Winnipeg Real Estate Podcast

Bridgwater Market Report - Winnipeg Neighbourhood

[00:00:00] Is now a good time to buy or sell in Bridgewater? Let's find out. [00:00:03][3.3] [00:00:07] You're listening to the Bo Knows Real Estate Podcast. Tips and advice for home buyers, sellers and owners with award winning Remax agent Bo Kauffmann. [00:00:17][9.9] [00:00:21] I've been producing Winnipeg real estate market updates for many years. It's a great way to see what's going on in our city, but real estate is even more local than that. Each neighborhood can have their own unique market conditions. So if you're curious about your area in Winnipeg. Email me at boknowshomes@gmail.com, And I'll create a special report just for you. So let's take a look at Bridgewater at the beginning of April 2020. [00:00:45][24.6] [00:00:46] As far as detached homes go and homes that are finished and constructed, not under construction. There's currently 112 houses for sale in Bridgewater. The majority of them are between the 400 and $700000 range. So there's 29 houses between four and five hundred and 33 between five and six hundred. And the prices go all the way up to just shy of $2 million. [00:01:09][23.0] [00:01:10] Currently, there are five homes that are under pending sales, meaning that they've got offers and they've been accepted. But the buyer just maybe hasn't gotten their financing yet. So there's five conditionally sold at this point. [00:01:21][10.8] [00:01:22] While over the last two weeks there's been two final sales, both of them in the four to five hundred thousand dollar price range and both of them sold at just under list price. So there was no multiple offers and no bidding wars in those sales. [00:01:34][12.5] [00:01:35] Looking back over the last month, including those two sales I mentioned earlier, there's have been a total of 15 sold over the last month, 8 of them in the four to five hundred thousand dollar range. 6 of those sold under last 2 sold over lists and 6 homes in the five to six hundred thousand dollar range. Again, 5 under list, 1 over list. And then the the other sale, a 15th sale was in the six to seven hundred thousand dollar price range, also sold just under list. [00:02:01][26.7] [00:02:02] But this final stat is perhaps the most important one because it's compare sales this year as opposed to the same 31 day period over the last three years. That'll tell us whether the market has changed with a crew on a virus has anything to do with that. So this year, including those five pending sales, we've sold 20 homes in that 31 day period. Last year was 28 and the year before was 31. And then in 2017, it was 23. So we are slower than each of those years. Not by much, but there is a bit of a drop right now in the Bridgewater area. [00:02:35][33.1] [00:02:35] So in summary for Bridgewater, with 112 listings available, the lowest one at 380 and the highest one just shy of $2 million. Bridgewater and South Pointe are excellent buyers markets right now. So if you're looking to buy a home in Bridgewater Trails, Forest, Lakes or South Pointe, a Prairie Pointe, give me a call 204-333-2202. [00:02:35][0.0] [144.0]

Real Estate & Coronavirus - Keeping Buyers and Sellers Safe

Never miss an episode. Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android. For your Apple Devices, click here to install our iOS App. For your Android Devices, click here to install our Android App. [00:00:00] Real estate in the era of the Coronavirus. How do we keep buyers and sellers safe? That's coming up next. [00:00:05][5.0] [00:00:09] You're listening to the Bo Knows Real Estate podcast. Tips and advice for home buyers, sellers and owners with award winning Remax agent Bo Kauffmann. [00:00:19][9.9] [00:00:22] Real estate has, at least for now, been deemed an essential service. And there's a couple of reasons for that. One of them is purely economic. There's a ton of spin off business coming as a result from every house or condo sale. Aside from taxes and legal fees and of course, real estate fees, moving costs, people buy furniture. People buy appliances. They fix up their houses when they sell and they fix up their houses after they buy. So there's a multitude of spin off benefits, economic spin off benefits from real estate. [00:00:53][31.4] [00:00:54] But the other one is that we are able to conduct business and keep buyers and sellers safe. Manageable Real Estate Association has put in place a number of safeguards and I'm going to explain those right now. In the past, it used to be able to book a showing for a house just about any time. And even if you're showing overlapped with another buyer, that was that was okay. But that's been changed now. So from here on in, you can only book one buyer at a time. So if your agent if you looking at a house, new agent books a two to three o'clock window, you'll be the only ones in the house because sellers have also been encouraged to leave the house at the time. That may not always be possible, especially if they're elderly. They may not be able to go outside depending on the weather, but in most cases, sellers will be going outside and you'll you and your agent will be the only ones in the house at that time. [00:01:44][50.3] [00:01:45] The next thing is that open houses are pretty much a thing of the past. There's no way to control the crowds sometimes. I remember having open houses in River Heights in February and there was people lined up outside to get into the house because the house was full already. So I don't believe any agents are gonna be having any open houses. It's just it's not worth the risk. Also, the Manitoba Real Estate Association has come out with a form that buyer agents and their clients must sign and fill out, indicating that nobody there who's going into the house. That's the agent or the buyers have traveled in the past 14 days, are showing symptoms or signs of the illness, have not knowingly been in touch with anybody who does have the virus. So like I said, buyer agents and their buyers have to sign these forms, which also make it tougher for buyers to see a house without an agent. Gone are the days of just pulling up in front, calling the listing agent and saying, hey, please slide down here and show me the house. [00:02:41][56.3] [00:02:42] Which is further encouragement for anybody who's looking to buy a house or a condo to hook up with a real estate agent right now and get those forms filled out to assure that you are not carrying the virus and you're safe. And that will give you easier access to the listings these days. [00:02:57][15.8] [00:02:58] In addition to these, I've personally implemented a couple of different procedures that will help protect my clients and myself. Going forward, I will not be driving buyers around in my personal car anymore. That's to protect them and myself. Buyers would have to meet me at the listings. I will also bring to each showing I will bring a bottle of hand sanitizer. We're going to sanitize before we go in and after we come out. And if buyers are showing any signs of illness, we will not be proceeding with the showing. [00:03:27][28.9] [00:03:27] If you're the seller of a house, I would encourage you to put a bottle of hand sanitizer out just in case agents to come in and they don't carry their own. I would put that bottle near the front entrance and along with the sign that says please take your shoes off here. It also add the line, please sanitize your hands as you're going through. Sellers are encouraged to turn on all lights, open all doors and closet doors just to minimize the touching that a buyer needs to do to check out the house. And as an added safety procedure, I would recommend keeping the showing groups low. So if it's a couple looking at a house, just the two people don't bring all your friends. If you have children, if they're really young, preferably leave them at home for these showings. And if you do bring the children along, there's no jumping on the bed and playing with the seller's kid's toys. That kind of thing. [00:04:17][49.5] [00:04:17] As you can see, there are ways to implement social distancing, to keep people apart, keep showing small, keep them private so that there isn't a bunch of people coming through at the same time. There is a way to sell real estate in a safe manner. [00:04:32][14.4] [00:04:32] I've added one more procedure, which involves the initial buyer consultation. For years, Ive been offering free, 45 minute home buyer consultation. The buyers and I would meet in my office, go over the entire home buying process, discuss and determine their needs, and set up a search to find the perfect home. I.ve now moved this entire process online, in the form of a zoom meeting. So you can do all of the above from the safety of your home, at a time convenient to you. No need to leave your home and drive to an office anymore, we just meet online. [00:04:32][0.0] [00:04:32] And in fact, right now is a great time to buy in Winnipeg. There's lots of inventory out there. Interest rates are low. And so if you're looking to buy or sell, give me a shot. And if he's still listening to this, you might want to download my podcast app available on iOS and Android devices. It's really easy to get. Just go to Winnipeg, dot tips, slash Apple or slash Android. That's Winnipeg dot t i P S slash apple or slash Android. And you'll never miss an episode. [00:05:03][30.3] [00:05:07] You've been listening to Bo Kauffmann of RE/MAX performance realty, are you thinking of buying or selling a house or a condo in Winnipeg called Bo at 2 0 4 3 3 3 2 2 0 2? [00:05:19][11.8] [00:05:19] Remember, Bo knows real estate. [00:05:19][0.0] [303.5]

1st Time Home Buyer RRSP-Plan

[00:00:00] First time homebuyers. Are you planning on buying your first home in three to six months? What should you be doing right now? [00:00:07][6.7] [00:00:11] You're listening to the bone nosed real estate podcast. Tips and advice for home buyers, sellers and owners with award winning Remax agent Bo Kauffmann. [00:00:21][10.2] [00:00:26] These days, homebuyers plan well in advance. So if you're a first time homebuyer thinking of buying your first house or condo in three months or longer from now, here's something you should consider doing right now. [00:00:38][11.5] [00:00:38] Put as much of your savings, which is earmarked for your downpayment, into an RRSP. Now to see how much you can put in check last year's notice of assessment from the CRA. Look for the line probably on the last page which says something like "your available RRSP contribution limit for such and such a year is..." So it might tell you. Let's say you have $15,000 worth RRSP contribution limit for the year, which is quite possible if you have not been contributing to Rs PS in the past. So let's go with that $15000 example. Take that amount out of your savings and buy a safe GIC or other form of RRSP. I know you're only going to get a couple of percent of interest, but that's not really the point. [00:01:23][44.7] [00:01:24] You see after the money is in the hours before 90 days. That's why I said three months. You can take it out and use it as your down payment on your first home. Now notice I said I was stressed the word first. That's because this only works for first time homebuyers. By the way, separating couples who sold their communal home may also qualify as first time buyers under this law. [00:01:45][21.5] [00:01:46] So why would you bother doing this? Well, next year, when you fill out your income tax forms, you can now claim that RRSP contribution as a deduction. Yes. Even though you've taken it all out to do your down payment, you can still write it off. And dear Justin is going to send you a hefty refund. You'll have to pay those contributions back over 15 years. But that's a small price to pay for getting around 30 percent of it gifted to you right now. So, for example, let's say you put 15000 into an RSP this week, three months or more from now. Three months is just the minimum. So if even if you're buying it six months, eight months from now, you go ahead and take it out and use it as your down payment. So you'll have to return that fifteen thousand into your own fund over 15 years, which works out to a thousand dollars a year. You even get to wait for two years to start this. [00:02:36][49.4] [00:02:36] But by doing this, your very next taxation year, you're going to get a nice refund probably in the neighborhood of three to four thousand dollars. So who doesn't need an extra three or four grand from the government in the late spring? When you get your income tax refund, you might be able to use it to get a new furnace for your house to a roof or do whatever other maintenance or upgrades that you wanted to do. Now, I'm a real estate agent, not a financial advisor. So if you have any questions about this. By all means, give me a shout. I'll put you in touch with the financial advisor that alerted me to this. And you can discuss it with them. But the bottom line is it's gonna put an extra three to four thousand dollars, depending on how much you're able to put into your RRSP, into your pocket. And I hope this helps. Thanks. Till next time. Bye bye. [00:03:24][47.5] [00:03:28] You've been listening to Bo Kauffmann of RE/MAX performance realty, are you thinking of buying or selling a house or condo in Winnipeg called WBO at 2 0 4 3 3 3 2 2 0 2? [00:03:41][12.2] [00:03:41] Remember, Bowne knows real estate. [00:03:41][0.0] [203.8]

Buy a condo or rent an apartment?

If you're ready to sell your house and consider apartment style living, are you better off renting or buying a condo? That's what we'll examine on this episode of Winnipeg's Real Estate podcast. You're listening to the Bo Knows Real Estate podcast. Tips and advice for home buyers, sellers and owners with award winning Remax agent Bo Kauffmann. I will work from time to time with elderly clients who, for a variety of reasons, have decided to sell their houses. Take a look at the option of living in a high rise, whether it's an apartment or a condo. Some of those reasons might include that the houses have become too big. Too many stairs, too much upkeep, too much yard work, too much maintenance. Or perhaps a change in lifestyle where the people want to move to live in the states for three, four months, five months, a year. And then the house becomes kind of a liability because you have to come have to have somebody come into the house every couple of days to check the furnace and make sure that everything's fine for your insurance. So the question comes up, what's better? Should we rent an apartment and take the money we get from the house and invested or should be buy a condominium? So there are two facets to answer this question. One is purely financial, which is which is cheaper to do. And I will look at that. And the second one is what about quality of life, which will offer you better options and more happiness throughout the year that you are here living in either an apartment or a condo. So for our purposes today, I'm going to be looking at two similar style living quarters. One. One is a two bedroom, one bath apartment, about eight hundred square feet and a 40 year old building in a decent neighborhood. It does not have in laundry. It does, however, have underground parking. And of course, there are no upfront costs to this. Comparing that to a similar condo, same size, but a $200000 upfront cost that you have to buy, two bedrooms, one bath with ensuite laundry and a much newer building, about five years old. And again, with with an indoor parking spot. The numbers I'm going to use, the prices and fees are actual real life numbers in Winnipeg at this time. I know that you can get cheaper apartments. You can get more expensive condos and the other way around. But this is just for illustration purposes. I've picked two buildings that are somewhat similar. So let's start by looking at the apartment rent in this apartment is thirteen hundred and forty dollars a month, which adds to a shade over sixteen thousand dollars a year. Utilities are fully included in this. So heat, hydro and water. Of course, I'm not counting tel- television and cable vision because you have to buy that anywhere else. And it's the same no matter where you are. So that's not really become part of the equation. Insurance you're going to want content insurance. In this case, it's about $250 a year to insure your content. It's a good idea in case something happens. Could be a break in. Could be a water damage from a neighboring suite. You want to make sure that your contents are insured. But now we have something to offset against this expense. Remember, with an apartment, you don't have to take that two hundred thousand that you would spend on a condo. You can take that money and invest it. Now, if you are in your 60s, 70s, certainly in your 80s, I personally probably would not recommend anything high risk. Talk to your financial adviser about that. But let's be on the conservative side. Let's say you can get a GSE and currently you can get a GSE for three and a half percent. So $200000 GMAC, a three and a half percent per year will earn you $7000. Also, forget about for a minute that you may or may not have to pay income tax on that money. Let's say you don't. Let's say that that's seven thousand. You have enough write off enough deductions that it's all your money. So that goes off against that offsets the $16000 plus rent, which means that at the end of the year your total cost of apartment living is nine thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. So let's take a look at how that compares against buying a condo. So this particular corner that I have in mind, the property taxes are twenty four hundred a year. And the as the homeowner, you again get a seven hundred dollar discount just like you did with the house. So you're net property taxes per year are seventeen hundred dollars while water is included, heat and hydro are not. So an estimated to heat hydro bill for a high rise, a newly constructed, fairly, fairly efficient high rise. I'm going to put on an eight hundred dollar. So what? Sixty five dollars a month for you? Heat and electricity. Your content insurance end up being roughly the same as an apartment because you're not insuring the whole building. Building insurance is included in your condo fees. So let's say another 250 for your content insurance. And then the big one, of course, is the condo fees. In this particular case, they are thirty four hundred dollars a year for for your condominium fees. So now you do not get the deduction that GHC income that you had with the apartment because remember, you had to take that $200000 and actually buy this condo. So what does all this add up to? The total expenses right now then are going to be 61 50. So that's about $3000 less than the rental. So that's the financial side of the equation. Buying and investing that two hundred thousand dollars into a condo will save you approximately $3000 a year. But there are other considerations. We'll get to those who right after this. Are you looking to buy a house or a condo in Winnipeg? Work with the agent who takes the time to explain the process to you, guiding you through every step for service. Beyond the sale book. Your home buying consultation with Bo Kauffmann Remax performance today. Bo Knows Real Estate. People find it to be very restrictive. The owners of the apartment could tell you what to do, what not to do. You can't do anything in the suite to change anything. Sometimes even you have to ask permission before you do any kind of like painting or anything like that. You are also subject to rent increases and those two tend to go up to 3 percent a year on average. My mother in law lives in the block in north north caldonia and she's looking at about $30 a month every year and have no ownership benefits, which means you can't borrow money against the apartment. You might even have trouble getting a roommate to move in or if he wanted to sublease it, you have to get permissions from the apartment building ownership. So there are those restrictions. And last, you can't make any renovations. I've had several clients say that they are allergic to carpeting. And if the apartment comes with carpeting, you probably won't be able to change that to hardwoods or laminate if you want to upgrade, if you don't like the old kitchen that you're that you that you're looking at every day. You won't be able to upgrade those kind of things unless they give you permission. And then it's not yours. You don't own it. So let's take a look at a similar condo. Condo life is semi restrictive phenomena. They're gonna they're gonna prevent you from hanging your underwear off the balcony. Those kind of things. But for the most part, what you do inside your suite is entirely up to you. There are no rent increases. You bought it. You own it. Now you're not subject to monthly or yearly increases. You can get condo fee increases. And that's usually the case every every year, every couple of years. They also go up. But that's only according to what? What the expenses are. So if your condo fee includes heating the hallways, if he goes up, you're kind of he's got to go up. You are also subject to market fluctuations. So if you're in the condo for three years and it's gone up, well, then you benefit. But if it's gone down, you owe your estate will lose some of that money that you've invested. There are, however, ownership benefits. So if you own your condo, you can certainly borrow money against it. You can rent it out. There are lots of things that you can do with it that you could. Do with rented space. And of course, interior rentals are okay within reason. You will probably have to get permission. You may not be able to remove some walls because there might be structurally important to the building. However, if you want to change the paints, the flooring, if you want to put in a different tub, change the kitchen, whatever you want to do. Generally, you are allowed to make those changes on the inside of your unit. Now, I hope you found this helpful. Please keep in mind these are just some very general observations. And every family and every person, it's a different situation. So if you're in this position where you're looking at selling your house and thinking of either renting or buying a condo, please call me anytime. I'd love to sit down for a consultation with you and and see what your best options are. What fits? One person doesn't necessarily fit the next person in the same way. So please call me anytime. It's Bo Kauffmann RE/MAX performance realty direct sellers 2 or 4 3 3 3 2 2 0 2 where you can e-mail me at Bonos Homes at G-mail dot com. You've been listening to Bo Kauffmann of RE/MAX performance realty, are you thinking of buying or selling a house or a condo in Winnipeg called Bo at 2 0 4 3 3 3 2 2 0 2? Remember, Bo knows real estate.

New Focused Winnipeg Neighbourhood Market Reports

[00:00:03] If you're interested in buying or selling a house or a condo, you might be paying attention to the national real estate news. Please stop that right now. If you're in Winnipeg, knowing what's happening nationally is worse than useless. It may actually give you the wrong picture. Let's face it, if you want to buy a house in Winnipeg, hearing that Toronto is a hot market won't help you. But real estate is even more focused and local than that. So, for example, if you're thinking of selling your house in Transcona, you'll want to know the very recent activity in your neighborhood. If you're buying in Linden Woods, you won't really care what's happening in St. James, and so on. This is why I can produce hyper local real estate updates specifically for you. Wondering whether right now is the best time to sell your North Kildonan bungalow, your Wellington Crescent condo or your Bridgewater two story home? Thinking of buying a $250,000 home in St. James or a condo in southeast Winnipeg? Winnipeg has literally hundreds of neighborhoods from a Assiniboine Forest to Westwood, Amber Trails to River Heights, from Royalwood to Linden Woods. I'll create a focused and specific market report just for you. [00:01:14][71.0]  

Winnipeg Real Estate Market April 2020

Solds, Listing stats for houses and Condos in Winnipeg.

Real Estate Roundtable Discussion - March 29

Experts discuss the process of home buying.  Q&A with   Real Estate Lawyer Mortgage Brokers Home Inspector Life Insurance/Investment Expert Real Estate Pro   Discussing the home buying process, pre-approval, real estate law, mortgage options, how to buy a home in these times., etc...   For more info, go to https://blog.winnipeghomefinder.com

Buying and Selling a Home While Going Thru a Divorce

Are you and your spouse separating or divorcing?  If you own a home together, you should listen to this advice from real estate and mortgage experts on the best course of action. How to sell your home while divorcing.

2-Minute Winnipeg Real Estate Market Update Feb. 2020

October 2019 Real Estate Market Update - Winnipeg

Your 60 second market report for Winnipeg in October 2019. .   October sales of 1,173 homes was an increase of 6 percent over October 2018. Now, while that normally would drive prices up, the fact that our inventory is higher by 18 percent over last year helps keep prices in check for home buyers. The bidding wars of the springtime are nothing but a bad memory.   In fact, 87% of houses and 93% of condos sold at or below list price in October. In fact, the average list price of a house is at $315,889 , which is down 2.7% from the same month last year. And we see a similar pictures in condominiums with the average sale price of $227,878 is down 2.8% from last year.   And for anyone wondering why luxury homes, those had like five, six, eight hundred thousand dollars and more take so long to sell. Winnipeg's market really is between the 200 and 400 thousand Dollar range, where 60 percent of total single family home sales occurred this month. This limitation is even more pronounced in condominiums, where 51 percent of all sales occurred between one $150,000 and $250,000.   The big question is what kind of market are we in? We'll give you an idea mid August. We had 1,905 houses for sale in Winnipeg.  This morning, that being November 10th, we had just over 1600. So that's three hundred fewer listings in Winnipeg as opposed to August. Listings are slowing down. But if you can still find one right now is a great time to buy. Don't wait till spring.   Speaking of spring, I just read a great piece in Mortgage Broker News Scott S.A., where half the economists polled believe that the Bank of Canada will have a rate cut at the end of December or early into January. Great news for the spring market.   Are you looking to buy a house or a condo in Winnipeg? Work with the agent who takes the time to explain the process to you, guiding you through every step for service beyond the sale. Book your home buying consultation with Bo Kauffmann of Remax performance today. Bo knows real estate.