I’ve been posting updates of the multi-tenant industrial project at 38924 Mid Way, Squamish on Lucina Enterprises Instagram account - @lucinaenterprises Follow for construction updates and lots of digger and concrete pouring content!
We are working with RAM Construction on this project and we are expecting to complete the project by Summer of this year. For more info visit www.lucinaenterprises.com
Over the winter, in addition to listing my Creekside Condo on Airbnb, I tried out this new home swapping app called Kindred. I came across an ad for Kindred on Instagram and was intrigued by the idea of home swapping, having never done it before. After further research, I learned that Kindred provides a way for home owners who maybe don’t fall under zoning for nightly rentals to either swap homes traditionally or gain credits to then use for future stays around the world at other Kindred members homes.
The platform is easy to use and the customer service is fantastic. They offer a concierge service that you can text with any questions and they get back to you right away. When listing your house or condo on Kindred, you have to apply and attend an orientation before you are accepted into the community. I believe that they only accept homes that meet their requirements and guidelines, but once you are a Kindred member, the homes available for potential stays are beautiful and the portal platform is very easy to use! Once you finish orientation and your home is listed, they hire a professional photographer for you (free of charge), send you toiletries, towels and bed sheets for guests and hire a cleaner for you. They make listing your place as easy and stress free as possible.
You can also review the detailed profiles of people requesting to stay at your home and they often send an introduction video. I found people using the app to be very friendly and respectful. This is likely because they are also home owners themselves. I found it to be really helpful to be able to get recommendations and suggestions from the people staying at your home and the hosts you connect with.
Kindred promotes their app an opportunity for injecting some spontaneity in your regular travelling plans. You have two options. One, you can put your house up to swap with another member on the dates you want to travel. The portal will then either match you with a place in your desired area, or you can leave it open to accept swaps with anyone else interested all over the world. Two, if you simply want to list your place, and not swap, you can bank credits and use them at a later date. The only catch is you must use the credits only to stay at a Kindred member’s home. Once you bank credits there are quite a lot of homes to choose from, you just search for the area and dates you want, then you can use your credits.
It is quite a cool idea and after a winter of Airbnb-ing my place (and having strangers be quite rough with it) I am going to stick to just listing it on Kindred for now.
I have posted some photos of my condo that the professional photographer took in this post. For more photos of my condo follow it on Instagram - @creeksidecondo So far I am a big fan :)
Some interior photos of the laneway house I managed are now featured out our Lucina Enterprises Ltd website!
Seems it has been a while since I made a new blog post…guess I have been busy!
How to recap on the last 8 years? To keep it simple, I’ll list in point form a quick spark notes summary of the things I have been most excited about / proud of in the last few years (personal & career-wise) and in no particular order:
Designed, managed and decorated the build of a 1000sf modern and Scandinavian style laneway house in North Vancouver
Facilitated and coordinated several industrial renovation projects with Westrock Property
Represented buyers in Industrial investment sales and residential sales across the Lower Mainland and in Whistler
Listed, marketed and sold a beautiful, luxury new home in Penticton @pentictonlakesidehome
Purchased a condo in Whistler, lightly fixed it up and have been marketing it for nightly rentals @creeksidecondo
Received the building permit for the 38924 Mid Way, Squamish multi-tenant industrial project
Received the top mark in my class on my dissertation for my Masters of Science in International Business program, if you have the time to read it, click here
Learned and expanded my knowledge in a wide variety of subjects through courses in building technology, building code and real estate (also tried my hand at Autocad)
more blog posts to come from these topics ^
I am sure there are some things that I am missing, but these are the first ones that came to mind. Time to shake off the rust and get the blogging juices flowing again! In the meantime here is a video of a photo a day from the Laneway House build.
Thanks for reading!
Steph
It seems that every month I hear about another plan for a new development in the Lonsdale area. As a young homeowner and real estate agent in North Vancouver this is very exciting news. The influx of new apartment buildings, plans for a Ferris wheel, Tap and Barrel patio, Whole Foods, Browns, Shipyard Plaza etc. is contributing to a refreshing transformation for the community. In my opinion, this "urbanization" will improve the appeal of living on the North Shore and spark a rise in the real estate market. The current value of existing houses and apartments will increase as Lonsdale becomes more established, and desirable area to buy into.
Another upside to all of this new development is that it will provide more options for affordable housing on the North Shore. Especially for young buyers, like myself. From personal observation, I have seen a notable trend of buyers in their 20s-30s purchasing apartments near Lonsdale instead of downtown Vancouver. Not only as their first home, but also as their first major investment. This is a positive trend, in my opinion, for the economy of BC because with the expensive cost of living and lack of jobs for young professionals, many of them are moving out of province. I think it is important to provide affordable housing for those yuppies to start their lives here. Also, with increased population on the North Shore, there will hopefully be improved and increased infrastructure. There are a number of businesses and industries that will benefit greatly from these improvements to the North Shore and increased population density.
I was the buying agent on the sale of this beautiful penthouse in North Vancouver! It was great working with fellow Sutton West Coast REALTOR® Lisa O'dwyer.
A friend of mine posted this article from the New Yorker, written by James Surowiecki that I found very interesting. This article explains Vancouver's housing market from a global perspective and the real estate trends we are currently experiencing as a result.
“When price-to-income or price-to-rent ratios get out of whack, it’s often a sign of a housing bubble. But the story in Vancouver is more interesting. Almost by chance, the city has found itself at the heart of one of the biggest trends of the past two decades—the rise of a truly global market in real estate.”
Surowiecki goes on to explain that foreign investors are choosing Vancouver because of its social and political stability as a "hedge city" and its proximity to the Pacific Rim. He also mentions a safe feeling with reference to climate change.
These foreign investment and global interest serve as a benefit for current home owners, but a challenge for many buyers. The surge in housing prices in Vancouver bring both good and bad changes to our city. I am interested to see other's opinions on the matter.
On April 15th I attended a City Shaping Town Hall meeting at for the City of North Vancouver discussing the possibility of allowing coach houses in addition to basement suites in the central Lonsdale area. It was very interesting to hear all opinions and it was great to see such a big turnout. I think that getting involved in your own community is very important. Both voicing opinions and listening to others is detrimental to any plan's success.
The main points that were brought up in last month's meeting were that some residents were concerned about lack of infrastructure in North Vancouver to support the high density predicted, over-populated neighbourhoods, and lack of parking. On the other hand many residents found that a couch house and a basement suite would be beneficial as it could support a larger and extended family, save on child care and could also serve as a mortgage helper for those that need it. North Vancouver is a beautiful place to live and central Lonsdale is an up-and coming, highly sought-after neighbourhood. By adding more coach houses and basement suites it provides the option for a more diverse community as it provides several housing options.
The City Shaping City of North Vancouver Official Community Plan is in Stage 4: Draft OCP. This includes discussions and input on the OCP draft. They do this through open houses, focus groups, town hall meetings, and more. I thought at this meeting a lot of great points were brought up. If you would like to see a video of what happened at this meeting it is available on the City of North Vancouver's Website, or see below.
How you can get involved:
•Sign up for regular updates at CityShaping@cnv.org
• Attend an Open House
• Fill out a Feedback Form
• Review the latest Summary Reports
• Follow us on Facebook, Twitter
• Check our webpage regularly at www.cnv.org/CityShaping
REW.ca sent out this article about passive house technology a couple of weeks ago. I found it to be very interesting as it looks great, in my opinion, and provides long-term environmental and economical benefits for the owner. There are a couple Passive Houses in Whistler that I think look very modern and simple, which I love in the design of a house. One of them was the Austria House for the 2010 Olympics and another is a duplex. Click on the links and videos below to learn more! Definitely worth while to take a look.
