Monday, April 29, 2013

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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8 comments:

  1. So is the house in question also developed by the Johnsons?

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  2. They both have very white teeth...

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  3. PaulB, the darling realtor at VancouverCondo.info was with this brokerage.
    Dexter Realty. One negative word about Saint
    PaulB and Rage Boy and his posse will downvote
    you into oblivion.
    http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.becomingmature.org/storage/islamic_rage_boy2.jpg%3F__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION%3D1284849141835&imgrefurl=http://www.becomingmature.org/podcast/&h=278&w=470&sz=49&tbnid=Qqz3PXpL3pcQTM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=152&zoom=1&usg=__n4AWwCSTT2IzoE0FsiYEv09a2Ek=&docid=wgpdMtr_kwHXxM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jnCAUbLRMOGoiQLs94G4Dg&ved=0CDsQ9QEwBA&dur=4312

    ReplyDelete
  4. PaulB the darling realtor at VANCOUVERCONDO.info used to be with this brokerage. One negative comment about Saint PaulB, Rage Boy and his posse will down vote you into oblivion.

    http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.becomingmature.org/storage/islamic_rage_boy2.jpg%3F__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION%3D1284849141835&imgrefurl=http://www.becomingmature.org/podcast/&h=278&w=470&sz=49&tbnid=Qqz3PXpL3pcQTM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=152&zoom=1&usg=__n4AWwCSTT2IzoE0FsiYEv09a2Ek=&docid=wgpdMtr_kwHXxM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jnCAUbLRMOGoiQLs94G4Dg&ved=0CDsQ9QEwBA&dur=4312

    ReplyDelete
  5. Falun Gong organ donorMay 1, 2013 at 10:43 AM

    It's been interesting since Flaherty has implemented the new rules on CMHC mortgage qualifications how we now know of so many realturd-developer speculators there really are after-all. In my neighborhood, one realturd has since last year put up 3 of her properties for sale. And that is on the same street. 1 she lived in and two other were rental properties.

    The level of speculation HAS been absurd, the RE industry has always had the inside info from the the finance ministry when Flaherty initiated the $0 down 40 year terms till he started changing his warped mind about 2 years ago. This market is toast and we will see the true extent of who those foolish speculators were.

    Never show any mercy to the realturds,banks and the Cons.

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  6. It would be nice to know who is caught swimming naked when the tide goes out. Rennie, condo guru said he went bankrupt in the 80 or 90's. Interesting who on paper is a millionaire before and after the sh*t flies

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  7. Intersting article seeing that I live in Point Grey. Every house sold recently has the usual orange fence that goes up around the city trees. Two weeks later they are torn down with an East Indian crew throwing up a house.

    Six months later they are relisted. The only houses selling in this neighborhood are the tear downs, not the spec houses.

    ReplyDelete