Gerald Tostowaryk's Blog Posts Tagged 'estate' (8)

Commercial sales and leasing statistics reported by the Edmonton Real Estate Board show a slow steady decline in the commercial real estate marketplace since the highs of 2006 and 2007.

Land Sales

Land sales peaked in 2006, and have declined every year to a low in 2009 of around 18% of the unit volume seen in 2006. Dollar volume in 2009 was 27% off the highs and this year it is at 32% of the highs. This is quite a drop, but to be expected as land was the subject of much speculation… Continue

Okay, there is no way to predict the end of a boom, well there is no accurate way. By accurate I mean accurate enough to tell you within a month when to get your money out. Booms are irrational creatures and trying to predict their behaviour is a fool's game.

But there are two pieces of advice that seem to stand the test of time that tell you the end is near. How near is hard to say but it is likely near.

The first one is one most of us have heard before, "When your cab driver…

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GAAP, CCA, Capital Expenses vs Operating expenses...say what? What language is that and what does it have to do with commercial real estate investing? Well, some of you probably recognize this as accounting lingo; and it has everything to do with commercial real estate investing....well, at least with successful commercial real estate investing.

In my last discussion on successful commercial real estate investing, I did a general overview of points of importance to commercial real…

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Okay, so in my last blog I spoke of the value of common sense in real estate investing. And as promised here is my humble opinion on how to employ that common sense in the world of commercial real estate investing.

Before even looking at a single building, sit down with a professional REALTOR® to review your portfolio and your goals. A true professional will take the time to understand where you are and where you want to be. And you might just find out that you aren't where you should…

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Well, between a busy schedule and a couple of very short vacations, it's been quite a while since I had the opportunity to make a blog post. One idea did cross my mind while dealing with a prospective customer who had made some bad investments.

What makes a successful real estate investor? I mean investors come and go, get rich in real estate programs come and go, but only a small percentage stay the course in the real estate investment world. Now I can only speak from my experience,…

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Well, after my last couple of blogs, I can not neglect to mention leverage and my thoughts on how to use it today in the the Edmonton real estate market (I would argue my thoughts are applicable just about anywhere in the world at this time).

Most of you no doubt know that leverage refers to how much debt one uses to purchase something. A general rule of thumb is that the more leverage one uses, the greater one's return on investment. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, there is another…

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So Greece is having its economic challenges, and now other European countries are wavering. They're a long way from Edmonton, what possible effect could their economies have on our real estate values? Lots.

Now there is an old saying that we all rise to our level of incompetence and I think me disucssing world economics is probably rising way past my level of incompetence...but what the heck. Let's see how far into trouble I can get myself.

I do not know how much trouble the…

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There sure seems to be a lot of talk about the danger of runaway inflation and subsequent rising interest rates. Will it happen? What effect will this have on commercial real estate?

Well, first things first. Will we see runaway inflation and rising interest rates? Now I am not an economist and I certainly do not pretend to be one. Fortunately that doesn't bother me because there is an old saying that goes, "If you…

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