2290 Saxony Court, the latest fake mansion poster child, sells at auction.

On Thursday we told you about 2290 Saxony Court, the latest fake mansion picture poster child, which used photoshopped pictures to create the impression of a sprawling mansion out of an overbuild monstrosity on a cramped lot.

Originally listed at $11 million, this developer's folly languished on the market with price cuts in May 2012 to $8,900,000 and in June 2013 to $7,500,000.

After going belly up, the house was put up for auction and the same misleading photos were used in another campaign where the presstitues allowed themselves to be used to create a the impression of a rocking 50% off deal.  Would overseas buyers step in to engage in a bidding war for a property, sight unseen?

Well today the hammer fell and the final selling price was $6.2 million.

I wonder if famed photos of the non-existant front yard were included?

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Memories of Cam Good?

Faithful readers will recall Cam Good, the former MAC Marketing employee famous for his yellow helicopter escapades, China real estate pandering and local real estate scandals.

Perhaps his most outrageous headline grabbing foray was in April 2011 when Good wrote an Op Ed piece talking about media Hot Asian Money (HAM) flowing into the Village on the Edge of the Rainforest:

Buyers from Mainland China are a driving force in our real estate market. The staggering truth is we’ve seen just the tip of the iceberg… A recent story in the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese are 'stampeding to Vancouver and Toronto, two of Canada’s hottest markets.' For that, we should be grateful. Chinese have made owning real estate in Canada more rewarding than any of us expected and they have made our society distinctly richer by bringing their values and culture to Canada and sharing them with us.… But instead of gratitude, I see growing fear and resentment that foreign buyers are inflating prices and pricing 'us' and 'our children' out of the market... Let’s look at what this global trend is doing to benefit us: It’s driving demand and creating a real estate industry that is the envy of the entire world. Our land, homes and businesses have become more valuable and Chinese investment is a big reason we weathered the global economic storm as well as we did”

Good wrapped up his Op Ed lecture in true R/E sales fashion with a lecture to locals to get in on the market. Naturally it was the 'buy now or be priced out forever' manta whose moral, of course, was to call Cam and use his real estate sales services.

“If you suffer from real estate impotence, don’t blame Chinese people. Besides, getting all worked up about it will only make it worse. Have a glass of wine. Relax. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and pick up the phone to call a realtor or a mortgage broker, either of whom will be more than happy to show you how easy it can be to get your real estate groove on. Real estate is the best investment you’ll ever make, but don’t take my word for it. Ask any of the 70% of Canadians who are already owners. Or a Chinese person. 

Good had also, supposedly, set an office in China to enhance locals to use his real estate services, but that initiative seems to have whithered on the vine.

Bear blogs marvelled at how Good seemed to use the media and HAM to garner free advertising for his real estate services. But he's been quiet the last year or so.

Enter Macdonald Realty Ltd and Dan Scarrow, Macdonald's 30-year-old vice-president of corporate strategy.

In an article in the Globe and Mail, we learn Scarrow has heard enough anecdotal evidence of well-heeled home buyers with roots in China that he has decided to 'act'.

He wants to capitalize on those buyers by investing in a Shanghai office.

In February, Mr. Scarrow will start the first of two three-month assignments in 2014 in Shanghai. After his fact-finding mission, he plans to hire Mandarin-speaking staff in China to keep the overseas branch office going.

Umm… if you already plan to hire staff in China to keep the office going, why bother with two "fact finding" assignments?

But we digress. Sparrow is determined to disprove claims that there isn't large amounts of HAM out there:

While real estate experts have estimated the proportion of foreign buyers in the Vancouver region’s housing market at only 1 to 3 per cent, Mr. Scarrow said if the statistics were to include recent immigrants with origins in China, the influence of rich Chinese buyers would be greater, especially on single-family detached homes in pockets of Vancouver’s West Side.

Most high-end transactions occur on Vancouver’s West Side and the Municipality of West Vancouver. In the luxury market, there were 644 properties that sold for $3-million or higher in the Vancouver area last year, up 47 per cent from 439 homes that traded hands in 2012, according to data compiled by Macdonald Realty. Of homes that sold last year, there were 148 that fetched at least $5-million, compared with 107 sales in that category in 2012.

Mr. Scarrow said it is hard to determine how many of those elite sales went to recent immigrants from China, noting that the ripple effect due to an influx of new money can easily be exaggerated. Still, he believes the proportion was significantly higher than 3 per cent last year.

“There isn’t this wave of offshore investors with no ties to Canada who are coming in to buy, but the genesis of their wealth is from mainland China,” said Mr. Scarrow, a Canadian who speaks Mandarin fluently. “Most of these people land in Canada first as investor-class immigrants.”

He dismisses tales circulating of wealthy offshore buyers snapping up Vancouver properties sight unseen as false, emphasizing that he will instead seek to nurture a market in which China-Canada family ties are crucial.

The 30-year-old Mr. Scarrow said that as a product of a mixed-race marriage, he is acutely aware that the issue of foreign shoppers is a sensitive one in British Columbia. “The perception among some sellers is that mainland Chinese money is driving the luxury real estate market here,” he said.

Of course, just like with Cam Good, Sparrow offers the the real hook. After all, one of the keys for real estate sales is securing listings:

Scarrow cautions homeowners against hiring real estate agents based only on ethnicity, stressing that the best representatives know Vancouver’s neighbourhoods well, no matter what their race. Scarrow said there will be opportunities to tap into the Chinese market during his stay in Shanghai. Besides seeking contacts who are interested in single-family residential properties, he will be on the lookout for investors in Vancouver’s commercial real estate market and also new condo projects.

In other words, you want to list with Sparrow, lol.

Once again, it looks like a major newspaper's article is nothing more than a giant, free ad for a real estate agent trying to drum up business.

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Thurs Post #1: 2290 Saxony Court: the latest fake mansion picture poster child

Yesterday we highlighted the barrage of news stories promoting the upcoming auction of 2290 Saxony Court in Mississauga, Ontario.

Languishing on the market since it was constructed, the builder has turned to an auction to hawk the home that originally carried an $11 million price tag.

As part of the hype, in which Richie Brothers outwardly admit they hope a lower price will trigger a bidding war, the $5.5 million opening bid is promoted as half price.

Our interest in the property was piqued when a reader in this online Windsor newspaper story noted something was amiss. 

The comment says, "the front of the property has been Photoshoped; the sidewalk and curb are where the pillars and fence are. There is no more setback to this monstrosity than there is to a bungalow on Bloor. I hope no one is bidding online based on those pictures. Unless there is a disclaimer along with the description and photos of this place it constitutes fraud."

Really?

The main nighttime entrance photo above is featured prominently in photo gallery for the house. As is this daytime photo:

There's also this 3D rendering of the overall property:

Look at the wide, sweeping driveway.  Look at that lush, huge front yard.

Wow.

The builder, Ambassador Fine Custom Homes, has a masthead on their website that proudly proclaims: "Building Trust."

When you see the interior pictures, images of caviar wishes and champagne dreams abound.

All of which is surely designed to catch the eye of intending international buyer (a Ritchie Bros spokesman outwardly admit their market here is beyond the Mississauga area - probably overseas).

But take a closer look at this 'house' via google street view. Because when you do, Ambassador's slogan of 'building trust' suddenly takes a vicious beating:

As you can see 2290 Saxony Court isn't some wide open country estate, it's a large house squeezed into an end-of-cul-de-sac residential property (click on all images to enlarge).

Umm… what the hell happened to the sprawling front yard? Back to the 3D rendering, check out the sweeping driveway and the way it wraps around the side of the house.  Look at all the space…

Err…. what space?

(Isn't the google image of the garbage bag plunked next the encroaching neighbour's driveway priceless?)

Now let's take a look a real aerial view and compare it to the 3d rendering:

vs

Do you get a sense of how compact the property is from any of the pictures in these photos?

What about in the pictures from the Toronto Star spread?

Not only do the news stories fail to give us any perspective on the real layout of the actual property, none make note that in May 2012 this house was listed at $8,900,000. Nor do they tell us that in June of 2013 the house was pimped for only $7,500,000.

So why is the inflated $11 million figure prominently bantered about?

To say these photos bear a passing resemblance to the reality of the property is beyond generous. And if the builder is wiling to mislead buyers with photoshopped promotional exterior pictures, you have to wonder what other surprises await on the inside.

Yet our gullible media, rather than expose the false pictures for what they are, simply regurgitate the press release and provide free advertising for a builder who seems to do everything but 'build trust'.

Sigh.

Of course why would we expect mainstream newspapers like the Vancouver Sun or the Toronto Star to ferret out truth and protect the public interest?

It's not like they have had to rationalize publishing fake mansion pictures before, right?

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Will this $11 million Mississauga mansion sell for less than half it's value at auction? Or is the media being played again?

This is 2290 Saxony Court in Mississauga, Ontario.

Its an 18,000 Sq tt, 4 Storey, 23 Room, 9 Bath French Chateau Inspired Mansion. From the realtor description:

This Masterpiece features hand picked creme marfil marble from Spain, 10 Ft Honduran mahogany doors, 23 Ft coffered ceilings, plank sized North American white oak flooring, floor to ceiling hand carved marble fireplace mantle, A $1 Million Hvac system, automated smart system, an 8 car garage, a wine cellar. 

Extras: a state of art theatre room + a games room complete with heated hardwood floors and a bar! The exterior boasts buffed chamfered Indian limestone (approx cost $1 Million), 25 tons of structural steel framing, 2′ water nain, 200 Amp generator.

Supposedly the was originally priced at $11 million (curiously the numerous press articles don't list what it's appraised at - we've all seen that story before) and the owners, in an attempt to sell the home quickly, have turned to Ritchie Brothers to auction the house.

The 23-room mansion, located at 2290 Saxony Court, off of Mississauga Rd. just north of the QEW, was originally priced at $11 million, but the auction company is estimating the house could sell for about $5.5 million as the owners are looking to sell quickly.

However, Ritchies Auctioneers managing director Kashif Khan said the mansion could ultimately wind up selling for more than the estimated price. He said auctions work best when there's a unique item up for grabs and it's priced right because that leads to competitive bidding. Khan said he expects that to happen with the Mississauga home.

Ahhh, suddenly the picture clears.

Ritchie Bros is attempting to generate advertising for their auction and a bidding war. The hook?  Announcing the house MAY sell for half it's original listing price of $11 million.

Meanwhile the house gets worldwide media attention with newspapers, like this photo spread in the Vancouver Sun.

Is it working?

The company has received calls about the property from places such as Asia and South America and there has also been interest here in Mississauga from well-known, wealthy locals, said Khan.

Curiously this online Windsor newspaper story contains an interesting reader's comment about the photo of the mansion above:

The comment says, "the front of the property has been Photoshoped; the sidewalk and curb are where the pillars and fence are. There is no more setback to this monstrosity than there is to a bungalow on Bloor. I hope no one is bidding online based on those pictures. Unless there is a disclaimer along with the description and photos of this place it constitutes fraud."

Misleading photoshopped real estate pictures in a real estate promotion picked up by media outlets and run worldwide?

Haven't we seen this before?

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Media Manipulation

As we look back on the year that was, the dominant theme of 2013 has been media manipulation by the real estate industry.'

Leading the way was MAC Marketing Solutions, the condo marketing firm exposed for lying to and deceiving the public on TV.

But MAC was only the most visible example this year.  Media manipulation in the real estate industry  has been a source of contempt by the likes of this site and other excellent venues like Garth Turner's blog.

Fake mansions, paid individuals in condo line ups to create 'buzz', monthly 'Franken numbers', real estate agents posing as buyers, the list goes on and on.

But nothing is as particularly galling as the real estate press release regurgitated as news. 

Pundits, such as Garth Turner, regularly rail against a lazy and corrupt media who allow themselves to be used as pawns by a gleeful industry more than happy to feed them content.

Each month you can do scan of the nation's media and see a story regurgitated virtually word for word in publication after publication and news broadcast after news broadcast.

And it isn't just the case for real estate. It is the disease of our media today and it is so widespread it has become comical. Check out this example which Conan O'Brien couldn't help but lambast on a recent show:

Why write your own story when you can simply rehash the script from a press release dropped in front of you.  Conan calls it 'scary' and 'frightening', an understatement if we ever heard one. But this type of media manipulation currently shapes everything you read, hear and watch.

Everything.

In the old days, we only had a few threats to fear when it came to media manipulation: the government propagandist and the hustling publicist. They were serious threats, but vigilance worked as a clear and simple defence They were the exceptions rather than the rule—they exploited the fact that the media was trusted and reliable.

The late Andrew Brietbart, a master media manipulator,  once said: “Feeding the media is like training a dog. You can’t throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns.”

And it's clear the major mainstream media has been well trained.

In our real estate focused country, that's what the real estate manipulator's have artfully achieved - they have trained the media. It's crucial to their business.

Thankfully there are bloggers like Turner, VREAA and the contributors to Vancouver Condo Info whose vigilance is omnipresent.

Today we salute you all.

(For a great holiday game, don't forget to check out: MAC Marketing's version of Where's Waldo")

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Another case of 'Newsvertising', this time in the National Post

On the weekend we shared with you the cover of the Financial Post Magazine (pictured above).

It appeared on September 3rd, 2013 in the National Post newspaper and had a stunning headline: "THE SKY IS NOT FALLING - Why real estate doomsayers continue to be wrong"

Pretty powerful message. Forwarded as friendly 'chiding', it represents the quintessential example of media manipulation in real estate today. To the average person, this article appears to be a 'news story'. 

But as one of our faithful readers noticed in the comments section of yesterdays blog post, it's not a news article - it's an adverting feature; an advertisement dressed up to look like a news story.

Online, the article is contained in the "Special Sections' of the National Post (click on all images to enlarge):

For those who follow this blog regularly, when you see 'Special Sections', the spidey senses start to tingle. Google the article headline and you discover EXACTLY what this article is:

That's right. Google makes it very clear it's not a news article, its a newspaper ad, the content written by a real estate shill who paid to have it inserted in the paper.

Faithful readers will recall we covered a similar misleading article in the Vancouver Province back on March 26, 2013 and discussed it again here.

Desperate for advertising dollars, the mainstream media is increasingly willing to take paid advertisements and present them as actual news stories with little or no indication that what you are reading isn't real news.

Naturally the real estate industry will pay handsomely for the chance to mold public opinion under the guise of legitimate news. Who wouldn't when you dealing with an industry where Billions of dollars are spent based on 'consumer confidence'?

But when the print media sells it's journalistic integrity like this, is it all that surprising that they have become an unsustainable proposition?

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Mon Post #1: The head of INVIS Team RRP speaks out about Financial Post article

Meet Ron Regan-Pollock.

He's the head of INVIS Team RRP, the mortgage brokerage company which was the subject of the latest real estate media scandal we brought to you March 28th.

From Regan-Pollock's website profile:

Rob has been a trusted media commentator on mortgage issues since 2000, regularly providing his insights to print, radio and television journalists. He has served the mortgage industry as a board member on a national and a provincial level since 2006.

That reputation for trust took a bit of hit when this article from the Financial Post came out:

As you may recall the article, a recent retirement piece in the Financial Post focusing on how high home values factor into retirement planning, introduced us to Allen Hoegg and wife Karin. After giving us the Hoegg's background (with requisite problem/issue), the FP profiled INVIS Team RRP along with solutions to the dilemma faced by the Hoegg's.

Sharp eyed blogosphere sleuths noticed that Hoegg wasn't just a retiree facing retirement planning concerns. He happened to work for the very company profiled in the article (INVIS Team RRP), a fact that wasn't originally revealed to readers.

The glaring omission gave the article the appearance of a glorified advertising piece for Team RRP.

The scandal intensified when it was discovered that the freelance author of the Financial Post article happens to appear as an employee on two communications company websites (since deleted since this story broke). One of those communications companies outwardly boasts of their successes in obtaining media coverage for their clients, coverage which appears to come from placing those companies in what look like benign news stories.

Sort of like bringing the practice of product placement to the newspaper industry.

The whole matter raises disturbing questions about the concurrent relationship of the article's author to the Financial Post while associated to those PR firms.

Meanwhile the entire issue is anything but good PR for Team RRP.

For what does it say if a business misrepresents an employee in a news article? If they would allow a simple white lie like that, would you want them to provide investment advice for you?

Correcting this perception may be what lead several members of the INVIS team to contact this blog last week.

First it was Gary Siegle, VP of INVIS Prairies.

I did some further investigating since RRP and team are well known to me and [this] scandal does not fit in the least with the profile and reputation of Rob and his team.

This article was initiated by the communications company not RRP as is suggested.

RRP made full disclosure to the journalist as to who Allan Hoeg (sic) was and his relationship to the RRP team.

Through the editorial process, some comments were taken out of context.

Next we heard from Rob Regan-Pollock.

Mr. Siegle advised me of this incident as part of our company's governance. Happy to share facts with you and your readers.

Postmedia contacted our Marketing Dept requesting a western broker to interview for a retirement piece focusing on how high home values factor into retirement planning.

I was introduced to Denise Deveau... and was interviewed. She asked if I knew of any retirement aged individuals who met the profile and introduced my employee Mr. Hoegg with full disclosure.

Regan-Pollock wasn't just concerned about the omission of Allen Hoegg as an employee. There were other errors in the article, errors with some of the actual investment advice itself. In a subsequent  email Regan-Pollock said:

[I] did provide my employee’s contact details with full disclosure. Yes I expected disclosure in the article. When I did read it, I was concerned about the non-disclosure and [a] truncated quote to borrow from your line of credit if you can’t make ends meet.

What I had said was, “that when RRSP’s or investments are below book value, rather than crystallize the loss and face the double whammy of having to pay income tax, a homeowner line of credit can act as a good buffer if one can’t make ends meet."

This was truncated to "borrow from your home equity if you can’t make ends meet", which we do not support. Rather we recommend having tools consumers can use, especially in these volatile times.

Once the article was published, did Mr. Regan-Pollock try to contact anyone to correct the errors?

[I] did not have a chance as Denise called to advise of some issues she was facing as a result of her non-disclosure of Allan as my employee. [She] called to ask if he was full or part time. Allan is Part Time. Given her challenges I didn’t push for a correction on my quote.

So if Team RRP didn't initiate the article, was Ms. Deveau working on behalf of a PR communications firm for the parent INVIS company? Regan-Pollock says he doesn't think so:

When Denise Deveau contacted Marketing, she mentioned she was contacting us on behalf of Post Media for an article she was writing. Invis as a National firm is often contacted by media... Denise contacted our VP of Marketing Kelly Neuber for an article Denise was writing for Post Media, requesting preference for a Western Broker where home values are higher for a retirement piece.

We were advised Post Media could run the article in a number of their publications. No specific publication was mentioned so we did not know this was going to run in the FP. I will confirm my belief that Invis is not a client of Blue Sky on Monday. We were simply the advisors who could assist Ms, Deveau who was writing for PostMedia.

Appreciate the ability to clarify as our reputation is all we have.

So there you have it.

Rob Regan-Pollock clearly indicates that his firm did not initiate this article. When contacted, he was very clear and upfront about fact that Allan Hoegg was a part-time employee of his. Furthermore a key part of his advice was 'truncated,' conveying a practice his firm clearly does not support.

There are still many unanswered questions in this affair.

We'll update you if we learn any more.

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Down the rabbit hole of Canadian Journalism: the curious case of Denise Deveau, BlueSky Communications and the Financial Post

What started off as a criticism of yet another somewhat misleading real estate article in the newspaper may well have become a trip down the rabbit hole of Canadian journalism.

Last Thursday we began asking if Denise Deveau, a freelance reporter, was actually working on behalf of a communications company when she submitted what amounted to a glorified advertisement for a Vancouver mortgage brokerage company to the Financial Post.

The formula pulp piece appeared March 27th and was titled "Home is where the retirement money is"

A subject is introduced, background given (with requisite problem/issue) and then a company was profiled.  This particular article caught our eye because sharp eyed blogosphere sleuths noticed the subject happened to work for the company profiled in the article.

This fact wasn't originally revealed to readers, a simple white lie that rankles given the litany of media manipulation we've seen from the real estate industry recently.

Was the article 'news' or was it 'newsvertising'? 

As we dug a little deeper, some disturbing facts surfaced. 

The freelance reporter, it turns out, is listed as an employee with not one, but two communications companies.

On the website of one these companies, the public is told clients can obtain "continuous media coverage" from the PR firm:

Whether we are securing regular media coverage for you, making you the topic of online discussions or developing impactful marketing pieces, our integrated, big-picture approach is intrinsically linked to where you want to bring your business... Our outstanding results speak for themselves. We are particularly talented in getting continuous media coverage for our clients that communicates directly to the target market. And after engaging us for a period of time, you will see the impressive impact media coverage has on your business.

In another section of the website we discover Denise Deveau, the freelance reporter with the Financial Post, works for the firm.  From the profiles of BlueSky Communications employees:

Denise has over 20 years of journalism and corporate communications experience. She handles a wide variety of writing and research assignments in the high tech, financial services, retail, government, education, oil and gas, and consumer sectors Whether it’s a thought provoking article, or compelling marketing collateral, Denise is able to deliver an effective piece that will meet your business objectives.

Awfully convenient having one of the Financial Post's regular freelance contributors on staff to potentially bring these website claims to life, isn't it?

If this is actually what is happening, we asked if there wasn't an inherent conflict of interest (or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest) when a member of a communications company (who specialize in gaining access to media for their clients) writes for the Financial Post?

Shortly after asking this, the online profiles of Denise Deveau began disappearing from the websites of both communications companies (see here and here).

Naturally this raised eyebrows and we felt compelled to take a closer look at what is going on here.

BlueSky Communications has an interesting website page where they talk about their clients appearances in the news, a sort of self-congratulatory promotional page for their past success stories.

(At least the webpage exists as of last night, we'll see if it stays there much longer).

For kicks and giggles we took a look through to see which clients BlueSky has in its stable. Next we poked around the internet to see if Deveau may have had any articles published in the media profiling those same clients.

BlueSky seems particularly proud of the work they have done for the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University, so we started there (click on images to enlarge):

Sure enough it didn't take long to find an article from Deveau.

On January 19th, 2013, Deveau contributed this article to the Financial Post (which was picked up by the Edmonton Journal).

It follows the same formula as the article for the Vancouver mortgage broker company.  Someone is profiled, background given (with requisite problem/issue stated) and then a company was profiled. This time it is the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University. Here is the initial shout-out to them:

Coincidence?

If it was just one article, perhaps. Let's face it, BlueSky promises to obtain "continuous media coverage" for its clients so one article is hardly a smoking gun.

But a little more digging and we come across this February 4th, 2013 article which appeared on Canada.com. 

Same formula again. In the body of the article is this shout-out to the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

Another coincidence?

What about this one? On November 17, 2012, there was this article for post media news (again picked up by the Edmonton Journal). Same formula and in the body of the article is this shout-out to the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

Google actually reveals quite a few articles that Deveau has written which happen to mention the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

On a case study page for various clients, BlueSky offers this testimonial from the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

"Working with BlueSky Communications has been instrumental in generating awareness of our programs while raising the profile of our instructors as experts in their fields - contributing to increased enrollment and positioning us as leaders in continuing education."

- Marilou Cruz, Marketing Manager, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, Ryerson University

BlueSky Communications seems to have quite the track record of successfully placing their clients front and centre in media stories. BlueSky's case studies page boasts of their numerous achievements.

For Bread and Butter Skincare, BlueSky secured 45 media stories (averaging 13.5 articles a month) from october 2009 - April 2010:

LifeSpeak Inc., a company that designs customized workshops for corporations, hired BlueSky for its national launch. BlueSky's efforts resulted in

front-page media coverage in the National Post and profiles in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, CBC Radio and Canadian Living. BlueSky’s ability to generate pre-launch buzz and build anticipation proved successful in attracting new business calls for LifeSpeak. Ongoing profile in the media has not only helped LifeSpeak continue to attract new clients nation-wide, it’s also helped the company attract new speakers for its roster.

Clearly BlueSky Communications is very effective at their job. 

But as we asked at the start, is there not an inherent conflict of interest (or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest) when a member of a communications company (who specializes in gaining access to media for their clients) writes for a given media outlet?

These 'news' articles appear to be nothing more than advertising features for the companies that are profiled.

Don't the rules of disclosure demand the public is told this fact up front? Exactly how widespread is this practice anyway? Does government have to mandate that "ADVERTISING FEATURE" be stamped across these newspaper articles so that our press is transparent to us?

More importantly, is there any real journalism being done by our nation's written press anymore?

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What's the deal with the Globe and Mail's changing real estate headlines? Better than the outright BS from The Province we suppose.

It's one of those things that drives real estate watcher's crazy.

The media comes out with an extremely bearish real estate news headline (which perfectly captures the essence of the story), and before long it changes... and the change is much more neutral in tone.

What's the deal?

The latest example is a story from the Globe and Mail covering the dismal February real estate numbers.

The article starts off with the bad news:

The flicker of optimism that sparked in Canada’s housing market when January sales outpaced December’s has died out, erased by a notable drop in February.

Last month’s declines were significant enough to prompt the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) to cut its sales outlook for 2013 on Friday for the third time since last summer.

As you can see by the image above, the G&M originally headlined the article "Real Estate market outlook dims as home sales plunge". (hat tip Greater Fool blog)

Ominous indeed.

If you google that headline, google's search still turns up the link:

Click on the link, and you are still taken to the online story BUT now the headline has changed.  Here is the new version:

WTF???

Why did we go from the ominous "Real Estate market outlook dims as home sales plunge" to the decidedly neutral "Clouds gather over Canadian housing market"

Is it the result of Industry pressure?

Seems odd since the Globe and Mail has been at the forefront of identifying the realities of what's currently happening in the housing market but how else to explain the change in tone?

Meanwhile, as Greater Fool succinctly notes, the real estate industry is busy desperately trying to manipulate public perception in the face of disastrous results.

This from Friday's Vancouver Province (on line version here):

From real estate sales 'plunging' to real estate sales 'finally recovering'?  How does a headline like this even get published?

Wonder it this one will get syndicated all across the nation like the fake mansion photos?

We deserve better than this from our print media.

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Fake condo line ups, fake press photo ops, fake buyers... and now fake houses?- Updated

We've spent a lot of time this month covering the shenanigans of the local real estate industry.

• We've told you about fake condo line ups (wherein ads appeared on craigslist for people to stand in line for condo pre-sales).
• We've told you about fake press photo opportunities.
• We've covered incidents where realtors have been caught posing as fake buyers.

But has it stooped so low that realtors are now faking the very existence of the house that is for sale?

For the past couple of days the blogosphere has been talking about what appears to be the latest example of deception in the media (hat tip Many Franks).

Over the weekend, the Vancouver Sun carried a story about the most expensive home currently listed in Canada. It is located at 3810 Marine Drive in West Vancouver.

Google the story and you will find the two google links in the image above.

If you clicked on them on the weekend, they would have lead you to this story (this version was in the North Shore News):

Attached to the story was this picture gallery showing you this gaudy home, presumably for sale on this property:

Go through the gallery and you will see these images.  Each picture has a description of what you are looking at and the website of the listing realtor:

There's just one problem, there's no such house on this property.

Don't misunderstand, the property at 3810 Marine Drive exists - and it is for sale.  But the house in these pictures does not exist.  All of these pictures are fake in that they do not represent anything at this property.  

Here is what is really there:

It's a 50 year old tear-down rancher/bungalow.

How on earth do you justify showing pictures of a Versailles-style mansion in place of a 50 year old tear-down house?

When the Vancouver Sun was alerted to the fact the pictures were of a house that didn't actually exist on that property, the Sun promptly removed their article and issued this statement:

The Vancouver Sun last week published a story and photo gallery online about a West Vancouver waterfront home at 3810 Marine Drive listed for $38 million. The Sun has since learned that the photos on the listing realtor’s website are artist’s renderings and not photos of the actual home on the property. The home on the property is a rancher/bungalow built in 1964. Realtor Laura McLaren says the images on her website depicting a mansion “are renderings of what could be built on this property.”

So how is it that the Vancouver Sun came to publish this article and these pictures? Clearly when they learned the mansion did not exist, they removed the article and the photos.

Were they duped? And if so, by who?

If you go to the realtor's site, the Vancouver Sun is correct...  the house is a featured listing on the realtor's website, complete with these photos:

And nowhere in the description that we could find does it say the house isn't really there; that the photos are "renderings of what could be built on this property."

(note: the ariel photo of the rancher/bungalow is included with the photos of the Versailles-style mansion in the listing on the realtor's site)

But as Many Franks said, "Of the 19 images on the realtor’s website, two thirds are total fiction. There are only two photographs of the actual house you’d get with your $38 million. None of the interior fantasies include any indication that they don’t really exist."

Even if the press came across the listing on their own and published their story without any prodding from someone in R/E, what the hell is going on in the real estate industry?

Is it not a deception to list this property with these pictures without clearly indicating that the fictitious house isn't really there? Doesn't transparency demand at least a prominent notation that the house pictured in the majority of the listing photos does not exist?

Certainly the lack of transparency fooled the Vancouver Sun into running this story!

Was the whole purpose of the fake pictures a means to garner free advertising as the media runs this as a "news story"? Would any media outlet have run this story without those pictures?  We think the fact the Vancouver Sun promptly removed their story when they learned the house didn't exist speaks volumes.

How is it that the Real Estate Council of BC stands by and seemingly allows the public/press to be continuously mislead?

There are supposedly over 11,000 realtors in the Lower Mainland alone.  But the reputation of the majority is being significantly tarred by a few.

Allegations of media manipulation like the ones we have covered this month should be throughly investigated and serious wrongdoing should result in expulsion from the profession, plus hefty fines.  And the results of those investigations should be widely publicized.

The integrity of the industry is at stake here.

Is anyone looking out for the public in all of this?

I would love to hear the personal thoughts of some of the realtors out there in the comments section of this posting.

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UPDATE: The listing on the homepage of the realtor has now been modified and all the "fake" house pictures have been removed with the exception of the one exterior pic.  That single exterior pic used to be the lead pic for the listing, now it is not (it's number 7 in the thumbnails below).  Still unclear why that one pic is even there to begin with.

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UPDATE 2: The "fake" house image on the listing on the homepage of the realtor has now been modified to indicate it is an image of what 'could' be constructed on the property.


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