Today is Thursday April 28, 2016. This is the 17th episode of the Marshall Report. Welcome to the podcast.
In this episode:
1. Spring
2. Changing your mind
3. Former factories
4. Average rents
5. Reality real estate TV
7. Moving to Manitouwadge
8. Running the Boston Marathon
9. Awareness, trust and action
10. Building maintenance
Spring
Spring finally sprung and I’ve been doing lots of yard work. It is so great to be outside again. I’m working from my summer office, which is our front porch so I’m reconnecting with the neighbours as they walk by. I’m bumping into people I know when out showing condo townhouse units or when popping by the Canadian Tire for some yard waste bags, or even when out for dinner in Belmont Village – boy that neighbourhood has some new vibrancy!
I’m so happy it’s spring.
Question of the week – Can I change my mind after I put in an offer?
I blogged about that one here.
Former Factories
Kitchener’s past as an industry town is quickly getting sold off. The old Lear plant on the corner of Manitou and Homer Watson Boulevard has a new owner. Lear Canada used to employ about 1000 people. It closed last year.
A little further up Homer Watson at Bleams, at the old Budd plant, construction is going to begin later this year on a new commercial complex including retail space, commercial/medical offices and some industrial.
The old Schneider’s plant was taking bids for a buyer a little while ago, but we never heard what is going to become of that building. There were rumours that it was going to become residential condos.
Last week on the podcast I spoke about the innovation corridor. Kitchener used to be a real factory town but I’m sure that will be all but forgotten in another decade.
Average Rents
Last week on the podcast I was talking about how expensive it is to rent a place in the Silicon Valley. Then I came across an infographic from Rentseeker mapping out the rents for apartments in select cities in Canada. Thankfully, Kitchener is on the map. Here are some highlights:
The average bachelor apartment in Kitchener rents for $698/month in Kitchener. $676 in Cambridge and $900 in Calgary.
The average one-bedroom apartment rents for $830 in Kitchener, $856 in Cambridge and $1126 per month in Burlington.
The average two-bedroom apartment rents for $970 in Kitchener, $760 in Montreal and $953 in Sudbury.
So, as you can see, rental rates are all over the map.
These rates are from the autumn of last year.
Reality realty
There is a lot of fiction in real estate, and nowhere more than real estate reality TV. Yes, sad but true. Real estate reality TV is a TV category. But sadly there is a lot more fiction than reality in reality real estate TV.
I love those shows. Everything is so easy and condensed. All the drama of buying, renovating and/or listing a house is condensed into 30 minutes. If only life were so simple.
But now there is some real drama to go with the fake drama. The hit Canadian home makeover show ‘Love it or List it’ is being sued. They are being sued for a lot of things that they did allegedly illegally in an episode set in North Carolina last year.
They will probably win it. Americans just love to sue, but it does highlight how fictitious the whole program is with not using local contractors using real quotations, and more importantly local real estate agents who show real listings for sale.
I love watching real estate TV. But I always thought it was a parody or a satire not a reality show.
The 10% solution
Earlier this year after dealing with a nasty and deceitful private home seller I decided to not work with them anymore. I wrote about that here.
Moving to Manitouwadge
My father told me that he bought his first house for $9,000. It was a little bungalow in a one industry town in Northern BC. That was in 1960.
$9,000 doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but I guess it was, more than a half century ago.
With the average price of single homes in Kitchener Waterloo over $400,000, that little bungalow would sell for over $300,000 here today. They say that the value of real estate always goes up unless one of three things happen
1) your town gets hit by a nuclear bomb
2) your nuclear power plant explodes
3) you live in a one industry town and the industry comes away.
That’s what happened in Maitouwadge, a northern Ontario mining town where you can buy a house for as little as $14,000. They currently have about 50 houses, most of which were built in the 1980s on the market. The average price is about $20,000.
The town is in the middle of nowhere but has two restaurants, and an LCBO.
Running the Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon took place about a week ago. There were no incidences. So there was no real news. I only mention it because now that spring is here I’ve noticed how popular running clubs have become. In uptown Waterloo, where we live and in Waterloo Park where we walk the dog on a regular basis, we encounter small groups of runners all the time.
It wasn’t always like this. Running, or jogging used to be a solitary sport. Back in the 70’s you’d see long distance runners out on back country roads or in the mornings running past commuter traffic. But even ten years ago, I don’t think group running in running groups was quite so widespread.
I keep saying that I am going to take up running, but I doubt I ever will. I haven’t got the time or the energy, ha ha.
According to an article I was reading about the Boston Marathon, more than half a million people finish a marathon every year.
Call to action
This weeks call to action is for action.
I was reading Seth Godin recently. He said that Marketing is about three things. Awareness, trust and action.
My marketing is essentially my websites and now this podcast. Is my marketing working? Yes. Last year more than 70% of my clients found online. I know only a couple of other agents in Canada that can claim that. We know each other. It is our niche.
So let’s break it down.
Awareness. You are here. You know I’m a realtor.
Trust. Trust is harder. Trust comes from experience and I guess through testing your assumptions. Trust also comes from awareness. When you keep seeing something, trust seeps out of awareness. That is traditional marketing and advertising.
And action: Now it is time for you to do something. This is the hardest one. Action means change and most people fear change. It is my job to tell you to take action. So, here you go.
It is time for you to contact me. Send me an email and introduce yourself. Tell me your story and maybe I can help you buy or sell a home this spring.
Parting thought
Everybody wants to build. Nobody wants to do maintenance.
