"The Vancouver Model"

"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish) 04/20/2018 at 11:52 • Filed to: money laundering

5

32

Just in case there was any doubt about where the money is coming from that’s hyperinflated the real estate market in Vancouver.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

TL;DR, Triads are using casinos and real estate to launder their cash, which in no small part comes from producing/smuggling fentanyl. Basically what everyone was already pretty sure was happening, except even more evil, because it’s the same groups causing our overdose crisis, and our housing crisis.

gmctavish needs more space > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 12:01

1

Link in case of kinja https://globalnews.ca/news/4149818/vancouver-cautionary-tale-money-laundering-drugs/

Spaceball-Two > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 12:14

1

It’s getting that way here in Seattle. About 40% of the real estate portfolio I manage is Chinese investors. Two investors recently got busted for illegal grow ops as well.

gmctavish needs more space > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 12:18

2

Geez. Gotta love housing as a commodity

fintail > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 12:20

1

I’ve heard that over 50% of detached sales in 98004 (where my shoebox is located) are to offshore cash buyers.

Where’s the vetting?

Chariotoflove > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 12:21

3

Convenient, since from what I’ve seen, you need a fentanyl lollipop or two to get through house hunting up there.

fintail > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 12:22

3

And this has been going on for over 20 years, if not the gangs, the embezzling “businessmen/investors/entrepreneurs” with party ties.

Now spreading south, too. Certain Seattle suburbs are overrun with it.

And if you call it out, you are some kind of xenophobic monster.

Spaceball-Two > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 12:41

1

The market is already starting to correct down here though.

Spaceball-Two > fintail 04/20/2018 at 12:41

1

Money talks.

fintail > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 12:53

1

Yep, no matter how dirty it is.

Now we’re in an affordable housing crisis where countless units sit vacant.

LOREM IPSUM > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 13:11

4

I can’t wait until the housing market completely collapses, despite the fact I make much of my income on the building boom.

At this point though, I just want to see it all burn.

Spaceball-Two > fintail 04/20/2018 at 13:16

0

I’m the busiest I have ever been in my 15 year career. It used to the investors from Russia and around surrounding areas, then India / Pakistani investors and now it’s the Chinese and they are voracious.

fintail > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 13:21

0

Get money out before the axe falls, no doubt. When I see what ordinary old houses in Kent are selling for these days, I am in shock.

I like the use of the term “investors” for this movement. This is usually money laundering, but every regime in the western world turns a blind eye to it (and now the son of a conman son in law of a conman adviser Jared is even selling it).

Spaceball-Two > fintail 04/20/2018 at 13:25

1

Yeah a 1200 sf rambler in Covington goes for 60k over asking because that’s the only reasonable inventory. Then the buyer has to commute 4 hours a day to get the city.

I’m seeing market correction but I doubt anything significant will happen until after summer and lord knows when dufus in chief gets his.

fintail > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 13:31

0

I saw an unrenovated 1300 sq ft early 60s rambler on east hill, ~9500 sq ft lot, list at 400K and was pending in a few days - who knows what it sold for, not listed yet. It doesn’t make sense.

I peek at Bellevue listings now and then, and it seems some really fancy mid-high 7 figure stuff is just sitting around, but below 7, it all seems to move pretty quickly.

Spaceball-Two > fintail 04/20/2018 at 13:36

2

Jumbo rate loans aren’t as easy to come by as they were before the market tanked. A lot of people don’t have that much liquidity laying around any more.

AestheticsInMotion > LOREM IPSUM 04/20/2018 at 14:05

2

My thoughts exactly

gmctavish needs more space > fintail 04/20/2018 at 18:21

2

Your last point is why I was so pleasantly surprised to see this piece from a relatively major news outlet. I guess once they could say for sure that it was Triads, instead of Chinese foreign “investors”, they felt like they could do a big story without being called racists.

gmctavish needs more space > LOREM IPSUM 04/20/2018 at 18:22

2

I couldn’t agree more

LOREM IPSUM > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 19:37

0

And that’s the crux of the situation right there. Even when the market completely tanks and the values plummet to pennies, comparatively speaking, most people still can’t buy because the banks are not lending at that point. Not without a suitcase full of cash down, anyway, and a rigorous screening to ensure you’re not going to end up yet another forclosure. Mortgage stress test indeed.

fintail > gmctavish needs more space 04/20/2018 at 20:32

1

When I was in the Metrown menagerie a few weeks ago, I saw papers pasted to a pole about a town hall style meeting regarding the reasons for housing prices, and that foreign money isn’t to blame. It appears the propagandists are out there, and no doubt drones will fall for it. If it isn’t foreign money, what is it? When average house to income price is something like 17:1, what could be behind it?

Racism is the weakest comeback in the book. If these piles of money laundering trash (who’d be at a guillotine in times past, and maybe rightfully so) were from Ontario or California or Indiana rather than foreign locations, I’d have the same opinions. That the money comes from the key social and environmental criminal in modern history just rubs it in.

fintail > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 20:34

0

Do many take out loans/mortgages for more than 2MM or so? I always assumed that’s when cash took over, no questions asked about the origin of said cash, of course.

fintail > LOREM IPSUM 04/20/2018 at 20:36

2

I love seeing that my grandma’s house is now worth more than I ever could have imagined, but at the same time, I’ll never be able to afford a detached house within a reasonable commuting distance, so that might be a high price to pay for granny’s good luck.

Not to mention the kids of that demographic who bought in the 80s and now let their luck add even more to unjustified arrogance.

LOREM IPSUM > fintail 04/20/2018 at 20:38

1

On the bright side, their annual property taxes have gone up a couple thousand percent.

fintail > LOREM IPSUM 04/20/2018 at 20:53

1

And do they ever bitch and moan about that - it has even made the news. Sorry, no pity for people who bought a house for 70K back in the 80s, today worth 1MM+ (USD) - cash out and leave (or live it up and get a reverse mortgage), this place is too much of a rat race to relax in retirement anyway.

There are exemptions and deferments for older people meeting certain criteria - as my grandma is in her 90s and brings in under 40K, she pays maybe 1K/year.

LOREM IPSUM > fintail 04/20/2018 at 20:58

1

I’m glad there is a safety net so folks like your grandma don’t get priced out of the neighborhood. At least one good thing is happening, at present.

fintail > LOREM IPSUM 04/20/2018 at 21:20

2

I assume cities in the lower mainland have similar programs for the elderly.

If neither Canada nor the US are going to do anything about sketchy offshore money, local governments need to not just have a weak 15% tax, but a 50%+ tax, and use the money for infrastructure and affordable housing. If we’re going to let dirty money in with virtually no questions asked, let people benefit from it rather than just realtors and property developers (along with the few who bought in the past and had what is really just good luck)

Spaceball-Two > LOREM IPSUM 04/20/2018 at 22:04

1

I’m seeing a lot collateral in lieu of a do these days. Cash flow is drying up.

Spaceball-Two > fintail 04/20/2018 at 22:05

1

The underwriting criteria is a lot stiffer now. Cash flow is key.

LOREM IPSUM > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 22:30

0

Collateral is also beneficial if you’ve got it. Shame they won’t see as much value in my 20 year old rust-bucket as I do.

fintail > Spaceball-Two 04/20/2018 at 22:36

0

What would the cash flow need to be for a 2MM+ mortgage? Is any vetting performed on the claims?

Speaking as someone with a fraud background, the sketchiness involved must often be hilarious.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Spaceball-Two 05/20/2018 at 10:46

0

The problem is that it’s also the only part of the market normal people with jobs can afford. We’re almost to the point where we should simply abandon Seattle and Bellevue, moving businesses out to the outskirts suburbs so people can afford to work for what companies are paying.

We must be approaching Los Angeles in the “supercommute” category at this point. Everyone I know that bought a first home ended up further out than I am (and we are way out there to most) because they simply couldn’t afford anything else (like us). We’re the youngest couple in our neighborhood by at least a decade. The closest-in first time buyers we know live in Monroe, next closest are in Maple Valley, Auburn, or Marysville, followed by Lake Tapps. I cannot fathom these commutes.

Spaceball-Two > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 05/20/2018 at 11:27

1

It’s getting bad for sure. A young lady in my office is home shopping and she’s stuck looking in Maple Valley or way North.

Sorry I didn’t make it yesterday. Prior commitments. I’ll be down for the next meet for sure.