2010 Rent Increase Guideline

Thanks to all who attended the session tonight; it was great to be in a room full of real estate investors, getting questions answered and learning some ways to protect themselves from unscrupulous tenants.

Personally, I found the entire evening fascinating, and was able to learn some things from some of the attendees as well as the guest speakers. The head of the Investigations & Enforcement division was particularly informative, and taught me something about potential liability that I could easily take on in my day-to-day life as a Realtor.

The basic premise of the evening was that any successful landlord should get to know the Residential Tenacies Act very well, and make sure to work within the rules of the Act. As things were explained, it would seem that the Board is neither pro-tenant nor pro-landlord, but rather, takes the stance that smart actions prevent problems, and to be a good landlord means to act smart.

I’m sure that the tenants of the landlords who attended tonight’s session will be better served by having a more informed landlord.

Look for a follow-up session in the Fall.

Intensification, rent control changes and shortage of stock give rise to new projects

It’s hard to imagine a more challenging time for business and markets than the past half year.

With consumers running for cover and the international banking system imploding, what were developers and builders to do?

If you were Brian McCauley, executive vice-president of Vancouver-based Concert Properties, you were negotiating a deal with Diamante Development Corp. worth close to $20 million to acquire a condo site with approvals in place at Bay and Dundas Sts. His company will build the 26-storey, 448-unit project as a high-end rental.

“From a global perspective, Toronto is still a very strong marketplace in spite of the current softening that we’ve all experienced across Canada,” McCauley comments.

It also must be encouraging that Toronto’s apartment vacancy rate is at a seven-year low of 2 per cent, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data, while vacancy rates for the subcategory of rented condos, representing newer apartment stock with substantially higher rents, is a microscopic 0.4 per cent, with rents almost 50 per cent higher than those in aging rental buildings.

Read the full story here

Another installment from Keller Williams Research . . .

Note that the 5.25% rate they refer to is the posted rate; available rates are around 3.5%

Don’t know about the spelling, but that’s the name of a song that was featured in the movie ‘Walk The Line’.

Folks, time’s-a-wastin’ on the opportunities in this market! A few months back, I wrote about how this market is a limited opportunity, sort of like the sales that car dealers have – limited opportunities. We are still in a ‘Perfect Storm’ of a real estate market, a never-before-seen convergence of reduced prices, lower rates than in history, and when it costs more to rent than to buy. It won’t last; it can’t, because as more and more sellers see the activity in the market, then more and more buyers will wake up and smell the roses, and then we’ll be in serious bidding wars again.

You just have to follow the conversations on FaceBook and Twitter, Active Rain and a few other places where Realtors gather, to get the picture of what is happening in the Canadian real estate markets. Scroll down a few posts and look at the charts in ‘This Month In Real Estate Canada’ and you’ll see what is happening.

Here’s a snip from a great post on http://Active Rain.com :

My little sister called me the other day and in an excited voice declared, “I think I might need to look at houses…It’s a GREAT time to buy a house right now, you know!”

After the pregnant pause ensued (the one where my condescending big sister brain struggled with my professional Realtor brain) I finally said, “No? Really? What makes you think that?” (You can tell which brain won out.)

“Well. I have a friend who just got a fantastic deal on a house and I think it might be time for me to think about looking!”

Ok, so which part of what I have been saying for months now did she mis

s? Apparently, the same part that ALOT of buyers are missing…that would be the part that sounds just like Charlie Brown’s teacher talking whenever somebody you aren’t listening to tells you something: Wah, wah, wah, wah…

Read the rest here

I’ve written before about the sort of herd mentality that surrounds buyers – when not a lot of people are buying houses, buyers seem to think the prudent thing to do is wait, because, after all, if it was a great time to buy, wouldn’t everyone be buying? Well, when everyone else is buying, prices go up, bidding wars ensue, and all the buyers lose. If that sort of buying is your preferred style, then I’ll be more than happy to help you. But if getting a great house at a lower price and at historically low interest rates is something that appeals to you, call me TODAY and let’s see if you can get in on this before it’s too late.

I know that a lot of people are worried about their jobs, but it costs less to buy than to rent, so unless you plan on living in your car when you lose your job, that’s really not a reason to wait.

The prize goes to those who take action. The action you need to take is to call me today at 905-208-7002