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Expert advice, market reports, and tips from the Niagara Region real estate professionals.
I had the opportunity over the holidays to spend some time with a good family friend. At one point the topic of investment real estate came up. He indicated he was thinking seriously about starting an investment portfolio and wondered what his first purchase should be.
When it comes to selling your property, be it your home, a ‘fix and flip’ or an investment property, there are a number of different strategies you can use. You can start high. After all, studies have shown that for most people the largest chunk of their net worth is in their real property. And so, you want to realize as much equity as possible from the sale. And of course, the mind set often is ‘I can always come down’. And who knows, even if you are overpriced, there is always the possibility that someone will come along who absolutely falls in love with your property and is willing to pay what you are asking or beyond. You might get lucky.
There is a housing crisis in Canada and it is impacting both prospective home buyers and prospective tenants. Simply put, there are more aspiring occupants than there are dwellings to put them in. Of course, the problem isn’t consistent in all locations across the country. Remote areas and areas with limited growth and slim employment opportunities aren’t impacted. But high-density urban areas, areas where population is consistently growing and areas within reasonable community distance of large centres are definitely feeling the pinch. And that pretty much encompasses all of Southern Ontario.
Pretty much every year they spend millions of dollars that they don’t have. Now I’m not saying that the money they spend is not spent on worthwhile endeavours. Health care, enhanced infrastructures, education. The problem is that every dollar they spend over and above what they take in adds to the annual deficit and increases the national debt. And that debt will have to be re-paid one day. And in the meantime, the debit will have to be serviced. The interest needs to be pa
As we saw last issue, there is a growing problem affecting a large segment of the residential rental market. Pitting landlords against tenants. It’s come about because of the incredible increase in acquisition costs of residential rental property together with soaring interest rates and an alarming rise in maintenance and utility costs. All the while residential rents for existing tenants continue to be suppressed by rent controls. I maintain that at the heart of the problem is the Residential Tenancies Act and the approach taken by the Landlord and Tenant Board. These things need to be fixed, and they can be. Quite easily.
The relationship between landlords and tenants should in theory be a pretty simple one. Landlords provide a product for tenants to use. In the case of residential property that product is a dwelling for them to live in. In the case of commercial property it may be a building for them to run a business from. In either case, the tenant in return for the right to occupy the bricks and mortar, pays the landlord rent. With that rent, the landlord pays his expenses: mortgage, taxes, insurance, etc. And hopefully realizes a return on his investment. Pretty straight forward.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that Ontario has a shortage of housing. Certainly, anyone in real estate is acutely aware of this. It quickly becomes apparent when you are trying to find a good rental unit for a perspective tenant, and even in spite of the post-covid slowdown in real estate, the right house is sometimes hard to find. This is especially critical in and around Toronto because it is the province’s epicentre for immigration. But housing shortages are a reality across the province.
There is a restaurant I go to once every week or so for a bit of lunch. It’s a handy place to meet a client or friend. And it’s very affordable. Soup and a sandwich for each of two people generally with tax comes in at around $27.00. Always less than $30.00. And I always leave a $10.00 tip.
Speculators are gamblers. Plain and simple! Oh, they might disagree. They have a system they will tell you. They follow trends. They watch the market. And ten thousand gamblers at Vegas will say the same thing
When I was a kid growing up at home, I was always looking for ways to supplement my allowance. At first snowfall, I was up and out with a list of two or three homes with walks to shovel on my way to elementary school. In summer I would pick dew worms and sell them along the highway up in cottage country. I had a paper route. It was a Toronto based newspaper and so I had to cycle all over St. Catharines to service a few customers. But it was income.
There are a lot of challenges being a residential landlord these days. That’s for sure. But one of the major ones is our governing legislation, The Residential Tenancies Act. It’s there. It’s a reality. We need to understand it and work with it. But as I say, it’s a challenge.