Realtors, developers... do you ever wonder exactly how many are one and the same?

Meet Sue Johnson (L) and Sarah Thompson of Dexter Realty.

They're the latest realtor's to demonstrate that the print media is nothing more than the real estate industry's playtoy for disguising news as advertising, this time courtesy of the Vancouver Courier.

In a self-promotion puff piece, this duo uses the Courier to broadcast the following 'news' for us:

The most expensive West Point Grey home on Realitylink.org is listed at a cool $17.5 million.

The 2,900-foot-home on a 52,000-square-foot lot overlooks the sea from Belmont Avenue and was designed by Geoff Massey, who worked with the late Arthur Erickson.

Fifteen homes in the area that stretches from West 16th Avenue to English Bay, Alma Street to Blanca are listed at more than $5 million.

Sue Johnson, a resident of and realtor in West Point Grey for 24 years, uses the opportunity to reassure all and sundry that home values in Point Grey have held their value over the years "probably more than any other area. Markets always ebb and flow. They go up and down. That area goes down the least and goes up the most."

Presumably this reassurance is necessary because the sale price of a typical detached home on the West Side in March was down 9.1% from 2012. A figure Johnson is quick to spin as "up 28.2% from five years ago."

Sarah Thompson, Johnson's real estate partner, says the market is becoming more balanced for buyers and sellers, and that "accurately" priced homes are moving. Thompson claims the spring market just started to blossom and lately she’s even seen multiple offers and properties selling within a week.

In an interesting revelation Johnson reveals she's personally built three of her homes in Point Grey.

Interesting because realtors revealed as developers is something of a common theme on the West side in media stories over the past year. You have to wonder how many are dabbling in both roles at the moment.

Johnson insists everything is basically okay on the West Side for real estate. She says West Point Grey has historically attracted local and international buyers and that "nothing has changed" on that front.

In the midsts of a Provincial election, this is what the Courier fills it's newspaper pages with? ... at least those pages of the community paper that aren't already laden with real estate ads.

So if 'nothing has changed', how is any of this news?

Isn't amazing how some in the industry feel the need to repeat this message over and over again?

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