In this blog I discuss Chapter 7 of my book "Along for the Ride” on how to build a portfolio the right way and the difference between an investor and a speculator or market timer. I also share some of the tricks I use to help me stay the course and avoid bad decisions.

Rental rates on Vancouver condos have been increasing at a dramatic pace over the past 6 or 7 years and they show no sign of slowing anytime soon. Now that the NDP has put in limits on how much landlords can increase their monthly rent some landlords are now deciding to give annual increases where before they were keeping rents flat for existing tenants. Increased property tax rates, strata fees and insurance and a city wide vacancy rate at 1% are also putting upward pressure on rental rates.

Let’s get the story straight on a number of Real Estate matters. 1. That Vancouver real estate prices are high because of wide spread money laundering… Myth 2. The City of Vancouver and the province are doing everything in their power to help make homes more affordable... myth 3. New taxes are having an effect and lowering prices on condos in Vancouver… myth.

In this blog I point out the difference between good debt (Residential Mortgages at sub 3% interest rates) and credit card debt at 20%. I also discuss the power of leverage and it’s effect on creating wealth. As well as where I see good value in the current Vancouver market.

As expected, Lower Mainland Real Estate sales are up over 45% from Oct 2018. This represents the 4th consecutive month of sales growth. The active sales to listing ratio is now up to 29% ( well into a sellers market). Prices month over month are also up. The latest Vancouver rental rates show that an average 1 bedroom condo is now renting for $2200 month and 2 bedrooms are at $3175 a month. As I have been saying for the last 9 years on my blog .. if you're planning on living and working in Vancouver for the long term i.e. minimum 9 years or more. You need to be an owner not a lifetime renter.

Are you on the sidelines with your deposit funds ready and your mortgage pre-approval in place? Or are you just angry and complaining because both, the Real Estate and the stock market have passed you by? If you want to achieve any type of financial success in life you're going to need a game plan. Complaining, pointing fingers and waiting for some big crash that will never materialize is NOT a game plan. You will only continue to fall further and further behind with this type of thinking.

It’s that time of year when I’m attending a number of Vancouver Real Estate outlook conferences and seminars. In this blog I’m going to share with you some of the info/data from one of the best - and that's the annual Rennie Market Intelligence Meeting held this year at the Pan Pacific hotel a few weeks ago.

Time for one of my videos on the long term advantages of buying and holding your principal residence in Vancouver. The long term tax advantages, capital gains and stability that owning provides you as well as capitalizing on our current record low interest rates.

The main reasons why the majority of people are unable to save much in the way of retirement or retire early or even save and buy their first principal residence or investment property is because of 2 main factors: 1. They try and time the market and become a speculator as opposed to an investor. 2. They are far too risk averse because they simply don’t understand how investing works. They are so afraid of pulling the trigger and buying an asset that might go down in price. What they fail to recognize is this is par for the course with investing. As long as you keep a long term holding period you will protect yourself from any short term corrections which are fairly likely to happen and you should expect to happen. That’s how markets ...

In this video I cover a number of topics and viewer questions including: Should I pay off the mortgage on an investment unit early? Where is the best city in the Lower Mainland to invest in? and What type of product will give me the best returns - detached homes or condos? Update: I now see that TD and the rest of the big banks are now offering a 5 year fixed term mortgage at 2.69% At these rates your better to let you investment mortgages run as opposed to paying them off early in most cases.