Condo for $100?

This person is raffling off her condo. $100 a ticket, 2500 tickets in all.

Hmm .. maybe I overpaid ..

Stuff is Starting to Happen!

The developers gave an update on their facebook page:

Just a quick update for those of you following the42 timeline...

Habitat for Humanity just finished stripping the interiors of the 4 houses this past week. They'll be back through just prior to demolition to salvage the exterior doors and windows too. All in all, we were very pleased with the amount of reusable items that were salvaged.

Starting next Monday, the Waterloo Fire Department will be using the houses for training exercises. It's mostly search and rescue type stuff with practice cutting through walls, ceiling and roofs. Over a 3 week period, most of the local firefighters should get some training time in at the site.

Following the Fire Department, the part you've all been waiting for - demolition!

More to follow...

This note was from July 16. Can't wait until those houses go down, should be soon!

Psuedo Tour of My New Condo

It's really hard to get a feel for what your condo will be like based off of the floor plan - takes a lot of imagination. I've been measuring some of the rooms in my house and comparing them to the floor plan .. this helped, but apparently it wasn't enough for me.

In the office where I work, there is a large open area in the cafeteria. I stayed late one night and setup much of the layout of my condo using tape on the floor and furniture to represent the walls. Perhaps a geeky thing to do .. but it really helped me visual the final result. I'm even thinking of undoing the changes that I made to the floor plan because of what I saw.

I had my camera with me, so I took a video tour for posterity. Enjoy.

Not Even the42 Can Do This

Holy crap:



Some guy wants to build a condo where each floor can move around independently. Really. Check out the video:

Changing the Floorplan - Part 2

Awhile ago I posted about changing my condo's floorplan. Since that post, I've been through several exchanges with the developer to settle in on the best possible layout.

It turns out that I can do everything that I asked for, which I'm pretty excited about. They've even gone to the trouble to send me 9 or 10 options and we've gone back and forth on them. Here is where we ended up:


I almost had them put in a cheater en suite for the second bedroom .. but some friends convinced me that it would be stupid.

Notice the improvements:

• The den is open. I will now have 30 feet of continuous window .. and a bit more around the corner too.
• The HVAC unit has moved (it will be above one of the bathrooms).
• The swing doors to the balcony have been replaced by sliders.
• The sink and the dishwasher have been moved (want more counter space beside the stove).
• The common closet is closer to the front door.
• The second bedroom is a bit bigger and now has a walk-in closet.

Disadvantages:

• Near the washer/dryer, it is maybe a little weird how the bathroom juts out more than the bedroom.
• The door to the bedroom is a little more awkward .. it takes up a bit of the wall space that will be the living area.
• Cost. Yes, this is not a free change.
  

So ... how much?

They tell me it will cost $1000 for the changes and $250 for the architect to redraw the plan. The thousand is because of the building plans and is mostly to do with plumbing. Is this reasonable? I have no idea .. but they tell me they aren't profiting on this at all, they're just passing the cost on .. and I believe them.

Actually, I've been really impressed with this whole process. I never once felt like I was hassling them .. just the opposite .. they put a lot of thought into the options and helped me think them through.

I need to commit soonish ... so if anyone out there in internet land has any thoughts .. don't hold out on me.

Changing up the Penthouses

The guys at the42 are changing around some of the penthouse units. Here is what things looked like originally:


Most of the penthouse units have 2 floors (all except M, N and L). They're taking the main floor of R, Q and X and making them into one unit (called Z). The upper unit of X will be one unit (still called X) . The upper units of R and Q will change a bit, but still called R and Q. Here's what it looks like:

Good thing they have one letter left to name the new unit :)

With this plan, they need to have the elevator go up to the 6th floor. For R, Q and X, the elevator would open right into their unit!! That's kinda cool.

I think that the motivation behind this is to create a few more affordable units on the penthouse. Demand hasn't been quite as high on the 2 level penthouses (not many people can afford a $450,000 condo .... if I could I'd so be there).

As for the floor plans, I have seen them, but I'm not sure if they'd want me posting them up here ... If you want to see them, just email them .. they're nice folks.

I will say:

• Z is amazing, but it's 1488 square feet interior and 400 square feet of balcony ... so it has a big price tag.
  
• They use the long narrow space of X surprisingly well .. but there is a little wasted space with 2 short hallways. Some people might like that ... put art in there or whatever.
  
• Q is pretty good ... except there is no balcony ... major issue for me, but maybe you don't care about balconies.
• R ... could go either way. I saw a few different layouts, some better than others.

Crap ... I just noticed that I drew Z a little bit wrong ... there are stairs coming down from Q, X and R (each has their own stairs down to the 5th) and so you basically need to take a stairway width off of the "top" of Z, except in the middle which is Z's entrance ... make sense? Whatever, it's basically right.

So anyway, they offered me the option of changing into one of the newly created units ... I'm hyped about my unit (the M), so I declined.

I do have to admit ... I thought about swiching ... having the elevator open right into your unit would be pretty sweet .. dontcha think?

Facebook Advertising Better Than Google AdSense?

In a previous post, I mentioned that the developers at the42 used Facebook advertising as well as Google AdSense. Couldn't remember why they preferred Facebook, but I've got the scoop from the developers. There are 2 main reasons:

1. With Facebook, you can target your ads to an age group and geographical region. Unless Google is even smarter than I think, they don't know how old you are :)
   
2. Cost per click with Facebook was 15 cents. Google ads? Up to 4 bucks a click. Apparently the keywords "waterloo real estate" are in high demand these days ... go figure.
   

Oh, and I must point out that Michael Swart did allude to the geography advantage in his comment on the original post. Good call Michael!

And yes, Google can sort of figure out where you are based on your IP address .. Does anyone know if they actually use that, or allow advertisers to restrict on that?

Polished Concrete or Engineered Hardwood?

One nice thing about the42 is that the suites come with an option of polished concrete or engineered wood flooring. From what I've seen, similar condo projects (such as the Bauer Lofts)
come with laminate and charge a big upgrade for engineered hardwood. I've heard $6000 for a 1000 square foot condo ... ridiculous!

By the way, I think there is a mistake on the42's website about this .. on the Amenities page it says "Choice of polished concrete or laminate wood flooring" .. but my purchase agreement says "Choice of polished concrete or engineered wood flooring". And certainly I've been told all along that it is engineered wood.

Anyway, this is a dilemma .. which do I pick? Hardwood is pretty nice. Polished concrete sounds awesome, but seems like a scarier choice. Which will bring me a higher resale?

Here's a site I found that talks about polished concrete .. they make it sound pretty good ...

Right now I'm leaning toward the polished concrete ... but only because it seems cooler.

Help?

Changing the Floorplan

OK, so the unit that I bought is the M. Here is a picture of the floor plan (click to enlarge):


So .. I think it's quite a good layout. The Den is amazing with 2 walls of window and the Living/Dining area is pretty big ... add the Kitchen in there and you have a very large open concept room.

Good as it is .. it could be better. The Den looks like it will feel small. One of the dimensions for the second bedroom is only 8'5". The common closet for coats is pretty far from the entrance. Sigh.



So .. what can be done?

I stared at this floor plan for loooong time. Here's what I came up with:

1. Remove the wall between the Den and the Living/Dining Room
2. Move the HVAC unit somewhere else (apparently they can do that)
3. Slide the washer/dryer up
4. Move the closet under the washer/dryer.
   
5. Move the bathroom to the left.
6. Get rid of the closet in the second bedroom and add a walk-in closet behind the bathroom.

So ... now the Den is nice and open. The Living/Dining/Den room will 30 feet of continuous window! The closet is now right by the front door. The second bedroom is now bigger AND has a bigger closet. Yes yes yes!!

What's the catch? None! This is the Best Idea in the History of the World. At least Top Ten.

OK whatever .. is this actually possible? Will the builders let me do this? The answer is ... maybe.

So, maybe all condo projects do this, I'm not sure, but I thought it was nice that the folks at the42 asked me to come in and talk about any changes I wanted in the floor plan. I didn't ask them, they asked me. And when they asked, boy did I get excited.

OK fine, is this possible? They told me that removing the wall for the Den was a no-brainer and that moving the HVAC unit would work as well (this is actually an "Eco" issue, I'll talk about that some other day). As for the rest ... they agreed that it was a good idea .. they seemed to be mostly worried about how the changes would affect the plumbing ... but since the bathroom and washer/dryer weren't moving too far they say that there is a good chance it would be OK. One thing that worries me is whether there is enough room for a door into the bathroom since the washer/dryer will be right there? Another think to think about is whether I should keep the door from the bedroom into the bathroom, making a cheater en suite.

Next steps? They are going to run it by the build guys to make sure nothing looks too terrible ... after that it's going to go to the architect for a redraw. Sounds like that part will cost me some money, and they weren't quite sure how much just yet. If it is possible, they will give me a quote for the redraw before they proceed.

I'll post a comment once I hear back!

Marketing for the42

disclaimer: I don't know squat about marketing, these are my random observations.


One thing that I thought was cool was that the42 has it's own Facebook group. Makes a lot of sense .. their target market being young professionals. It seems like a valuable, easy (not to mention free) marketing/sales tool. Here's why this is so awesome:

1. Easy way to share updated information about their product and keep people interested (I know that I kept going to the Facebook group eagerly anticipating updates)
2. Engage people before the sales centre even opens. They sold something like 70% of their units on opening weekend and I bet this was a factor.
3. Viral marketing. You know how in Facebook when one of your friends joins a group and you see it in your News Feed .. hmm, i wonder what that group is all about .. click .. join .. more News Feeds ..
   
4. Cool by association. Facebook = young/trendy ... the42 is on Facebook ... therefore the42 = young/trendy ... well, something like that.

Someone on the Facebook group suggested that they setup a group just for the buyers .. that way we can meet our neighbours before we move in .. this is a great idea .. they tell me that they will be doing this at some point soon.

Anyway, back to marketing ... this isn't the only marketing they've done .. for awhile it seemed like every bus stop in town had an ad for the42. Whenever I told anyone that I'd bought a condo at the42, they invariably thought for a minute and said "oh ya, I saw those ads on all the bus stops".

They also dabbled in some online advertising. They had Google Ads and Facebook ads .. incidentally, they told me that the Facebook ads were far more effective for them .. can't remember why though .. but I thought that was interesting.

And they did other advertising .. the local paper and so on.

So what did their advertising get them? A fantastic opening weekend, with pretty much all units selling (except some penthouses), and huge waiting lists to boot.

I bought a Condo

After 6 years of dealing with lawn care, snow shoveling and a never ending list of house chores (there's always Something To Do), I said Screw It and bought a condo. OK, it wasn't quite like that .. it's something I've been thinking about for awhile. The ridiculous amount of snow Waterloo got this year pushed me over the edge.

My condo is at the42. I went into their presentation centre in April without any real intention of buying anything, but I was so impressed with what I saw that I just went for it. I'll talk more about that some other day.