Here is my latest collection of madness, worst case scenarios of pests. Fortunately, I’ve never seen an infestation anything even remotely like any of these. Worst I’ve seen to date was a few hundred carpenter ants in some insulation and that wasn’t even the worst thing about that place… electrical issues, water damage, mouldy smell…. at least it was dirt cheap because someone would have had to fix that place up or even demolish it and make use of the lot.

Words for the wise… the key is to catch it early!

Ok, I have chosen not to show roaches, snakes and mice because they’re just too much. I will however show this one sort of migration that happens every year in on Christmas Island that I really get a kick out of just to lighten the mood:

Imagine living there!

Ryan Coffey

So to quote the Python boys  “And now… for something completely different…”

Ryan Coffey

First you need Google Earth

Zoom in a bit so that you’re looking at some section of Nanaimo.

Then, you need to look at this.

Yeah, there’s a lot of controls there. I can’t be bothered with learning them all either but it’s still fun. And when gets boring there’s still lots of views of the city to look at and explore.

Ryan Coffey

Click on the individual images for a clearer look.

Ryan Coffey

This is a (mostly) serious blog about real estate in the Nanaimo area. That doesn’t mean that my dissemination of information has to be all dry and dull.

Here is a video where Seth Green actually makes some really important points about starter homes, ultimately he’s talking about keeping it within your means. As I’ve said before, this is the number one thing with buying real estate as it will go up in the long term, but in the short term you MUST be able to pay for it.

By the way, houses like the one he’s showing off (small but pretty new or at least recently and thoroughly updated) would probably be somewhere between $260k and $280k here in Nanaimo depending on location. But if it were me, I’d go for the place that’s a bit more and has a suite that I can rent out and have tenants pay a good chunk of the mortgage for me. One day, when I am in a better financial position I’ll stop renting out the suite and expand my own living area to include the whole house.

Enjoy.

Ryan Coffey

Without going into a series of anecdotes, analogies and details I would like to say that there are many laws and regulations in place in Canada that make it difficult, risky and just plain bad business for a professional to act in such a way. We do after all have to abide by the concept of fiduciary duty (i.e. We have to protect your best interests as if they were our own).  Yes, some keep their nose clean better than other and yes you will hear of the odd sleazeball who broke the rules and received a punishment.

Ultimately, as a consumer you need to take the time to understand what you are signing. Our real estate contracts are long and full of legalese. It’s part of my job to explain that to you, and if you are still unsure about certain details, please ask. It’s all there in front of you in writing, but if you need help interpreting it, your professional can help you. If you need info on something really specific, that’s when you talk to a Lawyer.

Neither you or I as your Realtor would benefit in the long term should you sign something that you didn’t understand that put you in a bad situation. Even if I was the sort of person who only cared about dollars and cents, it would be a poor business practice for me as it would sully my good name. I’ve seen Realtors who do that, they have a way of getting in trouble with the powers that be and their clients have a way of leaving them and moving on to more ethically inclined people like me.

Enjoy the skit. Not sure who these comedians are though. I can never get enough of British humour.

Ryan Coffey

For the rest of you, it’s worth explaining that we have a local tradition of racing bathtubs in Nanaimo. Yes, I know it sounds crazy. I guess that’s the point. It makes it a lot more fun that just racing boats. And these things are souped up by the way, they are made aerodynamic, light and have outboard motors attached. It’s a really big event every summer and part of the weekend involves a popular fireworks display.  it’s one of the few times Nanaimo ever feels crowded, at least if you’re at the waterfront.

This year, we got quite the show. In addition to the fireworks that were planned, we got some thunder and lightning to go along with it. It was quite the show and Jerimiah Armstrong of http://www.armstrongcreative.net/ was there to capture some amazing photos of the event. Thank you Jeremiah for allowing me to post these here.

You can click on each photo to enlarge it.

Enjoy.

Ryan Coffey

I emailed him afterward offering my perspective of wanting more neighbourhood communities that are more walkable (i.e. more basic amenities like small stores, restaurants etc withing walking distance of homes) and a busier, more vibrant downtown core.

But they don’t just want the input of Realtors. They want the input of the general public as well. This is where you come in.

Here is part of his reply (printed with permission of course):

The more feedback we get from the public and especially those involved in land development and sales the easier it is for me to write a Bylaw that works for Nanaimo.  Your comments certainty hit on two key issues (walkable communities and a stronger downtown) that all of us in the planning department have been working to promote for years, but of course still have a lot more work to do.  I agree that Nanaimo’s land use makeup and long linear layout makes pedestrian activity difficult.  The new Official Community Plan (OCP) acknowledges this challenge as well and hopes to fix it by focusing on key urban nodes (Woodgrove, the hospital, downtown, VIU, and South Nanaimo Lands) and connecting these nodes with corridors.  The corridor designation within the OCP is a direct result of Nanaimo’s linear layout, however; rather than supporting ‘highway oriented uses’ along these corridors like the current Zoning Bylaw does the OCP hopes to develop the corridors into Pedestrian friendly areas.  With the re-write of the Zoning Bylaw we plan to follow the lead of the OCP in this regard and hopefully go even further in planning mixed use communities and pedestrian oriented development (which we hope will catch on in the development and real-estate community).   Let us know if you have any suggestions on how to do this.

There is a survey available for the residents of Nanaimo as well. Click here and do your part to make the layout of the communities grow in a way that represents what you as a citizen want.

Ryan Coffey

It really struck a note with me because during most of my four years living in Japan, I really really missed the genuine kindness, natural settings, and political sanity (usualy) that  Canada has to offer. In time I became acutely aware of what a special place it is to live in. You see, when living in Japan as a non Japanese, you spend a lot of time hanging out with and talking to other non Japanese simply because you have that much in common. This plus having travelled much of Europe and having lived in the US for bit as well, I have this love for what Canada has to offer that is best described in the following statement that, rather oddly, I found on youtube under the video:

“Of the 6.771 billion people estimated on this planet, a Canadian born citizen represents? less than 1% of that. Congratulations, you’ve won the lottery.”

Now for you Canadians who don’t think of yourselves as super lucky: Go do some travelling!

Ryan Coffey