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Please visit our Open House at 1403 140 KEITH RD E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Completely renovated sub penthouse concrete highrise, 2 bed, 2 bath, open layout with 270 degree views. Features include; Floor to ceiling windows, walnut hardwood floors, Carrara marble countertops and back splashes, espresso cabinetry,stainless appliances, insuite laundry, undermount sink and high-end faucets, all this and a 310 sq ft wrap-around Balcony...
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I have listed a new property at 1403 140 KEITH RD E in North Vancouver.
Completely renovated sub penthouse concrete highrise, 2 bed, 2 bath, open layout with 270 degree views. Features include; Floor to ceiling windows, walnut hardwood floors, Carrara marble countertops and back splashes, espresso cabinetry,stainless appliances, insuite laundry, undermount sink and high-end faucets, all this and a 310 sq ft wrap-around Balcony in a well maintained building with many amenities including...
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I have sold a property at 20 220 11TH ST E in North Vancouver.
This centrally located town home offers all of the benefits of a single family home. It is spacious and airy with a welcoming courtyard entrance. Inside you'll find an updated 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home with galley kitchen which opens tothe dining/living areas. A private, fully fenced South facing patio/garden complete with a palm tree, that creates a calming feel. Special features of this 1540 sq. ft. TH are HW flooring,...
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I’ve been having discussion with many clients lately that are confused as to why their property assessments have gone down, or in more cases up, which generally means they’ll be paying more dollars in property taxes. Especially when last year sales were down in real estate 25% to 30% on average across all markets and on apartments, townhomes, and single family homes. Of course housing prices only dropped 3% to 5% overall  as many sellers did not “have to” sell or were...

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Please visit our Open House at 16 222 5TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Sunday, January 20, 2013 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The quality is evident as you enter this "Noort" built Craftsman style Luxury town home. The front patio overlooks a lush garden court yard area that serves as the entrance to this immaculate home. Inside the foyer you'll find a well laid out open floor plan. Features include stainless appliances, granite countertops, crown mouldings, and designer paint. The...
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Please visit our Open House at 16 222 5TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Sunday, January 13, 2013 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The quality is evident as you enter this "Noort" built Craftsman style Luxury town home. The front patio overlooks a lush garden court yard area that serves as the entrance to this immaculate home. Inside the foyer you'll find a well laid out open floor plan. Features include stainless appliances, granite countertops, crown mouldings, and designer paint. The...
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Please visit our Open House at 405 15368 17A AVE in Surrey.
Open House on Saturday, January 12, 2013 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In this quiet, top floor 4 year old condo you will immediately appreciate the extra height of the 9' ceilings. The practical floorplan leads you to a cook's delight kitchen with granite counters & SS appliances. Contemporary crownmoulding, baseboards & laminate floors add to the aura of luxury. Baths have tiled floors, granite counters, under-mount sinks & soaker...
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Please visit our Open House at 16 222 5TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Sunday, December 16, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The quality is evident as you enter this "Noort" built Craftsman style Luxury town home. The front patio overlooks a lush garden court yard area that serves as the entrance to this immaculate home. Inside the foyer you'll find a well laid out open floor plan. Features include stainless appliances, granite countertops, crown mouldings, and designer paint. The...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 20 220 11TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Sunday, December 16, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
This centrally located town home offers all of the benefits of a single family home. It is spacious and airy with a welcoming courtyard entrance. Inside you'll find an updated 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home with galley kitchen which opens tothe dining/living areas. A private, fully fenced South facing patio/garden complete with a palm tree, that creates a calming...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 405 15368 17A AVE in Surrey.
Open House on Sunday, December 9, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In this quiet, top floor 4 year old condo you will immediately appreciate the extra height of the 9' ceilings. The practical floorplan leads you to a cook's delight kitchen with granite counters & SS appliances. Contemporary crownmoulding, baseboards & laminate floors add to the aura of luxury. Baths have tiled floors, granite counters, under-mount sinks & soaker tubs....
Read

Please visit our Open House at 20 220 11TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Sunday, December 2, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
This centrally located town home offers all of the benefits of a single family home. It is spacious and airy with a welcoming courtyard entrance. Inside you'll find an updated 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home with galley kitchen which opens tothe dining/living areas. A private, fully fenced South facing patio/garden complete with a palm tree, that creates a calming...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 16 222 5TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The quality is evident as you enter this "Noort" built Craftsman style Luxury town home. The front patio overlooks a lush garden court yard area that serves as the entrance to this immaculate home. Inside the foyer you'll find a well laid out open floor plan. Features include stainless appliances, granite countertops, crown mouldings, and designer paint. The...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 405 15368 17A AVE in Surrey.
Open House on Sunday, November 18, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In this quiet, top floor 4 year old condo you will immediately appreciate the extra height of the 9' ceilings. The practical floorplan leads you to a cook's delight kitchen with granite counters & SS appliances. Contemporary crownmoulding, baseboards & laminate floors add to the aura of luxury. Baths have tiled floors, granite counters, under-mount sinks & soaker tubs....
Read

Please visit our Open House at 16 222 5TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Saturday, November 17, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The quality is evident as you enter this "Noort" built Craftsman style Luxury town home. The front patio overlooks a lush garden court yard area that serves as the entrance to this immaculate home. Inside the foyer you'll find a well laid out open floor plan. Features include stainless appliances, granite countertops, crown mouldings, and designer paint. The...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 20 220 11TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Saturday, November 10, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
This centrally located town home offers all of the benefits of a single family home. It is spacious and airy with a welcoming courtyard entrance. Inside you'll find an updated 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home with galley kitchen which opens tothe dining/living areas. A private, fully fenced South facing patio/garden complete with a palm tree, that creates a calming...
Read

I have sold a property at 3156 STRATHAVEN LANE in North Vancouver.
Over 2780 Sq Ft of great family living space in a solid home on a sizable corner lot. Three bedrooms up with an ensuite bathroom in the master bedroom, and a reno'd second bathroom. Three gas fireplaces, a huge sundeck with some views forentertaining, and a finished garden level main floor with a fourth bedroom and kitchen, perfect for extended living area, or to have for visiting guests. The main floor den could be...
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Please visit our Open House at 16 222 5TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Saturday, November 3, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
The quality is evident as you enter this "Noort" built Craftsman style Luxury town home. The front patio overlooks a lush garden court yard area that serves as the entrance to this immaculate home. Inside the foyer you'll find a well laid out open floor plan. Features include stainless appliances, granite countertops, crown mouldings, and designer paint. The...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 20 220 11TH ST E in North Vancouver.
Open House on Saturday, November 3, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
This centrally located town home offers all of the benefits of a single family home. It is spacious and airy with a welcoming courtyard entrance. Inside you'll find an updated 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home with galley kitchen which opens tothe dining/living areas. A private, fully fenced South facing patio/garden complete with a palm tree, that creates a calming...
Read

Please visit our Open House at 405 15368 17A AVE in Surrey.
Open House on Sunday, November 4, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In this quiet, top floor 4 year old condo you will immediately appreciate the extra height of the 9' ceilings. The practical floorplan leads you to a cook's delight kitchen with granite counters & SS appliances. Contemporary crownmoulding, baseboards & laminate floors add to the aura of luxury. Baths have tiled floors, granite counters, under-mount sinks & soaker tubs....
Read

Please visit our Open House at 405 15368 17A AVE in Surrey.
Open House on Sunday, October 28, 2012 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
In this quiet, top floor 4 year old condo you will immediately appreciate the extra height of the 9' ceilings. The practical floorplan leads you to a cook's delight kitchen with granite counters & SS appliances. Contemporary crownmoulding, baseboards & laminate floors add to the aura of luxury. Baths have tiled floors, granite counters, under-mount sinks & soaker tubs....
Read
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Market update!!

 

As most of you have heard, sales in the Vancouver real estate market have been down this year, the numbers vary from area to area. The strata market has been soft, while single family homes and building lots have been significantly better, again depending on the area.

The media types have been talking about a so called bubble, and a correction in the real estate market, as if there will be some dramatic shift in prices one day. I believe this is a misnomer. To the contrary, we’ve seen small corrections happening every day over the last few months to compensate for the smaller number of sales, as opposed to a sudden price drop. So in effect, the correction has already and is already happening on a daily basis. This doesn’t mean that it could not correct more, or less as time goes on. Some buyers believe that because of the slow market, they should automatically submit low ball offers assuming that home sellers should be desperately trying to sell and escape the market before this correction, however again this is wrong thinking, as there is a good chance that new home sellers entering the market have priced their home correctly, given the current circumstances.

 

 I believe that because the interest rates have been so low for so long now, a lot of the new home buyers that could buy, did buy in the last couple of years, leaving a lack of new home buyers to drive the entry level market. There are however still a small number of new home buyers entering the market all of the time, and of course folks upsizing and downsizing, to continually add some buoyancy to our market.

     

Despite the market sales being lower this year, I’ve been very fortunate, so thank you friends, family, and valued clients!!   

 

 

All the Best!

 

Garth   

 
Who's Doing  High Fives Now?    SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 2007
 

If you think lenders make too much money, you are not alone........ However, it's very likely that you, the borrower, are an eager participant in all those profits. Billions of dollars are literally given away to the banks each year because of consumer  pathy. Lenders know this and in fact they "bank" on it. What do we mean?
Well, a recent survey conducted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reveals that despite all the new mortgage products on the market, people looking to renew their mortgage will more often than not, revert back to their current lender. In fact, according to the report, 81% of them did. Does this make sense when the competition could be offering lower interest rates and better terms? It doesn't. There is some good news though. This same survey indicates that consumers are shopping around slightly more than they were in the past. People that were renewing their mortgage were faithful to their financial institution to the tune of 88% in 2000. By 2006 this dropped 7 percentage points.
This decline in lender loyalty was also very evident in repeat home buyers and people that refinanced their mortgage because of wanting extra cash to make home  enovations or consolidate debt. In 2006 only 65% of these consumers went back to their current provider – well down from what it was in previous years. The only category that remained relatively stable was first-time home buyers.

57% of these buyers financed through their banking institution in 2000 and this remained almost constant - 58% in 2006. It would appear that first-time buyers are savvy and cautious when it comes to mortgage debt. Initially, they do their

research diligently when it comes to comparing lenders and what they can offer. However, these very same buyers that were so careful at the start, oon join the ranks of those that are "too busy" at mortgage renewal time to check out and compare lenders. Most people know that banking is a business. However, not all acknowledge that bank

employees are paid to look after the bank's best interests – not yours. In fact these employees have quotas to fill – big quotas! It is amazing that people will go to seminars sponsored by Lenders and expect to be told how to negotiate the best mortgage deal for themselves.  Puh-leeze! That's like inviting a fox to the chicken coop to tell the chickens how to avoid getting eaten by him. It makes no sense whatsoever, yet that is exactly what people do. Even more remarkable is the fact that these potential customers believe they are getting sound and unbiased information and actually act on the

advice given by the fox. This can be a very costly mistake. 

 
However, let us explore mortgage renewal in greater detail.
 
Mortgage funding is extremely competitive. Lenders spend an enormous amount of money just to get mortgage business in the first place and they certainly don't want to lose customers now or at any time in the future.
If homeowners would just take a few hours and shop around for several proposals from different lending institutions when their mortgage term is up, they might be pleasantly surprised about their findings. The chances are that they would quite possibly receive an offer from another Lender that is better in both interest rates and/or terms provided.
Lenders may even pay for all the set-up, transfer and legal fees when the mortgage business is transferred to them. Once a homeowner has different options in hand, the power to choose becomes theirs. They can accept this new favorable proposal or have their current lender match or better it. Odds are, your lender isn't going to be
willing to give up your business without a fight.
How much actual cash could be saved by keeping Lenders honest? Well, let's figure it out. A $300,000 mortgage calculated at 6% over a 25 year amortization period works out to monthly payments of $1,919.42. Conversely, at 5.5% and using the same criteria, the payments are $1,831.18. The difference is $88.24 per month. Now multiply that by 60 (five years of monthly payments) and you will see that by negotiating a better rate, rather than blindly accepting the first offer, you have saved $5,294.40. Really, with a little investigative effort, you could have put a stash of cash in your jeans or made a handsome contribution towards paying off your mortgage. Instead of the Lenders' CEO's counting profits and doing high fives around the boardroom table because of consumer apathy, you could be going on vacation. You may be trained to be loyal but hopefully, not tamed! Next time . . . shop around!
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