Nice! Congrats. I'm kinda looking around. Is there some decent articles I can read on pros/cons of pre-sales? I keep getting mixed answers from people on them... I do like the idea of a new building but yeah.
Pre-sales works like this. Developer sets a price and you have to either pay upfront or put a considerable down payment. This may be like a year or even more before you can actually move in. You have to pay GST but don't have to pay property tax (still ends up costing more), so ensure you factor in 5% on top of price. You usually get to pick options for your unit, such as you may elect to get better appliances or a different flooring, etc - all up to the builder and what options they provide for different prices. Then you have to sit on the unit until you can move in. While not common in Vancouver, you may have issues come up during development that drop the property value but you're already locked in, but that's rare in Vancouver.
Pre-sales are for people with a lot of capital, because you can't rent it out or live in it, so it doesn't cash flow for you at all, it's just about equity. So if you are thinking of buying, and you can't buy with cash, consider your mortgage + the rent for the time you have to wait.
Oh, and a lot of pre-sales in Vancouver, especially the good properties are so hot that you often need to wait in line, like you were buying a PS3 or Wii on launch day.
EDIT - Oh, thanks on the congrats
Oh wow nice. Mind telling me what's your listing price ? I bought my current place below market price because I was able to avoid a bidding war. My agent was a big help in that so I totally appreciated that. Did not want to get into a bidding war which I cannot afford.
It's all about timing with the market and inventory. Woodwards is extremely hot right. We had 60 people see my place over 4 hours (spread out over 2 days). I watched the market closely to determine when to strike. It may get hotter but I doubt it, because a bit under $650k for a 650 sqft 1 bedroom is on the high end. At a certain point, you get to a price point that doesn't work for 1 bedrooms and you need to get to a 2 bedroom.
I'm pretty sure Brentwood area has a decent inventory so the demand may not be high enough to generate bidding wars, which is good for you for buying but you probably need to wait until 2020 (when all the Brentwood developments are done as I know it's phased over that time) before your market becomes extremely hot for a good time to sell.
