Monthly Archives: December 2017

Here’s Prof Bruce’s explanation of how to give a person a fishing rod not a fish by adding an in-home, income-producing suite or coach house so that your residence is more of an asset and less of a liability. Firestone suggests incorporating this into Habitat’s business model so that deserving families not only get a […]

[Here’s an article written by me and professor Ben Gianni that was first published in November 2008] In Defense of Suburbia: Part II By Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa and Adjunct Research Professor, School of Architecture, Carleton University and Professor Ben Gianni, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, Carleton […]

The future of suburbia is bleak unless towns and cities act to animate them by densifying and intensifying them to make them more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable places. Here’s the story of Hemet, a suburb of Riverside California. What happened there is that folks who can’t afford to live in LA have driven further […]

How to get a “free” house Rod Bryden, the 2nd owner of the Ottawa Senators (after me) told me this 25 years ago, “When I’m in trouble, I always buy something.” Most people think if they get in trouble, sell! But Rod is a financial genius, so he did the opposite. Why? Because if you have […]

Here’s a tiny house designed for a family of five with some notable features: -it has an outdoor shower in addition to its fully-equipped, interior bathroom -a ductless unit (for heating and cooling) -it will be used by the family as a temporary dwelling whilst their home is being built in Santa Cruz California -after […]

Sylvia’s Dilemma—turning a $3 million commercial portfolio into a $9 million commercial and residential portfolio  By Bruce M Firestone, PhD I recently met with Sylvia (not her real name); she’d reached out to me about helping her sell her well-located 11,000 square foot retail plaza in west end Ottawa. Sylvia is an elder with one […]

This is a potential game changer for how cities are built, powered, animated, and experienced, especially for northern shelf urban areas: https://youtu.be/qlTA3rnpgzU Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD, Ottawa Senators founder, Real Estate Investment and Business coach, ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker, 1-613-762-8884 bruce.firestone@century21.ca twitter.com/ProfBruce profbruce.tumblr.com/archive brucemfirestone.com MAKING IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE postscript: a […]

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to thank everyone for making 2017 such a memorable year. Think how fortunate we are to live in Ottawa-Gatineau (all 1.45 million of us)—a place where we can live together in peace, a place where everyone is accepted no matter what their background is, and finally […]

This commercial from the Salvation Army really hits home, https://youtu.be/UR43xlU-cbU The fastest growing impoverished part of our population? Elders Fastest growing form of abuse? Elder abuse I see it over and over again in my coaching and real estate brokerage practice. Don’t let this be you… Prof Bruce #salvation army #elder poverty #elder abuse

For large construction projects, I tend to organize them this way: -I hire a GC, general contractor, on a fixed price, GMP (Gross Maximum Price) contract so after we negotiate their fee, they “sit” on the same side of the table as the owner; ie, their interests are now aligned -I do the same with […]

When you buy property, there is a long list of due diligence you need to do not least of which is to figure out what your ROI/cap rate/IRR are (via spreadsheet) and what types of animations (revenue enhancing renovations/additions) you can usefully add. It’s all part of establishing what the HABU (highest and best use) […]

I’ve written before that it’s a mistake in my view that many companies in North America these days push out employees over 50 (and, in tech, anyone over 40). These people are your time machine, your Wayback Machine (aka, internet archive) if you will. Plus, they know how to work hard, which means, basically, they […]