Do Not Move To Vancouver Without Knowing These 7 Things
Vancouver is truly one of the best places in the world in which to live. Please don't take my word for it, though. Studies consistently rate Vancouver as the fifth or sixth most livable city globally, depending on the year. In most rankings, it beats most other Canadian cities like Canada and Montreal.
Given this, it should come as no surprise that people are interested in moving to this beloved town. You might even be one of them! If you are moving here or are thinking of moving here, stop and read these seven things first!
The Scenery Is Gorgeous
Before you move here, take some time to look up just how gorgeous this city is. Research some outdoor spots and find some parks. Trust me, when you move out this way, you're going to want to enjoy all the green areas that Vancouver has to offer (check out Stanley Park, at least).
It Doesn't Rain All the Time
There's a misconception that it rains all the time in Vancouver. That's false. Summers, for the most part, are quite sunny. Spring and fall also have quite a bit of sun. Most of the rain is in the winter months when, yes, it can become dreary. However, most people find it no worse than getting copious amounts of snow in some of the other prominent Canadian cities!
Ultimately, you'll have months in the spring, summer, and fall, where you won't have to deal much with rain.
Housing Is Expensive
There's no denying it - housing is expensive. Compared with Toronto and Montreal, house prices might not have quite the same sticker shock, but if you're moving from a place like Calgary or Edmonton, you're in for a surprise. Research neighbourhoods and housing before you move here, so you have a good sense of what you want.
Traffic Is Awful...
Unfortunately, the geography of Vancouver makes commuting via car a pain. Some routes require bridges, and, unfortunately, everyone else has those same routes during rush hour. Expect to spend a lot of time sitting in your car if you locate in a place like Langley and commute downtown for work.
...But the SkyTrain Is Awesome
SkyTrain is a beautiful system to move people quickly. If you can locate near a SkyTrain stop, you'll likely find that much better for commuting into the downtown area.
Housing Varies Dramatically by Neighbourhood
Each neighbourhood has a very different type of housing. Some parts of Vancouver have nothing but heritage homes and older properties. Others, like the suburbs of Maple Ridge and Langley, have newer homes and condos. Therefore, when looking at housing here, also consider what type of home you want. For example, if you wish to have a heritage home, that might limit you to specific areas within the city.
Wages Are Lower
Unfortunately, Vancouver's wages haven't caught up to other parts of Canada yet. The average income in Toronto was about $72,000 in 2017, yet the average wage in Vancouver is $62,000. However, there are many opportunities in Vancouver for tech and other educated industries. If you work in one of these fields, you'll have above-average wages and an easier time affording a home out here. However, it is something you should know before you move!
Vancouver Is an Awesome Place To Live
With the above seven things in mind, the biggest thing to remember is that Vancouver is, genuinely, a fantastic place to live. There are very few places in this world that are more gorgeous or provide a better quality of life. Moving to Vancouver will give you one of the best experiences possible!
If you're interested in making a move to this fantastic city, please contact me! I'd love to learn more about your situation and find the perfect house for you.
Buying a Pre-sale Condo or Home? Here’s What You Need To Do
Are you thinking about buying a pre-sale condo or home? If so, you're not alone. Many people across Canada buy pre-sale properties each year. In the Vancouver market, where new construction happens regularly, it's typically not challenging to find these properties. For people looking at moving to Vancouver, these homes are a great option to consider. You can customize your home or condo to make it yours, something that's much more expensive to do with existing real estate.
Many people think buying these properties is as simple as putting a down payment and taking possession of the home. However, there are a few other things that buyers of pre-sale units should know. Here's a (brief) guide to buying a pre-sale condo or home in beautiful British Columbia!
What Is a Pre-sale Property?
Any home for sale, but the developers have not built yet, is a "pre-sale" home. You'll typically get a lot more customization with pre-sale homes and condos than you would get with existing real estate. Most developers offer different floor plans, materials, countertops, or perks like custom wiring for a stereo system. While you could, in theory, buy an existing home and customize it any way you want, it's often more expensive to do than getting the place built the way you like it to start.
What Are the Steps To Buy a Pre-sale Condo or Home?
The general gist of the process is the same as buying an existing home. You'll typically need 20% down and have to qualify for a mortgage (unless, of course, you're paying for the property with cash). However, buying a pre-sale home has some additional steps that existing homes don't.
The buying process is different. First, get a real estate agent. Although you can, in theory, buy new construction without an agent, having someone familiar with the market and builders in your corner will make the process much smoother. Plus, it's a second set of eyes to help you through the process and ensure that everything looks good.
Typically, you'll sit down at the company's sales office and review computer renderings or architectural blueprints. You'll discuss the various floor plans, customizations, and so on for your new home. After you agree on the floor plan, layout, etc., you'll typically sign a development agreement with the builder, which will finalize the details. Typically, you'll pay 5% down and then have to put the remainder down over the next 12-18 months.
Before signing this agreement, make sure that you and your agent do some thorough reviewing of the company. Ensure the builder has a stellar reputation and that they have a history of delivering on time. If you don't, you could wind up regretting the purchase.
Wait for Your New Home
After signing the purchase contract and making the necessary payments, the next step involves waiting for construction to finish. During this time, you'll have to obtain the mortgage. Make sure you budget for closing costs, which will be due once construction ends.
When the company has completed the home, you'll do a predelivery inspection (PDI). At that point, a representative from the company will walk the buyer through the property, showing them everything they need to know. You and the builder will note anything that needs fixing. After the inspection and repairs, if necessary, you'll get your warranty on the new home.
Move Into Your New Place
After the inspection, the builder will schedule a move-in date, at which point you can take official possession of the property! The new construction will officially be yours!
If you're interested in new construction or what else is in the Vancouver area, please contact me! I'd love to work with you to find the right pre-sale condo, home, or even an existing one that will suit your needs.
Hey guys, it's Solomon again from the BC Elite Real Estate Group and in this video, we're going to share with you the 4 places that I recommend if you're thinking about renting in Vancouver , Fraser Valley, or all the way to Chilliwack, so let's get right to it.
All right, before we get onto this video. If this is your first time to our Channel, we do tons and tons of videos about Vancouver living ,Fraser Valley and all the way to Chilliwack. Back and we're getting dozens and dozens of phone calls emails and text messages about where to live where to move to all the different spots schools and neighborhoods. And we absolutely love your messages. So keep them coming.
So this video is really to tackle messages. I've been getting about helping you guys find rental properties. So in this province of British Columbia, I'm not licensed to handle rentals. So this video will address where to look for if you're thinking about moving out here and which websites I recommend.
So I called around some different rental management companies. And in fact a lot of them don't For the service where you could hire them to find you a rental. So this video is going to just tackle where to look what are my go-to recommendations and where to find the best deals and also stay to the end so I can show you guys which ones to avoid so you're not scammed into giving your security deposit through some scammers that are always lurking out there on these websites. So let's get right to it.
Craigslist
All right. So let's dive right into it. So the first website that I recommend that you visit if you're looking for rentals is Craigslist, so what you're going to Do is go to your search engines and typing Craig's List and I would put in Vancouver to start.
So for this example, we're going to look for a rental place in let's say New Westminster. So what you're going to do is find the category housing and there's apartments and housing field here. This is where you want to click. So there's a couple ways to find rentals here. So there is either searching it in the search bar the city that you're interested in and then pulls down the list of homes or you can search by map view.
So let's start with the map view and if you see this is where New Westminster is and you can zoom in and find a bunch of rentals here now New Westminster has predominantly a lot of condos. So if you're interested in getting houses you can Actually filter it by housing type and you can just put in a house here.
Let's say you're interested in a three-bedroom home then. You might be short of inventory, but there is still some places in the area. So here's one for 2,200. Mm and so on. So the other way to search is to just put in, for example, I want to move to Langley. So if I put it Langley here, I'm going to get a list of houses in Langley. So this is where you could find rentals and Click here. So here's one for 3700. You can definitely communicate with the owner that way or sometimes you gotta management company handling this. So yeah here you can actually see the pictures of the property.
Some descriptions of it. And to respond to them you could hit the reply button and either their phone number will show up our email. So in this case, there's an email address just have to reply by email or you could click one of these Gmail links to go directly to the button to respond to so this is how we do it and just inquire that way so Craigslist is the first website that I recommend.
Facebook
Okay. So the next website that I recommend is Facebook, so if you go to Facebook, Is a section here called Marketplace. So that's one way to find stuff in Facebook or you could go to different rental groups. But right now let's just go to Marketplace and you can search property rentals on the categories here and here you'll find more rental properties.
Let's go look for something in Maple Ridge. And here you have rentals now the good thing about Facebook marketplaces that you are most of the time dealing directly with owners and you can just communicate with them by sending them a message. So there's less of a scam than you would find in Craigslist or scammers I should say. So this is one way to find rentals on Facebook Marketplace.
The other way is that you could just go and join different rental groups. So for example, there's a rental group Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows. You could join this group and you can talk to people directly here. So. All right, and that's it for Facebook Marketplace.
Zumper
The other website that I would recommend is called Zumper. So I'm going to put that zumper apartments for rent houses for rent. So now let's say I want to move to ah, let's go Vancouver. You're going to see a list of all these places on the numbers another cool map that map search here that you could search all the different neighborhoods in Vancouver Richmond Kitsilano, like everywhere Richmond. New West Surrey Delta. So it's I believe it covers all over the world this website zumper, so here let's go look at the when this thing here. So we got property here in Burnaby. So I haven't really used this much but I know you can get an account set up. You can see a lot of data about the rental market in the area walkability scores and other nearby rentals. So this is a really really good website that I was recommended to use from property management company.
Padmapper
Another website the final one that I would suggest you visit is called padmapper. Padmapper.com so very similar to zumper. So let's put a New Westminster again and you're gonna get all these different rentals here. So there's a lot of rentals actually available here. The final bonus way website to search is you can just type in here Property Management. Let's just put in New Westminster yet. So you can actually go directly to different property management companies and see what their inventory looks like.
So let's look at this one ACDrealty.com. And here you've got different properties available exclusively from that brokerage. So this is one other way to search.
Residential Rental Scams
All right. So this part we're going to talk about the residential rental scams. So in Vancouver, the vacancy rates are very low under 1% So it is a tough Market out there for renters trying to find a place. So it's understandable where criminals can see this opportunity as a way for them to scam potential tenants that are desperate to find a place so I'm going to share with you guys some tips that will help you avoid any kind of scams.
Tips to Avoid Scams So according to CTV News 43% of ads are fake. So this is something that's really eye-opening. So be careful out there and I'm going to share with you guys my tips. So here are some ways to identify rental scams. So first way to tell if an ad is fake is that the rents are way too low for the area. They might include all the utilities. They said well pets are allowed and worries for the area. It seems like it's way too low. So that's the first red flag.
Alright. So another thing is to make sure you check and analyze all the pictures. So if you notice that the pictures look very off like it's blurry or it just looks like it's been taken from maybe a real estate listing. Sometimes these scammers use an actual home that's for sale or was for sale while back and they're just taking the photos from there. So make sure that something that you want to analyze and there's no description in the ad is just pictures. So that's one red flag for you.
Another huge red flag is that they're saying, the scammers are saying that they're out of the country. So if you ever get a response back that they're out of the country and to funnel them some money cash or e transfer or wire transfer. There's another red flag. So be careful for that.
Okay, if they say that they want to leave the real estate management companies out of the picture or that they can trust the real estate agent. That's another red flag. All right, always, always, always ask to see the apartment. Don't be sending money without seeing the property first.
So I know a lot of people are desperate they just Want to secure something because you know, everything goes pretty fast here a lot of Apartments. Don't last too long. So make sure you just stay calm and just make sure you have the time to see the property without sending money. So I've had some people messaging me saying that they're coming from out of Province and that they want to have their place secure before they arrived. I suggest maybe just go rent the hotel for a bit. And then just when you land here just look at properties in person and meet the landlord's another tip is get the address of the property. Go to Google Maps and do a street view make sure that it even exists.
So whatever address they give you Google it look it up on the map view and make sure that it does exist. All right, and make sure when you go and see the property that you asked for identification from the person that's showing it to you and let them know that you know, you just want to be careful right down their license plate if they're arriving in a car, but yeah get their information check their ID. And then you can also go to the land title's office and ask for a copy of the title to verify that they are. Actual owners also be careful about giving too much information. So don't give me your sin numbers out. Don't give out your Visa cards. This is a perfect opportunity for scammers to take advantage and get all the information so they could do identity theft. So be careful for that now just go with your gut feeling if you find that the process was too easy.
They didn't do enough screening or reference checks. That's another red flag. So if they're just willing to give you the rental place without doing their homework, and they're asking In for the cash upfront and they're adamant to have the cash right away. That's another red flag.
So another thing to look out for is informality. So if they want to just do a handshake deal, they don't want to go through the paperwork do any leases. They just say well just wire me some money and it's yours. Then there you go. You better run fast and the way from this person. So yeah, so just be careful out there.
There's a lot of scammers as I mentioned some tips for you guys when you were looking at moving to Vancouver, Fraser Valley or Chilliwack, there are some people out there that are going to take advantage of you. So be careful out there and wish you all the luck.
Alright, so I hope you found this video very helpful again. I'm a local real estate agent, and if you're thinking about buying or selling your home in the Vancouver Fraser Valley or Chilliwack area, don't hesitate to reach out to our team and I by contacting us at 778-655-7999 or visiting our website at searchbcealestate.com again, stay tuned to our next video and we'll catch you later.
There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. To have a comfortable home, people always dream to watch breathtaking views from the moment they wake up. The sad reality is, houses with such views are expensive—that’s why most people settle to live in mediocre houses due to its price tag.
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Delta is a city in British Columbia, and forms part of Greater Vancouver. Located south of Richmond, it is bordered by the Fraser River to the north, the United States (Point Roberts, Washington) to the south and the city of Surrey to the east. Delta is composed of three distinct communities: Ladner, Tsawwassen, and North Delta.
Rarely Available Executive French Style Townhome In Westwood Plateau. Located Across From Westwood Plateau Golf Academy. Built By Quality European Builder With Unique Timeless Design. Home Features 3 Bedrooms With 3 Full Baths. 4 Level Split Home With An Amazing Layout & Finished Lower Level as Rec Room or 4th Bedroom. Over 2000sqft Of Sprawling Living Space. Gas Fireplace In The Grand Living Room Which Features 22’ High Ceilings With Lots Of Natural Light. Large South Facing Deck Off the Family Room. Master Bedroom Has Vaulted Ceilings & Juliette Balcony. Private Back Patio. Park Up To 3 Vehicles With Garage and 2 Side By Side Parking Pad In Front. Close To Skytrain, Coquitlam Town Centre Mall, Lafarge Lake.
Olympic Village Vancouver is a wonderful and extravagant place located at the Southeast False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada developed by the Millennium Development Group ranging a million square feet to accommodate 3,000 athletes across the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics. Now that this area has opened up for residential housing, it has been a go-to place for a lot if people—not only for people nearby, but also for people all around the globe.
Is Olympic Village the ‘neighbourhood to call home? Level up your lifestyle by waking up with convenience and multiple adventures in a place where you can call ‘home’.
Here are 5 reasons why Olympic Village Vancouver is the best place to move in:
Yaletown is electric, the vibe here is amazing and full of life from all walks of the world. The crowd is hip, trendy, and full of life. Being able to live in Yaletown has many pros and of course some cons. In this video we are going to discuss what is good and bad about moving to Yaletown!
Located directly south of Vancouver, Richmond is best known abroad for Vancouver International Airport, which sits on Sea Island and is part of the city. Each year, over 25 million people pass through the airport to various destinations around the world. However, beyond the airport, Richmond is a beautiful city in its own right. When people are looking at homes in the Vancouver area, Richmond invariably comes up as an option to explore.
If you're thinking about moving to Richmond, BC, here are some pros and cons that you'll want to consider first!
Located directly south of Vancouver, Richmond is best known abroad for Vancouver International Airport, which sits on Sea Island and is part of the city. Each year, over 25 million people pass through the airport to various destinations around the world. However, beyond the airport, Richmond is a beautiful city in its own right. When people are looking at homes in the Vancouver area, Richmond invariably comes up as an option to explore.If you're thinking about moving to Richmond, BC, here are some pros and cons that you'll want to consider first!
