Is it time to sell your rental property? Or time to buy another?

According to Statistics Canada, 69 per cent of Canadians own homes, so most of us have reason to worry about the fate of the housing market. Landlords, in particular, make a conscious choice to invest in real estate that goes beyond just a place for their families to live. As a result, landlords should be paying close attention to the conflicting views and data on Canadian real estate.

One in 20 Canadians own rental real estate according to the Financial Industry Research Monitor. An Altus Group study shows that for households earning more than $100,000 per year, rental real estate ownership is twice that of the general population – about 10 per cent.

So the question is: buy or sell?

Buy

Donald Trump may very well be the next…

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Interested in Buying a Foreclosure? These Tips Will Help!

Many home buyers are attracted to foreclosed properties because they can offer great opportunity. But don’t get too excited yet, though foreclosed homes really offer great deals, they also come with challenges. Knowing what you will deal when you decide to buy a foreclosure can prepare you in the process.

There are no disclosures

With a traditional sale, you’ll get disclosures from the sellers. With foreclosures, there’s none. It’s like not knowing what you’re getting into because you will not have any knowledge if the house will need some serious fixing. The bank will not give you the history of the home nor the problems you might encounter when you move in so you have to be prepared.

You can work with your agent on this. Search as much as…

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With all 18 polls reporting, Kamloops has voted against a $90-million parkade and performing arts centre.

PAC referendum defeated

By: Andrea Klassen in News November 7, 2015

With all 18 polls reporting, Kamloops has voted against a $90-million parkade and performing arts centre.

According to numbers from Kamloops city hall, 53.7 per cent of residents voted against the project, while 46.3 per cent voted for.

The city had asked voters for permission to borrow up to $49 million for the complex, with a 1,200-seat main stage theatre, 350-seat black box and 350-stall underground parkade, to be built at the former Kamloops Daily News site on Seymour Street.

Voter turnout in the referendum was 32 per cent.

Coun. Pat Wallace called the results “extremely disappointing.

“I think people bought the idea this was all about taxes,” she said. “I…

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Dinner in Kamloops: Turn off the highway to discover B.C.’s newest food and wine region

You probably think of Kamloops as a refuelling stop, a place to pause for a tank of gas and a Tim’s before hitting the Coquihalla Highway. But it’s so much more than that.

Seemingly overnight, Kamloops has become B.C.’s newest foodie destination, where a small but mighty contingent of chefs, farmers, winemakers and craft brewers are discovering the potential of this city in the Thompson River Valley.

Perhaps it was inevitable. Kamloops is quietly booming. The population has slowly but steadily been growing (it’s now around 100,000), and the city has attracted a number of diverse new businesses. And yet, it’s still affordable enough for young families to buy a house and make a life there.

As Monica Dickinson, the acting CEO of Tourism Kamloops,…

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Kamloops Performing Arts Center - 7 questions to help you make up your mind

The City has received a number of questions about the Performing Arts Centre and Parkade. We want to share the most common to inform voters for the November 7th referendum.

7 questions to help you decide

Performing Arts Centre & Parkade FAQs

1. Why is the City proposing a parkade and performing arts centre (PAC) complex?

There‘s a shortage of theatre space and parking in our city centre. Building an underground parkade with a performing arts centre above meets our needs and makes full use of the property.
Adding performing arts with sport tourism allows us to diversify and compliment our local economy. The complex will attract performers with speci!c requirements on venue and seating capacities. And local performers will bene!t too with access…

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Daylight savings time is here, but B.C. petitioners argue it should go

KAMLOOPS - Clocks in most of Canada will go back an hour early Sunday morning, but not everyone is pleased with the extra time for sleep.

"People with sleep disorders don't get an extra hour of sleep. They get an extra hour of laying there thinking about not sleeping,'' says Tara Holmes.

Holmes is one of two Kamloops residents who have created an online petition urging the provincial government to do away with daylight time, where clocks leap forward an hour in March and fall back in November.

Daylight time has been a pet peeve for Bob Dieno, the petition's co-founder, since university when he slept in on the day the clocks switched and missed the final exam in his chemistry class.

The time change is archaic and disruptive, Holmes argues,…

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Kamloops - Top BC Real Estate Investment Towns

The Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) released the 2013 edition of its Top British Columbia Investment Towns report.

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The 110-page report analyzes the current and future prospects for real estate investment opportunities in the province over the next decade and has once again ranked Kamloops as a top investment community. However, the city’s ranking has dropped slightly, from third place in a previous edition of the report to fifth place in the most recent edition. The entire report is available for download free of charge at www.topbctowns.com.

While remaining a popular vacation destination for BC residents, Kamloops has also succeeded in attracting many non-tourism related…

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6 Surprising Ways To Grow Your Investing Business With A Real Estate Agent

When I talk to real estate investors about the deals they’re doing, I’m surprised how often they choose to skip working with a real estate agent in favor of doing the deal themselves. From a dollars-and-cents perspective, I can understand that they are counting the cost of doing the work themselves versus paying a fee to an agent. And, it’s an unfortunate reality in the real estate industry, that there are many agents who are not “investor-savvy” and operating with the investing mindset that these types of investors need.

However, I can also tell you, as someone who invested in his first door at the age of 18 and then became a real estate agent in the 1980s, there are a group of us investing-savvy agents who are simply NOT being utilized to the degree…

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Broadening B.C.’s property-transfer tax will have unintended consequences

Property Tax News

The B.C. government, among others, is taking a close look at the province’s property transfer tax. But broadening or raising the transfer tax will have harmful economic consequences for current homeowners. The province should instead look to replace the property-transfer tax with less harmful taxes.

Many provinces and municipalities across Canada levy property or land-transfer taxes. The buyer pays a tax proportional to the value of the purchase. British Columbia has a progressive rate on transaction values. Buyers pay 1 per cent on the first $200,000, and then 2 per cent on the rest of the value.

Many people think that transfer taxes also curb housing speculation. But there is international evidence that transfer taxes are…

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Recent changes in demographic trends in Canada

The population profile of the provinces and territories could become increasingly different in the decades ahead, because of changing demographic trends.

A new article released today, titled "Recent changes in demographic trends in Canada," provides an analysis of these demographic trends at both the national and provincial–territorial levels.

From 2011 to 2014, Canada's population growth averaged 1.1% a year. However, this national average masks some major differences among the provinces and territories.

For example, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta had the strongest average population growth of all provinces during this period, for the first time since 1971.

While Alberta has had the strongest population growth in nearly all years…

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