This article is the first in a series examining and illustrating the impact of various factors on the returns generated by a real estate investment. If you remember one thing, let it be that the formula is more complicated than reported in the write-ups for virtually all investment property listings. For example, the “cap rate”, or the cash flow calculated …
7 Reasons To Not Like Ottawa’s Shared Equity Mortgage
Is Ottawa’s proposed Shared Equity Mortgage “plan” a good idea? Okay, so I only know what I saw on CBC News the other night. They reported that the Canadian Government has yet to work out the details of the “plan”. We can’t fully assess it until we have those details… but the concept seems misguided to me in many ways: …
Ottawa Neighbourhood House Prices 2018
This article contains the full set of charts to support my February 2018 email newsletter. If you’re interested in receiving complete monthly Ottawa real estate market analysis, why not sign up and try it out. You can always unsubscribe, and no one will hunt you down to find out why. You’ll find a subscription link at the bottom of this …
Ottawa Condo Prices – Older vs. Newer
Talking about Ottawa condo prices with one of my clients recently, I realised it’s been 6 years since I looked at the average selling price trend for older vs. newer condo apartments in Ottawa. Here’s the article from 2012: Are New or Re-Sale Condos a Better Investment? Fast forward to today; let’s take a look at the average selling price …
Bidding Wars That Aren’t
Have you read the CBC article from April 25th about Ottawa real estate’s “Perfect Storm” intensifying “Bidding Wars”? I’d like to go through this article and shed some light on a few of the pronouncements it makes. You can read the original article here: CBC Article: Bidding Wars Intensify It’s fun working in real estate because almost everybody finds it interesting …
Selling – Dealing With The Agent Who Already Has a Buyer
Law makers are waking up to some of the old school sales tactics that are unfortunately still common in the real estate business. CBC’s Marketplace ran their story (episode 44 – you can Google it if you haven’t seen it) about Realtors in Toronto working both sides of a transaction for the benefit of themselves (and buyer customers or clients) …
October 2017 Market Update
This month I think that two charts tell the 2017 story on their own, if you read between the lines. In an environment where more people are buying homes and condos than any time in the past 6 years, and simultaneously fewer people are offering their properties for sale, what would you expect to happen to prices? There are times …
Rise of the Real Estate Cash Offer Nightmare
Your home hits the market and bam! You receive multiple offers – how excellent is that? And now you have to decide which offer to work with, or to accept. A quick glance reveals that the prices are all very close, the closing dates are all acceptable, and there is little to obviously set one of the offers apart from …