Most real estate investment coaches/mentors, concentrate on house flipping, no-money-down transactions, cost-cutting, how to buy below market (often by submitting dozens or even hundreds of offers until some naive seller bites on one), purchasing foreclosed property or tax sale property… It all amounts to the same thing IMHO: Everyone is looking for a shortcut to […]

I have felt negatively about these constructs for a long time (I’ve been known to call them “vertical warehouses where people go to wait for death”), but my thoughts crystallized when a friend of mine moved from her farm into a brand-new facility. It costs her $5,500 a month for a room with a cot, […]

I can think of many reasons why realtors should own some rental properties, not least because, if you represent or coach investors the way I do, one of the first questions they’ll ask you is this: “Do you walk the walk or just talk the talk?” If you have your own successful portfolio, well, this […]

In a ground-breaking study[1], University of Chicago Booth School of Business economist Chang-Tai Hsieh and University of California at Berkeley professor Enrico Morerri reported that restraints on new housing prevented people, especially young talent, from moving to or staying in clusters of innovation. They found that such constraints: “lowered aggregate US growth by 36 percent […]

As readers of this blog will already know, I am not much of a believer in life insurance–it’s costly and its financial returns are low. Still, if you have a family to take care of and debts to pay (like, say, mortgage balances), term insurance might be a better choice. For a healthy non-smoker in […]

The city of Ottawa has an ambitious goal–to craft an official plan (OP) that is suited to a modern 21st century economy and get buy-in from the community for something that is substantially different from anything that has gone before… Not an easy task. As part of this effort, I was tasked, as host and […]

Young clients of mine refused to meet with me last week to learn about how they could rent a house for free or close to free (via an augmented tenancy) and they said, “No we just want to rent!” No wonder they’re poor. Are they stupid for saying this? Maybe. But I think not… it’s […]

(A version of this article first appeared in OBJ, Ottawa Business Journal, https://obj.ca/article/op-ed-zoning-better-ottawa. An online poll is available for you to make your views known until May 31, 2019 here, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSedsKa0yykFAqStVgMvZwBux1QTfknZ3TIn8tuspcHjPZ1dHA/viewform). Introduction Urban guru, the late Jane Jacobs had a theory—the closer government is to people, the more important it is to citizens and also […]

Here’s an excerpt from a book I wrote (Jenna’s Story, https://brucemfirestone.com/product/jennas-story/) in which Jenna McConnell launches into a diatribe on how stupid zoning regulations help the top .01% (which she calls “Big Mules” or “Equity Lords”) control almost all the levers of political and economic power. Jenna is from South Carolina and proudly speaks like […]

Look at the way this developer sells towns… see below. It’s more of a “swimsuit” competition rather than a value proposition. Key words: “limited” “priced low” “hardwood “ceramic.” #BigMistake IMHO They do OK on location but are missing out on any of these desirable characteristics: walkable, mixed-use, transit, nearby attractions, employment opportunities… which would help […]

Try this: reduce your amortization period from 35 years to 30, from 30 to 25, from 25 to 20, even down to 11 years if you can afford it pay your mortgage every two weeks (not twice a month)—you’ll make 26 payments a year instead of 24 rent out a room on Airbnb or other […]

I suspect a recession is coming to the US and Canada as well as Europe and the UK in 2020. Maybe the rest of the world too. Why is that? Well, real estate prices in desirable, fast-growing cities are accelerating at an unsustainable pace for one. Two, we have shaky world leadership in London, Moscow, […]