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Local Business Spotlight: Junk That Funk

 

 

This week I had a chance to speak with Cory Desormeaux, owner and manager of Junk that Funk.

Junk that Funk specializes in the removal of any unwanted items, whether your downsizing, renovating moving or just getting rid of things that you don’t need. We’re a full service team so we’ll physically go in and remove anything that you don’t want.

We’re located right here in Ottawa and we’ll remove anything from anywhere, the only thing we won’t touch is hazardous material such as gas, propane tanks and paint.

The benefits of using Junk That Funk are endless but to name a few, they’re local and affordable and they’re big into recycling and community involvement. They regularly run an electronic waste drop off, where you can go and drop off your old electronics for recycling. They also sponsor the Santa Clause Parade!

No load is too big, once they moved more the 14 bins of junk from someone’s property, but if you’re a DIY kind of guy or gal you can always rent a bin. Cory and his team will drop it off and pick it up… all you have to do is fill it with your junk!

Check out Cory’s website for some ore info and remember to like, comment and share!

 

 

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One Minute Market Update: Orleans

 

 

 

Hi guys, thanks for checking out my latest market update on Orleans.

I took a look at the market in Orleans comparing last year to this year and what I found was really interesting. On average prices haven’t gone up, days on market are a little bit longer in every kind of market such as free hold or condo type properties.

The real story here is with single family detached homes. I looked at the the expired homes, the ones that didn’t sell. And up until this time last year in 2015 55% of single family homes last year did not sell, this year 65% of single family homes didn’t sell. That means that only 35% of homes on the market are actually selling.

Why is that happening?

The reason is because Orleans is a suburb originally built off of baby boomers but for the past ten years they’ve been slowly moving out of their homes slowly. The problem is that they are not being absorbed fast enough. The people who are buying homes right now are young families in their early 30s who are not quite ready to buy those big family homes.

The days on market are longer and prices are lower. In particular for single family homes are on the market for  10% longer. If you’re a seller you should look into getting a good agent so that your home isn’t on the market longer than it needs to be. And if you’re a buyer – it’s a great time to buy a home in Orleans.

I hope you found this helpful, keep checking back for more updates on the market in Ottawa!

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City of Ottawa Development Signs – What Do They Really Mean?

 

Hi everyone,

I’m sure a lot of people have seen the large City of Ottawa development signs around and if you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what exactly that means for your community.

Today I’m going to show you what those city of Ottawa signs mean and how you can get some important information on developments in your community.

To find out what any given sign means you’re going to go to http://www.ottawa.ca/devapps.

In the “Development Application Search” you’re going to type in whatever reference, the street, address, whatever information was available on the sign.

Once you find the location that you’re looking for you will then be able to see what the status is, what type of application it was, where the status is, if you can comment on the issue and the last day that the status was updated.

If you click on the file you will get some more details about what exactly is going on. You will get a quick summary of what is going on, a map, and a planning rational explaining why the application is a good idea.

What’s really cool about devapps.ca is that you can check out official plans and amendments in your local area and stay up to date on what’s going on.

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Local Business Spotlight with Marc Evans: Nick Lamoureux from Healthy Homes Ottawa

 

Keep your business local. By doing business locally, you not only get personal service and real value, you also help strengthen our local community and economy.

Today I interviewed Nick Lamoureaux from Healthy Homes Ottawa. He is a home inspector here in Ottawa and he gave me some great advice!

When looking to hire a home inspector you want to be dealing with someone young and mobile who is equipped to properly inspect your home. It’s 2016, we live in the age of technology and it’s important to remember this when hiring a home inspector. There are tools like the thermal gun that allow him to find anomalies in walls and ceilings that you can’t see with the naked eye, like water leaks and even mice trails! A lot of issues can go undiscovered if you don’t have the right tools!

Feel free to contact Nick if you or someone you know is in need of a home inspection!
613.915.7005
info@healthyhomesottawa.ca

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What’s it Like Working with Marc Evans?

 

This week I want to share with you an experience that a past client of mine had. This particular fellow had actually worked in Real Estate before, he had worked with a lot of Real Estate Agents before, and had a lot of overall experience in Real estate. He thought he knew what to expect, but… let’s see how things turned out with him…

” Hi Everyone, my name is Roger Dagenais, and I just wanted to give a big Thank You to Marc and Tarek for helping my buy my house! I’ve been living here for about 2 years now, and when I chose them as my Real Estate agents I thought they might have been like every one else – trying to push me into a house and land a commission, and these guys are not. They’re actually really hard working, very trustworthy people, and I just loved dealing with them. Now we had a new addition to the family, and we’re looking to have sell this home, and have Marc and Tarek find us a new house. I highly recommend Marc and Tarek, so give them a call – they’ll be great for you.”

So that’s it! Good buddy of mine that I helped out. Had a lot on the go and it went very well. If you’re looking for help as well, please give me a call at (613)739-9494 or email me at Mevans@evanselattar.com.

Thanks 🙂

Market Update, Suburb Series, Video

Market Update – Orleans

 

Hey Everyone,

In this segment I’m going to go through the beginning of the Suburb Series, which means this week I’m going to go through the stats year over year for Orleans, and in the coming weeks you’ll see me and my team go through Barrhaven, Kanata, Stittsville, Nepean etc.

Here goes for Orleans:

Year over year, prices were DOWN 2% on average.

For the same time period, days on market were UP 46% on average.

Here are the stats:

 

April 2015

Detached   113 @ 443K in 31

Towns       54 @ 311K in 26

Condos       41 @ 311K in 47

 

April 2016

Detached   125 @437K in 41

Towns         55 @ 309K in 33

Condos       34 @ 219K in 51

 

What does this mean? If you are thinking of selling, you need to invest in a GOOD agent who can do some damage control and make sure you are getting as much money as possible. If you are looking to Buy, it’s a GREAT time to buy as prices are down on average and sellers are hurting a bit.

If you want some specific information on any type of home in any type of area – please call me at (613)739-5959 or email at Mevans@evanselattar.com

 

See you soon!

Market Update, Video

Market Update – Fallingbrook Orleans

Hey everyone,

Quick Market Update here for Fallingbrook Orleans. Let’s get into it and see how it looked!

In April 2016 we had 38 sales, which accounts for 18% of all sales in Orleans that month.

Now let’s get some context moving forward and compare April 2015 to April 2016 so you can see how we are progressing.

One type of property that sells well in Fallingbrook is 2 Story Detached homes. In April 2015 we had 28 sales, for an average of $440,000 and an average time on market of 35 days. April 2016 saw 19 sales, for an average of $411,000 with a time on market of 53 days. So that’s a decrease in sales of 32%, a decrease in price of 6.5%, and an increase in days on market of 34%.

Detached Bungalows are next. Only a few of them sold in April 2015. 2 Sales with an average price of $321,000 and 22 days on market. In April 2016 we saw 3 sales, average price of $460,000 with 30 days on market. That’s a 50% increase in sales, 44% increase in price, ad 36% increase in days on market. Don’t look too much into these percentages because you can’t get any meaningful trend information out of these small numbers.

Townhouses are next. In April 2015 we had 33 sales, for an average price of $284,000 selling in 22 days. In April 2016 we saw 16 sales, selling for $291,000 on average, and in 33 days. That’s a 51% decrease in sales, 2% increase in value, and 50% increase in days on market.

Finally, a few condos sold both last year and this year in Fallingbrook. Last April only 3 condos sold, for an average of $241,000 in 24 days. These were all townhouse condos. This past April we only had 1 condo sale and it was in Club Citadel, sold for $204,000 and in 33 days. Don’t look too much into any trends here because of the small numbers, but sales for condos were down 66%, Price is down 15% and days on Market is up 38%.

That’s it for the market update in Fallingbrook!

Don’t forget we always offer FREE home home evaluations to sellers with NO OBLIGATION to list, and we offer priority access to HOT new listings to buyers, including properties from ALL real estate companies, bank foreclosures, company owned properties and builder closeouts.

 

Call me anytime at (613)739-5959 or email me at means@evanselattar.com

Talk Soon!

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How to: Increase net worth by $700/month w/bonus cash of $600/month for 5 years with a few thousand dollars start up.

Let’s say you are renting a townhouse. In Ottawa a nice townhouse can fetch 1450-1600 a month rent, so let’s just say $1500 for arguments sake.

That same townhouse is likely going to be about 305-325 to purchase, so let’s go with $315,000.

5% down is 15, 750. Budget a few thousand for closing costs as well.

On a 5 year, 30 year ammo, 3.5% your payment is $1343 – CHEAPER than rent. 

It get’s better. 

Remember that rent you were wasting? All $1500 of it? Well when you are paying a mortgage – this one specifically – $480 of the payment is going towards the loan itself, and the only the balance of $1020 is being wasted away! With a scenario like this you are saving about $500 a month when compared to renting. The money being paid against the loan is similar to being put in a bank account called “equity”. Think of it as a bank account in the walls of your home, and you get to cash it out when you sell. Now if you only put 5% down you will have to pay CMHC Insurance, which will get added to the mortgage and cost you about $30-$40 extra per month. Property Taxes and Insurance will also cost you about $300 a month as well. So you’re extra $480 per month becomes about $150 per month of a net savings.

It get’s better.

Some banks are offering Cash Back incentives of up to 5% of the purchase price of the home you buy, so while you are spending 5% plus closing costs to GET the house, you are getting back 5% cashed back, meaning you are only out of pocket a few thousand bucks!

Not too bad!

It gets better.

Let’s say that townhouse appreciates at a conservative 2% per year, and you hold onto it for 5 years. That’s about $6600 per year in appreciation, or $550/month NET (since you can realize this amount in a lump sum when you sell, tax free as long as CRA determines it was your principle residence). 

Summary:

TOTAL CASH OUTFLOW of owning this townhouse of ($1343 mortgage plus $330 taxes and insurance = ) $1637 per month.

Net Worth Increase of ($150 paid against loan + $550 gain in appreciation = ) $700 per month. 

Do you see how people make some good money by buying a home and selling it after (about) 5 years? That’s 60 months of increasing net worth by $700 which is $42,000!! MONEY YOU WOULDN’T GET RENTING!

BONUS: Rent out a room to a good friend for $600/month and put that money directly against your mortgage and realize ANOTHER $40,000 of equity from paying down that loan faster. That’s up to $82,000 of a gain in 5 years!

As I always say – don’t go running amok spending your money on a townhouse now… consult with your trusted sales and lending professionals to make sure this scenario is right for you, and to go over all the intricate details and risks. Email me at mevans@evanselattar.com to look into it if you would like. 

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A Good Plan Today is Better Than a Perfect Plan Tomorrow

Interest rates are more than likely to start going up in then next 6 months….very slowly I’m sure.

Are you fully taking advantage of the historic low rates?

Have you thought about refinancing your home?

Maybe pulling out some equity to invest in something?

Straight out buying an investment?

It’s the time to start thinking about it and even to explore opportunities. A lot of times people don’t think they could ever get involved for one reason or another. Some believe they don’t have enough money, some think it’s too risky. Well…There are ways to get in for relatively cheap and even FREE, and when it comes to risk, well…driving can be risky too…but that doesn’t mean you have to be a risky driver.

Remember that Ottawa is a slow and steady market, so the bread and butter to long term wealth here is buying and holding. There are plenty of opportunities out there right now.

I myself am looking to upgrade my personal residence this year and have a secondary dwelling in the walk out lower level to subsidize my mortgage. If rates weren’t where they are I would be staying put for another few years until I completely outgrew my home and had more equity – but instead I’m taking advantage of a good buying environment and upping the ante.

Are you making any moves?