Author: Marc Evans

Broker, Team Leader of the Evans Real Estate Group Rookie Broker Owner of Fastest Growing Remax in the World w/ Remax Hall of Fame, Lifetime Award Recipient
Real Estate - ANALYSIS, Real Estate Sales, Uncategorized

Navan VS Cumberland

Despite many clients of mine seeing these neighbourhoods as being relatively similar options, there are a ton of both important and fascinating differences between them.

Here are some aspects of each village and differences between them (please excuse me as I can’t get EVERYTHING in here):

Navan

Known as one of the best communities in the City, Navan is INCREDIBLY engaged with it’s ‘villagers’. Founded in the early 1800’s, it was named after Navan Ireland (very cool) and was predominantly farming land. Since then it’s amassed some very active and beloved establishments like J.T. Bradleys and the Navan Memorial Center and Arena. Home to the renowned Navan Grads Jr.A Hockey Team and Navan Fair, this village is really a beacon for community spirit. Who hasn’t had a few drinks in the beer tent while listening to some amazing live country music? Their sense of recreation further extends to Fastball leagues, Curling and plenty of activity on the Prescott/Russel pathway.

They also pride themselves on their Navan Market, community dinners and seasonal festivals.

Another unique aspect would be that Navan has an Elementary School and many Daycares and Churches (fun fact… St. Mary’s Anglican church was named after TWO St. Mary’s churches in Ireland).

There are fewer sales per year in Navan and a slightly lower price point than Cumberland (coming in at 875K on average in 2023).

If I had to describe Navan in 1 word it would be COMMUNITY. Go Navan!

Cumberland

Known as where ‘the nice houses are in the East End’, Cumberland has a VERY cool history. While Cumberland was also formed in the early 1800’s, it was originally a fur trading and saw mill community founded by British Empire Loyalists. Fun Fact: The Grandchildren of a ‘Loyalist’ with the Dunning last name, and a renowned Fur Trader with the Foubert last name are what my Elementary School in Orleans was named after – Dunning Foubert! The village boasts a very quaint ‘downtown’ area with shops, restaurants and even a Heritage Museum and Arena within a few hundred meters.

Admittedly a ‘quieter’ community, Cumberland still has an active community association that supports it’s famous Cumberland Market, as well as having a big emphasis on local Arts and Culture.

Not to be outdone with recreation, Cumberland also has many great trails and pathways. It also has it’s own Arena, Outdoor Rinks and Curling Club, but most notably – the prestigious Camelot Golf Course (which I believe is the nicest course in the entire City).

Real Estate wise, MORE sales per year, with a slightly higher price point of around 900K on average. HOWEVER – there are homes for sale as high as 3M in Cumberland, with consistent homes listed in the high 1M’s and even 2M’s. There are certainly homes of that caliber in Navan, just not nearly as many.

If I had to describe Cumberland in one word it would be “High-End” ( I used a dash to make that one word.. it counts).

CONCLUSION

This is just my opinion – so don’t be mad.

If you are looking for more of an ACTIVE community, with a strong sense of Family and Recreation – then Navan is BY FAR your best choice.

If you are looking for a SLOWER paced community, with a strong sense of Arts and Culture – then CUMBERLAND is BY FAR your best choice.

Again, these are just generalizations. OF COURSE each community has a bit of everything.

What do you think?

What should I include in this article?

Real Estate Financing, Renters

Incentives to Build Rentals in Ottawa

Are you a builder considering, or already building rental units in Ottawa?

In the past few months, various stages of the Government have introduced incentives to help encourage more development of rental housing, and even student and long term care housing in some instances.

Here is a QUICK summary of what’s being offered:

  1. HST Scrapped

BOTH the Federal Government and the Provincial Government have agreed to scrap the total amount of HST they would have charged on the sale of new construction of Rental Housing, Student Housing and Long Term Care Housing. For Rental housing specifically, that would mean 4 or more self contained units (think fourplex and up….all the way up). These programs harmoniously apply to developments that begin construction by the end of 2030 and finish no later than the end of 2035.

What if the builder is keeping the rental for themselves and NOT selling it? Good question. The part to be careful of here is that as SOON AS the builder/developer/owner rents the units, the Government deems that the property has been sold and purchased at fair market value – kind of like you are buying the asset from yourself. This means that they want their cut – the tax. Under this new rebate they will let it slide for the time being.

2. Rental Construction Financing

For Residential Rental Construction, CMHC will loan a minimum of $1,000,000 for construction of 5 units or more (subject to other conditions) and up to ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the cost to build.

That’s right – they may finance the whole thing.

3. MORE CMHC Insurance on Financing

This one is a little more of an indirect benefit to Builders, so let me (try to) explain this.

When builders finance rental construction by other means (than self financed or by taking advantage of the above mentioned program), they require CMHC insurance on their loans. One of the ways CMHC raises funds to underwrite the insurance is by selling CMHC Mortgage Bonds, and they recently decided to UP their available bonds for sale from 40B to 60B – making 20B MORE available for sale so that they can generate MORE money and therefore underwrite MORE insurance. MORE insurance means MORE favourable financing from lenders, which means MORE builders can get MORE good financing on rental construction.

To summarize: No tax charged on the construction/sale, between 1M and 100% of value of financing available, and more favourable lending available via more and favourable insurance for lenders.

For more information on these programs please feel free to reach out, and of course – before making any drastic decisions, consult your accountant and lawyer.

Uncategorized

Landsdowne 2.0

In 2022 an Official Plan and Zoning By Law Amendment application to permit some MASSIVE changes to the already incredible venue we’ve all come to love.

Just this past October, some changes to those applications were put forth that are now seeing to add TWO additional towers up to 40 storeys high, a stand alone Event Center at the East of TD Place Stadium, and a remodeling of the North stands.

There are also significant plans to maintain/update the aging infrastructure, enhance the quality of the existing experience, and reinvent the community spaces, sport, music, art and Canal connections.

Current estimate of the cost of this project is at 420 Million.

What are your thoughts on the project?

Have a look at the new Ceremonial Entrance and storefronts in the third picture!

Real Estate Sales

Buying and Selling a Biz

It’s true, it’s true…. Realtors’ can also help people buy and sell businesses!

While the formula for doing so isn’t the same as buying or selling a business, there is still an absolute formula to follow if you want to do it right.

Here are some of the SUPER fun considerations to look at:

  1. Earnings of the Company and how that factors in to the value. Two big terms here are EBITDA and Multiples. The EBITDA is the ‘Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization’. Why does that matter? Well… because people often ‘fudge’ their earning for tax purposes, and if you can get your hands on a few years of 3rd party (or audited) financials, you can deconstruct them to identify they TRUE earnings – or EBITDA. Then, you need to figure out what multiple applies to your industry. A multiple is basically the number that is multiplied by the EBITDA which can fairly place the value of the company according to other recent sales in the industry and their multiples. So – if you’re EBITDA is 100K, and based off your research you see that common multiples for your industry are between 4.5 and 5, then your value could be between 450K and 500K.
  2. Another thing to consider is the value of any assets in the company. Here you’ll need to look at a full list and you depending how big and how complex that list is, you may want to get an appraiser or subject matter expert to determine the overall value being offered.
  3. Another thing I like to consider, that many people overlook – is the LEASE (if there is one) on the property. Not all businesses own the Real Estate they operate out of, and if that’s the case – you need to know all details about the lease. Most importantly WHEN the lease expires and what RISK that’s going to add to your business. One of my strategies when representing a Buyer for a business is the successful renegotiation of a lease to gain favourable terms and to give stability to the new owner.
  4. The last thing that is also the most overlooked – is a simple business plan. I know – hard to believe.. but a LOT of people fail to do a simple analysis of the both the industry and the business itself, the competition and the risk that it faces on a Macro and Micro level. I’ve found that a quick overview of these aspects gives my clients enough information to make the proper strategic decision.

If you’re BUYING a business – you need all this stuff.

If you’re SELLING a business – you need all this stuff AND you need to advertise it properly. You should take the proper time (often 5 years) in getting everything ready for sale. There are certain things you can do TODAY to help make your business more valuable, which I’ll talk about in another post another day 🙂

Thanks for Reading.

Real Estate - ANALYSIS, Real Estate Financing, Real Estate Sales

BOC Holds – Who Cares?

The Bank of Canada (BoC) announced today that they are HOLDING their Key Rate at 5% – but why should you care?

Well, there are two reasons you should care.

The first one would be WHY they decided to hold. Essentially, the BoC manipulates their Key Rate (the rate at which ALL banks borrow their money and then turn around and loan it to you (at a markup aka Prime Rate) based off of how much or little they think you should be spending on stuff. If people are spending TOO MUCH and Inflation starts to get out of control, or perhaps debt levels get out of control – they INCREASE their rates to (essentially) squeeze your pocket book and make you calm your spending.

Tough love – yes. But sometimes required.

So the REASON therefore that they decided to HOLD rates is because they are seeing that people and the economy are getting their financial acts together – WHICH IS GREAT.

Inflation is down a little to 3.8% from 4%, and the GDP was flat last quarter at .03% growth (if it would have been in the negative then combined with last Q’s negative growth then we would have officially been in a recession).

So imagine a plane about to crash and then barely pulls up in time and skims the trees and everyone is safe.

Good play BoC. Good play.

The Second reason you should care about this is because since our financial plane just skimmed the trees and everyone will be ok – that sigh of relief will have great ripple effects moving forward. Happy and relieved people have less stress and anxiety, tend to go out and have a little more fun, spend a little money – and overall just make life more enjoyable. So that’s good!

These are two reasons you should care about the announcement this morning.

Now if you are BUYING and/or SELLING Real Estate then this has even more importance to you. The MAIN thing here is that we will have decent consumer confidence moving forward, which in turns means Sales Activity should continue to creep along at (hopefully) decent levels.

Why that matters is because the last rate hikes … well honestly… they hurt.

Last year the average home in Ottawa was 745K and as of last week the average is 588K – nearly a 200K difference. That 745K was also down from nearly 800K the year before that. If you’ve been looking to sell then it hasn’t been a good run the past few months, so this should at least stabilize things and give us a little bit of activity before we close out the year.

If you’re looking to Buy – this might honestly be the bottom of the market.

The BoC is claiming they want to LOWER their key rate by the end of Q2 (June) next year down to 4%, which means variable loan payments will go down and prices will start going back up.

If you want any more info on this situation or have anything you want to run by me please dont be shy. You can call me or text me directly at (613)868-4383, or email me at mevans@remax.net.

Best

Real Estate Sales

Who Has Your Money?

How we prepare and describe the property depends on the concept of the Target Market, that is – WHO is your buyer? Better yet – who is your BEST Buyer? And ultimately – Who is the BEST Buyer that has YOUR money and is willing to exchange it for your house?

THAT’S WHO WE’RE INTERESTED IN FINDING.

To refine the definition of Market Value we explained earlier, I would change “What a home is worth to a Buyer” to “How much the Best Buyer is willing to pay for the home”.  

We aren’t interested in just ANY Buyer, and we know that there are many types. Two important ones to consider are the CHEAP BUYER that wants the best price on EVERYTHING. We all know this Buyer – cheapest clothes, car and virtually everything else. “What’s your best price?” is the mantra for this buyer. The buyer we want is called a QUALITY BUYER, that is – a buyer that is looking for quality and is willing to pay for it. It’s important to know that not every buyer is looking for the cheapest house. In fact, most aren’t. Most buyers are looking for a GREAT house that will make them happy, give them the life they are looking forward to, and make them feel safe and proud. We have all kinds of emotions and different motivations to work with here – and that is the plan. 

In determining how we will prepare and market a home, we first look to identify that Target Market. Typical Targets are young couples, first time home buyers, young families and investors. Not so typical Targets include very specific demographics relating to age, culture and even socio-economic status. It’s often considered taboo to market housing to a specific demographic for fear of discrimination, however ignoring clear signs of groups or types of people that absolutely pay more for specific houses in certain areas is a little reckless and is leaving money on the table. Of course, there is a tactful and respectful way to market homes as well. 

First Time Home Buyers are looking for things like value, security, stability and excitement at the same time. 

Young families are interested in yards, parks, school bus routes, rec rooms, open concept spaces, and community. 

Investors are looking for opportunity, growth and stability. 

Once you’ve identified the Target Market, you then need to consider how to prepare the home in a way that appeals to them the most. This is where staging and design comes into play. What types of upgrades are they looking for specifically? What style are those upgrades? What type of quality are those upgrades? What types of décor speaks to that buyer and attracts them? You can even get down into certain smells and sounds in the home they will appreciate. How should the home smell and sound when they walk in during showings? 

When properly executed, preparation of the property is an incredibly powerful way to attract the highest and best offers, and for this reason, we put in a great deal of effort into carefully curating an environment that will showcase the most value to our target market.        

Thought Process - THOUGHT PROVOKING

Brainpower or Horsepower?

Brainpower or Horsepower?

How to get a job well done means something different today than it did a few years ago.

You see, for the last 50 years we were in the ‘Information Age’, where speed and access to information is what gave people a competitive advantage. This of course, was preceeded by the Industrial Revolution, where mass production defined success.

Apparently we are now in the Age of ‘The Internet of Things’. I’m 42 years old – so don’t ask me what that means.

How to get a job well done means something different today than it did a few years ago.

But I will tell you this – we have gotten TOO FAR AWAY from Mass Production.

As valuable as Brainpower is, it is not a substitute for Horsepower. Quite obviously, we need both.

For far too long people have guarded and leveraged their access to information to have an advantage – and it’s made them LAZY.

Ever wonder at how many Tradesmen make multi million dollar empires all the time?

HORSEPOWER – that’s how. They understand their trade, they understand business – and they GO.

So say what they will. The ‘Internet of Things’ can be the new ‘soup du jour’ all you want. But if that knowledge is not applied and showcased with an obsessive and mighty work ethic – it will just blend in with the rest.

In fact, the more society evolves to an even more dependent knowledge based economy, I would bet my house that those that embrace that knowledge but keep their PRIMARY focus on outworking others will enjoy success at the highest level.

So don’t get comfortable.

Get to work.

Real Estate Sales, Uncategorized

If you think Realtors cost a lot – you should see how much missing the perfect Buyer costs.

Ever hear a person say Realtors’ cost too much? I have.

This statement implies that we all do the same thing, and the only difference between us is price. If that were true, then there would be a giant race to the bottom for commissions to get the client the best value.

The fact is – we don’t all do the same thing. There are a ton of different models and even more Realtors, and depending on WHAT we do – you can get a very different result.

Here are the Top 5 ways in which (what I would call) a GOOD Realtor NETS their Seller MORE money than ANY OTHER OPTION THEY HAVE.

5. Keeping more money on the table during post-inspection negotiations. Quite often, once the preliminary negotiations are done, buyers will get a home inspection. It is entirely possible they either find some serious issues, or even pretend like they do – and they come back to RE-negotiate and get a better deal. The problem here is that they may feel they have you stuck because your property is Conditionally Sold and they are threatening to walk away and stigmatize your property unless you bend to their wishes. A good agent will be able to skillfully evaluate the alleged problems and their costs, let alone use great communication and potentially bring in other aspects of value to keep the deal together.

4. Negotiating a better deal. Even better than having to save a deal, is negotiating an air-tight one in the first place. No conditions is best, but in their absence a good realtor will mitigate the risks of foul play by disclosing and being up front about potential hurdles, securing a high deposit, and even using verbage in the offer that keeps their client protected in the event the Buyer tries to pull a quick one. They can keep some value shelved in case they need to use it later, and have excellent rapport and communication with the other side to make sure things will go smooth.

3. Making your home more valuable. Bringing in stagers, repair men, cleaners and even just sound advice on extremely cost effective ways to pump up the property’s value are a few ways we can do this. We certainly are aware of trends and areas that can be improved, and have a strong network of specialists to pull on for expertise as well.

2. Making your home appear more valuable. Marketing will showcase your home in the best light possible – giving it an appearance that it is as valuable as it could be. There is a delicate balance to be had here between showcasing and exaggerating, where we want to make sure we aren’t misleading the Buyers and setting their expectations up improperly. When good marketing makes a home appear more valuable than poor marketing would – you get better buyers in the door.

1. Finding the Right Buyer. Number 1 on my list because this is the BIGGEST deal a good (listing) agent will do for you. There a LOT of buyers for your home, but you want the ONE who is willing to pay the most amount of money for it, right? Identifying WHO that Buyer is from the get go (Marketing 101: Identify your Target Market), and rolling out a marketing plan (staging, photos, video, ads, descriptions etc) that appeal directly to THAT buyer is what will ensure you attract the best offer(s) possible. Think about it – the Buyer willing to spend the MOST amount of money on your home is looking for quality, and more importantly – WILLING TO PAY FOR IT. That’s who we want. Your home can be a lot of things to a lot of people. We want it to be the PERFECT home for the PERFECT Buyer.

Uncategorized

Outdated Sales Training and Why You’re not Finding The Right Home

Do you really want the best house for the best price?

Or do you just like how that sounds?

Does it not make sense that you CAN NOT DO WHAT EVERY OTHER BUYER is then doing?

Because if you are – then you’re just competing with them all.

I want you to have an UNFAIR advantage.

When I started in Real Estate 16 years ago, I learned my 3 basis value propositions would be a) my access to properties BEFORE they hit the market, b) my access to the best lenders in the industry, and c) my specialized knowledge that would help them get the best deal.

Problem was, a massive amount of other Realtors in my market could compete with that, so I had to find something that they couldn’t compete with.

After a decade of coaching, experimenting, writing hundreds if not thousands of deals – I stumbled upon the silver bullet during a slow market when there was no inventory.

What happened was that since there were no homes that matched what my Buyer was looking for, I took a few hours and EDUCATED my buyer not only as to how the process worked, but also how homes were being priced, what homes were listed for, what shape they were in, the dollar amount and HOW they were selling, and how offers could look on them.

I called the process Marketplace Education, and it proved to be the single largest advancement in my clients’ success. To make this even better, I’m more than happy to explain to you how I get this done, as I know in my experience as a Sales Trainer of many of the Top Teams in the City, that most won’t have the patience to do what I’m about to explain.

The process revolves around two key points a) property value and b) property acquisition.

To begin, property value is the process in which we will physically take you out to see homes in and around your desired parameters to help you get a better sense of what properties are worth. We go out WITHOUT the intention to buy a home, but rather with the intention to educate ourselves as to what a good/bad deal is, and what properties are looking like in the scope of what you’re looking for. This does many things, the least of which is putting you in a better position to make an informed decision when the time comes, and not simply take our word for it. How much more comfortable would you be if you KNEW what a property was worth, and what was a good/bad deal? That’s the major goal here.

Property Acquisition deals with HOW and HOW MUCH these properties are selling for. To begin, we will select a property and get a grasp of the value, the offer climate (holding offers/ how many days on market/ competing offers etc), and structure a MOCK offer to simulate what we would do in a real life scenario. This also does many things, the most valuable of which is make you comfortable with the process, but also making you familiar with the paperwork and getting an understanding of how successful our strategies would have been. This can save you from dramatically overpaying for or completely losing out on the perfect home.

So imagine…. all of this Marketplace Education is done, and now BOTH OF US are completely equipped to size up a good deal AND to act on it.

How do you think it goes when we see a home before anyone else and we are able to confidently and capably act on it?

It goes very well, that’s how.

And that’s also how our clients have been able to make sure they don’t overpay for a home, over expose themselves to risk, or worse – lose out on their dream home.

Uncategorized

Sure, it’s Relative – but be smart.

Sometimes people forget that when you are buying AND selling Real Estate – what you buy and sell for is all relative. For example, if you SELL for a lot of money, you’re also likely turning around and BUYING for a lot of money. On the contrary if you sell for LESS than you would have like, well – you’re likely going to buy for less than you would otherwise as well (that’s good).

So what’s the overall difference? Should people just NOT CARE about upsizing or downsizing and live their best lives in any house they want?

No – of course not.

What you SHOULD be doing as looking at the complete financial picture after all cash inflows, outflows and taxes are taken into account.

Here’s what I mean:

  • is the sale of your property going to be subject to income or capital gains tax? If so, how much?
  • What will your total payments look like? Mortgage, Property Taxes and Insurance?
  • What about utility or maintenance costs/fees? Are those much higher or lower?

What is your bank account and cash flow going to look like?

The other aspect to consider is what is your LIFE going to look like?

Will you be much happier? Be busy with repairs or have more free time? Doing what you love or hate??

All of those matter a great deal.

When you look at the picture ENTIRELY like this, you can sometimes see that buying or selling Real Estate can either make total sense or no sense where you may not have thought otherwise before.