17 minute read
HOUSING
HOUSING Real-estate board cancels reporter’s Zealty access
by Charlie Smith
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For many years, B.C.’s attorney general has been touting the benefits of greater transparency in real-estate transactions. For example, in unveiling the Land Owner Transparency Registry, David Eby said that information in this database “is essential to empowering authorities to help us level the playing field between those who prefer to cheat, and those hard-working British Columbians playing by the rules, paying their taxes, and following the law”.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and making it harder for people to hide dirty money in the shadows of our real estate market will benefit British Columbians,” Eby, also the minister responsible for housing, declared.
But the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is not keen to allow data from individual transactions in the Multiple Listing Service to end up in the hands of the media. It recently ordered Holywell Properties to deactivate any accounts linked to the Georgia Straight or reporter Carlito Pablo from its Zealty.ca virtual office website (VOW).
In addition, the REBGV demanded that the Sunshine Coast company turn over a list of all registered users to the board by December 7. Moreover, the REBGV ordered Holywell Properties to turn over “the log of activity on the VOW (search history, saved searches, saved properties,
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver halted Carlito Pablo’s use of an MLS database. etc...) for the identified users”.
“If Zealty does not have the means to track and log user activity, this needs to be implemented as soon as possible as it is a requirement of all VOWs,” wrote REBGV third-party contract and compliance administrator Timothy Yee in an email to Holywell’s managing broker, Adam Major.
Yee’s email cited the following REBGV rule regarding MLS data: “Except as provided in the Rules of Cooperation, no Member, or their unlicensed assistants or administrators where permitted by the
– Adam Major
Board, except in the ordinary course of their business, shall make available to any unlicensed person, firm or corporation information distributed by the MLS® System. The Member will be held responsible for any misuse by non-Members of MLS® information supplied by the Member.”
Major told the Straight by phone that his company is complying with the REBGV order and has forwarded a list to the REBGV of about 40,000 people who have used his company’s Zealty.ca website. He noted that the REBGV has made it easier in recent years to download data by making pictures available through links rather than via downloading.
However, Major also said that his company launched its Zealty.ca website in the wake of a Competition Bureau legal victory over the Toronto Real Estate Board. Prior to this ruling, the TREB was preventing brokers from providing customers and clients with access to historical home-sales data.
In 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada’s refusal to grant the TREB leave to appeal cleared the way for real-estate agencies to create virtual office websites. Zealty.ca has online tools enabling clients to compare the market history of properties listed in the same area.
“There’s definitely years of programming on our site,” Major said. “It’s a huge undertaking for anybody to do it—a huge investment.”
A Competition Bureau spokesperson, Jayme Albert, declined a request for an interview, telling the Straight that it would be inappropriate to comment on whether the REBGV’s decision to cancel Pablo’s account with Zealty.ca contravened the Competition Act.
Meanwhile, REBGV spokesperson Craig Munn said that his organization worries about “sensitive information” being released that could hurt sellers, such as details about a deal that hasn’t closed even after the subjects preventing a sale have been removed. He also claimed that Pablo acknowledged and accepted that he would abide to terms of service upon entry to the site, including not using the data for “commercial purposes”, something that Pablo said he doesn’t recall doing.
Munn would not answer the Straight’s question about whether his organization takes a position that it owns MLS data, saying he would have to get back to the news paper in the future on that issue. g -
So-called “haunted house” back on the market
by Carlito Pablo
AVancouver property with a spooky reputation has returned to the market in search of a new owner.
This comes less than a year after city council approved—on March 9, 2021—a rezoning application for a six-storey rental building at the 4118-4138 Cambie Street site.
The asking price for the prime location across from King Edward Station on the Canada Line is $26 million.
Pennyfarthing Properties Grayson North Ltd. acquired 4118 Cambie Street, which has a reputed haunted house, and the adjoining 4138 Cambie Street site between 2017 and 2018.
The development company paid a total of $16,150,000 for the two properties. At the new asking price of $26 million, Pennyfarthing is looking at a 60.9 percent gross profit. That’s a positive return of $9,850,000 for its investment three to four years ago.
The property now carries the consolidated address of 4118 Cambie Street and has a 2021 assessment of $24,138,000.
For many years, ghostly tales abounded regarding the home at 4118 Cambie Street.
“The story goes that it was either an ancient burial ground or there was a man who murdered his elderly mother there,” blogger Michael Kwan wrote back in 2011.
Kwan wrote that “everyone who inhabited the home since then has experienced strange occurrences”.
Ghostly tales regarding 4118 Cambie Street have been floating around Vancouver for many years. Photo by Google Images.
“We’ve heard stories of luggage being left out on the lawn, baby cribs pushed precariously to the edge of windows, shadowy footsteps walking up the exterior walls, families sleeping only to wake up on the lawn, and more,” the writer behind the Beyond the Rhetoric site noted at the time.
“I hear that Buddhist monks live there and the house is ‘clean’ of spirits, but I still get chills,” Kwan added.
Earlier, in 2010, Mary Sheridan of the Mary in Vancity blog wrote about haunted places in the city. Commenting on that post, a reader by the name of Alice suggested: “You should check up on that creepy haunted house on Cambie St and King Ed…supposedly now owned by Buddhist monks!”
Records show that in 2016, Pennyfarthing filed a rezoning application for 4138 Cambie Street on behalf of its owner, Yuk Ying Ng.
The plan for the property at the time was for a six-storey condo building and two-storey townhouses, for a total of 22 strata homes.
The developer purchased the same property at 4138 Cambie Street from Ng in 2017 for $4,150,000. City council approved the rezoning application in 2019. However, the approved application was later withdrawn.
Then in 2018, Pennyfarthing bought the neighbouring property at 4118 Cambie Street, home to the supposed haunted house.
The company purchased the site from the Canada Shin Yat Tong Moral Society, a religious charity and home of the Buddhist monks who reportedly lived in the property. The purchase price was $12 million.
In 2020, Pennyfarthing filed a new rezoning application for the consolidated property. This time, it was for a rental development with 90 units.
As of December 5, the listing made by agent Avison Young has been on the realtor.ca site for 38 days. The listing highlighted the “development opportunity” for the combined properties with the single 4118 Cambie Street address. g
REAL ESTATE Home staging still very important in hot markets
by Carlito Pablo
One might think that home staging is not important in a hot property market like Vancouver.
When there are multiple bidders and buyers demanding no conditions, some may ask why even bother dressing up a property with quality furniture and furnishings.
But as many probably know, buying a home sometimes involves more than just things like location, price, and resale potential.
People occasionally pick a home over another because they feel some a kind of emotional connection to the place right away. It somehow feels right to be in there. They simply like it.
For professional home stagers like Andrea Foxman and Gregg Dickson, their job is to make sure that a property listing appeals to the greatest number of potential buyers.
“I’ve always been passionate about design and homes,” Foxman told the Straight in a joint phone interview with Dickson.
Foxman founded and owns the staging company Home Ingredients. Dickson works as general manager.
Foxman started the Vancouver-based business in 2007, which focuses on providing and arranging rental furniture and furnishings.
Home Ingredients also advises clients to declutter, and possibly add a new coat of paint before staff members come in to stage the residence.
Foxman has seen how home prices have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic due to stiff competition among buyers. “Because the pricing is so high, we want to make their property feels like it’s valued for that price,” she said about the value of home staging for sellers.
Dickson explained what usually happens at the other end, when a buyer comes in. “We know that people make their decision on a home within 30 seconds of entering a property, whether that’s walking up the driveway or through the front door,” Dickson said.
As with a lot of situations, a successful home sale may turn on the first impression. “We want to have an immediate impact on people’s perceptions of the home,” Dickson said.
One of the things home stagers try to do is create the feeling that a home is “move-in ready”. As an example, Dickson told about a recent West Side condo sale, in Kerrisdale, that Home Ingredients furnished.
A woman in Australia was looking online to purchase a property where she could live when she moves to Vancouver. She so liked the way the apartment was styled that she asked for the furniture to be left behind.
Home sellers typically include only basic appliances like the stove or refrigerator in the sale and take out everything else when they leave.
Dickson also noted that this particular example also demonstrates the value of quality photos or images in a home listing.
When working with real-estate photographers, Dickson said, his company would
Professional home stagers know that first impressions can make all the difference with a sale.
suggest “emphasis on the right areas” as part of “highlighting the uniqueness and… quality of the property”.
“Our job is to come in and elevate a property and make it feel like your million-dollar purchase is exactly that,” Dickson said.
The Home Ingredients general manager also mentioned a recent sale involving a downtown loft condo. The apartment had been on the market for four months, and after the company came in, the property sold in a week.
With the new furniture and décor, Dickson said, the vibe of the property “connected to a young buyer”.
The North Carolina–based Real Estate Staging Association named Home Ingredients as one of 10 finalists in the best luxury-staging-team category in its recently concluded 2021 industry awards. g
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LIQUOR Some gifts keep on giving in Christmas season by Mike Usinger
Last week, we gave you a can’t-miss list of spirits that make for perfect Christmas gifts this holiday. Because, as everyone knows, one is never enough when you’re having drinks, here’s round two to help with your holiday shopping. And remember—there are worse things in life that someone showing up unexpectedly toting a box of Turtles. Remember how, this time last year, you would have done anything for a little holiday company? Even if said company arrived with a $6.99 box of Pot of Gold chocolates, and then played The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave for six hours? Trust us—even if you don’t remember, we do. So make this Christmas count.
DIY APEROL SPRITZ KITS Some Christmas traditions are more beloved than others. If you want good, start with mincemeat tarts, homemade Alton Brown-recipe eggnog, and mandarin oranges (the sour, not the sweet, ones). And then there are the downers: discovering that last year’s NOMA Quick-Clip 25 C9 purple LED Lights have stopped working after 11 months in storage, Lucerne horse-glue eggnog, and those well-meaning friends who drop in with zero notice (usually while you’re in the middle of making homemade Alton Brown Eggnog). Unexpected company is part of the holidays, so help a friend make sure they’re always prepared with a DIY Aperol’s one-stop spritz kits. Should you be living in a more civilized part of the country (ie. Ontario), you’d be able to load up on pre-packaged kits containing a 375 ml bottle of Aperol, and 375 ml Ruffino Prosecco D.O.C. At the moment in these parts, however, you’re going to have to buy your Aperol and a lunch-kit-size Ruffino seperately and bundle together in a gift bag. From there grab a handful of ice cubes and a wine glass, add three ounces of the Prosecco, two ounces of Aperol, top with soda, and add a lemon rind and frozen cranberries. Voilà—you’ve got a truly fancy-looking and festive drink that’s easy to pull together at a moment’s notice. In other words, after you’ve given away a DIY Aperol Spritz Kit or three (making sure to keep a couple on hand for yourself) don’t be shy about popping in unannounced. Some gifts really do give back. (Aperol
Aperitivo $14.49/Ruffino Prosecco $16.99 at B.C. Liquor stores)
FUSE AND SIP Sticking with the idea that it pays to be prepared at Christmas, Squamish-based Fuse and Sip makes it easy for home bartenders to up their cocktail game with infusion kits that take gin, vodka, whisky, or whatever else you might have on had to wild new places. Simplicity is the key here. Start by cracking open a Fuse and Sip package (which can include everything from dried fruit to flowers to herbs), then dump the all-natural ingredients into a container, add alcohol of your choice, and wait for a couple of days. Strain, and you’ve got a fancy premix for when guests show up unexpectedly with a box of Turtles and a DVD of Silent Night, Deadly Night that they insist you need to watch right bloody now instead of Elf. Give a Fuse and Sip collection as a gift, and then flip the script a couple of days after Christmas by dropping in unannounced, except maybe bring Terror Train for the New Year’s Eve angle. Seasonally appropriate kits include the Mulling It Over Mulled Wine Kit (spice with cranberry, orange, cinnamon, star anise, clove & organic cane sugar) and Toque Time Hot Toddy (lemon, apple, sarsaparilla root, echinacea, allspice).
(From $15-$20 at fuseandsip.com)
ALBERTA PREMIUM CASK STRENGTH RYE Talk about not only packing a punch, but the kind of punch that pretty much hits you right between the eyes. As promised by its name, Alberta Premium Cask Strength Rye comes with a 63.7 percent ABV wallop, which means you’ll want to be prepared for a whisky best described as ultra-boozy.
Aperol spritzes are not only fancy but easy to execute when friends drop in unexpectedly.
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Help someone get their glow on this holiday season with (clockwise from top) Tofino Distillery Absinthe, Fuse and Sip infusers, Alberta Premium Cask Strength Rye, and Fuse Nano Shots. But while it’s hot and fiery on the first sip, it goes down surprisingly smooth, with a hint of deliciously bitter chocolate on the back end. Put down your steno pad if you’re hoping to make notes about a premium whisky smelling of locally-sourced prairie rye and tanned cow-country leather, because there’s nothing subtle about it when you’ve got your nose in the glass. Instead buckle in and enjoy the raw and overthe-top ride—adding a splash of water or ice cube if you need to take the bold edge off. The 2020 edition of Alberta Premium Cask Strength Rye took home Best Canadian Whisky at this year’s International Whisky Competition in Estes Park, Colorado. So if you’re looking to give a gift that says you not only care, but care a lot, start here. ($65.99, with a one-bottle limit, at
B.C. Liquor stores)
FUSE APPLE NANO SHOT Everyone loves shots, for no other reason than they’re a famous celebratory way to get the party not only started, but with a bang. But what if you’re looking to branch out from go-tos like tequila, whisky, Goldschläger, Jägermeister, and Scottish Snake Venom. Vancouver-based Fuse has jumped into a game normally dominated by alcohol with its Apple Nano Shots. (For those who don’t particularly enjoy America’s favourite fruitpie filling, the shots also come in mango and frappe flavours). Each one-ounce bottle contains 10 mg of THC, and provides lift off roughly 10 to 20 min after consumption. The shot has the same neon-green hue as absinthe, and tastes like someone melted a Jolly Rancher in a cup of hibiscus tea and then added a splash of cough syrups—which is to say somewhere between herbal, fruits, and medicine-like. Your buzz will last around an hour and a half—unlike that last time you had two tequilas on the starting line, followed those up with five or six more, and then wished the bed would stop driving backwards at 90 miles an hour. Give a Christmas gift that’s guaranteed to leave no hangover, with the added bonus being that it’s both gluten-free and vegan—unlike those Tapeworm shooters you had last week, where the special mayonnaise and Tabasco ingredients didn’t seem like such a good idea after round six. ($5.99
at bccannabisstores.com)
TOFINO DISTILLERY PSYCHEDELIC JELLYFISH ABSINTHE In a best-possible world—ie. one where the West Coast monsoons of 2021 let up for more than 24 hours—you’ll be lucky enough to pick up a bottle of Psychedelic Jellyfish Absinthe where it’s made, namely wonderfully wild Tofino. Amble down to Mackenzie Beach, pop the top, settle in for an afternoon of storm watching (sugar cubes and water optional), and you’ve just given yourself a truly memorable holiday-season present. Pick up a second bottle of this craft-style take on the fabled Green Fairy, and you’ve got a perfect gift for those who don’t need Paris when majestic Pacific Rim National Park is a ferry ride away. Billed as “an exclusive blend of pristine water from the west coast of Vancouver Island and a mystical blend of certified organic botanicals”, Psychedelic Jellyfish Absinthe is pleasantly viscous while fittingly heavy on licorice-a-licious anise. Add a double-honeyed herbal finish and you’ve got something that the ghost of Vincent Van Gogh would wrestle Oscar Wilde—or a Lion’s mane jellyfish—to get its hands on. tofinocraftdistillery.com) g ($75 at
