Earlier this week we learned of a young couple who purchased a $500,000 condo in Vancouver. Only after they closed the deal did they realize the place was infested with bats. According to the Vancouver Sun, the couple made the decision to buy based on a 20-minute walk-through. Fearing they’d be outbid by other buyers, they made a subject-free offer.
The couple partly blamed the hype machine for their lack of due diligence, saying they took the risk because of the “state of the market.”
Regardless of who you blame — the seller for not disclosing the situation or the buyer for not demanding a professional inspection prior to closing — there’s no denying the influential power of hype. In today’s market, it’s as if we’ve all run up a tree, grasping for dear life, not realizing that we aren’t that far off the ground and there’s really no reason to panic.
That’s Vancouver real estate in a nutshell.
It’s also the key visual of the ad campaign for Thunderbird Creek in Squamish. The self-described “masterplanned community” is targeted at those buyers “feeling constrained in your home in the city.”
While I like the visual — see folks, I can say something nice — the dimwitted nature of today’s buyers makes me wonder if they might miss the cleverness and confuse this for some kind of high-end treehouse for executive-class hippie couples.
Hey, stranger things have happened. Didn’t a batcave just go for a half million?
Condohype 
July 20, 2007 at 9:07 am
I like the area this development’s in– on a hill, right next to the forest, great views, etc. The only problem is they bulldozed over a whole lot of very nice trails in order to build this development!
July 23, 2007 at 3:09 pm
The self-described “masterplanned community” is targeted at those buyers “feeling constrained in your home in the city.”
As opposed to being constrained in debt for the next 30-40 years?
July 23, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Nothing sells like hands around a long thick fir.
July 23, 2007 at 11:19 pm
The self-described “masterplanned community” is targeted at those buyers “feeling constrained in your home in the city.”
A “masterplanned community” is Machiavellian itself. I wonder who the Prince – er – the master-planner is. Trade one set of constraints for another. “Trading up”, I think they call it.
I wonder if one get’s coloured pills with the contract. Just don’t eat the brown acid, man.
It might be fun to see people walk out on their contracts, and buy them at a 50% discount by the time they complete. Who’ll be up a tree then? Or rather – up Thunderbird Creek.
Oooh, I’m feeling all Viking with schadenfreude.