Should blind bidding be banned? The Liberal Party of Canada seems to think so. Justin Trudeau created quite a stir when he announced the party’s plan to ban “blind bidding” in real estate transactions at a campaign stop recently. When I heard the news, I thought it likely an exaggeration or other form of “fake news” because real estate transaction …
Ottawa Real Estate Market Starts to Turn The Ottawa real estate market always cycles and while COVID disrupted the seasonal cycle quite dramatically, the fundamental forces driving the intense seller’s market are now officially on a three-month trend in the opposite direction. In this article we will look at the key statistics illustrating the beginning of the next phase in …
With escalating property prices across Canada (and the USA!), rental income often won’t generate positive cash flow these days. Some “gurus” suggest buying REITs as an alternative to purchasing income properties directly. Are REITs a valid option in the real estate investing game? I explore that question in this video.
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a housing inventory crisis across Canada and the United States (I haven’t looked beyond – maybe it’s another pandemic?!) In this video I look at the possible reasons not enough people are selling, and whether there are any signs of hope for house hunters. Video Outline (1:00) Stats: Number of Q1 Sales vs New …
House prices in Ottawa in early 2021 are going crazy! Last video we talked about the main reason. Let’s look at some other theories (and conspiracies!) about house prices. I mention a couple of media articles in this video. Here are links to those articles: Global News on Foreign Buyers The RBC Study that Global News References CTV July 2020 …
What’s up with Ottawa house prices in early 2021? In this video I talk about the three main reasons prices are spiking even above the already meteoric increases from 2020. The number 1 reason turns out to be pretty simply to understand, but maybe not so easy to figure out why it’s happening. Theories and conspiracies and downright guesses about …
The February edition of my newsletter (Ottawa Real Estate Monthly) features Ottawa House Prices by Neighbourhood – it’s a tradition I started a few years ago. I take all of the Ottawa Real Estate Board’s neighbourhood sales and price statistics and rank them. In previous years, I shared the top and bottom 20 neighbourhoods based on percentage change in number …
“No conveyance of offers prior to <time of day> on <specific date>.” …or… “Offers presented at <time of day> on <specific date>; however, the seller reserves the right to review and may accept pre-emptive offers.” If you followed or participated in the real estate market in Ottawa in 2020 you will have noticed one of these two phrases appearing in …
Misunderstanding cap rate, short for capitalization rate, is a favourite pastime of many realtors and novice investors. Too often I witness a lack of understanding of investment analysis within the real estate agent community. My concern is that novice investors may be making purchase decisions with inaccurate expectations for return on their investments. This article examines the relationship between real …
A CTV News piece about the Hottest Ottawa Neighbourhoods and the Ottawa real estate market in July 2020 came to my attention this week. A local Realtor provided data and insights into prevailing conditions that continue to favour sellers. Here’s a link to the piece: CTV News Article & Video Reading through the article I could not help but cringe …
As people got used to wearing masks and keeping their distance, and with businesses and services slowly opening up, buyers and sellers stormed back into the real estate market in July. It was one hot July. I represented five sellers. Every one of them received multiple offers and sold way over asking price. Here are the amounts over asking: $40,000 …
I debated the headline for this article. The downturn in sales resulting from people’s wise decision to heed Government direction to stay at home as much as possible resulted in unprecedented decline in home sales in April. Just looking at the graphs, “slams” is an accurate description of the impact. I hesitated to use this description not because it doesn’t …