Category Archives for "Real Estate"

Harmonized sales tax (HST) is a value added tax. Believe it or not, it’s a profit center for most businesses (because you are allowed to set off against HST amounts owing to government any ITCs (input tax credits) you may have). From a consumer’s POV, however, it’s just another tax (in most cases). When we […]

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, […]

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 […]

(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 […]

A Brief History It wasn’t that long ago (and the condition still exists in certain cantons of Switzerland, for example) that if you didn’t own land, you couldn’t vote in civic elections or even represent yourself at town hall gatherings. Power was tied to ownership of land, so it is not surprising that as the […]

If you talk to many developers like I do, the answer to this question is often, “No one” or “Not many.” I disagree. Market segments which need the extra income or space include: -seniors who need extra income for their retirement-millennials who need extra income to help pay their mortgages -investors who need higher cap […]