John Castle Real Estate Sales Representative
2148 Carling Avenue, Units 5 & 6 K2A 1H1 Ottawa, ON, Canada

'Look for properties with a unique paint pallet. They typically sell at a discount.' Rocket Mortgage recently quoted me in their guide to investing in real estate. https://www.rocketmortgage.com/learn/womens-housing-gap/... #realestateinvesting #realestateinvesting #ottcity

Seek Capital recently quoted me in their article on rehab projects. You've heard '80% of your results come from 20% of your effort'. When rehabbing a property, it's the last 20% that counts. Profit depends on finishing the job well. https://www.seekcapital.com//house-flipping-tips-maximum-/

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to limit their participation in the refinancing of multifamily properties to loans intended to finance capital investment (improvements or acquisitions). Refinancing as a means of profit taking is out if CMHC is participating. #Canada #RealEstateNews

Quoted in two articles in this month's issue of REBI - Real Estate Business Institute Magazine. https://www.rebinstitute.com/REBI/Magazine/Latest_Issue.aspx

Recently featured in American Express Business Insight's article on doing right by your customers in a Crisis. https://www.americanexpress.com//doing-right-by-your-cust/

Council wants infill inspired by this design in order to overcome the two challenges to intensification: 1. The absence of affordable new homes suitable for families within the intensification target zones. 2. Community opposition concerned about preserving the appearance of the neighbourhood. ... #Ottcity paid for the design of the '613 Flats' concept (6 rooms in 1 unit with 3 bedrooms) to illustrate how infill developers could profitably build units that increase intensity, satisfy the demand for affordable family homes, and reduce the risk of community opposition frustrating a project. The design meets those challenges by 1. Setting most of the entrances back from the street, which preserves the street's cadence (e.g. a door every x meters) 2. Using more of the lot's depth. On the face of it, these designs suggests that the rear yard set back requirements may be loosened. The model depicted on the left doesn't seem to have the 25% rear set back that even the most intense low-rise zoning (R4) requires. For reference. The model on the left is 3x3 beds. The model on the right is 4x3 beds + 2x1 beds. #ottawa #ottnews

Don't sell your property on headlines about bubbles alone. A Forbes blogger recently wrote about a US #CRE bubble. To make his case, he points to the increase in values since 2019. Look at the bigger picture: From the far left of the graph (1998) in the article, US CRE appreciated 5.5% annaully. Hardly suggestive of a bubble. ... There are obvious issues with using 2009 as a benchmark. Namely, purchase financing was abnormally restricted. CRE didn't lose its ability to produce long term income, investors lost their ability to purchase it. The fast return of CRE values is evidence of that. Compared to other paying assets (debt and equities), the CRE run up is modest. It's hard to argue for a bubble when the alternatives are more expensive. I'm happy to market your investment if you think a crash is coming, but I'd advise you to run that hunch by your #CFA first. I doubt we'll see a lasting dip in values. https://www.forbes.com//why-the-us-commercial-real-estate/

Council's favoured expansion adds 120 low-rise urban units/year starting in 2021 (compared to the status quo). Averaging about 200 additional units/year over the next 25 years. That modest increase that probably matches the expectations of most, but falls short of what many had hoped for. Planning Committee's initial directions are linked here. ... https://www.linkedin.com//john-castle_official-plan-prelim See more

Calling it now: the City of #Ottawa will mostly limit its expansion of the urban boundary to the area north of the tech park. I'm not claiming any special foresight. I'm relying on the predictions of competent urban planners. That said, this article from the CBC suggests that a more substantial expansion is plausible. ... Despite the city's intensification mantra, the propotion of the population inside the Greenbelt has remained in *relative* decline. Favourable treatment of rezoning applications hasn't been sufficient. Most land is cut into small lots that don't suit large projects. Small infills rarely justify the cost of a rezoning application. If the City wants to accomodate its projected growth it will need to change something. If the planners are right, and the boundary will remain largely unchanged, then we can expect broad changes to the zoning maps and provisions. 2021 could be a big year for infill development. A once in a career buying opportunity may not be far off. https://is.gd/isKWyD

Remote work will kill the office tower. Or so I hear people saying. On the face of it, it seems plausible enough. After all, forced experimentation can change habits. The 1994-95 MLB strike changed the sports viewing habits of North Americans. The League hasn't recovered its television market-share.... The 2014 disruption of the London Underground forced commuters to find new ways to work. Many travel patterns remained changed even after the Underground re-opened. So the thinking goes, after this period of forced experimentation, maybe some companies will conclude they can save by shrinking their footprint. As someone who gets paid when real estate transactions happen, that would be a convenient narrative (tenants - sign new leases for right-sized space; landlords - sell your office space before demand shrinks). However, it's not a narrative that the facts support. Silicone Valley experimented with work from home a decade ago. Google, Yahoo, and IBM now prohibit it. The research is clear: Staff are more productive in environments they share with their colleagues. That productivity more than pays for the cost of the space. Rent is usually 5-10% of an employee's cost. A small boost to productivity and the space pays for itself. #Ottawa #ottcity #ottnews #workfromhome https://is.gd/5zn2WS

Featured in Forbes today.

Short term rentals are a good way to get more income out of a property. If you're thinking about buying a short-term rental property in Ottawa, read my #BlogPost to learn what you need to know. http://ow.ly/OWh650y0P80

It's already been 4 months since the Ottawa LRT opened its doors. There have been a few hiccups. BUT could it increase the value of your property? Find out in this NEW blog post! https://bit.ly/2tUa9a9

I got a client into this deal despite competing offers. It sold over asking but we still got it for less than market value*. If you want to find good deals, it helps to imagine the home without furniture and white (or neutral) walls. Picture it like it might look when you move in and paint. Good deals never look great at first glance; to find them, look a little deeper. Knowing a few handy negotiating strategies doesn't hurt either. - - *TL;DR: to get market value I adjusted ...the MPAC value from 2016 up by the change in home prices since 2016 and made some adjustments for new major items that were added in 2017 and reduced for some items that needed to be done. I cross checked the estimate with comparable sales. - - * Long version: @MPAC_ontario assessed the January 2016 value of this home at $325k. The @crea_aci home price index has detatched homes in #Ottawa up 28% since January 2016. Adjust $325 up 28% and we land at $417. The furnace, roof, windows, septic bed, and siding were replaced in 2017 - after MPAC's 2016 assesment, and therefore not reflected in it. I've conservatively estimated the value of those upgrades at $25k. The MPAC assesments do not reflect the lifespan of major items on individual homes. For the purpose of this estimate I've assumed that the average home in this mature neighbourhood has major items that are half way through their expected life (typically about 20 years). Accordingly, I've added in 40% of the conservative estimate of the value of the new major items, which takes us to $427. I then included a reduction for electrical pig tailing that needed to be done on one floor. Ultimately giving us a value of $426 and change. $20k more than the $406 my client paid for the property. I cross checked the numbers with the comparable sales and they seem to check out. #Ottcity #Ottawa

Today, Lisa Johnson ( @lisamj_homes ) brought this notice from @cityofottawa to my attention. Last week I showed a condo to a client that was occupied by a tenant transfered from France by Alstrom to continue work on the #LRT for the next 3+ years and that #Stage2 was scheduled to begin immediately, which the notice in the photograph confirms. The extension will extend the Train to Moodie drive in Bells Corners (#Revivial) to Trim Road in Orleans and south to Leitrim and Lime...bank. Express buses will connect Kanata and Barrhaven to the west end of system. #Ottawa #Ottcity #RealtorsKnow @ Ottawa, Ontario See more

This AirBnB owner takes my advice to #realestate investors to the extreme: Maximize the ratio of rent checks collected to land area owned. Renting out a tent on a day-to-day basis definitely does that. Here's the thing: just like anything else, when you cut up real estate into smaller units, you get more for the same thing. Just like, say, chocolate bars - you can get more for each bar selling them individually than you can get for selling them by the box. The trade off is e...ntrepreneurial effort it takes to do that, but for a lot of investors, it's worth it. But there's an important difference between real estate and chocolate bars: Two people can share the same element of a property, but they can't share the same piece of a chocolate bar. The existence of multistory buildings is a testament to that fact. The tenants share the same piece of land - but they don't pay less for sharing that land. The emergence of dorm-style apartments with shared kitchens tells us that many tenants are open to sharing other elements of a dwelling too, and so the investor effectively rents out the same kitchen to multiple tenants. Those units rent for a discount, but the math works out to the benefit of the investor's bank account (and the tenant's too!). So if you're not shy about putting in the work, look for ways to rent more units from the real estate you own. Look for shareable elements or cut up what you own by renting smaller units or renting for shorter periods. John Castle, 2019 #Ottawa #Ottcity #Insight

Cedric Potvin of Vertex Marketing Agency made this sample Video Facebook ad for me. I love it. Cedric has done a pile of digital marketing, but he recently left his job to strike out on his own (). To get his name out there, he's making free video ads for estsblished businesses. Send him a message (he'll happily make you a free video ad and you'll help a young entrepreneur get off the ground). Thanks Cedric. This is .

Beautiful investment duplex. Rents pay for the mortgage and then some! Rent one side and live in the other side for almost nothing. #Ottcity #Ottawa

Next stop - profit ville Prochain arrêt - profitville Townhouse near Trim #Stage2 #LRT station. Huge appreciation just a few years away. ... Must be sold to investor who will rent to current tennants for at least a year. EXCLUSIVE LISTING. AVOID BIDDING WARS #ottcity #Ottawa Sold by @kellerwilliamsintegrity @adambabineau @thewestteam @riri__99 @joeshipanock @shane_foley_westottawarealtor @lisamj_homes @tracipolak @dansalhanyrealtor @paulrushforthrealestate @carlawalker.realestatepro @ Orleans, Ontario

Students in #Ottawa's western schools perform better according to this map from the @fraser_institute. #Ottcity #RealtorsKnow