Edmonton Real Estate Investor: January 2013

Agreement for Edmonton arena passed by council -
"It's 100 per cent. A deal is done. Council's approved it," Mandel said at a news conference afterwards. "But I'm ...absolutely confident that we will go ahead and at some point in time all of us will go to a new arena with great pride."
"It's spectacular. It'll be the nicest, most dynamic arena you've ever been to. It'll be cool."

The arena is coming amid mixed feelings. Lots of comments about not wanting tax dollars to go to this venture. Read Here

Hawrelak Park Lake to get $1.3M upgrade for triatholon bid - "The lake will get drained and all the sediment that's built up since '99 will be removed and there'll be a channel that will be 20 metres wide over the swim course that will be deepened,” Sheila O’Kelly with the Edmonton Triathlon Academy Read more

A swimable lake in the middle of Edmonton sounds like a good idea to me!

Another "Top Ten" from MSN. I love how London -St. Thomas looks like a werewolf might get you at any second. Not the greatest PR for the place.

The prices are reasonable but how does employment, taxation and quality of life stack up?

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January 15th., 2013
Volume 13, Issue 9

Dear Friends and Partners,

Nice to see you again! Hope the holidays were good and that Santa visited you and your loved ones over the break. But what about you; Have you stepped into your groove for this New Year or are things pretty much the same as the last one? I see a year full of opportunity despite the anxiety and uncertainty others would have you believe. There never is a 'safe time, a right time or even a 'perfect time' other than the ones we create or work towards changing. Maybe its time to set the tone...

Dr. Demartini has put together 'The 8 Steps To The Life You've Always Wanted'. You can go to Dr. Demartini's page here and read more of his insights too. BTW - He'll be in Toronto and Calgary this March/April.

The 8 Steps To The Life You've Always Wanted

1. Every day sit for a moment in silent meditation and concentrate on exactly what you would love to create in your life. Imagine every detail you can and then even more. Imagine your life exactly the way you would love it to be. Let your imagination be real enough to have it come true, yet ideal enough to inspire and stretch you.

2. Write as many details as you can imagine down and begin a dream or goal plan. Writing these down helps make dreams come true. Remember the details.

3. Every day take at least one if not three or even seven action steps to make this goal come true. What you move toward move towards you.

4. Keep records of every synchronous and goal aligning event that occurs, they surround your life. Write all the events that come true each day that demonstrates that you are moving in the direction of your goals.

5. Keep refining your goals, so as to become clearer and clearer each day on your outcomes.

6. As they begin to become real be sure to add new ones all revolving around your chief aim or purpose in life.

7. Be thankful for every supportive and challenging event that helps provide you feedback and fulfillment.

8. Remember the art of creation is set goals aligned to your values* then hold the image through time - the only way to hold the image through time is to keep it in motion and the only way to keep it in motion is to focus on the ever finer details.
Read, Reflect and Do - make everyday count!

North Central Edmonton: 6-Suite Cashflow Property in Kilarney

Turbo charge your portfolio. Upgraded 1969 built 1 and a half story 6 unit property with separate entrance to lower suites. Most units upper units have been renovated. You'll find spacious 3 X 2bd upstairs and bright 3 X 1bd units downstairs. Renovations at time of purchase include new roof, 2 HWT and furnaces. The 3 lower units are each 700 sqft 1 bedroom suites. Features down include some new tiles and flooring. There is common laundry down. The yard is large and partially fenced. Additional upgrades after purchase will include new windows and exterior/upper suite modernization. 5 minutes to Yellowhead, 15 to Fort Saskatchewan, 10 minutes to downtown and NAIT. Fast access to the Wayne Gretzky Drive and on bus routes.

Comes complete with great tenants making this a totally turn-key property for you. Convenient North central area with easy access to transit and downtown. Kilarney is a mature and desirable family neighbourhood that will benefit from the downtown airport ripple effect. Highly rentable area; solid value and stable rents. HUGE upside potential due to the great purchase price, strong economic fundamentals and the proximity of this home in relation to Edmonton's improving North East.

Produces $415.11 positive cash flow per month using an investor's mortgage plan - taking advantage of current low rates.

Purchase price: $595K Total Investment: $138,918K. Your Estimated 5 Year Profit $75,410.23K. Your pre-tax Total ROI is 54% or 11% per year

These 6 suites rent for top dollar and have everything arranged, including financing structure and incredible tenants. Your investment includes: impeccable tenant selection, financial analysis, professional inspection, insurance, financing set-up, legal fees, basic accounting, reserve fund, CMA, bi-annual statements, strategic market planning to ensure successful entry and exit, plus much more!

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Lamphier: Alberta Leads The Pack in 2013 Forecasts

By Gary Lamphier, Edmonton Journal, January 2nd 2013

EDMONTON - Headaches? Sure. Alberta’s energy-fuelled economy has plenty of them.
Take your pick: From hefty oil price discounts to pipeline bottlenecks and growing labour shortages, there’s a lot to worry about.

The global threats to growth are even more troubling, including Europe’s stubborn debt crisis and the political jockeying in Washington, D.C., over the fiscal cliff and federal debt ceiling.

But despite the likelihood of more stormy seas ahead, most economists believe Alberta’s ship will continue to sail at a rapid clip in 2013, leading the nation in economic growth this year and beyond. GRAB THIS STORY

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Edmonton Housing Market Strong: Realtors

By Ryan Tumilty, Metro Edmonton, January 9th 2013

Edmonton’s realtors see a bright future for the city’s housing market this year with strong and steady growth in Edmonton.
The Realtor’s Association of Edmonton made the announcement Wednesday saying they believe the market will grow by three percent, while housing prices will climb two per cent and condominium prices one per cent.

“We think this year very much mirrors the past couple of years with sustained growth, nothing outrageous, just very balanced,” said Darrel Cook, president of the association at the groups annual housing forecast seminar.

John Rose, the city’s chief economist, shared the rosy outlook, but warned there were some challenges ahead.

One of the areas Rose highlighted was the shortage of labour, which he cautioned could make it difficult for some business. FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE

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Canada's Pipeline Hits Slippery Patch
Opposition from environmental groups threatens plans to expand to new oil markets in Asia

By Paul Vieria, The Wall Street Journal, January 9th 2013

OTTAWA—Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper's government promised to push new oil pipelines to the Pacific—a gateway to thirsty Asian markets—after Washington early last year rejected a pipeline expansion to boost Canadian exports to the U.S.

But the pillar of that plan—a 730-mile line called the Northern Gateway that would carry crude from landlocked Alberta to the Pacific port of Kitimat—is mired in political and public opposition, focused in the province of British Columbia. That is threatening Mr. Harper's efforts to open new markets for Canada's crude. British Columbia has historically been a hotbed of the environmental movement in Canada. READ MORE HERE

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I appreciate all your calls and emails. I'm looking forward to helping you with your next step towards building real wealth.
Your success continues EVERYDAY, let me help you build for tomorrow.

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let each new year find you a better man. " -Benjamin Franklin

Warm Regards,

Todd and Danielle Millar

===SPECIAL NOTICE: NO CASH, BUT GOOD CREDIT? CALL US TODAY TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN OWN INVESTMENT PROPERTY===
P.S. Stay ahead by checking out Danielle's daily blog at Edmonton Real Estate Investor for all your cutting edge market news and information.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to visit our website and take advantage of the Resource Tools and product section including REIN's #1 real estate books and Quick Start homestudy sets at a discount. Get your copy of the Canadian Success Stories book and the 2010-2014 Top Ten Investment Towns of Alberta and Ontario.

Todd and I were happy to receive our Platinum pin last year from REIN it was a goal we've been working towards for about 7 years.

We've come to a place where we know so clearly the kind of properties that we purchase that we can refine our searches so precisely that the only properties brought to us are those that have already passed a lot of screening.

Cashflow Gold

1. Half duplexes with suites - super low cash entry points and incredible cash flow. Always with a garage. Tenants split utilities and share laundry. This is the income from one of our properties:
Main - $1050
Basement - $750
Garage - $150
That's $1950 a month.

2. Suited bunglows - I have houses that produce $2450 in rental income, this example is $2300. Tenants take care of the utilities and share laundry. We don't buy houses to put in suites because the codes and permits are very strict. It's much easier to buy a place with an existing suite and reno it to be conforming. For example new suites need 2 furnaces existing suites may not.

3. Multiplex Unit - Three or four suited units. Really good cashflow. Up and down suites on each side and one laundry. Tenants take care of utilities. We get these all the time here look at that Cashflow - $485 a month after every expense ( I don't mean only PIT. We're talking taxes, insurance, PM and 12% Repair Maintenance and Vacancy reserve) is very, very good.

We don't buy:

1. Condos or townhouses - Although these units are a low price point you may have condo fees that can increase. We've had condo fees almost double. Never mind the cursed "special Assesment". The worst situation we've had was a $35,000 assessment PER UNIT- were everybody lawyer-ed up and the condo managers were using our fees to pay for their lawyers! Never mind the bylaws on tenanting and pets. Read More Condo HORROR

2. Pre-builds - not even investing. What are you buying???

3. Single Family Homes - What? A house is a good source of revenue but why have only one source of income? You lose a tenant and that's it. There is no income coming in from that property. We don't buy anything without a suite and a single or double garage. That makes three sources of income.

Edmonton comes in 4th and the west, namely Alberta, leads Canada in richest metros.

"The biggest dots on our map are, of course, in Alberta, with tiny Fort McMurray, right next to the Athabasca oil sands, topping the charts. It may not legally be a “city”—the former fur-trading post was granted the title in 1980 only to lose it 15 years later—but it sure shows all the symptoms of a boomtown. A single family home in the community of 61,000—where daylight lasts as little as seven hours in the dead of winter—cost upwards of $750,000 on average in November. That’s even more than in downtown Toronto, where the going price last month was around $740,000." Read More

We are signed up for Garth Chapman's newsletter and get a lot out of it especially regarding financing. Mortgage financing is such a changing environment and with all the new rules there is a lot to consider before you purchase an investment property particularly if you plan to buy more than one partner or intend to have joint venture partners.

Here are a couple of great links:

On Buying a rental property - How the financing game has changed
· An excellent article describing the essence of the changes in the lending market for those of us seeking mortgages for rental properties. Buying a rental property? How the financing game has changed

On a more accurate measure of the Housing Market
· The Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price Index™ is an independent representation of the rate of change of Canadian single-family home prices. The measurements are based on the property sales records of public land registries, lending accuracy and trustworthiness to the index. I think this is a much more accurate rendering of the change in values of Canadian homes. You can sign up for a monthly newsletter here

As always we started the new year with a goal planning session. Our children are getting older and contribute to their goals as well. It's super fun and sets the bar high for the upcoming year.

We also watched the fireworks displays around the world. Dubai really was amazing but my favorite was Sydney Austrailia.

One of my favorite things is looking at the predictions for the new year posted all over the web. They range from exciting to weird to ridiculous. Here is just a sample of what I've found

Canadian Psychic - CN Towers Falls

Eco Car Predictions

Tech Predictions

America

International

UFOs

From The Futurist Magazine - computing doorknobs are my favorite part!