The website as a medium is fully assimilated into our lives

Tres Labs
REM

The internet has brought on many changes to our society in the past 25 years. One of the most elegant changes has been the appreciation of a self-serve culture, both in terms of how wonderfully efficient it is and the wildly exponential growth of the idea. The website as a medium is fully assimilated into our lives.

Twenty years ago, mass media was television, radio and print. Professionals went to university to learn media theory so they could create marketing campaigns and commercial advertising. The big outfits continue to set a high bar for small-town stations staffed by fresh college grads and sometimes the results were sincere but off-beat ads to sell used cars or mattresses. (Thank goodness for these opportunities to learn.)

Websites make it easy for anyone to publish anything, on their own, without any experience in marketing or copy writing. Even when a professional website designer is brought into the fold, the content itself often misses the point, which is to have a conversation with a prospect: one that is so compelling that they’ll want to hire you based on introductions.

All media is about content, channel and creature. That’s the basic formula. Content is the message; channel is the way your prospect receives it and creature is the demographic of the audience. Mass media is defined as generalized content, with delivery of the message in specific space-time channels and the existence of a receptive audience. Let’s have a look at how a real estate website fits into these definitions and explore some things you can do to make your website better.

Generalized content is mostly what we see on real estate websites, which is good – it appeals to the mass audience – but it tends to lack context. The reference point is sometimes, “I am appealing to everyone” instead of, “I am licensed by the government to trade in real property; I must follow a professional code of ethics, have a minimum standard of business and carry E&O insurance to protect the consumer.” That is a completely different paradigm.

Website copy tends to image-building and creating a “sensuous firstness”; which is that magnetic feeling we get when home renovation shows do the final reveal. It’s nice but the problem is that it’s very difficult to conjure and very easy to copy. No moat, no differentiation and worse, now you’re a commodity so anything valuable you had to say is subjugated.

In human relationships, exchange is the media of bonding, and the sum of our internalizations of bonding directs our behaviour. It’s not a heavy concept. It just means that giving to each other is what turns us on as a species.

When you craft a mindful message of exchange, whether it’s based on the Realtor brand or your own secret sauce, the message on your website remains special to you. The iPhone is a good example of a “people first” way of doing business and, in comparison, Android is a high-quality copycat but it can never replicate the culture of Apple or embody privacy ethics because of its business model. Does your website explain your business philosophy? Is it copy-proof?

Websites allow you to deliver your special content in a specific time and space, which is the second component of mass media. Controlling the delivery of your content can be done by using referral sites like the Chamber of Commerce, Realtor.ca and company portals, submitting articles to a local paper and a myriad of other public relations and marketing activities that put your URL in the right place at the right time. Online ads can be scheduled and have become very intelligent in the past few years. It’s possible to create a pay-per-click campaign that is autonomous: ads will write themselves for all pages, not just a few that you guess might do well.

The third component to a successful mass media device is an audience. Visitor analytics can provide solid insights for agents who have had a website for a long time. Have a look at the age and location demographics. Are most visitors in a particular age group, such as empty-nesters? If you live in a vacation town, where do the website visitors live? Their IPs will be geo-located and show in your control panel. Perhaps advertising in their neck of the woods might be helpful.

If you’re new to the business, consider becoming a neighbourhood specialist (your own is a good place to start) instead of rolling the dice on a big ad campaign. A niche website strategy can help gain control of your one-square-km farm area.

Owning a niche market or neighbourhood with persistent farming is perhaps the ultimate mass medium in real estate: your marketing will speak to anyone it wishes, marketing efforts are multiplied and the competition is immobilized.

© 2019 REM Real Estate Magazine

July sales in Vancouver up 23%

Neil Sharma
Mortgage Broker News

While it’s early days yet, Vancouver’s real estate market seems to be coming back to life.

July sales figures released by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver revealed a 23.5% year-over-year increase, as regional residential home sales totalled 2,557, trumping last year’s 2,070. It also marked a 23.1% increase over the 2,077 home sales recorded in June 2019.

And while sales in July were 7.8% below the 10-year average for the month, Jason Turcotte, Cressey Development Group’s VP of development, notes the last decade has been an aberration.

“The 10-year averaged a number we will always struggle to meet because those were unprecedented 10 years,” he said. “I think the whole dynamic of the marketplace has changed in Vancouver, and what it shows us is that with ‘normal’ buying activity we see prices hold.”

Juxtaposed with a year ago, when nobody knew where the Vancouver market was headed, consumer confidence has returned to the market. As evidence, Turcotte points to the city’s single-family detached market.

“A year ago, the single-family market was virtually non-existent,” he said of the 32% year-over-year sales increase. “Now there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic because it’s a sign that comfort has returned to the market and we’re seeing ‘normal’ activity.”

The benchmark price for detached properties remains exorbitant at $1,417,000, however, it’s a 10.5% year-over-year decrease from July 2018 and a 0.5% drop from the previous month. Moreover, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation just designated Vancouver’s housing market stability as moderate after being “highly vulnerable” for the past three years.

“When they talk about prices and affordability, it’s still very much in their red zone,” said Turcotte. “The reason the designation had to do with the slowing pace of sales and the slight reduction of pricing, but the latter alone wouldn’t have done it. It’s not an overheated marketplace where demand exceeds supply, which drives prices up at unprecedented levels. If we look at prices relative to local incomes, they’re still unaffordable and there’s no question we have to recognize we’re not only a local economy: we have global appeal with growth of high-income immigration. The strong demand here will, from a global interest perspective, keep prices high.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media

SEAandSKY community of homes showcase natural beauty of Squamish

Simon Briault
The Vancouver Sun

BlueSky Properties and Kingswood Properties are set to be a big part of that transformation. The two companies are collaborating on a new master-planned community in Squamish called SEAandSKY.

 “Our two families — the Bosa family and the Segal family — have created an amazing partnership,” explained Dale Bosa, CEO of BlueSky Properties. “There’s a lot of trust between us and we have one of those handshake-type relationships that come when you have a lot of the same goals.”

Lorne Segal, president of Kingswood Properties, agreed.

“It’s not often in life that you have a business partnership that also consists of a friendship,” he said. “We just have very similar visions of how we want to work, live life, contribute to the community and build legacies for the future. We’re doing several things together and, in the case of SEAandSKY, it’s resulting in a wonderful example of what a consolidated vision of a community can look like.”

When it’s fully built out, SEAandSKY will cover 55 acres and include approximately 1,000 homes with a mix of townhouses, four-storey rental buildings, retail spaces, waterfront homes and a 17,000-square-foot amenity area. The development will provide access to the waterfront along Howe Sound inlet.

“I remember walking through this property about 14 years ago and thinking to myself that maybe this could become something,” said Segal. “You stand on the site and you look around and you’re surrounded by nature. It’s not just the view of The Chief — a mecca for climbers around the world — right in your backyard. Spin round and you get a 360-view of nature and mountains. It’s breathtaking.”

“Squamish is really an emerging market and if you’re planning to commute to Vancouver, it’s comparable to anywhere in the Fraser Valley,” Segal added. “The difference here is that it’s one of the most scenic drives in the whole of North America.”

Phase one of SEAandSKY has already been sold and will be completed later this year. Phase two homes — scheduled for completion by the end of 2020 — are on sale now: 134 townhomes with either two or three bedrooms, ranging in size from 1,199 to 1,789 square feet and priced from $689,900.

“Many people tend to just pass through Squamish and don’t give it a chance,” said Segal. “Well, they’re really missing out when you consider an asset like this — one of the last opportunities to buy into a brand new, waterfront-oriented community of this magnitude. You take a place like this with some of the finest ingredients and put it in the hands of an exceptionally talented team with a bold vision and what you get is a community that is really exceeding people’s expectations.”

Bosa said that in terms of the demographic of buyers the two companies are targeting, the focus has been on end users because the goal was to create a really strong sense of community at SEAandSKY.

“There are very few companies in our industry — and I’m speaking for both Kingswood and BlueSky — that care as much as we do about the configuration of space in our homes,” Segal added. “It’s rare to find homes that look great and even more rare to find ones that are also super functional to suit the needs of modern-day families.”

Kitchens at SEAandSKY come with soft-close doors and drawers, porcelain tile backsplashes and KitchenAid appliance packages (buyers can also choose to upgrade to Bosch appliances).

Bathrooms have porcelain tile flooring and composite stone countertops. There is ceramic tile surrounding the showers and tubs and master en suites in select homes come with soaker tubs.

“One thing that people have been surprised about is the quality of the homes,” said Bosa. “We haven’t cut any corners in making sure the end product is really good. It’s just very well done and our intention was to really impress people from the minute they step into the display centre.”

That display centre is located at 1500 Highway 99 and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Bosa is confident people will be excited by what they see.

“The area where you’ll be living, it almost feels like you’re on vacation,” he said. “With everything we’re offering there — from the amenities to the trails to the connection to nature — it really feels like you’re living outdoors, and I think that’s what makes SEAandSKY so special.”

SEAandSKY

Project location: Discovery Centre – 1500 Highway 99 (Highway 99 and Mill Road), Squamish

Project size: 134 townhomes in phase two of a master-planned community of approximately 1,000 homes

Residence size: 1,199 to 1,789 square feet

Price: from $689,900

Developer: BlueSky Properties and Kingswood Properties

Architect: Ekistics Architecture

Interior designer: Insight Design Group

Sales centre: Discovery Centre – 1500 Highway 99 (Highway 99 and Mill Road), Squamish

Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily

Sales phone: 604-559-7918

Website: www.hellosquamish.com

Occupancy: Fall 2020

© 2019 Postmedia Network Inc.

Storefront space expensive and scary as development pressure drives leases and property taxes sky high

Frank O’Brien
Western Investor

Development pressure has driven Vancouver retail rents sky high and convinced some landlords to include demolition clauses so they can boot retailers out if a developer wants in.

“Many small business owners [in Vancouver] can no longer afford the regions they have long operated in due to a doubling and sometimes even tripling in their annual property taxes,” according to commercial real agency Cushman & Wakefield in its latest report on Metro Vancouver’s retail real estate.

The increasing street front vacancies on Robson Street is a result of this trend as even tenants with the ability to afford premium rents are not willing to pay for a build-out with the uncertainty of a possible eviction, the report noted.

BC Assessment values a commercial property at its highest and best use, not its current configuration. This led to the closure of Dupont Paint, 3 Vets and Craftsman Collision, all long-time retailers in the Broadway corridor, as well as a rash of store closures downtown.

This year has also seen the shuttering of chain outlets in Vancouver, including Payless ShoeSource and Home Outfitters, though these were linked to corporate decisions that affected locations across the country.

Vancouver’s downtown retail vacancy rate is now 5.6 per cent, the highest in the region, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Annual retail lease rates on Robson Street range from $120 per square foot to $225 per square foot and are even higher on Alberni Street, at a maximum of $250 per square foot, which can prove a further barrier to smaller retailers.

“Some landlords don’t want to lower [retail] rents because it reduces the value of their building,” said Craig Patterson, editor of Retail Insider. “They would rather leave [storefronts] empty.”

Some owners are taking protective measures.

“Many landlords are including demolition clauses in lease agreements to maintain flexibility with redevelopment timelines,” Cushman & Wakefield stated. “This is becoming prevalent in areas such as Robson Street and the Broadway Corridor in the older low-rise buildings.”

But Cushman & Wakefield cautions that downtown landlords may have to “rethink” to remain competitive as large new retail projects, such as the Post development on West Georgia and the remake of the Bentall Centre Mall, prepare to disrupt the downtown shopping scene.

Copyright © Western Investor

Zoocasa pilloried over Ontario property tax report

Neil Sharma
REP

A recent report from Zoocasa about property taxes in Ontario cities is catching flack from all corners, and according to Claude Boiron, it speaks to a larger, disquieting trend in the real estate industry.

“What I find scary is Zoocasa doesn’t have any idea how property taxes are calculated in Ontario, which is terrifying because they’re supposed to represent properties,” said Boiron, a real estate broker, author, university instructor, and founder of Boiron Group. “The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation has a phase-in system, which is the exact opposite of what Zoocasa says in their report. MPAC intelligently set things up so that if you buy a property today that was valued three years ago at, say $1 million, if you buy it at $2m, you won’t feel that massive increase next year.”

In fact, the increase kicks in every four years and, Boiron added, is designed to soften blows that would otherwise reverberate throughout the real estate market.

“I take issue with the stupid idea of property taxes surging a year after you buy,” he said. “You’re babied into paying the taxes; it’s designed for you to stomach the increases and it happens over a minimum of four years. In fact, the whole cycle actually takes up to eight years.”

The Zoocasa report said:

“In fact, according to calculations from Zoocasa, an Ontario homeowner living in Windsor, the city with the highest tax rate at 1.789394%, would pay $5,873 more per year in property tax on a home assessed at $500,000 than one in the City of Toronto, which has the lowest tax rate in the province at 0.614770%.”

However, MPAC says the average Windsor property is valued at $164,000 and the property tax would be just over $2,900.

“You really need to consider the property tax rates as well as the assessment values. In municipalities that have higher assessment values … naturally, the tax rate is going to be set at a lower level,” Joe Mancina, Windsor’s chief financial officer told the CBC.

Boiron says Zoocasa’s gross misstep speaks to the fact that, like many other so-called virtual office websites (VOWs), it’s a tech start-up first and foremost, not a realty brokerage.

“These discount and online brokerages are in the business of engineering visits to their websites and they’re not experienced real estate experts. They’re fantastic website engineers and SEO experts, but they’re not top-quality real estate experts,” he said.

“There are a few VOWs I know of that are run by great real estate brokers who hired tech geniuses to drive online traffic—and I love that. But a lot of these guys are guys raising money publicly, or are financed by deep pockets, and to them it’s just another tech start-up. The issue I have is if you don’t have real estate experts behind the scenes, you get misleading advice like this.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd

As much as 1,500 affordable housing units will be built across British Columbia over the next five years

Ephraim Vecina
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

As much as 1,500 affordable housing units will be built across British Columbia over the next five years, the provincial government announced.

BC Housing, along with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, will be investing $75 million in the construction of 1,000 new units planned under the province’s Supportive Housing Fund, and 500 new units planned under the Women’s Transition Housing Fund.

The memorandum of intent signed by BC Housing and CMHC will “help us ensure that more British Columbians in need find safe and secure homes,” according to Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver-West End.

“This new funding will complement the significant investments our government has been rolling out under the 10-year Homes for BC plan, including building more homes to help people experiencing homelessness and women and children leaving violence. We will continue to work with all levels of government and community partners to build homes that people need.”

The initiative represents a much-needed boost to the province’s low-cost residential supply.

“Every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Today’s announcement is the next step in our historic investments in British Columbia housing. 1,500 more families will be able to have a brighter future thanks to these investments,” according to the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister responsible for CMHC.

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd

The booj Platform to enhance agent-client relations

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Acquiring and deepening client relationships is at the heart of a new suite of digital products being rolled out to RE/MAX agents, brokers, and teams.

The booj Platform has been created in association with the network’s affiliates and includes tools for digital branding including simple creation of a branded website; lead capture including the creation of relevant targeted communications; client engagement including visual indication of when an agent needs to follow-up communication with a client; and a deal pipeline management tool.

The roll-out has begun in the United States, initially to company-owned regions but will then be expanded to other areas including the firm’s Western Canada affiliates.

As well as its own tools, the CRM-centered platform also integrates transaction management partners that are widely adopted across the industry including DocuSign, dotloop, zipLogix and more.

“This is a milestone moment for our brand. RE/MAX agents consistently outsell other agents by more than 2-to-1 at large brokerages, and the booj Platform will only strengthen their competitive advantage,” said Adam Contos, RE/MAX CEO. “This is just the beginning. RE/MAX will continue optimizing and building on the booj Platform over time.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd

BC government and CMHC outline 5 year investment for affordable housing

Ephraim Vecina
Mortgage Broker News

The BC government, along with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, announced a $75-million investment in the construction of over a thousand affordable housing units across the province.

The memorandum of intent signed by BC Housing and CMHC outlines the five-year federal investment that will go towards building 1,000 new units planned under the province’s Supportive Housing Fund, and 500 new units planned under the Women’s Transition Housing Fund.

“Every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. Today’s announcement is the next step in our historic investments in British Columbia housing. 1,500 more families will be able to have a brighter future thanks to these investments,” according to the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister responsible for CMHC.

Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver-West End, welcomed the announcement as a much-needed boost to the province’s supply.

The investment will “help us ensure that more British Columbians in need find safe and secure homes,” Herbert stated.

“This new funding will complement the significant investments our government has been rolling out under the 10-year Homes for BC plan, including building more homes to help people experiencing homelessness and women and children leaving violence. We will continue to work with all levels of government and community partners to build homes that people need.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media

Commercial vacancy rate at 4.3%

Ephraim Vecina
Mortgage Broker News

A combination of growing demand from global tech giants and lengthy development times has led to record-low office vacancy levels in Vancouver, according to Avison Young.

As of mid-year 2019, the Metro Vancouver region’s vacancy rate was 4.3%, while the downtown market’s reading was 2%. The previous regional record low of 4.7% was reached way back at the end of 2007.

In its just-released Mid-Year 2019 Metro Vancouver Office Market Report, Avison Young stated that these developments will compound the threats posed by rapidly increasing rents and geographic restrictions on growth.

Together, this cocktail of dangers “could threaten the success the region has had as an emerging global destination for companies seeking to establish new operations or expand existing ones,” Avison Young warned.

Over the past few quarters, top movers in the tech industry such as Amazon and Apple Inc. have been moving to Vancouver in earnest. These firms established major facilities that have fed into intensified demand for the city’s offices and industrial space.

Said hunger has stoked what might well be the largest commercial development cycle in the region’s history. Avison Young projected that this frenzy of construction will deliver new buildings starting next year through 2023, primarily in the downtown and Vancouver-Broadway markets.

Market tightness will continue to be a distinguishing feature of the region over the next 24 months or so, Avison Young Principal Glenn Gardner said.

“Expect continuing upward pressure on net effective rental rates in existing buildings as near-term supply constraints intensify due to a combination of increasing net rental rates and/or diminishing leasing inducements,” he explained.

“Supply constraints, escalating leasehold improvement construction costs and developer desire to secure prelease commitments will narrow the delta between net effective rental rates for new construction and existing higher-calibre buildings in the near term.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media

Single-family home prices increased in Q2

Kimberly Greene
other

Single-family median home prices increased year-over-year in 91% of measured markets in the second quarter, according to the latest quarterly report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The median price for a previously owned single-family house increased 4.3% from a year earlier to $279,600. Prices climbed in 162 of 178 metropolitan areas measured, up from the 86% share in the first quarter of 2019.

Meanwhile, there was only marginal growth in inventory, which Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says is behind tightening conditions.

“New home construction is greatly needed, however home construction fell in the first half of the year,” he said in the report. “This leads to continuing tight inventory conditions, especially at more affordable price points. Home prices are mildly reaccelerating as a result.”

Different story for highest markets
The five most expensive housing markets in the second quarter were the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., metro area, where the median existing single-family price was $1,330,000; San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif., $1,050,000; Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif., $835,000; Urban Honolulu, Hawaii $785,500; and San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif., $655,000.

In expensive metro areas where the median prices were $500,000 and above, the single-family median prices declined when compared to the levels of one year ago. The costliest area, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., saw a 5.3% drop. Next in line was San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif., whose decline was 1.9%. Homes in urban Honolulu, Hawaii dropped by 1.2%, followed by Boulder, Colo., which saw a 0.9% slide. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., recorded single-family housing prices that were slightly down (0.6%) from last year, possibly due to limits on property tax deductions.

In addition, other expensive metro areas experienced home price increases, although they were fairly modest. These areas include Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif., which rose only 0.6%. Home prices in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., saw a 1.8% gain, while San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif., saw a 1.6% price increase.

These dips in some of the costliest US markets could be a sign that would-be buyers are sitting out the competition for a scarcity of affordable properties. Plenty of buyers are willing to stretch their budgets somewhat, but as wages haven’t been keeping pace with other markers—such as housing—there’s a limit to the amount of stretching that’s possible. In some of the costliest markets, sellers are having to cut prices to make a sale.

In the most expensive metro areas in the West, families seeking to avoid paying no more than 25% on mortgage payments saw steep requirements for median household income. San Jose home buyers would need $295,832, while buyers in San Francisco would need $233,552.

Affordable but unavailable
Recent data from Black Knight indicates that housing affordability is the highest its ben since 2017. Still, the supply of lower-end properties remains tight in many areas across the country, which has prevented buyers from being able to take advantage of that affordability.

“Housing unaffordability will hinder sales irrespective of the local job market conditions,” Yun said in the report. “This is evident in the very expensive markets as home prices are either topping off or slightly falling.”

The five lowest-cost metro areas in the second quarter were Decatur, Ill., $97,500; Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio, $107,400; Cumberland, Md., $117,800; Binghamton, N.Y., $119,300; and Elmira, N.Y., $119,400.

A national tale
National family median income is estimated to have risen to $78,3662 in the second quarter, but greater home price growth contributed to an overall decrease in affordability from last quarter. A buyer making a 5% down payment would need an income of $62,192 to purchase a single-family home at the national median price, while a 10% down payment would necessitate an income of $58,918, and $52,372 would be required for a 20% down payment.

At the end of 2019’s second quarter, 1.93 million existing homes were available for sale, which is about equal to the total inventory at the end of 2018’s second quarter. Average supply during the second quarter of 2019 was 4.4 months, up from 4.3 months in the second quarter of 2018.

Yun says housing sales should improve, but cautions of greater economic uncertainty.

“The exceptionally low mortgage rates will help with housing affordability over the short run,” he said. “But if the low interest rates are due to weakening economic confidence, as reflected from a correction in the stock market, then the low rates will not help with job growth and will eventually hinder home buying and home construction.”

Copyright © 2019 Key Media Pty Ltd