Your Condo World Blog

Have you ever noticed on Sunday afternoons from about one until five p.m. so many of our radio stations seem to play an inordinate number of paid commercials for financial advisors? The common theme to their ads is so often “can you afford to retire?”

It’s not difficult to understand why these people target this particular time slot. It’s the one day of the week people get to get together for family time and to reflect upon where they are at in their lives.

As a real estate sales person I know that Sundays are often days when people make important buying and selling decisions. I often work with new home builders ( I also sell new and resale condos as I wear multiple hats) so my slant on things is slightly different. The question that I would like to ask is not “can you afford to retire?” but rather “what kind of an environment do you want to create for yourself once you do decide to retire?” Might you ever consider purchasing a brand new one floor home in a country setting? More specifically, would you ever consider moving to a village setting which is located 32 miles west and slightly north of London in the Village of Arkona on the Ausable River in the Municipality of Lambton Shores? Arkona is 9 miles east of Forest, 13 miles south-east of Port Frank and 15 miles north-west of Strathroy. Sarnia is 39 miles to the west. Google Arkona if you wish. The village’s nickname is “The Little Apple” and it is home to over 120,000 fruit trees, most of which are of the apples and cherry variety. It is also home to the world famous “Rock Glen Conservation Park” and fossil collectors from around the world know it well.

What special charms does the Arkona area have to offer? Well the white sugary beaches of “The Pinery Provincial Park” are only 15 miles away and the entire area is a mecca for three season golfers. The “Arkona Fairways Golf Course” ( www.arkonafairways.com) has one of the most picturesque layouts in the region with wonderfully scenic backdrops.

Not everyone is going to drop what they are doing and rush off to Arkona to check out everything happening there. Yet what I would like to say is that the “Reid” family of new home builders has quietly started to build houses and condos in coastal communities like Kincardine and Port Elgin and now they have moved into the rural setting of Arkona. They recognize the new need to be niche players in these changing times and the need to cater to the wants of our aging baby boomers. Not everyone wants to live in the country however many people do.

What I find particulary interesting is that people in my age bracket ( mid 50′s) are now willing to move for “change of lifestyle reasonings” while still cognitive of the aspect that their next move may be just one of many more. This type of thinking is so much different from that of how our parents put down their roots. It’s now, I believe more a question of now wanting to live life to it’s fullest.

Now a little bit more about the new Reid’s project in Arkona. At the present point in time there are two models available for sale with us – MLS #484484 and MLS # 492575 in a new subdivision know as “East Glen Estates” just off of Anne Street to the immediate west of the Arkona Fairways Golf Coarse. One thing which is a desirable attribute about this subdivision is that all of the lots have both sewers and municipal water. Forget having to worry about septic tanks and wells acting up.

A second future phase of this site consists of 39 approved lots, 19 of which will back directly onto golfing. Most of the lots will have generous 65 foot frontages. Reid’s is confident that this development site will be market driven.

What are the reasonings that people would want to live in this village setting? Clean air, cherry trees, a wonderful great lake nearbye, golfing, hiking trails, the absence of traffic and perhaps the American shopping an easy driving distance away in Port Huron. Let’s not also forget to mention that there is a Timmie’s coffee shop only nine miles away in the town of Forest.

Where do you want to live when you retire? On a boat in the Toronto harbour, Vancouver, Belleville, Kingston, Grand Bend, Bayfield, Collingwood, Sarnia, Windsor, London , Leamington or Kingsville? The point is that so many soon to be retirees are starting to make lifestlyle changes in bold new ways. Arkona, I feel, is yet another wonderful destination to be added to this list!
Cheers

The one criticism that many people have (had) about the Realtors.ca website is that it isn’t (wasn’t) possible to distinguish listings that are a day or two old from ones that are weeks or even months old. Afterall, what people really want to see is a list of the most recent new active listings.

The reasoning of course is that in hot markets everyone wants to be on top of the newest of the new listings. Well guess what has now happened? The Realtor.ca website (or the M.L.S. ca website as many people still know it to be) now offers a new feature labelled the “Show New Listings Only Tab”. It’s a tab that does exactly that.

What a long overdue step forward … why shop online for a house or condo anywhere else? Obviously this move was needed to ward off much of the new online competition.

There is however a flip side to this new change. It is that some real estate agents may be saddened by the introduction of this new feature. Why? Well some agents have had potential new buyers linked up to their personal or offices websites – sending out to them what basically is a free computer generated link, most usually set up to be daily or weekly…which gave them the very same thing as what this new Realtor.ca feature does. This is one way that agents attempted to bond with new potential buyers who have happened in many cases to find them on the web to begin with. This new feature added to the Realtors.ca website will effectively put to an end the advantage that these agents seemed to enjoy in offering this free service.

Who benefits from this new change? Well consumers now get what they want – a look at the freshest of the new listings in a manner that they can control themselves. Looking everyday or every otherday, it really doesn’t matter… now you can keep tabs on everything new that is happening. In an indirect fashion, this new feature will also benefit those real estate agents who are strong at getting listings. Now, these individuals will potentially stand to get more direct internet leads in the early days of the posting of their new MLS listings.

Once again, this is a big step forward for the Realtor.ca website and something that all consumers using the site will be happy to see. (**does this new feature put at a disadvantage older listings which are still in need of attention?. Perhaps, however we do live in an age where the markets are consumer driven).
… cheers

A shelter from the storm. When you think about it, that’s what a house or condo should really be all about. A place to rest your head at nights that is dry, warm and comfortable.

Thats what the three hundred and fifty plus low rise unit condo buildings on Deveron Crescent are really all about. A complex with two outdoor pools for summertime enjoyment and indoor saunas and whirlpools. Busses near the front door go directly to the Victoria Hospital down the street to the west. What’s more, in a three minute walk in one direction there is a library and in a three minute walk in another direction is a mall with a foodstore.

The complex consist of one, two and three bedroom units all with livingroom gas fireplaces and balconies. Our November 16th/2010 blog gives a history of these buildings.

Are these units good investments at this current time? Well in answering this question we must first examine one other issue. How is London as an engine of growth faring? 2011 was not a particularly kind year for the city. We all know that our unemployment rates near the end of the year were creeping up to near double digit levels. Yet in defense of these numbers we also saw this same situation with our unemployment rates back in 2009.

The point should be made that as we sit and contemplate our economic woes our arteries are still clogged with rush hour traffic and our parking lots at Costco and White Oaks Mall are full. In a similar way, our hospitals and university are running at near full capacities. With a high percentage of our population who are retirees or soon to be retirees life here in town pretty much goes on as usual despite what our economic indicators seem to be telling us.

In real estate when times get tough most homeowners and investors just hunker down and wait out the storm. Thats what happened with the Deveron complex like many other London condo complexes in 2011. Trading activity (# of units sold) dropped by thirty percent from the levels witnessed a year earlier. As for price changes – here are the statistics that we have figured out using the data from our real estate boards reported MLS sales. In 2011 the average price of a one bedroom condo was $78,600 (a price drop of 3% from the previous year). The average selling of a two bedroom unit was $102,500 (down 2.9%) and the average selling price of a three bedroom unit was $120,700 (down 2.2%). For comparison sake the average selling price of a two bedroom unit back in 2009 as previously indicated on our website was $100,500.

Should residences of these building be concerned with these numbers? Well remember how we started the blog talking about a place to sleep at night that is dry, warm and comfortable? Do not these consideration overshadow the importance of statistics showing that prices are wobbling up and down?

If you are considering getting into the real estate market as an investor or as a new homeowner might we suggest that now is a good time as any to make the plunge. Vacancy rates across the city are on the decline and new construction costs are rising. The way we see it, these Deveron condos are a safe haven in these turbulent times.

When your watching television do you contantly find yourself clicking from one channel to the next in search of yet another new program? What storage wars program do you like the best or do you prefer shows like “List it or Sell It”, “House Hunters”, “Property Virgins”, “Holmes on Homes”, and the “The Property Brothers”?

Searching for real estate websites is kind of the same process. Do you find yourself clicking from the ‘Realtors.ca’ website to ‘Comfree’ to ‘Kijiji’ ? In many ways all of these sites are all kind of different from each other but in many other ways they are very much the same.

Let’s start by saying that the best place to begin any real estate search in Canada is with the “Realtor.ca” website. It shows all of the active MLS listings for sale in every province.That’s the true strength of the site. Yet, in making this claim such a depth of listings is also oddly enough one of it’s shortcomings.

Why? Well there are two reasons for this.The first is that the site is designed to provide information about properties by ‘price range’ only. If for example, you want to find a property for sale in the south-eastern corner of your city between the price ranges of let’s say $225,000-$300,000 you can only get the entire cities listings in that price range. Then, if you are still not happy with the results that pop up, one of your options is to then fiddle with your pricing parameters. At times this process can become a a little bit overwhelming simply because so many listings across such a wide area pop up.

The second main problem with the site is that when you look at all of the listings there is no way of knowing if what you are looking at is two days old, two weeks old, two months old (the period of time that it has being listed for that is) or two years old. That afterall , is sometimes one of the main criteria used by astute buyers in determining how quickly they should be reacting to an offering when it seems to have both a good price and a host of desirable features. (*** a Jan16th ,2112 note – this feature now added to their site***)Other internet sites like ‘KIJIJI’ and ‘Zoocasa’ have different ways of presenting real estate postings based more on the concept of how recently they have been put up for sale. It really wouldn’t take all that much to spruce up the ‘Realtor.ca’ website to make it more exciting. Added features could include a section named “just listed” properties,”just reduced” properties or “just sold” properties. Yet then again, in doing so it would have to depart from its mandate of giving all of it’s listings equal billings. That’s what people who list their properties with licensed real estate agents expect to see.

The next major group of real estate websites in Canada are the ones operated by the likes of such organizations as Sutton, Royal Lepage and Century 21 . These companies all enjoy national presences. What we are about to note is however that these types of websites have “back office” mandates which are slightly self serving. Notice that they all say ‘find an agent’, ‘find a listing’ or ‘find an office’. Aren’t they trying to appease these three different interest groups all at once? Giving individual listings public exposure is really only one third of the overall game plan.

Then comes the websites hosted by ‘The Property Guys’ and ‘Comfree’. Both of these sites enjoy the online space of being recognized as the “alternative way” of buying and selling real estate. Their websites are super easy to navigate and offer superior graphics. This leads us to ask the following question. Do sellers opting to sell their properties privately reduce their asking prices by the amounts that they are hypothetically saving in real estate fees? We don’t think so, however thats part of the allure which helps to make these sites so appealing. In both good and not so good markets these sites always have a faithful following.

Now for a differing type of question. How does the real estate section of ‘KIJIJI’ fit into this equasion? Some people would comment that no one in their right minds is going to use ‘KIJIJ’ to help them find their next property. Now let me explain why I think that this kind of thinking is wrong. ‘KIJIJI ‘is free to post which is a huge advantage and it makes the telephone start to ring. It’s big when it comes to real estate rentals and that is a segment of the market that so many real estate agents purposely avoid dealing in. Why is this? Well many agents feel that too much effort is often spent trying to put a lease together (doing showings, preparing the paperwork for credit checks, getting keys made, setting up showings…) and that potential clients often slip away for reasonings that are outside of their control. As an agent I know that this part doing the business can at times be all so frustrating.

What all of this really means is that there is an entire subculture of landlords, ‘nearly ready’ to buy tenants, property owners who have just had listings expire and people who don’t know where to go next because of unexpected personal situations all meeting together and looking without an agent. Somehow real estate deals do get done.

Yahoo knows about all of these different real estate websites and the powerful niches that all so many have carved out for themselves. What they have now done to share in this action is put together a new website they called ‘Zoocasa’ . Their gig is to develop a following of sellers and would be buyers with the hopes of converting the number of hits that they get on their site into revenues from paid sponsors. Obviously they have deep pockets and can go at this new project as hard as they desire and its now somehow starting to pay off for them. Under their current framework, real estate agents are allowed to post their individual listings for free on the Zoocasa site and Yahoo hopes that this site will gain traction as other real estate agents will gradually start to realize that they can’t afford not to post their listings on this site.

Is the site working and are they stealing away traffic from other real estate websites? While it does have some fancy bells and whistles it still kind of feels like a stripped down version of the MLS.ca website. Critics are quick to point out a few flaws to it which could potentially be fatal. The listing details it publishes could be wrong for a number of innocent reasonings. Imagine for example if an agent types in his listing as being a four bedroom 3.5 bathroom house when it really has only 2.5 baths. Who is ever going to check the accuracy of this posting? What happens if an agent gets a $10,000 price reduction and forgets to update his Zoocassa link ,or worse yet, what happens if a property sells and an agent runs off on a vacation and forgets to pull the posting? In other words, their site may be full of mistakes which ultimately reflects poorly upon our industry.

All we can really say is that online real estate browsing is now here to stay in a big way. Now for one final coment. One might wonder as to why we have we called this blog ‘Zoocasa-Condos’? All we want to say is that it is strange what web design people sometimes now have to do to draw in attention to their websites. Cheers.

Back on Nov 24th 2009 we posted a blog entitled “1103-1105 Jalna Blvd and Living in White Oaks”. One of the many things noted in that blog was that the average selling price of a two bedroom unit in these two twin towers was $88,000 during the first ten months of 2009.

It was also stated that these two high rise towers serviced well both the needs of individuals wanting to live and work in White Oaks and investors who appreciated the vitality of the neighbourhood. We ended the blog on a more cautionary note saying the “future resale value (of these units) will reflect in many ways what is happening in our economy going forward.”

Now in early 2012 we are able to report apon the average selling price of a two bedroom unit for the 2011 time period. Any guess as to what it might be? Are you ready for this? It was $88,600, a meagre $600.00 price increase over a two year period! What a major disappointment for investors whose primary objective it is to leverage the bank’s money in the hopes of making some coin for themselves.

In hindsite, three different detailings were somehow omitted in our Nov 24th 2009 blog. They are:
1) these two buildings as of 2012 are about thirty years old and many units are in need of kitchen and bathroom makeovers (like $10,000-$15,000 in improvements).
2)many units are owned by out of town (or out of province owners) and have not changed hands in very many years.
3)the condos fees are high but include the cost of hydro (they all have electric heat). Investors renting out these units would rather see this the other way around – meaning lower condo fees and tenants who pay their own hydro bills.

All of these factors lead us to think that the long term investors really do not have much to cheer about. In some respects it has all become some sort of a “guessing game” as to how long one should hold onto these units before extra monies should be spent on age related upgrades.

I researched the sales of all of the two bedroom units that sold in these two twin buildings during 2011 and found out that the average length of ownership of the units that sold was for a period of time of nine years and most of these units were either vacant units or owner occupied units. It seems strange that prices didnt increase more than this. Just a few weeks ago a reporter for The London Free Press named Hank Daniszewski came out with a report saying that the London area apartment vacancy rate in 2011 had dropped to 3.8% down from 5% in 2010 and that the average rent for a typical two bedroom apartment had risen just .8% in 2011 to $881 a month.

Now lets apply these figures to the 1103-1105 Jalna buildings. If you subtract a $340.00 per month condo fee from the rental income you earn on one of these units and the $75.00 per month property tax bill you will see that there is not much left over in the way of profits after someone has to also make the mortgage payment. The bottom line really is that we are all in a mode of belt tighting and no one is getting rich on rising real estate prices rising overnight. Yet home owership for those who qualify for a mortgage with only a small downpayment still makes sense. Owning a unit and living here with a mortgage of any size would still cost less or about the same what one would pay for rent.

Now for one final insight that potentially offers new investors a glimpse of a silver lining. In 2011 the spread between what the lowest price for a two bedroom unit sold for and what the highest price that a two bedroom unit sold for was over $35,000! Isn’t that number exceedingly high? I certainly think so. What this really tells us is that new opportunities are now being created for the “renovator/investor” type of person(s) seeking out “bargain priced units” as they come on the market. This year and next will certainly be the years when contractors with a flair for doing things up right will finally start to have a positive impact on the average selling prices of the units in these two buildings. That’s the way I see it anyways.

If you’re an investor selling off units or someone new thinking of getting into the market I would be happy to talk with you. My name is Peter Daoust and I am a Broker at a real estate firm here in town named Remax Advantage Realty. The office number is 519-649-6000 or I can be reached directly on my cell at 519-852-7653. Cheers and lets work together to make 2012 a great year.

Thanks to something called “Google Analytics” we are able to moniter the number of hits that individual pages on our website receives. What we would like to report is that the building at 695 Richmond Street always seems to get a disproportionate amount of attention.

Why do we think that this happens? Well is a highrise condo building on a direct bus route to the University and its a building front and centre when it comes to weekend pub crawling activities. Hundreds of would be patrons (university students) line the sidewalks on Richmond Street on Friday and Saturday nights trying to get legally or illegally into such establishments as Jacks, Jim Bob Rays or The Barking Frog, just to name a few. That in itself is not really all that bad a thing considering its very much back to a business environment for the rest of the week. Many university students, second year and up would be proud to call the 695 Richmond Street address their home.

The 695 Richmond Street building is where we regularly find ourselves meeting for the first time the parents of students who are researching our London condo marketplace. Many of these parents seem to be coming from the GTA area where prices are much higher. On first impression, the exterior look of the building is pleasing, except perhaps for the one little hick-up of a tattoo shop as a tenant on the south-east exterior corner of the building…( sorry guys – nothing personal) . The “Keg” is directly across the street, a Tim Hortons mini store and an assortment of pleasant eateries are all inviting neighbours. First time visitors are also impressed with the 24 hour concierge service at the entrance way into the lobby. The building also makes claims to having a decent indoor pool and easy access underground parking.

Having said all of this, it sometimes becomes apparent that there are a few knocks against the building. The units do not have balconies, the views are often less than inspiring and many of the two bedroom units have somewhat unusual floorplans. Then, too many units have age related concerns ( floorings, countertops…) and train track related issues. The London Free Press writes about the plight of the tracks on a regular basis. In defense of all of these issues the following point should be made. In the early parts of both 2010 and 2011 it wasn’t out of the norm to witness bidding units on these units when they were offered for sale. There were units which sold out over their asking prices.

After an inspection of the available inventory for sale in this building it is not unusual to head over to then do some comparison shopping on the condo highrises on Talbot St., Kent St., and Ridout St. North. Each of these buildings have a different personality and most offer units in a similar price range. There are times when a buyer gets lucky and finds something right off the bat that stands out head and shoulders above the competition or sometimes the exact opposite happens and a mad dash ensues to look instead at London North or London North-West condos where students also congregate.

Now for a few points about downtown student living. The Richmond Street bus service to the university is excellent and students opting to live downtown can do so without the need for a car. Our downtown is safe, clean, has plenty of bike trails, nice tennis courts, the JLC centre and rumours now have it that our lovely Harris Park will soon be in for a major upgrade. Once again, 695 Richmond Street is where the parents of many university students often start their downtown London condo buying searches. Living downtown is a great place to be!

ps… If you are up for the adventure of condo shopping – might we suggest that you wear slip on shoes or boots! cheers

A Special Mid-November Your CondoWorld Report

Need to live in the core area? Have a question? Your Condo World has you covered. We are getting a lot of enquiries concerning the Real Estate Market and property values in Downtown London Ontario.

Here is a brief summary of the MLS statistics supplied to Peter Daoust and Dianne Wilson, as members of the London and St Thomas Real Estate Board. For further inquiries, please contact us.

600 Talbot Street Steps to Gibbons Park
Eleven two bedroom unit sales in 2010 ranging in price from $162,000 to $180,000 with an average sale price of just under $173,000.
Eight two bedroom unit sales year-to-date, ranging from $165,000 to $213,000 with an average sale price of just under $184,000.

323-363 Colborne St Two Twin Towers on the Southeast Corner of the Core Area
Ten two bedroom unit sales in 2010 ranging in price from $152,000 to $190,000 with an average selling price of $164,000.
Eight year-to-date sales in 2011 with prices ranging between $150,000 to $182,000 with an average price of just under $165,000.

250 Pall Mall StreetThe condo building where we have in our description “Park your Bentley here”
Eleven sales in 2010 with nine of these sales being in the $300,000-$350,000 range. Six sales year-to-date in 2011 with only one sale being in the $300,000-$350,000 range with the remainder being higher.

695 Richmond StreetAn ideal location for young executives and/or post graduates
Four sales of two bedroom units in the first four months of 2011, all selling out over $200,000 (an average selling price of just under $210,000), followed by two sales since the start June, selling out at an average price of just less than $194,000.
This compares to twelve two bedroom sales in 2010, of which only two sold out at over $200,000.

389 Dundas StreetLondon Towers – A London Condo Landmark – Built in the mid 1970’s
Six two bedroom condo sales to date in 2011 with an average selling price of $126,000. This compares to ten two bedroom sales in 2010 with an average price of just over $146,000.

Note: A multitude of differences in floorplans and age (condition related issues) makes pricing comparisons unreliable.

155 Kent Street Steps to the Grand Theater and Victoria ParkEight two bedroom condo sales in 2010 with an average price of $177,500. One sale in the early part of 2011 which matched the highest selling price of the eight units sold in 2010, followed by three summer sales, two of which sold out at $180,000.

7 Picton Street An award winning design – an ideal location
Three two bedroom condo sales in 2010 with an average selling price of just over $210,000. In 2011 there have been four sales with an average price of $201,000.

*Given the small sample size, it should also be noted that one sale in 2011 sold out over ten percent below this statistical average and without this sale, the average year-to-date sale price would actually be just over $208,000.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling a condo anywhere in London and need more market information, please email us today!

Cheers, Peter Daoust & Dianne Wilson

A Special Your Condo World Report

We asked this lady who we found down town on Dundas Street on a Saturday night, what she thought about our YourCondoWorld website and she really didn’t have much to say. (We think she was having a bad hair day).

So we asked her friend who was out with her what she thought of our Your Condo World website and basically she just gave us the cold shoulder.

In an attempt to avoid total disappointment asked the first lady again and two of her friends to talk to each other and to us a more definite answer. Time went by and nothing was said.

THE END

P.S. – A special thanks should go out to Kingsmills for having such interesting mannequins.