I’ve read quite a few posts on social media this week, mostly from real estate salespersons and brokers, making observations about Rogers Communications’ decision to shut down the “online real estate brokerage” Zoocasa. Most of the observations I’ve read have felt self-serving; not very objective. I believe Zoocasa failed for the same reason that I believe Trulia, Zillow, Xome, Property …
Why is Your House Not Selling? Here are seven unexpected reasons that I see every day. 1. You’re preaching to the choir. Yes, that’s a mixed metaphor. Although people often mix up the expression like this, I mean it this way. When people use the expression “You’re preaching to the choir” they mean to say that you are trying to convince someone …
A couple of months ago I decided to carve up the City of Ottawa into a few big chunks to help understand house prices and condo prices in different parts of town. Of course, where you draw the lines is somewhat subjective and could be debated all day long, but I think for the purpose of getting a general idea …
You often read about average home prices in Ottawa or Canada as a whole. You’ll read, for example, that house prices on average were 1.6% higher in Ottawa in 2014 than in 2013. For the past 5 or 6 years there have been regular reports of average home prices in Canada escalating to the point that we have the highest …
Overall, 2014 looked a lot like 2013 for real estate in Ottawa, with a few differences. With an entire year of data to work with, I thought we’d take a look at last year in Ottawa real estate from three different angles: looking at the graphs of 9 key statistics that I put together every month, using the Ottawa Real …
When it comes to building a portfolio of investment properties, there is something on the menu for every taste. To suit your specific tolerances and objectives, you will want to discuss the ins and outs in detail. But I thought it would be fun to write-up a brief table of ingredients for two types of residential properties that are at …
A client of mine who is mulling over the idea of acquiring some real estate for investment purposes, started doing some reading on her own and came across a piece about rules of thumb. She read, in addition to other bits of wisdom, that: The rule of thumb is that the purchase price of investment property should be 10 times …
I was just reading CMHC’s latest housing market statistics report, covering new housing starts across Canada, broken down by Province and municipality, through April 2013. Overall the number of starts is down slightly from 2012, on pace with 2011. But there was one statistical category that really stood out to me: in the “unabsorbed single and semi-detached” category for Ottawa, …
Whether buying strictly as an investment or as a new place to hang their hat, my clients often ask me if a new or re-sale condo apartment is a better investment. Well, there are actually two slightly different versions of this question that I hear frequently: is a brand new condo purchased from the builder a better investment or is …
So the volume of apartment condo sales in core areas of the city relative to the city as a whole was a nice safe place to start, but what you really want to know is how much does location impact value. Well, without charting anything I’m sure you understand that the number one driver in real estate valuation is location, …
One of my VIP clients asked me the other day, in response to the data in one of my monthly newsletters, “…how do you see the condo market evolving over the next 12 to 19 months?” The data that I use for my monthly newsletter is provided by the Ottawa Real Estate Board. They run some statistical reports and pull …
And so ends 2012, with the overall picture looking about the same as 2011 on the surface (similar number of residential properties sold and average selling price settling ever so slightly above 2011) but with more questionable footings lurking underneath… perhaps. Like most soothsaying ventures, you really don’t know what you’re talking about if you’re looking ahead but you can …