Learn about business opportunities, business ideas, and real estate investing here at Bizops.ca. We take a look at these topics and put a Canadian spin on them on this business opportunities blog.
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Written by Marc on May 17th, 2007
In a sellers market, the real estate prices are usually higher than what you paid for your rental property. It is an excellent chance to make a profit and sell your income properties. But before you do, consider these two scenarios:
- Sell your properties for a profit
Obviously, if you need a quick buck, or feel like cashing out, this would be the time to do it. No one complains about making money and that was the reason you bought the property in the first place, right?
This is also a great opportunity for you to take your smaller properties and turn them into a larger, more profitable property (think four green houses one red hotel). Usually if you follow this route, depending on where you live, you can pay less taxes on the capital gains of the properties. Consult your accountant on the particulars for taxes in your area.
- Increase …
Read more articles on Real Estate Investing and Saskatoon Real Estate.
Written by Marc on May 15th, 2007
Groan. I know some of you don’t really care for the whole reading thing, but make a point of reading what is below this introduction.
If you want to succeed and exceed the success of your peers, you need to learn something new everyday. I am not talking about a large amount of time to invest, rather just be consistent. Learning can also include listening to a book on tape, attending a seminar, or just reading a book.
Spending time each day learning may not seem to mean a lot but consider this: the days add up in a year. For example consider that Jack and Jane are friends. The difference between them is Jane spends time each day (about twenty minutes) learning something new regarding business or investing. Each year that goes by, Jane increases her knowledge by over 100 hours compared to Jack and assuming she learns one thing …
Read more articles on Business Ideas and Entrepreneur.
Written by Marc on May 5th, 2007
The average sale price of a home in Saskatoon jumps 10% in the past month. The average sale price for a home jumped from $200,938 CDN in March to $220,862 CDN in April.
This return brings the return on real estate in Saskatoon to an annualized 32%.
The price increase is mainly due to an increased demand of local buyers purchasing bigger houses, ex-Saskatchewan residents moving back to the province, and interest from investors in western Canada.
Asking price has increased 26% on FSBO (for sale by owner) website saskhouses.com. The average listing price for April 2007 was $243,343 CDN compared to April 2006 average of $192,853 CDN.
Note: The average sale price of a home is affected by both the number of homes sold and the sale price. For example, if a few highly priced homes are sold in a month, it can skew the numbers …
Read more articles on Saskatoon Real Estate.
Written by Marc on May 1st, 2007
Whether you are from Canada or not, and you are looking into investing in real estate here, you need quality information in front of you. Perhaps you are not familiar with the housing prices in Saskatoon or how much a retirement condominium will cost you in Victoria.
Royal LePage is a great resource whether you are an investor or just looking for your next home. They publish a quarterly report about Canadian housing prices. This can be invaluable information that can help you decide what cities in Canada would fit in your price range for investment properties.
There is also some detail on the estimated property taxes as well as the monthly rental rate you could expect. They cover seven property types including townhouses, condominiums and bungalows.
The reports are free and you can get them in any Royal LePage branch or at their …
Read more articles on Real Estate Investing and Real Estate Resources.
Written by Marc on April 28th, 2007
If you are a novice real estate investor, or an expert, there will come a time when your feelings get in the way of your logic. You may fall in love with the yard, love the paint, or like the view of a certain property. When you get these feelings you need to
STOP!
Investing in income properties needs to be a mechanical process. You should consult and analyze the numbers to determine if a property is worth investing in. Also use some common sense and do some research on the area you are going to invest your money.
If you do let feelings make your decisions, you may find yourself purchasing income properties that don’t perform well, or end up costing you money.
Remember, you are investing in income properties for the money to allow you to do what you feel like doing… so keep the feelings …
Read more articles on Business Ideas and Real Estate Investing.
Written by Marc on April 24th, 2007
If cash flow is your priority in your real estate investments, you probably have considered many options. Such things as adding a suite, renting out the garage, or turning a portion of the yard into a parking may have been some options that you have considered.
You probably have tried to lower your expenses as well. This can be very effective in increasing your cash flow. Most owners look at reducing their utility costs as a primary means to reduce expenses. But, have you considered amortizing your mortgage over a longer period of time?
By extending the length of your mortgage over a longer period of time, you can increase your cash on cash return significantly. Consider the following example for an apartment block with 50 units renting out at $500 each, a down payment of $500,000 and a purchase price of $2,000,000. Assume a 6% interest rate throughout the …
Read more articles on Real Estate Investing.
Written by Marc on April 22nd, 2007
If you are unfamiliar with owning a website, it is worth taking a look. Websites cost as little as $0.99 at the moment, which would mean that you would have to go without your morning coffee to try your hand at being a webmaster.
Obviously, $0.99 doesn’t cover the development, marketing, or maintenance of your website. None the less, if nine out of ten businesses fail in the first year, it would cost under ten dollars to get a website that would succeed (provided the odds work out as they should.)
Chances are that you could recoup your initial investment during the year. Recently I crunched some numbers regarding a website project I was considering and my daily costs just to break even were a big seven cents per day. My conservative expectations were that I could earn one dollar per day, that would work out to just under $340 …
Read more articles on Entrepreneur and Online Opportunities.
Written by Marc on April 21st, 2007
With tax time in Canada looming (just nine days till the deadline) I have been sitting here working on my books. The work has gone smoothly but it did give me some good advice – keep up with your accounting to keep track of your business efforts.
Looking over my books I can see some winners and some losers in my organization (I am talking businesses here… 🙂 ). If I had kept up with my books last year, I would have known what winners to keep and which one’s to sell.
For those of you that don’t have the time or don’t like accounting (I know it is not for everyone…), hire a bookkeeper. For a modest fee, they can do the keypunching while you can work on building your business. Don’t forget to hire an accountant to check over the work done by your bookkeeper. This ensures that …
Read more articles on Entrepreneur.
Written by Marc on April 19th, 2007
Like many landlords, you are often faced with the predicament over raising the rent (because the market can support it) and losing some of your good tenants.
A good example is the rental market in Saskatoon at the moment. Housing here has been a hot commodity over the last few years and there have been a lot of condo conversions resulting in a shortage of rental properties.
A certain rental community in our city named McNab park is a good example. The majority of the tenants in this community are lower income families, with the average income just over half of the city of Saskatoon average. Basically for these people, any major rental rate increase will drive some of them out. With 163 units, it could be a huge cash cow in this type of market, where rental increases of $200 CDN or more are not unheard of.
I do …
Read more articles on Business Ideas and Real Estate Investing.
Written by Marc on April 12th, 2007
Now, when I hear the word diversify, I think mutual funds. I don’t know if there is any other word used so much as diversify in their industry. Diversification is a result of the old saying: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Now, where might you ask, does diversification fit into business opportunities.
Diversifying your portfolio of businesses, income properties, and websites helps you in a few ways. Some examples are:
- Protection from changing trends
If all your rental properties are located in a town whose workforce depends on a particular industry (for example lumber) and suddenly the demand for that product drops, people may lose jobs and move out of the area. This recently happened to a friend in Hudson’s Bay. Protect yourself by purchasing in different regions – if you invested properly, changing trends should not affect you.
- Multiple Income Streams
Most companies rely on their own store sales …
Read more articles on Business Ideas and Business Opportunities and Entrepreneur and Online Opportunities and Real Estate Investing.