For your information I am and have been offering real estate services here in Nanaimo in Mandarin via the aid of my assistant who is from Beijing. I already have a network of Chinese Speaking Realtors across the country who are ready to do business.

Here is a screenshot of the homepage and a link to it.

This morning I was checking the location of a property on Google Maps when I zoomed in really close to verify its proximity to a bus stop, and then I was in street view staring quite clearly at the bus stop.  I knew this feature was coming to Nanaimo, but I didn’t know it had already arrived.

What this means for you as someone who is looking at buying real estate, is that you can preview the neighbourhoods much more easily than before.

Have a look below. I’ve set it so that you’re looking at my office to start but you can go anywhere in Nanaimo by taking the controls. Just go into the window in the bottom right corner, expand it and you can zoom in and out and move the “you” to where ever you’d like to view.

Ryan Coffey

View Larger Map

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

January 8th:      When Should I Buy My First Home?

January 15th:    Five things You should not do before buying a Home

February 22nd: Listing Tip #1

February 26th:  Listing Tip #1 (Part 2)

April 9th:          The Basics of Buying Real Estate in B.C.

June 2nd:          Whose Side is Your Realtor On?

June 11th:         Buyer on a Budget? Read This.

October 17th:   Up Markets and Down Markets, When to Buy and Sell (Parts 1 Through 6)

I suppose you could call this my “Coles Notes” for this blog. There are of course plenty of other posts that are also worth reading but these are the ones that contain information that everyone who is buying or selling should have a grasp of.

Enjoy the rest of the holidays. And don’t forget to get some exercise in there somewhere between all the eating and drinking!

Ryan Coffey

You have your home for sale, but you love it and have wonderful memories. I understand that you might not want to sell, and that you may not need assistance in achieving that goal. I usually help people sell their homes, but I understand when people don’t want to sell. It is after all, their choice.  And in an effort to help everyone I thought I would share with you all the things that you can do to ensure no serious buyers show interest in your home for sale:

1. List the  house yourself and be sure to advertise only in the newspaper and on some DIY Real Estate website that few buyers would think of looking at seriously.
2. If you do use a Realtor, then don’t believe any advice they give.
3. Instead, get selling tips from your uncle, your dentist, or the guy next door.
4. Avoid doing any market research and just price the home on what you “feel” is a correct price.
5. Explain to your Realtor that the commission will be cut for Buyer’s Agents.
   
6. Don’t allow a lock box, which will mean that prospective Buyer’s Agents will have to drive across town a few times to pick up and drop off the keys for just your property. This will cut down on the number of people who see your home.
7. Don’t allow a for sale sign to be placed in front of your home. That way if there is a prospective buyer driving buy they won’t know your home is for sale and your neighbours who probably love the neighbourhood won’t be telling their friends and family about the opportunity down the street.
8. Keep your house messy – that way if a potential buyer decides they want to view your property right away and on short notice, the prospective buyer will not be able to see the home through all the clutter.
9. For goodness sake, don’t stage the house or clean up the outside of your home. If you do that then your home might invite an offer.
10. Stay home during an open house or showing and follow the buyers through each and every room so you don’t give them a second to themselves.
    
11. Should that dreaded offer be made, don’t negotiate at all. Stick to your guns and your house will certainly not sell.
12. Assume that because the colours and decor of your home suits your own tastes, that everyone else in the world will share those tastes.
13. Take offence to any feedback regarding your home that isn’t 100% positive. Your home is the most beautiful in the area and does not need to be changed in any way to attract more attention from buyers.
14. Make sure that when people enter your home, that is just screams your unique personality. This way buyers will have more trouble visualizing it as their own home while they look at all your neat stuff on the walls.
    

Of course this post is tongue-in-cheek, but hopefully it will demonstrate to you some of the pitfalls that might befall you if you are not careful. Rest assured,  the sarcastic tone is for entertainment value as you will never hear sarcasm while working with me as your Nanaimo Realtor. I just wanted to remind people that listing your home is not necessarily the same as selling your home. My goal as a Realtor is to sell it, but we both need to have that goal in order for it to happen. Like I said, it’s your choice!

Ryan Coffey

Although we’re across the water from Vancouver, home owners in the Nanaimo area might want to consider renting out their extra space during the games. We are after all, only a 20 minute trip by float plane from downtown Vancouver. (Might want to tell would be guests to reserve their flights for that now.)

And here is a way to market your rental: www.2010houserentals.com

Read below for more info.

Ryan Coffey,

Coast Realty Nanaimo

Houses for rent during the Olympic Games

By Jennifer Feinberg – Chilliwack Progress

Published: July 21, 2008 6:00 PM
Updated: July 22, 2008 1:20 PM

Jarrett Vaughan has started up a new website called 2010HouseRentals.com to offer rental property options during the Olympics. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS

Chilliwack Progress

People from around the globe will be streaming into B.C. for the Olympics, but many have nowhere to stay.

That was the epiphany Chilliwack entrepreneur Jarrett Vaughan had last fall when he came up with the idea of maximizing revenue potential with rental properties with a website he called 2010HouseRentals.com.

“It is no secret that there is an extreme accommodations shortage in the Lower Mainland for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympic Games,” he said.

That strong demand has created an incredible opportunity for local residents to rent out their homes, be they houses, condos, townhouses, basement suites and even motor homes to the international tourists who will be arriving.

“It morphed into the website,” Vaughan explained about his new venture.

He went through a number of business plan proposals before hiring a website developer to create the site last fall.

“The site went live in mid-April.”

His goal is to have 400 houses and photos registered between Hope and Pemberton, but so far he has 12. But there are more every day.

“That’s the great thing about it, people will have no other option but to drive to the Olympic events from the Fraser Valley,” he pointed out.

About 80 per cent of the hotel rooms have been booked by VANOC.

In the past three months, 2010HouseRentals.com received 50,000 hits from all over the world, including the UK, Netherlands, China, India, Germany, Japan, France and the U.S.

“In fact guests from over 25 countries have been searching for accommodations on the site,” Vaughan said. “I didn’t think I would be able to accomplish that in two years, let alone three months.”

The site allows homeowners to post their properties for the duration of the games for a one-time fee that starts at $100.

Prices for an average home in the Lower Mainland are listing at a whopping $1500 per night or $45,000 for the month of February 2010, he points out.

Vaughan, 25, graduated with a bachelor of tourism management before going to work in the hotel business for the past few years. He’s also a real estate investor with rental properties of his own.

“Just seeing the demand that’s out there, the merging of two business ideas popped into my head,” he added.

The simplest option is someone with a room to rent, say in a bed-and-breakfast. The second is a basement suite, and the third is a vacant or investment property that can be rented out.

“Lastly it’s someone who owns a house and is going to Hawaii or somewhere else,” he said. “The rent could pay for the trip with still some money left over.”

Vaughan doesn’t take a commission off the price.

“It’s up to the owner to set a price and take all the money they make. I simply provide the listing services.”

You’ll need to use internet explorer for this.

Check it out here.