Print PDF

How To Be Top

As we enter a New YearNick Churton of Mayfair international Realtytakes a look at what may lie ahead for the real estate market.

Although mature real estate brokers and agents are apt to say that they have seen it all before, this time it is different. No one has seen this market under this set of national and international financial conditions before. But what is rather refreshing is that the uncertainty now cuts down the speculation aspect of a home purchase and strips the requirement to buy down to the real and age-old essentials. This makes for easier choices.

Le Corbusier, the pioneering architect, stated that, “The requirements for a house should be to provide a shelter against heat, cold, rain, thieves and the inquisitive”. He didn’t add that a home should also provide its owner with an investment return of seven per cent year-on-year.

 For the first time since, perhaps, the 1960s property investment can take more of a back seat in the home buying mindset and, instead, fundamental life requirements can come back to the fore. Of course with other financial instruments providing so little in the way of return, real estate is a natural arena in which to invest. But with little or no indication about if or when the market will return in any zest we are left with simpler decisions and choices – does a home suit our requirements in size, location, style and price?

 It is although our needs have been simplified in the way they may have been fifty years ago. With less frenzy and greater choice, for a while at least, this may be a very good time to choose a primary or secondary home for all the very best lifestyle reasons.

 We quickly learn to expect that there is an investment opportunity to be gained from property purchase in a rising market. But we are rather slow to appreciate the reverse is likely in a poor market and/or in particularly adverse economic circumstances as we have now.

2011 was a hard year in property and this year may not be much better. We may have new US, Russian and French presidents, more ructions in Europe and the Middle East, and greater privations at home before we see greater improvement. But still there is a reassuring level of market activity that has more to do with need than discretion. This is the market we have and this is the market we have to deal with – and deal with it we will.

But real estate buyers and sellers should not be deterred. Indeed they should be encouraged as the more life there is in the real estate market the more life there is in the economy. But those still insisting on the sort of financial profit they may have achieved several years ago should perhaps think again and get real. It will be the enlightened that get to the top of the property class in 2012, not those in denial.

Print PDF

By Nick Churton, Director of Mayfair International Realty.

A Guest Blog From Our Mayfair International Office.

The race is on. The vacation gear has been put away for another year. The kids are back at school. Holiday decorations are already on the grocery store shelves. It must be October and the rush, for some, is to sell their home and buy a new one in time to put those decorations up this year.
It is as though holiday decorations will make a new property an instant home. Romantic thought. But it is usually time that makes a home. And time is not really on the side of October sellers, unless they adhere to some hard and fast seasonal rules. 

So here are six top real estate tips to help move thing along before the 2011 Holidays:
1. Try not to apply an arbitrary timetable to your sale and purchase – especially one that is influenced by the Holidays. It could add unnecessary pressure at an already stressful time. Ultimately the speed of real estate transactions rests on price and not on whimsical desire.
2. Price your home today based on what someone will realistically pay and not an amount you need to buy the property you want, or that you think you should have. Here lies disappointment.
3. Be flexible. Yours will not be the only agenda. Others in the transaction, and in allied transactions, will have their own agendas too. Be reasonable.
4. Clean, paint, de-clutter, shine, stage, beautify and equip for all you are worth. Lots of other savvy sellers will be doing the same to attract a good buyer. You don’t want to be left with a bad one just before the Holidays.
5. Remember a property is not just for the Holidays. It is for all year round. It is for you and your family. If it is worth buying it is really worth waiting for.
6. If you do make it into your new home by the Holidays say a very big thank you to your real estate agent. In this challenging market he or she will have deserved it!

Print PDF

Top of the Class

Everyone knows that selling real estate is like shelling peas. Right?  Brokers and agents have it easy.  They just put on the internet – and the property is as good as gone at its ambitious asking price. Right?

Wrong!

What about selling real estate at a time when not so many are interested in buying?  When buyers are strapped for cash; when the banks aren’t lending so much or so easily; when the country is facing a harsh austerity period and at a time of tenacious financial uncertainty.  What about selling real estate when a seller may be demanding more than the market will stand?  What about selling real estate when people have more pressing things to think about?  And how about selling real estate for someone whose personal circumstances – joyous, sad or desperate – crucially depend on an agent’s efforts, despite all the above negative market conditions.

Then selling real estate is not quite so easy as many might suggest.

But, cometh the moment cometh the agent.  Of course when the market is in overdrive it is easier to sell homes.  But now, in many areas, matters are more serious.  Selling property in this market needs an agent with experience, with heart and foresight and skill and purpose. One with a steady hand who understands that moving home is often played out over two legs. There’s the home leg, selling, and the away leg, buying.  This is a time to play the long game and to see and understand the bigger picture – and to be able to communicate this to anxious clients.  There comes a time when selling property has to be put into the hands of someone who is seriously good at what they do. This is the time for hiring the top of the class.

If you want the agent who – even against your own optimistic judgement – has priced your home way higher than every one else, do go ahead if that makes you feel good.  But what will really make you feel good is selling your home and moving on to another.  And for that, right now, you need a professional.

Red Adair, the famous oil well fire fighter said it perfectly, “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur!”

Nicholas Churton, Director, Mayfair International Realty, London, England.

Print PDF

Tradewinds Weekly Update i.Newsletter for the first week of June 2011

[click to receive]

Print PDF

Tradewinds – Everywhere for You

In today’s market, just about every company has a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube account, to represent their business on social media. It has become a necessity for companies who are building a brand with longevity, and establishing not just sales but, life long customers.

Real estate is an industry in which social media has really taken off as of late. Agents are using these platforms to not only promote their listings but to build relationships and connections to the neighborhoods in which they specialize.

As with the Tradewinds’ other social media initiatives, Facebook will be used to share our weekly inewsletter, videos from the Broker, events of interest in Nova Scotia and to connect with You. We believe that culture is the most important factor around social participation and doing social media right.

Recognizing that Facebook has over 600 million users and is now used by 1 in every 11 people on earth, we feel that this is an exciting announcement and are encouraged by the interest already. We know that is certainly not a replacement of the one on one conversation of which we encourage first and foremost, however, we feel that this is one more opportunity for us to celebrate our unique offerings, as well as informing the community of any important information that has happened or is upcoming.

Along with LinkedIn, Twitter, and our Tradewinds Youtube account, our new Facebook page will provide us with one more venue to incorporate social media as a means to connect with the Nova Scotia community and speaks to our strong commitment to 21st century learning at Tradewinds.

To become a fan of the Tradewinds Facebook page, search for Tradewinds Realty Nova Scotia on Facebook.

For more information on Tradewinds Realty, please visit our website.

Tradewinds Realty represents a wide selection of waterfront, oceanfront and ocean-view real estate as well as residential, business and land real estate.

Print PDF

With an inventory of twenty eight properties on the market for a million dollars or over, it is good news that five of these are under a sales contract. The first quarter of 2011 has been excellent. Showings on our higher end properties are on the increase as well. Getting activity on our upper-end inventory is a good indication the market in Nova Scotia is on the rebound.

WATER STREET CHESTER

In 2010 we only sold three homes over a million dollars, so this early activity is welcomed. First quarter results also show that we have closed 50% more sales in 2011, than the same period for 2010.

However, even with the sales activity, the effort that is required to put a Buyer and a Seller together is extreme. Negotiations have been protracted and at times heated, as the Buyers are squeezing the Seller for every drop of blood. Having said that, once the deal is signed, everyone is shaking hands and looking forward to the day of closing.

Two of the five sales have been in Chester, one west of Chester near Lunenburg, another one east of Chester and one in St. Margaret’s Bay on Peggy’s Cove Road.

We typically have an inventory of forty or more properties over a million dollars, so the present lower inventory is also a benefit for those still in the market. Others have decided to remain off the market until things pick up. Maybe the time will soon be near for more inventory to hit the market. – Tim Harris, Broker, Tradewinds Realty Nova Scotia

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

[click here] NOVA SCOTIA PROPERTY NEWSLETTER

Print PDF

REPOSTED FROM The Chronicle Herald with permission from the author.

Time to drop capital gains tax if profit reinvested

By ROGER HAINEAULT | FISCAL ENDEAVOURS  - Sat, Mar 19 – 4:54 AM

Print PDF

Property and Prejudice

Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty comments on how the continued reticence of the banks to offer sensible  mortgages – other than to those with large deposits – may risk changing the way many look at property ownership.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single family in possession of a good mortgage must be in want of a house. Thus a Jane Austen novel on the property market could have begun.

Sadly today there are plenty of families on both sides of the Atlantic wanting a home, especially with affordability at near-record levels, but many can not get hold of a mortgage.

Austen knew a thing or two about property, or at least the importance of owning it. Her novels had much to do with its acquisition. Although her heroines tended towards marriage as a route to ownership, she would have understood about financing a property purchase through borrowing, as her life coincided in the
UK with the advent of mutual building societies.

Austen understood that social status played a major role in owning or aspiring to own property. Above all perhaps, she understood that an individual’s or family’s financial circumstances played a pivotal role in determining where and how one lived – and how one was seen to live. She certainly knew the value of a fine location and the benefits that well-proportioned rooms and good natural light bestowed upon occupants.

This understanding seems as apt today as it was when Jane Austen was alive in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The desire to house one’s self and/or one’s family comfortably, and the pleasure that a well-designed house gives to its owner – both socially and materially – seem largely unaltered.

But two things have changed. Residential property no longer just demonstrates wealth but also creates it, and thus makes it even more desirable. Also, as far as the UK is concerned, most of the building societies, who traditionally did the lion’s share of the mortgage lending have now been de-mutualised and swallowed up by large banks. These are not much in the lending mood at the moment. So, with no other way of obtaining a mortgage this is altering the way many must think about owning property. In 2011 this means that, unless the UK government and the banks take urgent steps to reverse the situation, for the first time in over two hundred years it will only be the already well-off who can realistically afford to buy property.

Non-profit-making mutual building societies were created to allow their members to buy property. Banks were created to make money for their shareholders. Building societies were prudent and fiscally responsible. Banks clearly haven’t been, and are a perfect example of pride coming before a fall. To extract themselves from the trouble they are in the banks are now prejudiced against the very people the building societies were formed to assist. Jane Austen could have written a book about it.

Republished by permission.

by Tradewinds Realty, Nova Scotia, Canada

Print PDF

36 Hours on Kilimanjaro

[On January 7, 2011 A group of twelve charitable individuals recruited by Make A Wish - Atlantic Canada and Quebec  began a 10 day trek to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. This is part of the story of the reaching the summit on Jan 14th and descending on Jan 15th & 16th. - © Tim Harris 2011]

On the roof of Africa

We left from ‘Barafu’ Base Camp (15200ev.) at 5 am Sat morning, Jan 14, 2011, climbing through the dark til daybreak at 6:30ish. First set of whales-back rocks about 15 or 20 minutes out of base camp scared me silly, really, really scared! But as I was the first climber of the group and  directly behind the lead guide (and had been in this position for every day of the past 7 days of the trek.). It was not proper to ‘cut and run’ directly off the mountain, as much as my little legs said different.

So the climb was slow, I was not in the best of shape, as I was overweight by fifty pounds, we had to stop almost every 10 minutes to 20 minutes to allow time to catch my and our collective breaths.

On the top

Water was essential and we had to carry 5 liters for this final climbing  day. The air was so thin that even drinking water was a challenge, as the missed breath while trying to swallow meant a gasp for air for a few minutes after a drink. Breathing was constant, heart rates fluttered at 100 to 120 beats/minute, my oxygenation was at most times 80%. My base rate oxygenation at start of climb was 96%.

We hit Stella Point 19,000′, (the crater edge) about 9.5 hours into trek. I was so exhausted all I could do was weep, but even that caused loss of breath, so crying was not of any use, except to lead to one to passing out, due to lack of air. After 10 minutes we headed to the summit signpost, which was visible from the crater edge and looked to be a mile away… about 1.5 hours later we made the signpost. Energy returned, photos etc. etc. We had a satellite phone and after about 20 minutes I called Barbie, my partner back in Nova Scotia to say we made it.**

While on the phone at the summit some commotion started. ‘Gaudence’ one of the guides unexpectedly had to sit down, then told ‘Frank’, another of our three medically trained guides with us at the summit, he couldn’t feel his arms or hands. ‘Frank’ clipped on pure oxy to ‘Gaudence’ treating him, I imagine, for Acute Mountain Sickness. as the conversations between the guides were all in Swahili. However Gaudence had other ideas, he then decided to jump up and bolted at full gallop off the summit, oxy tube trailing behind. ‘Frank and a porter ran after him and caught with him 200 yards away, he collapsed and they stood him up and collectively disappeared over the trail edge back towards Stella Point. That left us with the only lead guide ‘Elias’.

While Elias was trying to comprehend what was happening, Another of our group turned and biffed, and another of our group announced “I’m sick and I am leaving”, which then prompted the rest of the gang to head out. Only myself and 3 others of our group seemed to not be suffering any altitude sickness. All the others were in some sort of head pain, diarrhea, nausea, or general discomfort.

As the balance of the group headed away from the summit, this left myself, ‘Elias’ our lone guide and one porter at the summit. ‘Elias said we will all head down ASAP. To which I announced to ‘Elias’ that I was physically spent, baked, done in, exhausted. It had taken everything out of me to get to the summit in the past 11 hours and my little stumps could not make a 3 to 4 hour decent in darkness, as it was 4:30pm and night was 1.5 hours away and as we were going to burn up 45 minutes or more just to get back to Stella Point at the edge of the downward decent. Regardless, we started off after the others that were now over the path ridge and out of site. 45 minutes later the 3 of us made Stella Point at the craters edge. ‘Elias’ again asked if I would descend and I said it wasn’t in the cards and that my legs would collapse on one of the rock steps and I would be a casually and if I broke a leg, there was no way the two of them could carry this chunk of meat off the mountain. Luckily there were 3 porters in the crater packing up tents etc due to a planned but now a aborted overnight stay in the crater.

Kilimanjaro from Moir Camp on Day 3

One of our trekkers, ‘Stephanie’ was at Stella Point when we arrived waiting to see what was the final decision (she was the Que. group leader, so she felt responsible to see that everyone was taken care of.) Elias told her to descend with a porter, as it was going to be enough to try tent me for the night. Then 3 porters arrived within half an hour from crater camp with 2 tents and some food.

As it was still light, Elias asked me to descend down the mountain for 15 minutes and the porters would set up tents at about 18500′. We arrived at a small somewhat level, but really a side hill. The porters had arrived ahead of me and had set up 2 tents. Elias said to crawl in a tent and he would bring some food, which he did an hour later. At this point I was to exhausted to eat and let the tea and soup freeze on the tent floor.

I was in a -40c rated sleeping bag, with a fleece liner, my balaclava hat on, arctic gloves and my polar parka over my head. This was about 7:30pm. Elias took my vitals at this time as well, my oxy was 81% and pulse was 97 b/m. This was after being at reat for an hour. I lay there trying my best not to slide out of the tent because of the acute angle we were on, praying the tend zipper wouldn’t pop at my feet.

Around 8pm I heard the porters around my tent on the outside rocking up the sides, back and front so I would not to be blown off the slope, in case a freak storm came through. Tent pegs were useless as the it was solid rock or loose gravel, with no way to sink a peg that would hold. I had to pee 4 times through the night and virtually did not get any sleep. At 5am, Julius, the porter that had been at my side for the past 14 hours of climbing brought me two boiled eggs and tea. This gratefully and hurriedly ate. 15 minutes later Elias said to grab my day-pack (hiking knap-sac) and to leave everything else, as the porters would pack up my other belongings. At 5:30am we started our decent in the dark and arrived and ‘Barafu camp’ at 8:30am. I had time for a cup of tea and repack my gear. At 9:30am everyone had packed up and we descended to ‘Mbecka camp’ and arrived at 5pm at elevation 5500 feet. 12 hours from leaving the upper slope at 18,500′.

In a 36 hour period I had climbed for 12 hours and over 4000 vertical feet to reach the summit at 19430 feet, spent 12 hours, either on, or near the summit, or in a sleeping bag and then close to 12 hours descending almost 14000 feet to the rain forests of Tanzania.

Tim Harris – January 2011

*For whatever reason, the lead guide of the day placed me as first climber in front of the 11 others in our group. I believe I was put there as the ‘canary in the coal mine’, if I keeled over then he knew he was pushing to hard. In any event it drove me well beyond my limitations over the 24 hours of the summit.

** 10 of 12 of our group made the summit, we lost one member the morning of Day 4 at ‘Moir Camp’ due to physical exhaustion, he was 82 years old and in relatively good shape as he was a constant walker and trekker back in Nova Scotia, to his credit he left that morning and completed a 9 hour trek back down the mountain. A second climber, also self-elected to retire on Day 7 at ‘Barafu base camp’. She had completed 7 days of difficult daily treks, but was having unaccountable dizzy periods and she thought it best to not go on. After a somewhat perilous decent in a one wheeled stretcher, the next day to the town of Moshi, she was diagnosed with severe dehydration. In any event, that left 10 of us to attempt the summit of Day 8.
.
*** Gaudence. the guide that had a difficult time, at the summit, I was informed upon our return to the hotel, that he actually had a latent malaria reaction and is AOK. The stress of the long climb, days without sleep due to the constant watching over us, in my opinion weakened his body enough at 19340′ to bring on a malaria reaction.

Print PDF

In real estate it is both nicer and easier to give and receive messages of optimism and assurance. No one ever wants to hear from a pessimistic broker or agent. But then no one wants to hear from a stupid one either. Pessimism should never be confused with pragmatism or objectivity. It would be wrong not to prepare sellers and ensure that they are in the best possible position to make the very most of the market we are in. Property is sold by people with their feet on the ground, not by those with their heads in the clouds – or worse!

So realistic brokers and agents are putting the Champagne back on ice for little longer in the UK. For a while many people thought that a buoyant property market had returned. In many places prices had regained their pre-2007 levels and there was strong demand.

But it would be foolish to ignore the many signals we have. In the market, all is not quite so rosy as it was. Demand has slackened off; mortgage lending is at a six month low; harsh economic measures are ahead and, despite low interest rates and helpful noises from the IMF that the British economy is looking better, few are deceived into thinking that the next twelve months or so won’t be a challenge.

For buyers with cash, or enough deposit to take advantage of some very good mortgage rates at the moment, this is a great market with lots of choice and a good degree of negotiating room. If purchasers missed the wonderful window of buying opportunity in spring 2008 now is a second chance to make a very good property investment in the UK just as it is in the US.

For sellers in the UK it is time to become hard-nosed business people. The message is clear. Pitch your price to attract lots of viewers and undercut the competition. Ensure that your home is always window-dressed to impress. Keep your eye always on your objective and try not to worry too much in the meantime. Encourage all offers and do not react crossly to low ones – it is not the first offer that counts, but the last! Negotiate hard on your next purchase. Finally, use a realistic broker/agent and not a silly one. Then, at last, you will be able to open that Champagne.