Georgia Straight’s #1 Best of Vancouver – Lawyer/Notary when Buying/Selling Real Estate
September 24, 2009
I have been voted by readers of the Georgia Straight as First Choice – Best of Vancouver – in the category of “Lawyer to Use when Buying or Selling Real Estate”.
I would like to thank all of those who voted for me. To all off my clients; it has been my privilege to work with you to help you buy and sell your homes. I would also like to thank the bankers, realtors; and mortgage brokers I have met over the past 3 and ½ years who have trusted me with your clients. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.
I am really excited looking forward. We have seen an incredible recovery in the Vancouver Real Estate Market both in terms of volumes and housing prices. I believe in the long term; Vancouver is a great place to live and home owner’s investments will be protected.
I’m also excited that Canada Line is operating. As many of you know, my office is located in Downtown Vancouver across the street from Waterfront Station. I am now even more connected with Yaletown, the Broadway Corridor, Oakridge and Richmond all just minutes away.
Over the past year, as with many of us, I have experienced challenges in my business. In these times, I have taken this opportunity to upgrade our technology and refine our systems. Despite being a small firm, I believe we can deliver great value and maintain our commitment to excellent service. I would especially like to thank Brandi Durham and Natashia Kothlow; my awesome staff for their ongoing support and hard work; especially over these past very busy months.
If you or anyone you know is buying or selling their home; or refinancing their current mortgage and they need someone to handle the conveyance process; please pass along my contact information. I would also appreciate it if you’d let me know that you’ve done so as I would like the opportunity to thank you.
Thank you very much, have a great day!
– Sound Legal Advice with a Tradition of Trust.
Processing Real Estate Purchase and Sale files to make us a significantly “paper reduced” office.
July 25, 2009
This a video of a talk I did on July 22, 2009 at the Terminal City Club in Downtown Vancouver talking about changes I’ve made to my business and Real Estate Purchase and Sale files to make us a significantly “paper reduced” office.
We will continue to refine our processes and I will post further information about how we do files as efficiently as possible.
Best time to Buy?
May 16, 2009
Interesting to read the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA)’s report this week indicating that April was the third consecutive month of increasing home sales in BC. It seams cliché to say “this is a good time to buy” but it seems that many people are agreeing that it is. Whether we are now at the bottom and end of the current price correction will remain to be seen, but does it really matter? When buying real estate, your holding period will generally be long term. People flipping pre-sales will not comeback anytime soon; but for people who want to buy a home to live in or a property to hold as a investment; this may be a best time to enter the market. While the Bank of Canada has indicated interest rates will be set until summer of 2010, I believe the market will force change over the next year. In speaking with mortgage brokers who’s opinions I respect, they note the long term bond rates are starting to move up and bank borrowing interest rates may follow. If we look at cost of real estate in terms of monthly cost, interest rate is a huge component. Whether the prices drop another 5 or 10 % over the next year seems irrelevant, if we can assume they will gain that back over the next 5 years and a 1% increase in borrowing interest rates would have a more significant in the purchaser’s real cost of real estate.
I know in my office, I can echo the BCREA report’s sales volume numbers. Our conveyance volume jumped in February after a quiet December and January. March and April continued to be busier and based on our May calender and volume of new deals coming in; I am confident that May and June will continue to demonstrate increased activity.
Comment on BCREA Report – Home Sales Increase In February
March 15, 2009
The BC Real Estate Association (BCREA) reported on March 13, 2009 that after several months of decrease, that there were more Home Sales last month, than the month prior. Greater Vancouver has experienced a 13% average decrease in prices. The residential sales units fell 45.3% for this Feburary over last Feburary. The report (http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/news_room/2009-02.pdf shows a graph which is shows quite well what is going on.
We have heard so many reports about how this month is 50% less than same month, year over year. I think that the reporting of month to month is more relevant than year over year right now because we are not in normal times. Seasonal changes still occur, so it is useful to look at year over year, but in this climate; where we see constant decline, its is nice to see a positive statistic that indicates we may be nearing a bottom.
One item not addressed in the BCREA report, that I believe is relevant; is that a lot Feburary transactions were completions on newly build condos. Some of the contracts for these properties were recently written such as the Onni and H&H Blow-outs, but several of these contracts were written over the past few years with current completions. I believe this does somewhat skew the numbers in that it does not reflect people choosing to enter the current market, they have made this choice months and years ago.
As long as there are both Buyers and Sellers in the market, prices may go up or down, but at least there should be enough particpants to allow market forces to work. What we saw in the fall of last year was a real imbalance with a flood of sellers and hardly any buyers. Some sellers have taken their properties off the market and there are some new buyers in the market as the cost of ownership continues to decrease with interest rate cuts.
In my office, I noticed things start to get busier around the beginning of Feburary. I think we will have a strong spring with lots of continued activity in the entry level markets.
Consumer Confidence Recovering
February 23, 2009
Consumer confidence Recovering
Canadian consumer confidence has revived since December to highest level since August, according to a Harris-Decima poll. While the US was officially in recession at that point, it wasn’t until September that the current economic turmoil emerged to the front pages of our newspapers with required bailouts an massive corporate failures.
While supply and demand are the key factors in prices and activity in the Real Estate Market, consumer confidence is a key component of demand. Nobody wants to purchase an asset that will immediately drop in value. Vancouver Real Estate Prices have been falling through much of 2008, and especially in the second half of the year.
Whether or not prices have stabilized, consumers are feeling good enough about the market that they are again participating. Since mid February, there has been a flurry of activity in the $250,000-$400,000 condominium market. Some of this has been the blowout sales such as the Onni Group / Mac Marketing and H & H (Homer and Helmcken) projects. I think the spring will see increased activity as good opportunities are identified and people are less scarred to make a move.
http://www.davidnotary.com 2.0
February 16, 2009
I’d like to give you a quick tour of my new website, www.davidnotary.com.
I’ve switched a few things around, trimmed a little bit; and added a few new features.
Information that doesn’t really change about the things I do such as Real Estate Purchases, Sales, Mortgages; Wills and Powers of Attorney and General Notarization are still here; but they are more concisely organized and I got rid of the flash banner so the page loads faster.
One cool new feature that I’m excited about is the online “Live Help” support. When it says “Online”, you can click on the button the start a live chat. Its real time and so much faster than phoning or emailing when you just have a quick question, want a quote, or would like an update on your file. You will also receive by email a transcript of our conversation; and I keep a copy.
I got rid of the “About Me” section of the website because what I’m doing changes all the time. What I have done instead is provide links to my social media profiles so you can find me on Facebook, check out my LinkedIn Profile, or follow me on Twitter.
Finally, I have also added a Blog page where I intend to have both written and video blogs sharing information about the things I do; what I think about things; and as a forum to discuss new topics and ideas.
I hope you like it; I sure do; and if you any questions, you can always call or email me at david@davidnotary.com. Thank you and have a great day!
Income Tax Consequences of Purchasing Real Estate Investment Property
February 14, 2009
With the chance of values we have experienced in the Vancouver Real Estate market, especially in Downtown condominium project; many people who have purchased Pre-Sales are now completing their purchases at significantly higher prices than the property would be worth if they were negotiate a deal today. As long as you don’t live in the property, you are purchasing an investment. Some investments go up and some go down. I think we are all pretty familiar with investments that go down these days. If you turned around and sold a property today, you would probably do so at a loss.
If there is a bright side to this, and its always good to try to find an opportunity or positive angle in times of turmoil; consider this: If you have paid tax on capital gains in recent years, you may be able to carry back this capital loss and apply it against previous years gains. You may be able to get a refund of previous year’s taxes by reporting a loss on your current year’s income tax return. If you do not have previous year’s gains, you can carry forward this capital loss until such time as you have a gain to which you can offset it.
I know we would all rather be worrying about how to pay less tax on our profits; but if its losses we currently have, we need to make the best of the situation.
If you have any questions you can ask the person who does your taxes; or you can always email or phone me, and I would be happy to discuss.
Links:
CRA: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/menu-e.html
Net Capital Losses of Other Years: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns248-260/253/menu-eng.html
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