All Blog Entries by Steve Harmer

Condo living definitely has its perks. You can take advantage of amazing locations in the heart of urban centres close to public transportation. You can be a part of a community and you don’t have to spend your days doing yard work or home maintenance. But, best of all, you can enjoy convenient amenities like fitness centres, party lounges and pools, all at your doorstep. Sounds great, but how does this affect your bottom line? When purchasing a condo you want to consider your monthly strata fee.

What are strata fees and how are they determined?

Your monthly strata fee is money that’s used by the strata corporation to pay the common expenses of the development. Your individual fee is assessed by taking the total cost of the strata’s expenses and

This week, the provincial government released its 2015/16 Second Quarterly Report: an update on where provincial finances are at six months into the fiscal year and where the economy is heading.

The news is not very good. 

B.C.'s economy is expected to do better than other provinces this year, but that's largely because of weakness elsewhere (especially in resource-dependent provinces like Alberta). Private sector forecasters have lowered their projections for this year's economic growth in B.C. to 2.2 per cent (from 2.7 per cent this time last year). Projections for next year are more optimistic (2.6 per cent) but they should be taken with a grain of salt, given the record of overly optimistic forecasts in the last few years.

1. No recovery

Whether you’re in the next state or across the country, selling a home remotely can be tough. To pull it off, you’ll need to plan ahead and get some help from a local agent.

Just a few years ago, at the height of the real estate crisis, if homeowners were transferred for work or moved for personal reasons and couldn’t afford to sell their homes, they often opted to become “accidental” landlords.

Not experienced real estate investors, they became such as a result of the market. Now that the economy has picked up, many of these landlords are finally selling their investments.

If you know that you’ll be selling a home remotely, don’t wait until the last minute. It’s hard enough to sell a home, and being far away makes it even more difficult to prep

Giving your home a fresh coat of paint in modern, universally appealing colours is one of the most effective, easiest and cheapest ways to help sell your home, but it’s important to do it properly, otherwise it could end up being a mess and putting buyers off. Here are the key tips.

What to Paint

If you decide to paint the entire interior, paint every room the same light, neutral colour to keep it simple (whites, creams, pale beiges and fashionable greys are best). Your initial reaction may be that it will make your home “sterile” or “boring,” but it will in fact enable buyers to view your home’s features and not think about having to paint the walls because the existing colour will clash with their belongings. It will also allow a seamless flow

During a recent visit to New York, Simon Henry chatted with a real estate broker who was trying to negotiate the sale of a Manhattan apartment to a wealthy buyer from China. The seller refused to drop below $5.2-million (U.S.) and the buyer was equally adamant that he wouldn’t go above $5-million.

The frustrated broker couldn’t understand why the buyer was being so intractable. The Chinese businessman explained that he was buying the apartment for his daughter to live in while she attended school and he insisted on strictly adhering to the budget he had set.

“Anything over $5-million, I’m afraid it will go to her head,” he said.

As the co-founder of the Shanghai-based real estate portal Juwai.com, it’s the type of anecdote that Mr. Henry hears

Being around public transportation wasn’t always a good choice when it came to real estate. After World War II, downtown living was frowned upon and people flocked towards the suburbs in order to find larger and greener land. As a result, real estate prices rose outside the city.

Fast forward to today and we’re seeing the opposite effect. People want to live in the downtown core and public transportation is at the forefront of political debate.

Billions of dollars are being spent on new subways and streetcars in cities like Toronto and Vancouver. Calgary and Ottawa are also beefing up its public transit service in response to a higher demand from residents.

In fact, every major city across Canada has plans to focus on public transportation. It’s a

Ottawa, ON, November 16, 2015 - According to statistics released today by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales increased in October 2015 from the previous month.

Highlights:

• National home sales rose by 1.8% from September to October.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) activity was little changed (+0.1%) compared to October 2014.
• The number of newly listed homes was up 0.9% from September to October.
• The Canadian housing market remains balanced overall.
• The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI) rose 6.7% year-over-year in October.
• The national average sale price rose 8.3% on a year-over-year basis in October; excluding Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto, it increased by 2.5%.

The number of homes trading

Owning your home means more financial responsibility than merely being an occupying tenant in a rental property. There are a considerable amount of additional costs that go in to purchasing a house such as Home Owners Association fees, insurance, maintenance, and repairs. In spite of the extra expenses having a place to call your own gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment as well as provides a fantastic investment opportunity as equity is built over time. 

One of the best aspects of purchasing your own residence is the ability to put a personal touch in to the decor and style. Paint colors, flooring, lighting, or total room redesigns are all just waiting for you to choose and customize. However, a home owner not only needs to keep their finger

There is no controlling the time of year that a seller might be required to sell their real estate, but what about the busy period leading up to the holiday season?

Although listing a home too close to Christmas isn’t ideal in many cases, it can yield positive results if done properly.
 
One advantage of selling a property around the holidays is that there’s typically less competition. With fewer listings on the market at this time of year, you can take advantage of the more serious active buyers. It’s not uncommon that work schedules lighten up leading to the holidays, which may allow active buyers to focus on house hunting.

The amount of active buyers will be somewhat dictated by the condition of the local market – for instance, a seller's market

Kamloops and the Thompson-Nicola region is facing a rental housing shortage, but compared to the rest of the country the area is not fairing too poorly.

According to the Canadian Rental Housing Index, in the region there are 53,375 renter households and of those 10,995 people are renting accommodations. That represents 21 per cent of the population as renters, with a median household income of $37,384. The average rent in the area is $835 including utilities. Of those renting, more than 48 per cent of people spend 30 per cent or more of their income for housing. Another 2,425 people spend more than 50 per cent of their income on housing needs, representing 22 per cent of all renters.

The number of renters living in overcrowded conditions represents