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Originally Posted by Homeowner
There could a possibility that the rental agent inflated the rent figures just to get the owner to let them manage the place. Similar to a realtor giving the seller a higher than market value of their home so the owners would let them list the property.
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We don't of course know how it really is, but this could be a very plausible explanation. Just like you say, either the rental agent exaggerated to get their business or the real estate agent to sell the property. Very common thing thing that a buyer should see through.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Homeowner
I would stand firm on your price and not budge. Also I wouldn't want to go back as these people aren't even reasonable to deal with in the first place.
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Yeah, we are not planning to budge and in this process we have lost our willingness to be dealing with these people. Of course if they would come to their senses on this last minute and a new lease would be signed, we would not have to see them in person as they live in Asia and never visit Vancouver. But even then, just remembering all the discussions and tone they have taken with us... It has not been very collaborative or friendly and makes for a bad foundation to do any business.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jhausner
If for example they had enough to buy it outright as a real-estate market investment, then they just need enough rent to cover strata, property tax, etc. which would likely require only a few months out of the year at the highest rate rented. They then just sit on it for 5-10 years and flip it.
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I hear what you are saying and I am sure they didn't buy the unit with their last pennies. They certainly bought it as an investment and potentially for their kids to move into later in life (they traveled to Canada to give birth to both of their kids for them to get Canadian citizenship).
Flipping the unit for profit is of course possible, but units in One Wall Centre are not that great investment. Prices for these units have been pretty stagnant for years (easy to google old sale prices from 5-7 years ago) and in the last 14 years values have only increased by 50% from 1M to 1.5M. I think there are many properties elsewhere in Downtown that have increased their value A LOT more than that since 2001. Interestingly enough even units that have had extensive renovations done to them (in the magnitude of 300-500k) have only sold for a little over 1.6M, so the building is not an investor's dream AFAICS.
Although I doubt their livelihood depends on the rent they will be able to charge from this suite, their recent messages indicates that they don't have all their ducks in the row. There has been lots of arguments like
"Why can't you just pay more? Why be so difficult (over something as trivial as this)? Your best offer is totally unacceptable and de-values the future rental potential." I cannot really comprehend most of their arguments and how are they approaching this. It is as if they cannot understand at all how much money +35% increase is to normal people. Like said, to us this as simple as "same amount of money as we pay for our car and insurances" - so a pretty big deal. As if people would have extra thousand a month to throw towards accommodation just like that, or anyone would be willing to.
I don't know. There is definitely some change in tone in their latest messages after we told them that we are already packing our stuff in here (which we are) and booking a moving crew next week (which we will be). I don't know if they think we are just playing games and bluffing, but we certainly aren't. With every passing day we are actually more and more excited about moving out and starting saving big by renting somewhere else cheaper. That just doesn't seem to occur to them at all which is strange.