Your Real Estate Portfolio...

Many of you have owned your homes for a number of years already. A quick math check of its estimated market value today as compared to what it was when you bought it, less the mortgage amount would likely yield a nice chunk of value. Quite frankly, I am sure that for many of you, if you divided the gain in equity in your home by the number of months that you have owned it, you would find that that amount (which is tax free) might equal the take home pay of a full time job.


I am sure that there are not many American Realtors who are sending notes like this one at the present time. We are quite fortunate living where we do and being able to enjoy these economic gains. What is even more astonishing is that I can't recall any of my clients not being fearful at the time of purchase that the market might not tank after they bought their property. So, each of you might have been thinking that you were buying close to the high, and yet look what happened!

One of the problems we face as parents is the financial pressure of university as well as the future housing costs that our children face, should we wish them to locate near us. This Generation X market and the foothold they need in the real estate market is the next big issue. It has already started. Parents are starting to invest in real estate now so that their children will have equity when their time comes to move out, hopefully, permanently!

I recently came across a smart condo play that made sense to me and I would be happy to share it with any of you. It was not just another highrise; it is in a great downtown location. The developer needs to sell a certain number of units, close to 50% prior to obtaning financing to enable him to put the shovel to the ground. To do that, he is offering 5% on deposit monies which will be held in trust as well at a 2% HST rebate with completion expected to be in 2013. There are still a few units left at better than presale prices where you can put very little money up front, earn interest on it in the interim and hopefully, establish another foolhold in a great market. It took two of my clients just 30 minutes to see the value in this and it is not difficult to see why; good developer; good track record; great location and great pricing with money earned on carrying costs and very little money down (all of which is in trust).

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Happy New Year, full of joy, good health for you and your families, and, I would like to thank you for allowing me the privilege to share and contribute to your successes in my professional capacity.

Regards and see you in the new year!

AS