What an amazing weekend spent enjoying the sunshine in a delightful pocket of the city. Sitting on the balcony of our listing at 365 Waterfront was absolute bliss. Beautiful greenery all around, casual walking and biking traffic and not to mention peek-a-boo views of the gorge water way. If it wasn’t for all of the guests that stopped by to visit our stunning new listing I would have forgotten I was working.
365 Waterfront is beyond a doubt one of this city’s gems. The finishes in the building are among the highest quality available and pricing is very reasonable. The finishing features you’ll find include: white oak wide plank flooring, granite counter tops, spa like bathrooms with deep soaker tubs and separate glass encased showers, floor to ceiling windows all in concrete and steel construction. Those marvelous suites that face the water are awe-inspiring but there isn’t a bad spot in the building. If you don’t look onto the water you are overlooking the Galloping goose trail or a beautiful tree lined street.
A modern yet inviting foyer greets entrants into the building and will surely make this hot spot a wonderful place to call home. If your tastes call for only the best quality building materials and a modern clean design with a flow that still invokes that comfy home feeling then 365 Waterfront is perfect! Call us today to arrange a private viewing of this hot spot in Victoria.
Buying revenue property as part of your overall investment strategy is a great idea. Holding valuable properties can help you build wealth over time.
All to often however we hear stories of landlords who have had bad experiences renting out their homes or condos.
Many times these bad experiences can be avoided if the landlords have the right resources available to them. One such resource for BC landlords is ROMS BC short for The Residential Owners and Managers Society of BC.
The mission of ROMS BC is to provide services, products and representation to help it’s members succeed as rental owners. ROMS BC serves and represents over 2,300 members who collectively manage more than 50,000 residential rental units throughout British Columbia. They have all sort of helpful things like rental application forms which facilitate credit checks on applicants, tenancy agreement forms and they can perform credit checks on your applicants. The knowledgeable staff can also answer legal questions and offering operational advice.
Taking the time to properly vet those who apply for tenancy is a key element to having a good rental experience. Make sure that your applicants’ references check out and perform a credit check. With attention to these details and the right advise and resources at your command you too can benefit from owning rental property.
The World Partnership Walk is Canada’s largest annual event dedicated to raising funds and increasing awareness to fight global poverty.
The walk was held in Vancouver, Toronto and Victoria at Beacon Hill Park and raised $2 million dollars for the world’s poor.
We were touched to hear the guest of honour Naz Rayani address the crowd. All of the energy he brought to organizing this among many walks in Victoria was inspiring.
Manning the mini golf station with the folks from Prospect Lake Golf Course was a blast!
We were thrilled to support such a fantastic event and be a part of this tremendous fundraising effort!
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is Canada’s national housing agency and provide excellent housing market information. Each quarter a report is made available that provides an overview of Victoria’s housing market, and the most recent report was made available today!
I wanted to provide you with some quick highlight of the report, and one of the available charts that is available online.
Victoria Highlights:
- the resale market is expected to remain in balanced territory(neither a seller’s nor buyer’s market)
- average resale prices will stabilize in 2011 and 2012
- MLS prices across all property types are projected to decrease by 2% in 2011, and then increase again in 2012 by about 1%
- the average price of single detached homes is projected to rise by 2.1% in 2011 compared to 2010
- the volume of MLS sales are projected to increase by 8.6% in 2011 compared to 2010
- economic and demographic factors will support possible housing demand in the region
Much more information is available online at CMHC or by contacting Patricia or myself. We would be happy to discuss future trends and today’s real estate market with you in more detail.
The Real Estate Board of Greater Victoria is an excellent resource for REALTORS and consumers to stay up to date with local stats. Each Monday the board releases an excellent summery of the month to date sales numbers.
Both Patricia and I believe that careful market research and analysis is the key to smart real estate investing and so we want to offer the below table as a resource for visitors to our blog. If you have any questions or would like more details information please contact us.
Here are the month-to-date number for this past week:
As a REALTOR, we need to stay up to date with current market trends and real estate statistics. One of my favorite sites to check is www.BCREA.com which is the BC Real Estate Association’s website. Here are a few details from their most recent market summery.
“The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) residential unit sales in the province declined 14per cent to 7,187 units in April compared to the same month last year. The average MLS®residential price climbed 16 per cent to $598,308 last month compared to April 2010.
“BC home sales edged lower in April as theresult of home purchases that were pulledforward during the first quarter,” said CameronMuir, BCREA Chief Economist. “Theprovince’s housing markets continue to exhibita two steps forward, one step back trajectory intandem with economic and employmentgrowth.”
Year-to-date, BC residential sales dollarvolume increased 14 per cent to $15.4 billion,compared to the same period last year.Residential unit sales edged back one per centto 26,334 units, while the average MLS®residential price rose 15.5 per cent to $586,466 over the same period.”
Courtesy of the BCREA
For more detailed local statistical information, please contact us.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Pemberton Holmes ‘Power to Play’ relay team. We had a great, and very MESSY day racing in the pouring rain. The relay was organized by a local Victorian charity which helps to provide underprivileged, and disabled kids with fabulous outdoor experiences and the big relay raised over $110,000!
I completed on a team with the Managing Broker Mike Homles, and some fellow Realtors Andrew Plank, and Riley Janes and I’m happy to announce we crossed the finish line 2nd, but were bumped to 4th when we realized we mixed up one of the challenges. Too bad! Next year we’ll go for 1st!
I’d encourage everyone to check out the Power to Be site and I’ll leave everyone a few photos which will nicely illustrate just how rainy, messy, muddy and FUN the big race was.
My partner Christina Carrick and I created an online down payment wedding registry because we wanted to provide a new and exciting service for couples. Home for the Honeymoon expands the potential of both the real estate industry but also the wedding registry industry. The service provided here helps couples avoid redundant wedding gifts that lose value when returned (or subsequently sold in garage sales). As realtors and home owners we know the value of having a place where your new family can settle and thrive. By registering for your new home you are making a financially sound decision from which you will benefit for years to come but you’re also registering to receive the best gift of all time!
Home for the Honeymoon works with a wide range of needs, from couples who use the registry to raise their entire down payment amount, to those who already have a portion saved and need a boost to reach their goal, and others who won’t be able to make their purchase for 6 months or longer after the wedding day. Regardless of your situation our expertise will help you get into the home you want.
Friends and family of Home for the Honeymoon couples love being a part of this great experience as well. We’ve even had couples receive gifts for up to a week after their wedding day. Weddings really have the ability to unite loved ones in celebration and of course well wishers are happy about the opportunity to give the new couple all the tools necessary to start off on the right foot.
If you know of anyone who is interested in learning more about this new exciting program check us out online at www.HomefortheHoneymoon.com
Enjoy this beautiful wedding video created by the brilliant filmmaker Krista Loughton of Publik Productions.com. It will leave you breathless and really put you in the mood for a marriage.
I hope that this spring finds you and your family happy and healthy. It’s been a busy spring market in Victoria, and the beautiful weather and vibrant cherry blossoms have created renewed optimist and excitement in our market place.
This is a call out for support. This upcoming Sunday myself and 3 others will be competing in a grueling 4 hour long non-stop competition in support of Power to Be (a local award winning charity that provide outdoor experiences to local disadvantaged children and youth). I’m asking for sponsors for our Pemberton Holmes Real Estate team in the upcoming Power to Play Corporate Challenge.
Power to Be, a local organization, provides dynamic outdoor education programs that enrich the health and quality of life of youth, adults and families facing significant life challenges. Getting youth & families into nature, camping, hiking, kayaking, climbing and gardening, Power To Be fills the gaps in government and social service programs in a unique & effective manner. They are differentiated by an attempt to maintain a relationship with participants, where possible, providing 1-5 year programming.
On May 15th, 2011 twenty-five corporate teams will take part in an outdoor adventure that represents fun, competition and team building, all while raising much needed dollars for Power To Be. This highly anticipated event is projected to raise $100,000 for programming and to raise awareness about the organization and its highly-demanded programs and wait lists.
Our team name is Pemberton Holmes, and you can donate here. For more information about how to volunteer, donate, or register a team, visit www.powertoplay.ca
I recently moved into my first home which happens to be a very charming, but slightly dated 1990s condo in James Bay. The first thing I planned on renovating was kitchen, as I was just not a fan of the salmon colored counter tops.
As I started researching different eco renovation products I once again realized the huge amount of green-washing that is currently taking place. I visited a variety of home renovation stores and looked at ton of different eco options, but all the recycled countertop materials were made of 20, 30 or 40% recycled material which just didn’t sit right. I thought that there had to be a product that offered more.
After meeting Des Carpenter at a local green networking event I was totally excited. His company is called Environite and their mission is to “provides an attractive, sustainable building product using recycled waste materials typically destined for the landfill.” The best part about his product is that its made from approximately 90% recycled material and is produced locally in the Pacific Northwest. They offer a variety of different color options and the product is custom fit and designed.
After careful contemplation, and much indecision I selected a counter made from recycled beer bottles. So step one was to remove all the counters:
Step two was to install the new counters:
Final step was to reinstall the sink and get everything cleaned up:
I am totally pleased with the final product. For more information on Environite please visit http://www.environite.com/ and for more information about green real estate please keep visiting our site!
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