BristolUK

I'm not convinced that the lower income would be in the same proportion.

Also, it probably depends on what's meant by a fixer-upper. Does that mean it needs a fitted kitchen? A shower fitted because the current shower is really a bath with shower installation rather than a nice separate shower unit? Or heating is 'just' a wood stove rather than geothermal heat pump?

I remember a few weeks ago there was a thread about bathrooms where en suite bathrooms for each bedroom was considered the norm.

Maybe that place with 'only' one bathroom is a fixer-upper.

Maybe a fixer-upper is really somewhere needing what used to be called TLC.

Pulaski

We bought more house than we needed almost 13 years ago, with a view to staying put for the foreseeable future. By the time we had (self) moved our stuff from Virginia I said "That's it! We're done, I'm not moving again!"

Siouxie

Use a fixed fee agent instead? That would save you a fortune!

Tirytory

Well we've hopefully got private buyers, I was using myself as an example why you can't do as Pulaski said was easy on page 1..

scrubbedexpat091

Fixer upper in Vancouver generally means not something most would be willing to live in, or completely in need of tear down and being rebuilt....

The lower mainland as a whole is cheaper, but even in the cheaper regions like Surrey/Maple Ridge/Abbotsford etc well above our price limit....

With 0 debt our max is around 175k, once student loans are paid, we would be able to be in the 150k upper limit with the car payment.

(All according to the credit union mortgage lady.) (Being they are a credit union, they only do mortgages within BC, and not sure we have the earning power to make up the loss of disability as the cheaper provinces don't really have the same sort of program BC does. Hard to know for sure how things would work in another province in the long run.)

BristolUK

Yes, pretty much my point.

From stuff posted here - not just by you - you do have to be very well off or, at least, richer than most in Van.

If you're very well off then you don't have to be "willing to live in" a house of a certain age, missing certain features etc because you can afford better. Maybe the rest of us would be perfectly content.

We have an 'unfinished' basement. Our second bathroom is only a 'half' with lav and basin. There's no bidet or extra shower.
Our kitchen has no island or breakfast bar (oh the shame ) We don't have a porch or fancy front door.



I daresay there are those who might describe it as a fixer upper.

dbd33

You have to be well off and think that your house is a priority. I know a couple who have a household income of around $500,000 and grown up children. I suppose they're very well off by most standards but they live in one of those Don Mills bungalows everyone could afford in the 1990s; three small bedrooms, one bathroom, unfinished basement. Their priorities are elsewhere.

If we're to race to the bottom, then I think I can say with confidence that the lack of skirting boards, window sills and trim, "student rental" carpets, beige walls and dog destroyed furniture coverings lend our house an air of crack den unlikely to be out shabby chic-ed here.

MarkG

I've had two multi-millionaire acquaintances over the years. Once lived in... well, kind of a shack, really... and drove a 20-year-old Mercedes, because he got rich by saving and investing and not spending money. The other lived in a French chateau, because he got rich by building a business, and considered chateau maintenance a hobby (no-one sane buys one unless they're willing to keep spending a ton of money on the place).

Most of the people buying $1,000,000 houses probably have high incomes and tons of debt. An acquaintance tried to buy one a few months ago, but the bank turned them down. Even we don't know how they possibly thought they could afford it.

not2old

living in Canada, can you imagine the income tax that multi-millionaire pays on top of the maintenance & upkeep of the old Mercedes.

MarkG

That one was in California, but he was still complaining about how none of the mythical tax avoidance schemes millionaires are supposed to be able to use actually work at his income level. These days, it seems you really need to be a billionaire before you can easily avoid tax.

dbd33

I'm not a billionaire and have no trouble avoiding most income tax (I do pay but the rate is something like .041%). If there was a means to avoiding paying EHT and CPP then I might be able to afford to run an old Mercedes.

MarkG

Aren't you running a business, though? When I was a kid, I remember my father talking about how much less tax he paid after he was laid off and started his own business (which always amused me, since he was a Labour man for life).

dbd33

Well yes, but how many millionaires and billionaires are paid in the form of a T4'd salary?

Almost Canadian

I've read postings like this that you have made before and have always thought that you must have no income. After reading about the lack of finishing touches to your residence, I believe that I may have been correct.

Now, as a business owner myself, I appreciate that there are certain write offs available, but nowhere near to the extent that the income tax that I pay could be reduced to less than half of one percent of my income.

Even if "your" income was held as retained earnings in a corp. "you" would be paying more than half of one percent of it in tax.

Please provide us all with an example of something (other than the cost cell phone) that "you" are able to receive but, for which, you are not taxed.

dbd33

Income. There may be some non-taxed benefits, such as pleasure use of a company vehicle or telephone, but it's income that's important to me; not quite cash but bank deposits to be used for routine purposes such as finishing the house.