Mark Vosylius, Barrie, Orillia, Ontario

Past week presents Real Estate Opportunities.

This past week we saw Bear Stearns take a dive, the Fed step in and prop up whatever was left and reduce interest rates. I heard some forecasters talk about the foundation of our whole ( the world!) economic system as having a crack. Its not as solid as we thought. I was sipping my morning coffee when I heard this. I must admit that sounds like scary stuff. The talk is that this will turn into the Crash of 1929 and the following Depression of the early 1930's. However on the drive into work I turned my thoughts from negative to positive.

There are real estate opportunities in good times a s well as bad. If "bad times" are truly upon us, then there are deals to be found. Especially in real estate. If anything, these times are an opportunity of a life time. When in the past 50 years have we seen so many foreclosures and panic selling? I think it all depends on how we look at this news. Its so easy to follow the masses and cry the blues, just like the media is telling us too. This same media recommended we buy many of these sub-prime mortgage loans.

In the Barrie, Orillia and surrounding Simcoe County we still have real estate opportunities. Fundamentally strong properties, are exactly that...fundamentally strong.

MANA REAL ESTATE GROUP

Specializing in investments and for sale by owner ( fsbo) real estate in the Barrie, Midland-Penetang, areas. Also for sale by owner in Orillia and Collingwood, Innisfil, Alliston, Owen Sound, Parry Sound, Muskoka, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Honey Harbour, and Huntsville areas

www.homesbyowner.com/barrie

http://www.manainvestments.com/

http://www.sixstepstosuccess.com/

http://www.georgianmgmt.com/

Housing Affordability-Two Papers, Two stories

The Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail both ran articles on RBC's housing affordability index report. From the exact same data however two different interpretations were derived. The Star focused on how poor 2008 and will be in Ontario ( stressing the negative), and the Globe focused on Vancouver's unusually high ( 74%) affordability, and Canada as a whole, with Ontario fairing well in 2008.

Proof again that we should not believe the media, but rather focus on the fundamentals of the economy. The writers of these articles show bias and are obviously writing with an agenda (most prominently the Star). We need to focus on the data ourselves and not rely on "interpretations". And more importantly we need to study what is happening in our local area (real estate housing in Barrie, Orillia and Simcoe County).

Its great that we have Canadian "averages" which work as a guide line, but it is where our local investment area falls when compared to the averages that is of importance. In other words how is Barrie fairing when compared to the average? How is Orillia housing affordability affecting the local economy? These are the decisive factors that produce a accurate real eastate fundamental.

MANA REAL ESTATE GROUP

Specializing in investments and for sale by owner ( fsbo) real estate in the Barrie, Midland-Penetang, areas. Also for sale by owner in Orillia and Collingwood, Innisfil, Alliston, Owen Sound, Parry Sound, Muskoka, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Honey Harbour, and Parry Sound areas

www.homesbyowner.com/barrie

http://www.manainvestments.com/

http://www.sixstepstosuccess.com/

http://www.georgianmgmt.com/

Barrie Ontario Downtown Convention Center

The buzz around Barrie council meetings is all about the new Convention center that "may" happen in the downtown Barrie ( waterfront) area. It seems the focus was on the negative.

Will it be good for Business in Barrie? - Yes ( I will help you with the hard questions).

Will it increase real estate values in Barrie? - Yes

Will it increase traffic in Barrie? - Yes

Will we ever see it? - doubt it.

Growth, whether its business or personal costs something. If we are to see a convention center in Downtown Barrie, and see the benefits of strong real estate growth and improved Business conditions especially in the hurting downtown core, then its going to cost somebody somewhere. In this case the cost will be like what Toronto pays to grow and be the number one city in Canada( in terms of business, not living conditions). As a city, Barrie needs to look to the future and recognize that if they don't do it, somebody else will. A convention center would be good for Barrie.

7 Steps to program Outlook and run your whole real estate business in 5 minutes

Being a salesman, I love networking. I use Outlook for most of the emails and contacts I get from networking. I don't like having to open up different programs for different applications. Outlook syncs well with my Blackberry. I want to run all my real estate prospects, clients, tenants, and investment property from Outlook. I was bored one day while watching the Matrix for the 7^th time and started fooling around with Outlook. I realized that like Neo, studying all those little green lines flowing down the computer screen, I can be the "one" as well. I can program Outlook to do all things...here is how. I can totally customize all my prospects: I can manage all my tenants (including rent roll collections): I can compute all my investment analysis...all from one application...Outlook.

Step One ( Yes I know as a professional salesman, I shouldn't waste my time programming a customized CRM.....and I should stop blogging, just buy a program that does it all and find new clients now!!)

Step Two...( what, u still here...ok ...ok)

I use Microsoft Outlook 2007, this may work with earlier versions. We will design a basic form to collect new prospect info. Once you learn this you will be able to apply it to any other customizations you need in Outlook.

In Outlook Select Tools from top bar>Forms>Design a Form...Pop up window should say "Look in"..."Standard Forms Library"...select "Contact"...open

Step Three..( we will begin building the Matrix...)

You are now about to create a new combo box. In the Tools select ...Control Toolbox>In small pop up" toolbox" window>left click and drag "combo box" to far right empty space, near the gray box with small dots, beside "Business phone number" in your new contact form. You have now created a new combo box.

> hover mouse over new "combo box" and right click mouse>select Properties>In new pop up window "Properties" select the "value" tab.>select "new" button

>type in Prospect Type>click ok>you should still be in "Properties" pop up window and "Value" tab>In "Possible Values" type> Buyer,Seller,Investor,Contact. Make sure you put a comma after every word, no spaces.>click ok

Step Four

In "toolbox" pop up select "label">left click mouse and drag to immediate left of your new combo box.>hover over new label and right click mouse.>select "properties">select "Display" tab and in "Caption" type Prospect Type. Click ok

You're done. Now get creative and think of all the unique bits of information you can collect from your prospects and create your new form.

Once you've added all the boxes you need to your new form you now have to save it and use it.

Step Five

While still in new form select "Publish" ( from top Developer section) > select "Publish Form as....">In "Look In" dropdown select "Personal Forms Library" ( you ma have to move dropdown arrow up to find it)>Once in Personal Forms Library>type in "Prospects" in Display name box >click publish

Step Six

Now that we have saved your form we are now going to create your new contact folder to store and use your new prospects form.

On far right of Outlook is Mail items> right click "Personal Folders">then select "New Folder">In new pop up window type in "Prospects" or your name>In "Folder Contains:" from dropdown select "contact items">then in "select where to place the folder" section click the"+" sign beside "Personal Folders">click ok

Step Seven

Now on the right side bar of Outlook is all your folders>right click on your newly created "prospects" contact form>select "properties">In the General tab find "When posting to this folder use" and select "prospects" from dropdown>click ok

You are done. Now every time you enter in a new prospect your new form will come up automatically. From this little tid-bit of information you should be able to add anything else you want to customize Outlook for important CRM info. If you have any questions on more advanced programming or ideas on Outlook...please share....As well, if this has helped you, please let me know.....Now go out and make some money!

Mana Real Estate Group

Disappointing Budget for real estate investors

The recent budget presented by the Tory government was a disappointment for small real estate investors who use real estate holdings as a way to build a retirement fund. The expected elimination of the capital gains tax when re-investing back into real estate did not come into fruition as Minister Jim Flaherty alluded to in his election promises.

That means for us investors, if we sell one of our investment properties and realize a capital gains on the profit, we will be taxed even if we use those profits to re-invest. This is certainly a deterrent to the thousands of small landlords who see potential profits in the sale of their investments but hesitate to sell due to the existing capital gains laws.

MANA REAL ESTATE GROUP

Our focus is on real estate investments and that means we use all avenues to invest including for sale by owner ( fsbo) real estate. Our area of expertise is Barrie, Angus, Alliston, and Midland-Penetang. We also study for sale by owner real estate listings in Orillia and Collingwood, Innisfil, Owen Sound, Muskoka, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Honey Harbour, and Parry Sound areas

www.homesbyowner.com/barrie

http://www.manainvestments.com/

http://www.sixstepstosuccess.com/

http://www.georgianmgmt.com/