Category Archives for "Real Estate"

And Why I think Millennials will Rival the Greatest Generation Ever City planners will tell you that they oppose tiny house legalization because they already have rules on the books making it illegal to live in your RV year-round. It’s a circular argument–tiny houses are regarded (and plated) as home-built recreational vehicles, so they are […]

Part 1 (A version of this article first appeared in OBJ, https://www.obj.ca/Opinion/2016-07-06/article-4580282/Ottawas-ugly-planning-history/1) How many bad decisions can one city’s planners make? Lots, if you are talking about Ottawa.  Let’s review their record— -Ottawa got rid of streetcars many years ago, not to replace them with subway or metro, but dirty, smelly diesel buses that get stuck […]

The NCC is asking citizens to submit their big ideas to make Ottawa a more inspiring G7 capital city. Here is Prof Bruce’s big idea for a national boardwalk, one that would be the longest in the world (surpassing current record-holder Atlantic City) and link the provinces of Ontario and Quebec as well as major […]

The Cap Rate Most real estate professionals do not use IRR, internal rate of return, calculations—they use cap (capitalization) rates to compare one project with another. The cap rate is an approximate assessment of ROI, return on investment, as all financial measures are anyway. But they are more approximate than the IRR is, in my […]

The Telfer School of Management’s professor Barbara Orser assisted by Luc Lalande has asked me to give one last lecture in 2016. I tried to make it both fun and informative. You can watch the video of the lecture below. It is also available on YouTube, https://youtu.be/GqqdLeT25us Here is the slidedeck I used, https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvo3187hnzr3397/firestone-legacy-lecture.pptx?dl=0 Here’s […]

I wrote last year that a visitable home has three overarching qualities– 1. it has a 0-step entryway (either at the side of the house or front); 2. wider doorways and corridors on the main floor; 3. a main floor bath or powder room and at least one main floor accessible bedroom. You can read […]

There are many ways to value your real property— by completing a CMA, comparative market analysis, yourself or asking a realtor to do one for you, using the DFCA (direct comparison approach)—comparing what other similar properties have recently sold for in the same general area within the recent past (aka using “comps”) 2.       by using a cost approach—that is, determining the […]

By adding extra elements to what is a standard executive home, you can change its value by a lot–from a capitalization rate of 3% pa to more than 7%. That may not sound like a lot, but for a total home investment of  $704,900 it means big changes over time. Here’s what happens over a […]

old subdivision design v new conservation subdivision design When conservation subdivision design principles were first introduced, developers thought their properties would be devalued and sales would take longer. It turned out, however, buyers would pay more to live in a village that made preservation of natural areas a feature even if it meant smaller lots […]

But Shouldn’t Be Here’s how Ontario and many other jurisdictions make sure their citizens are in debt til they die– By way of the many restrictions in place, governments are actually a major contributor to the ongoing affordable housing crises!  It is illegal to live full time in an RV (or tiny house)  UNLESS  you […]