This is not a post about bashing leasehold properties. It is a post about some of the unique aspects of buying and selling leasehold properties in the Greater Vancouver area. First, I am not an absolute expert on the subject but I have sold a few leasehold properties as a listing agent and have had a few buyers purchase leaseholds. I have even had one client sell her leasehold and purchased into another.

At the heart of leasehold is the relationship to the land on which the house, townhouse or condo is situated. More clearly stated it’s the right to enjoy the equity associated from direct landownership. That said buying a leasehold property is not for everyone. Basically, there is a tenant/landlord relationship. A lease agreement with a fee (rent/lease) is created initially between the two parties (usually landowner and first purchaser/builder) complete with covenants (the responsibilities of both parties), rules, bylaws and budgets in a document generally referred to as a Head Lease usually set to last 99 years from conception. All the units in a development will age out at the same time. In Vancouver and surrounding areas, the landholder maybe the city, a corporation, privately owned or First Nations lands. The properties are typically found in highly desirable areas like waterfront (or within walking distance). In smaller communities, the properties maybe close to shopping and schools.

Are all leasehold apartments and townhouses classified as “stratas”? No. In fact, some leasehold property owners never have any kind of board, representation, meetings, voting privileges, or decision making power. The lessees simply receive a report document once a year with an operating budget, financial statement and possibly assessments or levies. Many function as “true” stratas with elected boards, monthly meetings and AGMs. Some leases are prepaid so no worries of sudden changes in lease payments – but some are not and reviews based on changing market conditions and increasing land values can result in huge lease payment increases. So, does that equate into increases in value in the units as well? Yes, leasehold properties are market driven as well. Not just at the same pace as freehold properties. Some are very slow to show increase in value – sort of like a low interest savings account. Some increase far more rapidly and may seem more attractive to the investor. It’s still about location, condition and price.

So what is attractive about these types of properties? As mentioned, location is a big factor and most purchasers would never be able to buy these homes if they were freehold. As they are not buying the land, these properties are significantly cheaper than their freehold counterparts. In some areas, there may be a price difference of $300K for a 2 bedroom condo. The value of the land being the variable.

A significant challenge to both buyers and sellers is financing. Many lenders tend to shy away from leaseholds. Mortgages are charges created against land ownership. Leasehold properties don’t offer landownership. So, the “security or chattel” is effectively missing. However, lenders do consider the landowner (reputable), the age, the condition/maintenance history, the profile of the buyer and how much time is remaining on the lease. If there is less than 30 years remaining, it’s pretty tough to get financing. A line of credit maybe the best option at this point. Some purchasers view leaseholds as good investments and keep them as rental properties. The most important thing is for buyers to understand what they are purchasing and the relationship and expectations outlined in the Head Lease.

A Question of Neighbours

Once in awhile the question gets asked – “What do you know about the neighbours?” or “Who lives next door?” Whether the question is directed at me representing a buyer or directly to the seller or their agent, this is basically an open mine field for anyone who actually wants to attempt to answer. The question it seems gets asked more frequently by folks looking at high and medium density complexes as opposed to single family residential neighbourhoods. Closer living quarters equals closer contact.

The reasons why buyers ask are usually based around personal safety, level of interaction and how people tend to get along, noise, expectations of participation etc. (Though in my experience they aren’t actually able to define what they want to know clearly) All very difficult for anyone to assess and pass fair judgement. And that’s what it is – a judgement based on personal experiences, perceptions, expectations, desires, personal like and dislikes. Some people do have biases about who the people who maybe living around them but how someone else describes another person is very subjective. Is it the realtor to suss out ‘kind of people’ will live near you? There’s also a bigger question of ethics underlying the smaller question of wanting to know about the neighbours.

If you ask someone about neighbour and they tell you he has a slight mental health problem – what exactly does that mean? It means nothing really because there is no substance behind the statement. If you ask the woman who was cheated on by her husband by a neighbour, she may have nothing nice to say even though the “culprit” maybe a very nice individual. Maybe someone doesn’t like kids – or at least the neighbour’s kids. Maybe a neighbour doesn’t like certain cooking smells and has made an opinion of someone based on that. This could go on indefinitely. It happens all the time and it’s all about a point of view.

If a buyer is truly concerned (and they should be) about criminal activity, sex offenders and drug houses, and property crimes, that information is easily accessed by anyone including the realtor through local crime statistics and a quick search on the internet of community news stories. This is fact based information and part of my role to help people make educated decisions about where they want to live.

If a buyer truly feels the need to know about neighbours, than they need to do the legwork themselves of driving around, talking with people, knocking on doors, asking personal/private questions, talking with property managers etc. The can then form their own opinions based on the opinions of others.

I have had the pleasure of showing homes to all kinds of buyers (singles, couples, first timers, downsizers, families) in many different communities such as across the Greater Vancouver area and the Fraser Valley including Ladner/Richmond/Tsawwassen to Chilliwack and all points in between. 

For the most part, sellers want to sell their home and are happy to have you come through and see if their home will become your next home. That said, there a few tips that I think will help to make your "house viewing" experience as fun and enjoyable as possible! 

1. Everyone in your group, including children should wear shoes that are easy to slip on and off. With few exceptions, you will need to remove your footwear before going through a home. It can be a challenge juggling purses, bags, cameras, umbrellas, children etc.

2. Do not bring food, drinks, candy, gum, chips whatever into someone's home.  And we can deal with any garbage you may have somewhere else. If, for some reason I am doing a "marathon" showing tour with clients, especially those with children, I schedule a break into the day for bathroom, coffee and food.

3. Sometimes it helps to sit on the couch or chair to get some perspective on a room and to see how the space "feels". I understand this. However, it think it's best not to lie down on the bed. 

4. Speaking of children (I have a blended family of 4 boys) please keep them within your view and under control. The contents of the fridge are not for the taking, the toys are not to be played with, drawers are not to be sifted through. Beds are not for jumping on etc. 

5. Whether you love the house or have not much good to say about it - tell me outside of the house, preferably at my office. Some sellers have nanny cams and some sellers may actually be at home. No one wants to feel insulted by their taste in decor, design or housekeeping skills. Not every home is for everyone. On the other hand, we don't want to tip our hand if you really, really love it!

6. I encourage my buyers to bring along a notepad & pen, as well as a camera (a picture's worth a thousand words). I do have a note about photos - not all sellers are comfortable with having photos taken other than the ones taken by the listing agent. I once had a home listed of a prominent individual who had certain rooms off limits to photos. As your agent/buyers representative, I do my best to confirm photo taking in advance.

7. Sometimes circumstances come up, but try to be on time. A lot goes into scheduling showings and having people leave their homes sometimes with kids and pets in tow.

8.There are occassions where extra sensitivity is required on our part and as a realtor I will likely know in advance what the issue is - estates, foreclosures and tenancy where the tenant may not want to move.

9. In all of this, if you are not really ready to commit yet to purchasing and are "just looking for fun" I would like to suggest that you visit open houses or display suites until you are ready. Booking showings with private homes requires a lot on the part of the seller to have the home ready to show and to make arrangements to be out of the house.

As always, it will be a pleasure to help you find the house of your dreams that fits your lifestyle and financial goals. House hunting should be a fun and exciting time!  

 

When I first moved to Richmond, a long time ago (nevermind how long!) I went for a bike ride with some friends along the dyke path along the south arm of the Fraser River in Richmond. At the time, there was the old Steveston fishing village (not the trendy shops and eateries that are there now), stretches of farmland and vistas of unadulterated coastal edges of river where young lovers parked at night and small spontaneous car parties erupted on Fridays and Saturdays. Garry Point was a basically an unreclaimed sandspit for riding dune buggies. Directly across the way is the shoreline of Ladner and Westham Island.

Tucked in about the middle down the between Garry Point and the Deas Island Tunnel (my landmarks) is Finn Slough. For years it reminded me of a land that time forgot given the untouched charm of history, old homesa fishing life and outbuildings that still, to this day remain there. I spent a few years in the early 1980's fishing commerically out of Steveston and Gibsons. Finn Slough has always made me think of how life may have been for the old fishing communities along the Fraser. A few times, every year, I still like to take a walk there and talk to some of the residents. 

Nowadays, there's a dog park right beside the little village and a few resident swans. The drive is no longer gravel but paved from No. 5 Road to the end of the village. I still find it fascinating! Below is an article I found the gives a brief history of this little hidden area. For more photos, visit my Facebook Page at Jan Rankin, Thinking About a New Nest.

By David Dorrington

In the early 1890s a group of Finnish people arrived in south Richmond and bought land at the junction of #4 road and Finn road where these two roads meet Green Slough (now called Woodward Slough) At that time south Richmond had not been cleared, it was still dense forest containing the kind of conifers that like to get their roots wet. These Finnish men had worked as coal miners and loggers to save the money needed to buy the land and they wanted land that had access to the Fraser River so that they could work as fishermen. The dykes in Richmond were hand built and extended up both sides of Woodward Slough and past #4 road. There was no dam at the south end of this slough so it was easy for the Finns to take their boats up to their houses on what was called "Finnland Road". One of these pioneers Mike Jacobson floated two scow houses up to the acreage to house his growing family. All of them, the Eldstroms, the Ingstroms, the Haasanens, the Manninens, and the Robinsons, started clearing the land, putting in crops, and building fishing boats so that they could harvest a share of the incredibly rich salmon runs going up the Fraser River. One of the first and most important buildings put there on Finnland road was a sauna. As Jack Jacobson said for the Finns having a sauna was a kind of religion. After a day of fishing you could get clean by taking a really hot sauna and if you felt tired before then you felt revived afterwards.

The dykes did not really keep the river off the land and often the chickens had to find roosts on top of the chicken houses to escape the flood tides. The first houses the Finns built were on pilings to protect them from these high tides. Some of the big farmers of the area wanted a better dyke system to protect their fields and so Thomas Kidd led a move to block off both ends of Woodward Slough and use it as a drain for south Richmond. Not everyone thought this was a good idea, at least one farmer, John Donnelly, tried to stop Mr. Kidd and had to be compensated for loss of a transport route. Most of the Finns would not have been able to read the notices in the Royal Columbian of these intended changes; even Ottawa did not think Mr. Kidd had done a proper job of consulting the landowners. In 1900 he had a dam built at the #5 road end of the slough and a floodgate built at what is now the pump house at the south end of Woodward Slough.

As a result the Finns were forced to find another place to moor their boats and to set up their bluestone tanks that they used to clean their linen nets. They needed net rack floats to dry the nets and net sheds to store those nets as well. Number 4 Road did not go all the way to the south dyke in those days; there was only a foot trail up to Finnland Road. What roads that did exist then were plank roads laid on the surface of the bog but #5 road was the road that went down to the South Arm and the Ladner Ferry.

It was a logical choice to start using Tiffin Slough (now Finn Slough) as a safe harbour. It was as close to their land as possible in the circumstances and there was enough room to create a real community of Finnish fishermen. Word got around and cousins, uncles, half brothers, even a grandfather came out from Finland to work in the new country. This was at the same time as the first Finnish settlers were arriving to set up the community of Sointula on Malcolm Island; it was all part of a move to get away from the poverty and repression of the Russian empire in Finland.

By 1910 there was a solid group of fishermen here at Finn Slough mostly related by marriage and all Scandinavians of one sort or another. These newer people had not come with the same savings as the original settlers and most land in this area was traded in very large parcels so they built float houses or if they were bachelors they often slept in their net sheds or lived on their boats. Finn Slough was a remote place in those days it would take a whole day to go one way from Finn Slough to Vancouver. Downtown Richmond did not exist and Steveston was well known as the fisherman’s version of the Wild West.

All fishing was done by muscle work alone. They had to row their boats out to the fishing ground, set their nets, and pull them back in by hand. One old Finn talked of how long it could take to straighten out your fingers after a day of pulling on net lines. Even so the harvest was so rich that the canneries in Steveston could not always keep up with amounts of fish the Fraser River fishermen were bringing in and in those days Steveston was nothing but canneries, dozens of them.

By the late teens and early 1920s fishermen were adapting gas motors to drive their boats and the Easthope and Vivian companies were building those motors that had a distinctive put-put sound that could be heard up and down the river. The community on Finnland road would dress up in its best once a week and take several boats either to Steveston or to Ladner or even to New Westminster to buy the weeks supplies and sometimes have a picnic on one of the river islands if the weather was good. In 1931 a Malcolm Islander, Laurie Jarvelainen invented the first powered gillnet drum and built it out of yellow cedar. Now fishing could be done more quickly and this revolutionized the fishing industry on the coast.

The Huovinen brothers arrived at Finn Slough after having spent time living totally broke in the abandoned car dump at False Creek. The outside world was going through the worst depression ever but here they could make do. They bought boats and put old Ford engines in them.  Kaarlo had several engines. He could buy them for two dollars a piece and said there was always a way to keep them going.

However life as a fisherman was never easy. George died at the age of 39, John died at age 50, only Kaarlo made it to old age.

In the 30s Finn Slough became one of the strongest locals of the fisherman’s union, the PCFU that later became the UFAWU. Sometimes there were over 40 boats moored at the slough and this was the beginning of the busiest decade for this fishing village. It was also home to more ‘outsiders’ who didn’t speak Finn, but who worked alongside the 2nd and 3rd generation of the original settlers. Some of the young boys would learn fishing on their parents’ boats first and by 15 would have their own boats and be fishing alone. The slough was not so isolated anymore though you still could not drive a car down the dyke you could park your old model T at the foot of #4 road.

So much has changed since then. The 1913 slide in the Fraser canyon was a marker for the impact that men were having on this eco system. Logging took over from fishing as the main industry here and in doing so hastened the decline of salmon stocks. Organizations like the North Fraser Harbour Commission encouraged the mill industry in the Fraser River and they received a tariff from every log that went through their jurisdiction. By the late 40s the mills were often going non stop and the tugs would be hard pressed to find a place to tie up their log booms.

Even that industry is on its last legs now. What we are left with is a memory of how things were and Finn Slough is an important three dimensional, living, part of that memory. The village developed without the organization of property boundaries, city ordinances, provincial regulations or any governing body. Even so it has been an example of how a community can be carefully built and self regulated to work in harmony with the environment and having as little impact on it as possible. The village is not only a historical artifact it is also an example of a possible way forward to find more creative solutions to the present destruction of the Fraser basin by non stop urbanization.

I would say "cheap" as well, but that word is interpreted differently by everybody. I generally tend to think that most people notice the same things I do (this is mostly from experience of going through so many homes with so many people). That said, there are a couple of things that can be done easily or moderately easy by anyone within what I consider reasonable cost. 

1. If the caulking around your tub/shower/toilet/sink is showing signs of mold or mildew either clean it to pristine white (not as easy as you think) or remove it and replace it. There are so many "DIY" videos on the web or 1 hour courses available at places like Home Depot (I have seen them offered on the bulletin board at the Richmond, BC location) that I won't go into the details here. I'm sure Rona offers similar seminars. I've done the replacing in my 3 bathrooms in my Ladner home and have done it before in my Steveston condo) and it's not that hard to do.

2. A fresh coat of a neutral coloured bathroom paint (yes there are different types of paint - bathroom paint is made specifically to handle the moisture content) always refreshes and brightens a room and can cover up minor flaws. And don't forget to paint the trim around the floor, window frame and door.

3. If you have a bathroom fan and it full of lint, dust, rust or just looks gross try and have it replaced - ditto for a very outdated light fixture. (you may need to hire an electrician if you don't know one or can do this yourself).

4. Towel bars, toilet roll holders and shower rods can be very inexpensive and are generally very simple to install. So, if you are painting, remove these items first; make any repairs and then replace. Light switch plate covers are super cheap and dead easy. Knobs and draw pulls are easy and cheap as well. Ditto a toothbrush holder, garbage receptacle and soap dish (personally I prefer a liquid soap at the sink - much neater). 

5. Linens and shower curtains - if your home is going on to market, pick up a few fluffy white towels and a nice white/neutral coloured shower liner (you don't need a full curtain set). Put the towels out only for showings. It's amazing how pristine clean packs a punch with a prospective buyer.

6. I like to keep bric a brac in the bathroom to a minimum - of course, space usually dictates how much is out. A single large candle, a small flower arrangement, no toiletries except a great bottle of cologne. Be careful with scent, it bothers a lot of people. If your home is being shown put the hair products (shampoo and stuff included) away. 

7. Probably one of  the most important thing is a super deep cleaning. Got guys in your house? Ever looked at the wall behind the toilet?????  I'm just saying. 

8. So, if you have extra cash and feel the need to do a little bit more decide on what YOU notice that you don't like. Is it the flooring? the sink? the mirror or wall cabinet? The tub? The shower or surround? These are things that may take you in the realm of needing a little more expertise and assistance which costs money on top of materials. And some of these materials are not cheap either. 

If you have any ideas you would like to add or things you have had success with, please feel free to post! Would love to hear from you. 

First Steps in starting to think about selling your home.

So, you've made the decision to sell your home either to upsize, downsize or free up some needed equity. As a realtor, while I'm happy to hear from you and look forward to going on this journey with you, I want to know that you've had the most important conversation to start the process . . . the one with your mortgage broker, lender or financial adviser.  It can sometimes be a painful process for a homeowner to find out too late that there are penalties or other costs that make it impossible or at the very least difficult to buy their next home. Even if you are buying down you may have debts, liens, charges, penalties etc. that may prohibit your next purchase. You could also end up with a rate that messes up your comfortable monthly payments.

Make sure your understanding of the money related to your home is in order before you sell or start looking for your next home regardless of buying up, buying down or just trying to free up equity. A lot of folks are surprised not only by the costs attached but what sometimes isn't there! I have spoken to several homeowners who believe that because Vancouver has a robust real estate market that home values across the board have soared! It isn't the case everywhere and the perceived equity may not exist.

Buying out your mortgage early or moving it can cost a lot of money. If you are selling a home, then that also means that you are not a first time home buyer and your next purchase is subject to Property Transfer Tax. This can be and will be several thousands of extra dollars. Considering moving to a condo or townhome? Those monthly strata fees can push the costs outside of what you are approved to purchase.

Your mortgage specialist will walk you through the process and ensure that you know how much you are working with, the best rate possible and then you can decide if this is the right to sell. 

GOING GREEN