casaguy
Senior Member
^Absolutely.
I'm still not quite clear of exactly what happened here, though. Is there an official explanation/apology from anyone?
A number of people have commented how racially divided both line-ups were. Very interesting.
- Thread starter cdr108
- Start date
^Absolutely.
I'm still not quite clear of exactly what happened here, though. Is there an official explanation/apology from anyone?
A number of people have commented how racially divided both line-ups were. Very interesting.
MikeMang
Active Member
Its sort of how Brad Lamb can write in his monthly newsletter that he can "guarantee" you will make money if you buy his preconstruction projects. I work in finance and if I wrote that on any of the sales literature for our products they would throw my ass in jail. If people are going to treat real estate with the same speculation they treat financial securities I don't get why they should be regulated differently.
The Condo Observer
Active Member
Great Gulf Homes / Baker RE Chaos
Agents are fuming today. The entire incident was mishandled by Baker. It might have been orchestrated. Word is that they involved a certain niche segment of the market, know for its hunger for investment product. They did not bargain on the chaos and confusion, and were ill equipped to handle it. In such a seasoned market, there is no excuse for such amateurism.
They treated agents with disrespect and disdain yesterday, and there is sure to be karmic payback.
Calls to Great Gulf are being referred to Baker, but the truth is that ultimately GG has hired Baker to handle this important aspect of the project. Brokers should take this up directly with Great Gulf higher-ups...
Agents are fuming today. The entire incident was mishandled by Baker. It might have been orchestrated. Word is that they involved a certain niche segment of the market, know for its hunger for investment product. They did not bargain on the chaos and confusion, and were ill equipped to handle it. In such a seasoned market, there is no excuse for such amateurism.
They treated agents with disrespect and disdain yesterday, and there is sure to be karmic payback.
Calls to Great Gulf are being referred to Baker, but the truth is that ultimately GG has hired Baker to handle this important aspect of the project. Brokers should take this up directly with Great Gulf higher-ups...
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urbandreamer
recession proof
Yet urbanation's twitter feed says all is well, they sold tons of units apparently.
tissot
Active Member
So they sold a total of 180 units?
Observer Walt
Senior Member
Sorry, but I doubt that very much. I have never believed the old saying that "any publicity is good publicity". (Maybe if you are Lindsay Lohan or someone of her ilk, famous for being famous.)
Developers like Great Gulf depend on sales people. Baker Real Estate, usually known for professionalism, botched it here.
I talk to agents pretty regularly. There are some agents in this town who are well known for generating a large volume of sales, and it is * stupid * to alienate these people. I don't know what would be gained by doing that deliberately.
It's also a sorry comment that racial overtones have been mentioned. I know that there is a stereotype (rightly or wrongly) of Chinese as speculators and gamblers. But if you want to discourage speculators, if that was the intention (big "if"), there are legitimate ways to do it without giving an appearance of discrimination.
maestro
Senior Member
I don't understand. How exactly does an agent buying into any project relate to insider trading? At this stage, even the developer can't confirm what will happen to their project.
cdr108
Senior Member
the term he may be looking for is 'front running' ... the broker buying/selling their stock first, then the clients'
a similar situation occurred for 1BE, where brokers paid ppl to line up weeks in advance for them ... non-industry ppl were not allowed to buy, ONLY brokers.
various brokers were interviewed on the news (tv, paper, etc) and it seemed that most bought only to flip them for $50K more to an actual buyers within the 10-day recission period so there was no risk to the brokers, AND they got the realtor commissions on top of that.
The Condo Observer
Active Member
I think this aspect of the story has been botched. Apparently they deliberately entertained and wooed the chinese brokers at a preview luncheon a couple weeks ago. These agents are known to represent the leading edge of invesor/ flipping chinese-asian clients. I know someone who attended the lunch, and it has been confirmed that the crowd was predominantly chinese. Anyway, chinese or not, this crowd of brokers was given the marketing packages and specific instructions on how sales would be conducted on November 25th. The procedures that were supposed to be put in place were all abandoned or badly executed however, hence the chaos.
So it appears to me that they used the chinese crowd via their brokers to guarantee a certain percentage of units sold, before general release to the public. The crowd that got shafted in the wrong line also happened to be chinese...
But other disgusting element was that on the 24th, there was a VVIP event, where special agents got to pick and choose at leisure from the initial 180 units that were to be released. I would like to know how many of those brokers were chinese.
There is a dastardly strategist in this mix, who attemped to play this situation to maximum advantage. Was it a Great Gulf strategy, or a Baker strategy? I do not think they bargained on things playing out as they did.
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kamanwu
New Member
Read from the first page....
I think the home agnet in Canada is a good job...as long as they(or the people they hire) always line in the corrent queue.....
I think the home agnet in Canada is a good job...as long as they(or the people they hire) always line in the corrent queue.....
makattack
New Member
If this is true, putting Chinese brokers in priority over other brokers (by giving Chinese brokers a preview lunch), than what happened with the lines was deserved and RIGHT!!!. There should never have been any priority given to one ethnic group over another!
Shame on Great Gulf and Baker!
zeeden
Active Member
Just because the brokers at the preview lunch were mostly chinese doesn't mean they were given prefferential treatment because of their race. Maybe its because a lot of chinese invest heavily in real estate.
How is what they did with the lines right when it was the predominately Chinese line who waited 10 days? When the agents who only waited 1 day were the ones who got to purchase first.
So what you're saying is that just beause the baker/ggh gave Chinese brokers a preview lunch they thought they'd make it fair by not letting the Chinese agents in line to buy?
The Condo Observer
Active Member
I think the whole thing was poorly calculated...They invited or encouraged the chinese the 'leading edge' investor-brokers, in the hopes of securing a good deal of sold units before general to the public sales began.
Overzealous brokers, in true competitive and extreme style, lined up ten days in advance in the hopes of gaining some kind of advantage. This lineup was not sanctioned by the salespeople, and ultimately not honored. I do not fault GG for that at all. I think the overzealous crowd looked for that outcome, and had perhaps a misplaced and erroneous sense of entitlement.
I feel the chinese were USED, as they were still second tier buyers, to the VVIP crowd who had access the night before to their pick of units. What I would like to know is if anti-flipping clauses were inserted into the sales agreement for the VVIP sales? Or were they also granted the right to assign? If so, then I think the discussion of "insider trading", for ultimate financial gain, is a legitimate concern. The system should be fair and equitable for all.
Overzealous brokers, in true competitive and extreme style, lined up ten days in advance in the hopes of gaining some kind of advantage. This lineup was not sanctioned by the salespeople, and ultimately not honored. I do not fault GG for that at all. I think the overzealous crowd looked for that outcome, and had perhaps a misplaced and erroneous sense of entitlement.
I feel the chinese were USED, as they were still second tier buyers, to the VVIP crowd who had access the night before to their pick of units. What I would like to know is if anti-flipping clauses were inserted into the sales agreement for the VVIP sales? Or were they also granted the right to assign? If so, then I think the discussion of "insider trading", for ultimate financial gain, is a legitimate concern. The system should be fair and equitable for all.
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