Mark Vosylius, Barrie, Orillia, Ontario

In Real estate there are always conflicting news headlines. One says good economic news another says bad.

As reported (blogged) before and here again I say LOOK AT THE FUNDEMNATALS. I read today "US economy posts robust Q2 3.3% gains"... (National Post) and right beside it "Canada's surplus rises to $6.8Billion" . Hardly recessionary wording. Yet yesterday I read "US prices rise, housing Slump Deepens" (Globe and Mail) and "US Home builder stay grim".

In a two day period these are the financial headlines. As home owners and real estate investors what are we to make of all this conflicting news? I say....nothing. That's right....nothing. We have wild sensational swings in news stories so which one is right?....I say...nothing. As an investor with lots of exposure to the real estate market shouldn't I be worried?....I say, nope.

Here is my point, and it's always been my point, what is the foundation of your neighborhood economy built on? On what does it sit? The fundamentals of the neighborhoods I invest in are like the granite that it is built on. Solid. And what, as real estate savvy entrepreneurs, do we do? We study in depth knowledge of the LOCAL economy...these headlines are incredible and they are also NATIONAL. They sound impressive and scary all at the same time. But real estate is local...not national. People buy homes locally, not nationally. People invest in real estate locally, not nationally.

So as our beautiful seasonal Canadian weather cools....so should you...just chill and look locally at the fundamentals and forget the national headlines.

Mark Vosylius

(705)-812-1033

Email: mark(at) manainvestments com

Mana Investments - www.manainvestments.com - Looking for a home in Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, Midland areas? We specialize helping people grow their real estate knowledge and investment portfolio. We specialize in using RRSP for real estate investing as well as joint venture agreements and assignment real estate contracts in Ontario and Alberta

The Six Steps to Success - www.sixstepstosuccess.com - Need help achieving goals? Get to your financial goal quicker...Helping you achieve success in goal planning.

Provincial Government coughs up cash for Barrie Ontario

The province of Ontario just gave a cash boost in the arm for the city of Barrie. How will this affect real estate and in particular the real estate investor, someone looking to invest in the Barrie area?

Well as discussed before money from the province "usually" goes into infrastructure projects ( maintenance, water, roads,etc..). If any transportation links are upgraded ( 400 and Duckworth, Bayfield and 400 and Dunlop / 400) then yes you can bet your bottom dollar that this will reflect in a positive manner on the real estate values directly surrounding the transportation changes. And as mentioned before, the ripple effect will also have an affect on home and real estate values due to these changes.

Even upgrades in basic infrastructure ( water) will benefit the Barrie real estate market as a whole. As we know the Barrie treatment plant is running at 95% capacity so if any future growth is going to happen you would need to see the treatment capacity upgraded. You can not build any new homes in Barrie without water...( basic economics!!.)

So the city of Barrie better spend its money wisely....Barrie will remain attractive as long as the real estate market holds up. People want to live where they know they are secure and their homes are going up in value.

Mark Vosylius

(705)-812-1033

Email: mark(at) manainvestments com

Mana Investments - www.manainvestments.com - We work with real estate professionals in the Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, Midland areas to help grow your real estate knowledge and investment portfolio. We specialize in using RRSP as for real estate investing as well as joint venture agreements and assignment real estate contracts in Ontario

The Six Steps to Success - www.sixstepstosuccess.com - Get to your financial goal quicker...Helping you achieve success in goal planning.

My cup is half full viewpoint...

With all the recent talk of the BOC holding interest rates steady, and more importantly the insinuations that inflation is creeping into our economy, I couldn't help but think of how that will affect real estate, and especially what this blog is about, investment properties.

Inflation is not all bad. Yes interest rates "may" go up. Yes our utility bills ( not to mention gas...) will go up. But here is my optimistic side kicking in again. Inflation slows down first time buyers from purchasing new homes. Which affects vacancy rates ( they go down because they stay renting), which affects rental rates ( they go up, because these first time buyers are remaining as renters).

Now here is one last far fetched positive inflation tid bit. Investment property values will go up. If landlords play their cards right and increase rents based on market demand, that will in turn increase incomes which will in turn increase the value of investment properties ( of course that implies keeping expenses in check)

Now aren't you glad you bought that investment property recently?

Mark Vosylius

www.manainvestments.com Investing in Canadian real estate since 1989 in the Barrie, Orillia, Georgian Bay, Midland Collingwood and the Muskoka's.

www.sixstepstosuccess.com Committed to helping you achieve your goals and success in life

Canadian Real Estate Investing Fundamentals -#1

If you are already a sophisticated real estate investor then you probably already know the fundamentals of what makes real estate so attractive and unique when compared to other investment vehicles. These series of articles will start with basic real estate foundations for investing and move up into more complex investing techniques as we go along.

Before I entered into real estate investing full time I was a financial planner selling mutual funds, insurance and the like. It was from this background that I forged the fundamentals of real estate investing. When comparisons are drawn to investing in stocks, mutual funds, or equity markets, then the uniqueness and benefits of real estate truly make themselves evident. My decision to pour my hard earned efforts into real estate full time only came after I understood how the financial markets worked. Once the proverbial "light went on" I had to let my clients know about real estate investing. So for purposes of clarity I will make comparisons to investing in the stock market versus investing in real estate and what are the differences and or advantages. As well we will not be talking about a REIT. A REIT is the stock markets answer for people who want to own real estate. A REIT, in my mind has the same drawbacks that a stock portfolio has. However, unlike a REIT, these investing fundamental lessons will look at direct ownership and show you how you can directly own multi-residential real estate or commercial property "hassle free."

Canadian Real estate investing fundamentals can really be applied to any real estate market, in any country. I just happen to be a proud Canadian who believes in my country. Canada has been good to me. Because of that, I invest locally. I invest in the Barrie, Orillia and Collingwood Ontario regions because the fundamentals show that these areas have strong growth potential for real estate. ( we will get into economic fundamentals of why these areas are so good later). That is not to say that these fundamentals can not be applied to Calgary Alberta real estate investing, or Victoria B.C., or Los Angeles California. A real estate fundamental is a fundamental anywhere in the world.

So with the backgound complete, let's get down to real estate investing fundamental lesson number 1:

LEVERAGE: "The use of fixed costs in order to increase the rate of return from an investment" This definition from Webster says it all. Leverage will increase your rate of return. I think to best understand leverage lets use an example.

What if you went to the bank and said that you have $10k but you want to buy $100k in an index fund? And you want the index fund to act as the security for the loan. What would they say? The last time I tried that they laughed and said "next!" Yet when you buy an investment property that is exactly what you can do. You can put down $10k for a $100k house and have the actual house (similar to the index fund) act as your security. But here is where the real leverage works. Homes appreciate. And this is a perfect example of the "unique benefit" of real estate investing; what is appreciating is the $100k. Not just your $10k. If you invest 10k in stocks it is your 10k that must work for you. In real estate it is the WHOLE PROPERTY that appreciates, the whole 100k is working for you. That is leverage. You leverage your 10k to have 100k work for you.

If it appreciates at 5% a year then on $100k that equals $5k per year, or 50% on your original $10k investment. That means your original 10k grew at 50%, AND the loan is secured by the actual property. Try buying 100k for any stock offering with only a 10k deposit and then make 50% return on it.

What if the house does not appreciate ( like we see in the present financial sub-prime debacle in the US)? Well stay tuned....the answer to that will be in real estate investing lesson #2...

MANA REAL ESTATE IINVESTMENTS

Specializing in real estate investments for private investors. Our real estate investing focus ( for now) is in the Barrie, Midland, Collingwood and Orillia areas. We offer 3 ways to invest, 1-with us ( in a joint venture, RRSP investing, or assignments), 2-syndication (in a limited partnership corporation), or 3-becoming a team member of Mana Invstments and working along side with us.

Mark Vosylius

www.manainvestments.com Investing in Canadian real estate since 1989 in the Barrie, Orillia, Georgian Bay, Midland Collingwood and the Muskoka's.

www.sixstepstosuccess.com Committed to helping you achieve your goals and success in life

Picture Examples of what Outlook can do...

I had so many people interested in how I set up my Outlook forms to run my real estate business, I thought I would expand on my first blog ( "Outlook can run your whole business in 5 minutes") and show what the outcome "could be" with a little effort. The following pictures best illustrate how I took the first "Outlook in 5 minutes" set up lesson and totally revamped my Outlook forms and reports. And to be honest, what you see here took me about 3 weeks of fairly hard work. But if I can do it...so can you!!

I designed 3 basic forms. Prospects, Properties, Tenants (I am also an investor, so I have set up Outlook to manage my tenants/properties as well). I also figured out how to take my custom form information and create a custom report in the views section in outlook. I decided to use less words and be more graphic this time and show pictures of what my custom forms look like. I think by looking at the pictures of what I did, I am hoping they will inspire you to design your own forms and report views as well. Again, all these forms and reports were built right in Outlook, starting with what I talked about in Part I.

It's important to note that I have found 2 limitations. 1- I have not found a way yet to import my existing contacts into this custom form ( if anyone knows how PLEASE let me know). 2- The printing and exporting of reports is best done by copying and pasting from your "views" into a spreadsheet first.

Prospect Form- I have expanded on this by setting up different "prospect types"..( Buyer, Seller. Investor, Agent)

Prospect Report View-You can take your custom information from your forms and design what information you want to see in your reports

Property Form. You can see that I have also added a financial analysis section ( income, expenses not shown) so that I can properly analyze a property/investment.

Tenant Form

Tenant Owing Report. I wanted to beable to look at all my tenants and see what needs to be done as well as how much is owed in back rent...

I have had some people tell me to package and sell this as an Outlook add-on. Being in sales and a born entrepreneur, I have considered it. But I am passing on this "hard earned" information in hopes that it will help some of you organize and grow your business as it has helped me grow mine. As Zig Ziglar says..."I will get everything I want in life, if I just help enough other people get what they want".

P.S. ( yes of course I am open to ideas on helping some of you custom design your own outlook forms and reports....)

Mark Vosylius

MANA REAL ESTATE GROUP

http://www.manainvestments.com/

http://www.sixstepstosuccess.com/

http://www.georgianmgmt.com/