The Redneck Antenna - Phase II

Many of you know the grand experiment last fall with the home-made redneck HD antenna I made. It worked pretty well, until I accidentally lodged one of the "whiskers" into the back of the TV and blew it up. So in all, the antenna cost me $5.00 in parts and $750 for a new TV. Let's say that Laura was less than impressed, and our $150/month subscription to Shaw cable was renewed.

But that was a year ago, and with the looming lack of a hockey season this year, Laura agreed to give it another try. This time with some more commercial solutions.

While we were on vacation in Oregon, I found a commercial HDTV antenna at Costco for $30. It looks good, has a very small footprint, and is now stuck unobtrusively in our living room window. I get about 11 channels off the air, with all three local networks (CBC, CTV and Global) coming in very well.

Because we're now relying on the internet for most of our on-air entertainment, I got a US-based proxy service (this means that for all intents and purposes, it looks like we live in Seattle as far as our internet connection is concerned). This provides us with all the benefits that only a US resident could appreciate.

So far, this US-based proxy has given us access to:

• HULU, which is a service which puts all of network TV and cable TV at your fingertips.
• The Netflix feed, which looks at your location and then decides what programs you have access to. We now have access to hundreds (thousands?) of additional programming over our old Canadian feed. I watched reruns of Adam-12 off Netflix last night.
• All those YouTube links that don't work because you're not in the USA. They now all work.

With this proxy service, we can use hundreds of worldwide locations as our "point of presence" for the internet feeds. An interesting aside to this is that I can "look" like I'm in London, England, and have access to all the local BBC programming (like live feed of BBC news). I can also look like I'm in Amsterdam or Africa or Australia or ....

The proxy service costs about $65 a year, and has the important benefit of anonymizing everything you do on the net. Shaw now knows nothing about what I do, including any streaming or torrents I might be viewing. You become invisible.

We've cancelled cable TV again, and our bill has dropped from $150 to $70 a month (I have a very high end internet connection - you  could probably get by with much less).

It's early days, but I think it will work well this time. So far I haven't blown anything up.

BC Depreciation Reports

If you don't happen to live in a Strata (Condo) Property in BC, this post will be of no interest to you.

At dinner last night, we had a conversation about BC's new "Depreciation Report" Legislation for strata properties. Basically, it's now a requirement that any strata property with more than five units (so small properties are exempt) must now:

1. commission a regular engineering report detailing the estimated repair, maintenance and replacement of all the components of common property in the strata (things like roads, roofs, common buildings, painting, fences, etc) for a thirty year time period (ongoing)
2. fund the expected costs of these items through their monthly strata fees

This legislation will parrot the same laws in most other jurisdictions, with the intended outcome of adding predictability to the strata housing market. A new market will be created where you'll know about the long term financial commitments of a strata property, and the funding for those commitments will be in place.

I have no problem with the intent of this legislation, I'm only concerned with the unintended consequences of its adoption.

When I do an online search for "BC Depreciation Reports" the only hits I get are from Engineering firms (doing the reports) and Strata Management Companies (commissioning the same). There are no "anti" or "against" opinions. It's like the legislation only has as upside, and no downside.

The law does give us an out - with a 3/4 vote at regular intervals, a strata can "opt-out" of the reports and the funding.

The Argument For
The basic argument is to analyse two otherwise identical properties. One has a funded depreciation report on file, and the other doesn't. Which one would you buy?

The industry maintains that "of course, you'd chose the property with the report - as a matter of fact, the mortgage provider (banks) will demand it".

The market will provide higher selling prices for those properties with reports.

The Argument Against
Same scenario. Two identical properties. One with a report, one without. The one with the report has strata fees of $500 a month. The one without has strata fees of $200 a month.

The non-report property has decided that major cash infusions will be handled the way they are now - by a special assessment levied against each home owner. That way, you're not paying for repairs that may be needed years after you leave the strata. You pay for the repairs the same way you would if you owned a house. As they happen.

The non-report property has decided to take a "wait and see" attitude. If the market truly does start to differentiate between report and non-report properties, they will opt in. Same if banks start requiring a report (currently, my conversation with mortgage specialists at banks is that they don't know anything about this).

My Opinion
I think the "wait and see" strategy makes the most sense. Sit on the sidelines until you see how this whole thing shakes out.

Currently, this legislation looks terribly pro business (engineering companies and strata property managers). A change in government here in BC (likely next year) might change political will.

Let the market decide if this is important or not. Let the "bulge" of people commissioning engineering reports make its way through the system. Let the "price gouging" that's going on now work through the system.

I don't think now is the time to make a decision which could affect your strata for decades. Now is the time to sit back, vote against the depreciation reports for the time being, and see what happens.

Tell the Strata Property Managers and Engineering Firms

"Thanks, but no thanks, for now. Come see me in a couple of years and I'll tell you if I've made a different decision."