Goodbye Victoria

The next day, Wednesday, Frank Chan, our realtor had a conference to attend, so we had the morning and early afternoon to ourselves. We planned a tour of the city visiting many buildings around town. The problem with the areas around downtown is that the buildings are old and in need of major upgrades. Most of the residenets in these buildings are not in favour of spending large sums of their savings on these upgrades, so the buildings fall into a state of disrepair. We have seen so many buildings that have a very posh address, but when inside all you see is old carpets, single pane windows, tired stucco and trashy design. It is a bit of a dissappointment. Also monthly strata fees in the older buildings are generally very high because of heat loss issues.

We were getting depressed, and returned to the hotel to regroup. Then we got a message from Frank, he was texting under the table during his conference, he was alerted to a new listing in a modern building in Langford. We agreed to meet him at the listing address later in the afternoon. When we arrived Frank was there ready to show us the place. It looked beautiful, nice design, wonderful condo with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, stone kitchen counters and all the mod-cons. We loved it and went to his office to write up an offer. We were there for nearly three hours going over the ins and outs of the contract. Frank added a clause the we would be able to get out of the deal if we did not like the reading material that is supposed to be supplied by the seller. Two years of strata minutes including AGM reports and a building depreciation report etc. Our offer was countered and we accepted the new price. Then we went back to the hotel to do our homework. We ordered a pizza to be delivered to our room, delicious by the way, and we did a lot of reading. I was on the depreciation report while Shelagh was reading the minutes. Then it became clear that there are serous problems in this building. The minutes were peppered with owner's complaints about excessive heat buildup from the geo thermal heating system. Geo thermal heating is an expensive system to install, but relatively cheap to run, the problem is that you also need ventilation. This building lacks that and the heat keeps coming. We decided to opt out of the deal. No problem for Frank, he is a seasoned realtor, a true proffessional with an incredible manner about him, so helpful and patient. We would recommend him to anyone looking for a home in the greater Victoria area.

This is the building we almost bought in. (Photo borrowed from Google maps)

Just a ten minute drive from this building is the beach at Esquimalt Lagoon...

The next morning we met with Frank in his office and snuffed the deal... Then we headed north to the Cowichan Valley to look for a home there. The search continues...

All this house hunting is a very emotional exercise. It is tiring going from one place to another feeling dissapointment at the state of the older buildings. Trying to stay positive through it all. It all became too much for Shelagh and as we said goodbye to Frank she started to cry, and cried all the way up the Malahat 'till we got to the turnoff to Cowichan Bay. "Let's go to Cowichan Bay" said Shelagh. I turned right and soon we were sitting on a bench, overlooking the bay eating leftover pizza and taking in the view... Slowly Shelagh calmed down and we talked about the previous couple of days. We decided that this has been a learning experience and that we will carry on and find our new home soon. With renewed hope we got to our hotel in Duncan and contacted Dean Hooseman, our friend and realtor in Langley to recommend us to a realtor here in Duncan. We will meet David Lowes tomorrow at 09:00 and get crackin'.

In the Cowichan Valley $500000.00 will get you a brand new house, in Victoria that budget will get you a dump...

Our hotel room in Victoria has two pictures on the wall, the first one is over the bed and the second one is over the sofa...