Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Canada Housing/Debt: Trust me, I'm a landlord.

unknown: Nov 16, 2002; Ain't got no stinking title yet!

MeinPanzer posted:

In Scotland, where I just bought a house, all offers are final, all bidding is blind, and you have to pay any difference between listed price and accepted offer in cash.

Like actual cash? if someone lists for $100k and the accepted offer is $120k, the buyer needs a duffle bag of cash ($20k) to pay the difference?

# ? Mar 10, 2024 14:47

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 11:52

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

$20K is a thick envelope.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 14:56

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

Subjunctive posted:

$20K is a thick envelope.

I had a $1k envelope recently and it felt like I was carrying a loving bomb. Couldn�t fold it into my wallet either.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 14:57

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

Arivia posted:

I had a $1k envelope recently and it felt like I was carrying a loving bomb. Couldn�t fold it into my wallet either.

guess you should have filled a duffel bag instead!

($20K in $100s is less than half a pound of notes. you don�t put it in your billfold, but you don�t need straps to help you lift it)

Subjunctive fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Mar 10, 2024

# ? Mar 10, 2024 15:34

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

this is very important to me

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:00

Muscle Tracer: Feb 23, 2007; Medals only weigh one down.

I do think public bids would go a ways towards deflating that gap between asking and accepted. When we were buying in 2021, the accepted logic was that the going price would be 100-150k above asking, but you never got any sense at all of what others were actually bidding, just the winner.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:09

Subjunctive: Sep 12, 2006; ✨sparkle and shine✨

public during the bidding process would just cause everything to hinge on how quickly the selling agent registered the bids, and they already play games with registering the offers as they�re supposed to

Vickrey auctions (where the winner pays the second-highest bid) seem like they would be a good fit for this, and they are a Canadian invention!

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:12

unknown: Nov 16, 2002; Ain't got no stinking title yet!

Huh, $1000 notes aren't legal tender any more as of 2021.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:16

RBC: Nov 23, 2007; IM STILL SPENDING MONEY FROM 1888

drat what am i gonna do with all these 1000 dollar bills i have laying around

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:29

Guest2553: Aug 3, 2012

Well Mulrooney is dead so,

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:41

yippee cahier: Mar 28, 2005

Funny wikipedia tidbit: The Birds of Canada series of banknotes was going to have the spruce goose on the $1000, but

quote:

its nickname �fool hen� was �considered too controversial�.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 16:56

McGavin: Sep 18, 2012

Spruce grouse, not spruce goose. The spruce goose is an airplane.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 17:13

Dreylad: Jun 19, 2001

MeinPanzer posted:

In Scotland, where I just bought a house, all offers are final, all bidding is blind, and you have to pay any difference between listed price and accepted offer in cash. It�s also really hard to get mortgages for more than the independent valuation of a property.

After hearing about the nightmare of buying a house in BC from friends and family, navigating the whole system here was really refreshing.

I have friends who bought an apartment at a co-op in Scotland and it sounded like heaven compared to here. Including the fact that these apartments were substantial, well built, not-piece-of-poo poo honest to god apartments.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 18:53

MeinPanzer: Dec 20, 2004; anyone who reads Cinema Discusso for anything more than slackjawed trolling will see the shittiness in my posts

By cash I mean you need to have the funds to hand--you're not allowed to formally borrow the difference between listed price and accepted offer (and the lender will need to know where you are getting the funds from to approve you for a mortgage).

Dreylad posted:

I have friends who bought an apartment at a co-op in Scotland and it sounded like heaven compared to here. Including the fact that these apartments were substantial, well built, not-piece-of-poo poo honest to god apartments.

There was a huge amount of residential construction here up until Thatcher, basically--much more than in Canada--and a lot of that housing is relatively well built (even the council housing, aka projects) and so has remained circulating since. There's no shortage of 2 and 3-bedroom houses.

# ? Mar 10, 2024 20:47

Cold on a Cob: Feb 6, 2006; i've seen so much, i'm going blind
and i'm brain dead virtually; College Slice

spotted in Mississauga

wtf is a bunkie and how is it going to solve our housing woes?

# ? Mar 11, 2024 22:39

Lead out in cuffs: Sep 18, 2012; "That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."

Cold on a Cob posted:

spotted in Mississauga

wtf is a bunkie and how is it going to solve our housing woes?

https://bunkielife.com/bunkie-with-loft/

A sub-200qsft "house" apparently.

# ? Mar 11, 2024 22:46

redbrouw: Nov 14, 2018; ACAB

One way to get your boomerang college graduate kid out of the house.

# ? Mar 11, 2024 22:47

Mr Luxury Yacht: Apr 16, 2012

Bunkies are more of a thing for like, cottages in my experience. Especially for people splitting them with big extended families.

Can't exactly add a couple new bedrooms on some old rear end cottage easily but throwing a small wood prefab structure that's basically just a few bunk beds for the kids is easy enough, especially if you aren't planning to be there in the winter and don't need to heat/winterize it.

# ? Mar 11, 2024 23:03

Muscle Tracer: Feb 23, 2007; Medals only weigh one down.

A bunkie is a tiny house on the same property as a normal house, like a detached in-law suite or habitable shed. Imagine turning your illegal 6-plex into a 7-plex!

# ? Mar 12, 2024 03:44

Fidelitious: Apr 17, 2018; MY BIRTH CRY WILL BE THE SOUND OF EVERY WALLET ON THIS PLANET OPENING IN UNISON.

I don't understand those ads strapped to posts on car-choked roads. Who's calling these guys based on what's usually a single image with no information about who they are?
And at most you've got the length of a stop light to think about it, do you take a photo of the ad?

People keep putting them up though so I guess they must get some return?

# ? Mar 12, 2024 13:37

unknown: Nov 16, 2002; Ain't got no stinking title yet!

Bunkies are buildings that are below the permit requirements (10sq meters, or ~121sqft) so that you can buy the kit without telling your local permit office and have to get them inspected and approved.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 14:05

COPE 27: Sep 11, 2006

I've actually had much better luck hiring for manual work like window cleaning, parking lot painting, etc. from random signs than from google. At least you know there is an actual person, physically located in your area who is willing to come out to your site to give a quote which is not the case ~90% of the time online.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 14:06

Mr. Apollo: Nov 8, 2000

Muscle Tracer posted:

A bunkie is a tiny house on the same property as a normal house, like a detached in-law suite or habitable shed. Imagine turning your illegal 6-plex into a 7-plex!

Several years ago, pre-COVID, someone in my parents' neighbourhood was busted for literally renting out a garden shed in their backyard.

It was one of those wooden garden sheds that looks like a tiny house. Apparently they had run plumbing and power to it. The owners originally told neighbours that it was a workshop for the husband but then people saw a young woman leaving everyday in the morning and coming back in the evening. Someone asked her one day what was going on and she said that she was renting it.

It was something like this:

# ? Mar 12, 2024 15:00

Purgatory Glory: Feb 20, 2005

Young coworker was looking at a rental apartment in Coquitlam area. 2 mattresses in the hallway, 2 in each of the 2 bedrooms. People will never have to sell if we let them pack and stack people.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 15:40

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

If you live in a shed on a Homeowner's property, that's Very Good. But if you live in your own tent on public land... that's very, very bad indeed. It's important to create value, it is our purpose in life.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 15:57

Purgatory Glory: Feb 20, 2005

PT6A posted:

If you live in a shed on a Homeowner's property, that's Very Good. But if you live in your own tent on public land... that's very, very bad indeed. It's important to create value, it is our purpose in life.

No landlord to collect rent if you're in a tent. Tragic.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 16:35

Femtosecond: Aug 2, 2003

https://x.com/canadianpolling/status/1767230531190554799?s=46&t=ruJSzwqECRxfc3oePbtIng

# ? Mar 12, 2024 16:54

midge: Mar 15, 2004; World's finest snatch.

NIMCism

# ? Mar 12, 2024 17:15

Chillyrabbit: Oct 24, 2012; The only sword wielding rabbit on the internet; Ultra Carp

Purgatory Glory posted:

Young coworker was looking at a rental apartment in Coquitlam area. 2 mattresses in the hallway, 2 in each of the 2 bedrooms. People will never have to sell if we let them pack and stack people.

The trick is to report them to insurance companies because normally you can't have more than 3 unrelated people in 1 unit without more expensive insurance.

If you don't like scummy landlords.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 17:56

Purgatory Glory: Feb 20, 2005

Chillyrabbit posted:

The trick is to report them to insurance companies because normally you can't have more than 3 unrelated people in 1 unit without more expensive insurance.

If you don't like scummy landlords.

Good, I think that these international students get roped in and convinced they'll be deported if they rock the boat though.

# ? Mar 12, 2024 19:29

Popoto: Oct 21, 2012; miaow

https://twitter.com/cafreeland/status/213284707633344512

e: I'm senile and thought the tweet was recent, but it's from 2012. just ignore. I was mostly surprised at freeland saying that while in function, but it appears it's not the case.

Popoto fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Mar 13, 2024

# ? Mar 12, 2024 22:17

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

Purgatory Glory posted:

No landlord to collect rent if you're in a tent. Tragic.

Why would you deprive a landlord, whose awful garden shed is empty and wanting, to live in a tent? Disgraceful behaviour, really. How will that help The Market?

# ? Mar 13, 2024 03:01

Squibbles: Aug 24, 2000; Mwaha ha HA ha!

Has Coquitlam city council been secretly luring bears to the city for years in order to make it unsafe to live in tents so they can boost sales of laneway houses? I guess we'll never know

# ? Mar 13, 2024 14:06

Purgatory Glory: Feb 20, 2005

Squibbles posted:

Has Coquitlam city council been secretly luring bears to the city for years in order to make it unsafe to live in tents so they can boost sales of laneway houses? I guess we'll never know

I actually double checked and the coworker was in Abbotsford, not Coquitlam when he saw the slumber party set up in a rental.

# ? Mar 13, 2024 20:23

Mr. Mercury: Aug 13, 2021

There were a lot of those furry assholes last summer, your theory scans

# ? Mar 14, 2024 04:41

Rockstar Massacre: Mar 2, 2009; i only have a crazy life
because i make risky decisions
from a position of
unreasonable self-confidence

letting people sub-develop their yard into slum residences is probably the closest we'll ever come to fixing suburbs, short of a continent-wide rash of large fires

which hey, definitely might happen first

# ? Mar 15, 2024 21:46

Lead out in cuffs: Sep 18, 2012; "That's right. We've evolved."

"I can see that. Cool mutations."

Rockstar Massacre posted:

letting people sub-develop their yard into slum residences is probably the closest we'll ever come to fixing suburbs, short of a continent-wide rash of large fires

which hey, definitely might happen first

TBF the more formal version of this is already well underway, at least in places like Vancouver. Laneway houses and legal basement suites have been part of the mix for over a decade, and the new hotness is multiplexes that look like SFH to keep the NIMBYs happy. Vancouver just passed laws allowing the latter, and the province of BC passed laws requiring most other municipalities to do the same.

# ? Mar 15, 2024 22:01

Mr. Apollo: Nov 8, 2000

Lead out in cuffs posted:

the new hotness is multiplexes that look like SFH to keep the NIMBYs happy.

In my neighbourhood in Toronto, there are triplexes that look like large SFHs. They were built in the mid 60s and there�s about 10 of them scattered throughout the area. They�re all identical and the only tip-off is the 3 separate electrical meters on the side of the house. There�s one unit per floor (basement + two above ground units and each one has a 3 car garage.

# ? Mar 15, 2024 23:16

Fidelitious: Apr 17, 2018; MY BIRTH CRY WILL BE THE SOUND OF EVERY WALLET ON THIS PLANET OPENING IN UNISON.

The house next door to us is a triplex (2 floors + basement suite) and yeah, I don't think you would have any idea off-hand that that's the case.

My neighbourhood is 1950s-era and plenty of the SFH have been converted into multi-unit buildings over time. Seems like a decent way to increase density without having to tear-down stuff.
On the other hand they did pave over the entire backyard to provide 3 parking spaces so no one living there has access to a decent green area.

Another victim of car supremacy.

# ? Mar 16, 2024 15:28

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 11:52

Femtosecond: Aug 2, 2003

Aside from the much needed housing, the best part about Sen̓�ḵw is absolutely how much it makes the residents of Kits Point furious.

quote:

Vancouver�s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous
In B.C., Indigenous nations are reclaiming power and wealth for their own citizens�no matter what the neighbours think

Vancouver has long been nicknamed the �city of glass� for its shimmering high-rise skyline. Over the next few years, that skyline will get a very large new addition: Sen̓�ḵw, an 11-tower development that will Tetrize 6,000 apartments onto just over 10 acres of land in the heart of the city. Once complete, this will be the densest neighbourhood in Canada, providing thousands of homes for Vancouverites who have long been squeezed between the country�s priciest real estate and some of its lowest vacancy rates.

Sen̓�ḵw is big, ambitious and undeniably urban�and undeniably Indigenous. It�s being built on reserve land owned by the Squamish First Nation, and it�s spearheaded by the Squamish Nation itself, in partnership with the private real estate developer Westbank. Because the project is on First Nations land, not city land, it�s under Squamish authority, free of Vancouver�s zoning rules. And the Nation has chosen to build bigger, denser and taller than any development on city property would be allowed.

Predictably, not everyone has been happy about it. Critics have included local planners, politicians and, especially, residents of Kitsilano Point, a rarified beachfront neighbourhood bordering the reserve. And there�s been an extra edge to their critiques that�s gone beyond standard-issue NIMBYism about too-tall buildings and preserving neighbourhood character. There�s also been a persistent sense of disbelief that Indigenous people could be responsible for this futuristic version of urban living. In 2022, Gordon Price, a prominent Vancouver urban planner and a former city councillor, told Gitxsan reporter Angela Sterritt, �When you�re building 30, 40-storey high rises out of concrete, there�s a big gap between that and an Indigenous way of building.�

The subtext is as unmissable as a skyscraper: Indigenous culture and urban life�let alone urban development�don�t mix. That response isn�t confined to Sen̓�ḵw, either. On Vancouver�s west side, the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations�through a joint partnership called MST Development Corp.�are planning a 12-tower development called the Heather Lands. In 2022, city councillor Colleen Hardwick said of that project, �How do you reconcile Indigenous ways of being with 18-storey high-rises?� (Hardwick, it goes without saying, is not Indigenous.) MST is also planning an even bigger development, called Iy̓�lmexw in the Squamish language and ʔəy̓alməxʷ in Halkomelem. Better known as Jericho Lands, it will include 13,000 new homes on a 90-acre site. At a city council meeting this January, a stream of non-Indigenous residents turned up to oppose it. One woman speculated that the late Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George would be outraged at the �monstrous development on sacred land.�

To Indigenous people themselves, though, these developments mark a decisive moment in the evolution of our sovereignty in this country. The fact is, Canadians aren�t used to seeing Indigenous people occupy places that are socially, economically or geographically valuable, like Sen̓�ḵw. After decades of marginalization, our absence seems natural, our presence somehow unnatural. Something like Sen̓�ḵw is remarkable not just in terms of its scale and economic value (expected to generate billions in revenue for the Squamish Nation). It�s remarkable because it�s a restoration of our authority and presence in the heart of a Canadian city.

And in fact, Indigenous people have always been part of Canada�s cities�indeed, those cities were often built on top of Indigenous communities. Sen̓�ḵw itself was a city of cedar longhouses long before Vancouver existed. Its Squamish residents saw their land carved up for railways, until at last they were loaded onto a barge and shipped away in 1913, their homes torched. Similarly, the heart of Winnipeg, where its rivers meet, has been a hub for Indigenous nations for thousands of years. The Mi�kmaq on the east coast gathered in what is now Halifax Harbour long before settlers showed up. Yet in every case, arriving settlers displaced Indigenous citizens, usually to more distant and marginal locations. Sometimes this was framed as benevolence: during the 1950s, Inuit families were airlifted from traditional lands to the extreme High Arctic, under the auspices of encouraging them to resume traditional ways of life. In fact they were serving as evidence of Canada�s Cold War-era sovereignty over the north, and they were separated from their lands and hunting grounds. Many died.

But more recently, Indigenous communities have been re-asserting the power taken from them, winning victories affirming their sovereign and treaty rights�which in turn are providing more authority over their own affairs and economic development. Last spring in Ontario, 21 Anishinaabe communities won a $10-billion settlement for a fair share of the wealth generated from their lands, as guaranteed in the long-ignored Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850. Or consider Bill C-92, which the Supreme Court of Canada upheld this February, affirming the jurisdictional rights of Indigenous nations over child welfare services.

Likewise, the return of Sen̓�ḵw to the Squamish people was only achieved after decades of court battles. Across the country, Indigenous nations have grown tired of waiting around for Canada to voluntarily uphold its end of the reconciliation bargain. Instead, they�re holding Canada and its citizens to account�not by request but by right, to claim the power long denied them. It�s that demonstration of power that makes some Canadians uneasy�Sen̓�ḵw just happens to be a particularly and literally towering example of this sovereignty in action, one rising up from the heart of a major city.

What chafes critics, even those who might consider themselves progressive, is that they expect reconciliation to instead look like a kind of reversal, rewinding the tape of history to some museum-diorama past. Coalitions of neighbours near Iy̓�lmexw and Sen̓�ḵw have offered their own counter-proposals for developing the sites, featuring smaller, shorter buildings and other changes. At the January hearing for Iy̓�lmexw, one resident called on the First Nations to build entirely with selectively logged B.C. timber, in accord with what she claimed were their cultural values. These types of requests reveal that many Canadians believe the purpose of reconciliation is not to uphold Indigenous rights and sovereignty, but to quietly scrub centuries of colonial residue from the landscape, ultimately in service of their own aesthetic preferences and personal interests.

That attitude can cast Indigenous people in the role of glorified park rangers�and even then, with limits on their authority. Last August, when Líl̓wat and N�Quatqua First Nations exercised their jurisdiction by abruptly closing public access to Joffre Lakes Park, one of B.C.�s most popular Instagram backdrops, for a month of harvesting, hunting and ceremony, many visitors and nearby residents were outraged. No matter how it�s exercised, too much authority makes many Canadians nervous. But Indigenous nations are accountable, first and foremost, to their own citizens. That could mean temporarily barring access to traditional lands, as in Joffre Lakes. It could also mean maximizing the economic potential of their property, to provide housing and funds to support education, health care and community growth. As Squamish councillor Khelsilem told The Tyee in 2020, �Real estate development is an opportunity for us to generate real wealth for our community.�

In Sen̓�ḵw�s case, it�s Indigenous by design, whatever it might look like to others. The project offers exciting architectural possibilities which could be replicated elsewhere by Indigenous leaders: a focus on communal public spaces rather than private yards, walking paths over parking spaces and the incorporation of Indigenous languages and designs reflecting thousands of years of site-specific history. And rather than taking an incremental approach to development, with concessions to nearby homeowners, the projects at Sen̓�ḵw, Iy̓�lmexw and Heather Lands consider the entire community�including those who don�t yet live there, and those often marginalized by city planning, such as renters, non-drivers and, obviously, Indigenous people. (250 affordable homes will be set aside at Sen̓�ḵw for Squamish citizens, and managed by the nation�s non-profit society Hiy̓�m̓ Housing.) On the Sen̓�ḵw website, the Squamish Nation emphasized that rental housing will provide economic benefits for the next seven generations of its citizens. The chiefs of all three nations emphasized that Iy̓�lmexw is for both �current and future residents of the region.�

Restoring Indigenous authority won�t turn back the clock to some pre-contact past. Instead it will propel us forward. These three First Nations have been resolute in their vision, refusing to diminish the size or scale of their developments to appease anyone. In fact, the number of homes planned for Iy̓�lmexw has recently increased. And all three projects are proceeding. The policy plan for Iy̓�lmexw was approved by Vancouver City Council in January. A lawsuit filed by a neighbourhood association to block Sen̓�ḵw was dismissed last fall. Indigenous people as rights-holders, rather than recipients of Canadian largesse and tolerance, still makes some people uncomfortable, but they have some time to get used to it. Sen̓�ḵw won�t be finished until around 2030. And in the decades that follow, Vancouver�s skyline will keep evolving�to look not like its colonial past, but an increasingly Indigenous future.

# ? Mar 17, 2024 04:48

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