If you’re living in a detached property in Richmond and you have not switched over from a flat fee utilities tax to a metered system, I strongly suggest you call Richmond city hall and get on it. Chances are unless you have a very large family and use a ton of water, it will save you some good money each year. It cut my water bill in half for our home. Keep in mind that there are a number of condo complexes in Richmond that have also moved to a metered system and add the metered water bill monthly to your strata fees. So instead of getting that annual water tax bill for $700 or $800 you pay it monthly built into you maintenance fees. So make sure your Realtor is asking questions regarding the maintenance fees. People so ...

Remember; just because a building is under scaffolding and a green tarp dose not always mean it's a leaky condo. Sometimes the building is simply undergoing major remedial work. All building components have a life expectancy and when that time expires they need to be replaced. Many times these condominium complexes that are undergoing this type of work can become an excellent buying opportunities due to the fact that once the work is all done and paid for they are still selling for the same price as the 40 year old building down the street that has not had the work done yet.

One of the best ways to get you on the road to financial success is to pay off your mortgage quicker. It's really quite easy and painless. One of the best ways is to simply move to an accelerated payment plan.  For example if you took a $300,000 mortgage at 3.5% amortized over 25 years and switched your mortgage payments from monthly to bi-weekly accelerated you would save $23,852.87 over the life of your mortgage and pay it off 3 years earlier.  Talk to your bank or mortgage broker about the various options. Interest rates are not going to stay this low much longer. Why not pay it down now while the getting is good!

Market activity and sales volume have increased a fair bit since my last quarterly update. That's to be expected, the Spring and early Summer months have always been the most active in the Lower Mainland. Older town homes priced under $450K and  condos priced under $200K, if they are priced correctly, show well and are in good condition are getting offers within weeks. I'm starting to see 1st time buyers who have been renting and staying on the sidelines the past 2 to 3 years starting to lock in these low interest rates and take advantage of the reduced prices that are out there. I still think the current market in Vancouver and Richmond favors buyers slightly however we are moving into a balanced market and might be close to balan ...

You can't listen to talk radio or watch the local news without some Vancouver city councillor bemoaning the fact that housing in this city is unaffordable and the need to build more affordable housing. Well I have a great idea for you! Stop imposing huge fees on developers (some of the highest in N. America) because NEWS FLASH all they do is pass it onto the home buyer. Here's a shocking statistic for you - to build an 800 sq ft condo in Vancouver, City Hall adds close to $75,000 in development costs, environmental requirements and other fees that it charges the developer before he even puts a shovel in the ground. So please stop with the rhetoric, if you really wanted to help people get a toe-hold into the housing market you would ...

Now that the province of BC has gone back to the GST/PST tax system I thought I would outline the 2 main benefits to buying and selling Real Estate.  On the purchase of new homes you were required to pay 12% HST. Now you only pay 5% GST plus a 2% BC transitional tax for a total of 7%. The second is on Real Estate commissions when you sell a home where I now charge only 5% GST instead of 12% HST for a savings of 7%. So the expulsion of the HST back to GST is a major benefit to the Real Estate buyer and seller in this province and may be one of the contributing factors in our sales volume increase this Spring .

I've noticed recently that many financial magazines are recommending that home owners interview at least 2 if not 3 Realtors before they decide who to hire for the job. I think this is good advice and it makes sense for a number of reasons. The 3 main decision makers would be: Is the Realtor qualified for what you want to hire him or her for? If you are selling your home, is the agent a marketing and listing specialist or more of a jack of all trades Realtor? Finally, do you think you will get along and be able to have a 2 or 3 month working relationship with this Realtor? If you think your personalities might clash you should probably keep looking.

Most people in BC don't realize that the BC Government introduced the PTT (property transfer tax) in 1987 as a wealth tax. It was meant to discourage speculation at the high end of the market. It was set at 1% on the first $200,000 and 2% on the balance. Since its introduction the average price of a lower mainland home has gone up by 500% yet the PTT has never been adjusted to account for the increased property values. In 1987 only 5% of all homes sold triggered the 2%. Today 96% of all sales trigger the hefty 2% tax rate. The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver thinks it's long overdue that the BC Government adjust this tax grab and I agree. We're asking that the 2% threshold be increase to a bit more reasonable at ...

From what I can see it appears that many Strata's in the lower Mainland have voted to defer there Depreciation report until 2014. Personally I think there are a number of big advantages to waiting 1 more year. Being an early adopter for a complicated piece of legislation like this can be dangerous. I think many are saying let's see how these play out and learn form the mistakes of the early adopters. My guess is that the majority of BC Strata's will not have a Depreciation report done by the end of this year.

I have just returned from a trip to Scottsdale Arizona where I attended a Value/Dividend investors summit. Real estate and value investing in the stock market have been a passion of mine for several decades now so I always try to attend a few of these events each year. One of the highlights for me was a session on the teachings and investment philosophies of one of the world's legendary investors John "Jack" Bogle.  Back in 1975 Jack created a radical investment tool called an index fund. This is an intentionally boring fund that mirrors the performance of a broad-market index. He went on to found the mutual fund company Vanguard which manages over 2.1 trillion in assets but the company makes no profit. It is client owned by the in ...