“Do the thing you fear, and continue to do so. This is the quickest and surest way of all victory over fear.” — Dale Carnegie
Hello Real Estate Investors of Hamilton, Ontario!!
As I type, we personally have an accepted offer on an investment property in Hamilton, earmarked for my son, Bruce. He’s curious and active like all eight-month-olds are and I anticipate he will be expensive like all kids are! Considering the cost of rep sports, braces (I had braces in grade 8-9, they were $3,500 then, I can only imagine what they cost now), etc… we’re taking the pragmatic approach to make sure our goal of early retirement remains intact while our investments pay for our expensive kids 🙂
Admittedly, I was not always calm when buying houses. In my first year or three, I would stare at spreadsheets late at night, testing sensitivities to vacancy rates and interest rates. Fast forward to today, I don’t even need a spreadsheet to know I want the property! The fear doesn’t completely go away, but I know the risks and I know our systems and skills will see us through. Such is the benefit of over 10,000 hours of practice and mastery in our profession.
My other fears include spiders, heights, and needles. My alma mater, Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario did a small profile on me and my attempts to face my fear of heights titled “Limitlessâ€. Click here and feel free to skip to page 23. When I get around to it, I will give blood in order to face my fear of needles. If anyone wants to join me, I could use someone to hold my hand 😉
PS – I just got off the phone with my client who lost out on house two weeks ago over $3,000 when I advised her, “100% you are going to lose”. She let her fear get the better of her, wouldn’t take the advice of her husband and I, and now she regrets her loss as the market continues to rise. Fear can be expensive!
Canada’s top cities to buy real estate in
Article by Money Sense Magazine, to read the article click here. Â Below are quotes from the article and my thoughts
“Our list did contain some surprises. For instance, the top four cities are in Ontario, a province that was hit hard in the last five years by a shrinking manufacturing sector, a lower loonie and tanking oil prices.â€
“And yet Hamilton, Brantford and Guelph climbed by as many as five spots since last year. All three cities have high average household incomes in common—ranging from $78,000 to just over $95,000—while unemployment ranges from 4% to 5.7%, significantly lower than the current national average of 7.2%.â€
“At $443,000, Hamilton’s average home price is the highest of the bunch, but the city also boasts the highest compound annual rate of return for a five-year period at 7.3%.â€
To quote best selling author and founding partner of REIN when I told him about the report: “They’re only 6 years behind… But that’s fine for REIN Members who like to be ahead of the curve! 😀”
The average price appears to include Burlington which skews the true average price of Hamilton which is in the high 300’s.
“Hamilton’s unemployment rate fell to 6.1 per cent in February, down slightly from 6.4 per cent in January, new numbers released Friday from Statistics Canada show.â€
“On Friday, the data agency said Canada’s economy lost an unexpected 2,300 jobs in February, and the national jobless rate ticked up to 7.3 per cent. The unemployment rate (for Canada) last month was at its highest level since March 2013, almost three years ago.â€
Hamilton’s unemployment rates falls while the national rate increases… Hamilton is poised to outperform the country and this stat supports Hamilton status as a top town for investment.
Thanks for reading and happy Hamilton real estate investing everyone!
Erwin Szeto |Â MrHamilton.ca
Sales Representative
Rock Star Real Estate Inc., Brokerage
Ph: 905-361-9098
