Vancouverism as an exhibition dedicated to the B.C. city’s unique architecture opens at the Festival of Architecture on Tuesday.

Vancouverism — West Coast Architecture and City Building celebrates the work of Arthur Erickson, the Canadian architect known for his modernist structures, and his accolytes.

Vancouverism describes the practice of designing higher, thinner towers to provide so-called “view corridors” while still accommodating as large a population as possible.

Erickson first sketched out the idea more than half a century ago, says architecture critic and curator Trevor Boddy.

“Arthur with his chutzpah, as an ambitious architecture prof at [University of British Columbia], did this amazing design for the Community Arts Council,” Boddy told CBC News.

“It was called Project 56. This sketch showed a 50-, 60-, 70-storey soaring downtown and West End Vancouver. It was a sketch literally a half-century ahead of itself. In my view, that sketch by Arthur Erickson invents the idea of Vancouverism.”

Project 56 never got built as Erickson designed it, but his 1970s Robson Square development won praise for incorporating gardens, government offices, law courts and an art gallery, a combination of uses that has become common in West Coast architecture.

The trend of high-density neighbourhoods that make the most of a little space is enforced by Vancouver’s geography, Boddy said.

The city is jammed between the mountains, the American border, the Georgia Strait and the best farmland in North America.

“By the mid-1960s, Vancouver’s West End was the highest-density neighbourhood in all of the West Coast of North America,” he said.

American planners, developers and architects took a look at what was happening and coined a term for it — Vancouverism.

“What we’re doing here is so unusual in the scale of other cities that they started talking about Vancouverizing,” Boddy said.
Younger architects continue the style

Thom’s wall of blocks of B.C. cedar outside Canada House in London.Thom’s wall of blocks of B.C. cedar outside Canada House in London. Work by two of Erickson’s former staff architects — Hong Kong-born Bing Thom and James K.M. Cheng — is now transforming Vancouver’s suburbs.

Cheng’s design for Spectrum, which includes 40-storey condo towers atop a big box Costco store, is on display at the London show, which is in Canada’s high commission at Canada House.

Thom and Erickson frequently work with StructureCraft, which is recognized as a leader in structural uses of sustainably harvested B.C. engineered wood.

A design by Thom that wraps Canada House in a 61-metre-long, eight-metre-high wooden wall will highlight this technology.

In its location next to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, the cedar block wall could be seen by a million people a month, Boddy said.

“Some people think it’s a Coastal Salish basket because it’s woven of strings of cedar wrapping around the corner of Canada House. These are blocks of cedar drilled and then beaded like a necklace onto cables,” he said.

Also on display will be Fast + Epp’s design for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Speed Skating Oval, which also features wood construction.

The 2008 London Festival of Architecture is a month-long festival focusing attention on buildings and streetscapes, and featuring work by architects such as Daniel Liebskind, Cesar Pelli and Rem Koolhaus.

The Vancouverism exhibition is scheduled for Paris this fall, and then will be shown in other parts of Europe and Asia. It could return to Vancouver for the Olympics in January and February 2010.

 Sadly, one of the funniest and wittiest comedians of our day has passed just last night from heart failure.  He was known for his biting and edgy sense of humour and who I always knew I could count on to explain things just right.

Here is one of his best bits (with only a few words which would be part of his “7 Deadly Words” - you’ve been warned.).  If you don’t have sound the bulk of it is below from his book “Brain Droppings”

George Carlin on Houses and Stuff

Actually this is just a place for my stuff, ya know? That’s all, a little place for my stuff. That’s all I want, that’s all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody’s got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that’s your stuff, that’ll be his stuff over there.
That’s all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody’s got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff.

And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn’t want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you’re saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That’s what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get…more stuff! Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore.

Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else’s house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home? You know why? No room for your stuff. Somebody else’s stuff is all over the goddamn place! And if you stay overnight, unexpectedly, they give you a little bedroom to sleep in. Bedroom they haven’t used in about eleven years. Someone died in it, eleven years ago. And they haven’t moved any of his stuff! Right next to the bed there’s usually a dresser or a bureau of some kind, and there’s NO ROOM for your stuff on it. Somebody else’s s— is on the dresser. Have you noticed that their stuff is s— and your s— is stuff? God! And you say, “Get that s— offa there and let me put my stuff down!”

Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff, when you go on vacation. You gotta take a smaller version of your house. It’s the second version of your stuff. And you’re gonna fly all the way to Honolulu. Gonna go across the continent, across half an ocean to Honolulu. You get down to the hotel room in Honolulu and you open up your suitcase and you put away all your stuff. “Here’s a place here, put a little bit of stuff there, put some stuff here, put some stuff–you put your stuff there, I’ll put some stuff–here’s another place for stuff, look at this, I’ll put some stuff here…” And even though you’re far away from home, you start to get used to it, you start to feel okay, because after all, you do have some of your stuff with you.

That’s when your friend calls up from Maui, and says, “Hey, why don’tchya come over to Maui for the weekend and spend a couple of nights over here.” Oh, no! Now what do I pack? Right, you’ve gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff. The third version of your house. Just enough stuff to take to Maui for a coupla days. You get over to Maui–I mean you’re really getting extended now, when you think about it. You got stuff ALL the way back on the mainland, you got stuff on another island, you got stuff on this island. I mean, supply lines are getting longer and harder to maintain.

You get over to your friend’s house on Maui and he gives you a little place to sleep, a little bed right next to his windowsill or something. You put some of your stuff up there. You put your stuff up there. You got your Visine, you got your nail clippers, and you put everything up. It takes about an hour and a half, but after a while you finally feel okay, say, “All right, I got my nail clippers, I must be okay.” That’s when your friend says, “Aaaaay, I think tonight we’ll go over the other side of the island, visit a pal of mine and maybe stay over.” Aww, no. NOW what do you pack? Right–you gotta pack an even SMALLER version of your stuff. The fourth version of your house. Only the stuff you know you’re gonna need. Money, keys, comb, wallet, lighter, hanky, pen, smokes, rubber and change. Well, only the stuff you HOPE you’re gonna need.

From George Carlin, A Place For My Stuff, Brain droppings, 2000.

I’ve already alluded to this in a previous tweet (that’s using Twitter for some quick updates and if you use it you can follow me or just keep reading this blog to see the micro-posts) developers are starting to get creative in selling off their remaining stock.

1212 Howe is advertising in their latest email that they have 22 units remaining and to move them are offering Net GST (ie. you pay the GST and the developer gives you a credit for an equal amount on close which is what Wall Developments, the developer, did with Yaletown Park and Electric Avenue) and just 5% down along with special bank rates.  What those rates are I do not know (that’s what we in the marketing business call a “call to action”).  The 5% down deal was open to the first 50 purchasers but has now been extended to everyone.  The net GST deal was what they originally intended to do (according to their first email marketing piece) but was recalled… so none of these “deals” are really all that surprising.

The other developer getting creative out there is Concord Pacific who are celebrating their 20th Anniversary with a sale.  For the next 20 weeks they will be including the GST on all sales.  This is the first time that I know of Concord doing such a deal.  Think about it.  Say you got a condo for $600k.  The GST on that is 5% or $30,000.  Not having to pay that is an incentive and levels the playing field between brand new (where GST is applicable) and resale (where even if just one minute old GST is not applicable).

They are also going to be doing a few more very creative measures such as strata fees paid for for 20 years.  Now that is interesting.  I wonder how they work such a deal out.  Do they give you a lump sum?  Do they pay the strata council rigt off the bat?  What happens if fees go up?  Is it transferrable to the next owner?

Their first offers (two per week) are available to be viewed at http://www.concordpacific.com/offers.pdf

The first thing I notice with this is not the offer values but that these are Spectrum units.  I’m sorry bt does Concord Pacific still have Spectrum units for sale?  Well now that it may be more affordable to buy one they can get them off their books.  Now I see why they are including GST.  The many other units available for resale in Spectrum don’t have GST applicable.  So the only real savings here is the 2% interest for two years.

Then again, it’s better than nothing.  So with both Concord Pacific and 1212 Howe the question you, the buyers, have to ask is when is a deal not all that great a deal and when will the developers get even more creative and flexible and is this just the beginning of the return to when presales (even on completed goods) were cheaper than resales?

Think I ought to do a post on using shipping containers as homes. This is one that’s been turned into a coffee shop: http://snipr.com/2n2xy

Having just been in Japan, I was reminded of how markets can be so different.  Forget about performance, contracts, or prices… I’m talking about what is expected to be included in the purchase price.  You see, in Japan, whether buying or renting, appliances are not included.  All you get is your walls.  Not even lights are included.  Nothing.  No stove (or cooktop, more likely).  No washer.  No fridge.  Nothing.

That got me thinking.  Why do we include such items here in Canada (and the US)?  Really, unless it’s a brand new appliance (or fairly new) and to your standards, do you even want the included appliances?

So many of my buyers almost immediately start replacing these things anyway.  They have bought an older home and start going to work changing the fridge, stove, dishwasher, and washer/dryer units.  It’s one thing to buy an older, well loved home, but another matter to wash your clothes in some old washer or your dishes in some very used dishwasher.  Especially with advancements made in so many of these appliances to be more efficient and stylish.

In effect, what you are doing when you “buy” (yes, you are buying it when it’s included) is buy used appliances or take on the added expense of their disposal.  And how many of us have thought “Gee, I think I’ll go buy a 10 year old washing machine!”?

How odd that we will bring our own TV (some the size of refrigerators) but not our own fridge with us when we move.  Is it the perceived hassle of an extra appliance to move?  The perceived weakening of an offer when a Buyer asks the Seller to take their old stuff with them?

I don’t know… but I can see the day come when offers will come with the condition that the Seller takes their old appliances away.  Again, I’m not talking about newer stuff.  I mean the old stuff.  The appliances dating over ten years.  The stove with the baked on grease that no cleaner can get rid of.  The washing machine with the caked on soap.  The dishwasher with the nasty stains around the seals.  Those appliances.  The ones you wouldn’t want to show your mother.

And could it be that people do not have the money after buying their home to buy new appliances?  Not if they do a “purchase plus improvements” mortgage (hey, you’re buying the appliances with the house whether they are new and chosen by you or not) or pick out your appliances and have the Seller install them for you thereby including the appliances you wanted (contract of purchase and sale obviously reflecting that).

All I know is that the next time I buy a place the appliances better be to my standard (and I have high yet reasonable standards) or I don’t want them.  Take them with you.  I don’t want to pay for their disposal or go through that hassle.  Am I wrong?