Identifying the housing needs of Generation Y

Identifying the housing needs of Generation Y

When considering future trends in housing, builders need to take a long, hard look at demographics. The young adults of today are the homeowners of tomorrow – or so we hope. Generation Y (which ranges roughly from teens to 30-year-olds) has been analysed from here to eternity; the group is usually described as eco-conscious, tech-savvy, urban, exceptionally social and prone to postponing marriage and children. Given labels like these, builders are left to consider what type of housing will appeal to this generation. Let’s take them one by one:

Eco-conscious. It’s not hard to believe that this generation is “greener” than those before: these kids have been taught about saving the planet throughout their school years, and have been recycling their entire lives. Many of them will be drawn to homes with green features – the splashier, the better. Homes with green roofs and solar power, for instance, will catch their eye.

Tech-savvy. Naturally, this generation will look for homes that are wired for current and future technologies. To sell a home that’s truly “internet-ready”, developers may consider purchasing package deals at a discount from the provider, with fees to be bundled into condo fees. But where Gen Y’s technomania will really come into play is in the way homes are marketed: through social media, smartphone apps and whatever else is headed down the pipe. This is beginning to happen, but soon it will be the norm.

Urban, Social and Single. It’s true that many Gen Y (or echo boomers, as they’re sometimes known) are drawn to bigger cities for school, work, the culture and the nightlife. To satisfy their social needs, their ideal home might be situated in a lively, walkable downtown area, close to cafes, restaurants, trendy shops and dog parks. Condominiums are the most likely bet to meet all these criteria; they can also function as meeting-places, if they’re outfitted with rooftop patios, gyms and lounges. Condos are usually the most affordable option for buyers with a single income; and buyers without children are typically less likely to miss backyard space.

It’s also been well documented that many Gen Y-ers live at home with their parents – never having left or having “boomeranged” after college or university. (This fits with one of the other stereotypes about this group – that they are emotionally close to their parents.) Some are wisely saving for a downpayment on a home, but certainly not all. Gen Y-ers are just beginning their career paths, and many of them don’t make a whole lot of money. Many rent their own places and will continue to rent for a long time.

So, what’s the answer? As far as urban homes go, it might be a radical downsizing of condos and apartments. “Pocket condos” have been around forever in New York City, and are now showing up in many major cities. They can combine location, thoughtful features and terrific common spaces at an affordable price. The only question is whether Generation Y is willing to make the trade-off: fewer possessions for a greater urban experience. Only time will tell!

 

Visit www.bennettpros.com for all your real estate needs.

 

Marnie Bennett hits it out of the park as Ottawa Condo Sales Stay Stong

With condos now accounting for over two-thirds of new home sales in Ottawa, Bennett Property Shop continues to rule the leaderboard

While condo sales in some parts of the country began to level off in 2012, the condomarket in Ottawa continued its upward trajectory. For starters, one in five resale homes sold last year were condominium-class residences. But the truly impressive numbers, released in CMHC’s fall report, showed that multiple-unit dwellings accounted for a whopping 73 per cent of all new home starts in Ottawa. As only a small fraction of these consists of rental units, it would seem the Capital has conclusively entered the age of the condo.

Astonishingly, there’s one independently-owned firm that’s responsible for more than a quarter of the city’s new condo sales. Headed up by Ottawa’s own Condo Queen Marnie Bennett, Bennett Property Shop Realty has chalked up more than 2,000 new condo sales over the last five years alone. Given that the average price of Ottawa condos hovers around $260,000, this means Bennett and her team have generated sales for their developer clients in the neighbourhood of 500 million dollars. If that figure grabs your attention, you’re not alone.

The ability to generate such heady numbers is one very good reason that Bennett’s boutique company is known as Ottawa’s go-to marketing and real estate firm for builders and developers. With a 24-member real estate team and a comprehensive marketing arm, Bennett Property Shop has accompanied numerous condo and housing projects from conception to sale, building long-term business partnerships with industry leaders along the way.

“Sometimes we’re consulted from the very start; other times, we’re brought in just before a condo launches to handle sales. We’re used to working full tilt – we can handle whatever’s thrown at us,” says Bennett, laughing.

Bennett is forthright about the secret of her marketing success. “I’ve been in this business a long time,” she says. “I know how to strike the right balance between innovative approaches and the tried and true. We’re not afraid to go with the bold strokes – that’s what gets the attention of home buyers – but there’s got to be substance underneath.”

Along with other real estate insiders, Bennett sees no evidence of a condo bubble on the horizon. “Condos really are becoming the housing of choice among many home buyers,” she says. “In Toronto, condos now make up over 50 per cent of all new home sales – and if you take a look at RBC’s 2012 report, you’ll see that this is completely in keeping with demand. As a city grows in population, it’s natural that housing will begin to shift from sprawling single homes to more space-efficient condos. It’s one of the ways cities evolve.”

Another statistic worth noting is the increase in value of Ottawa condominiums. Sales of condos in the upper range – that is, those priced at half a million dollars and up – doubled in 2012. Numbers like these can’t be explained by inflation alone.

“The media often point to first-time home buyers as the reason that the condo market is thriving,” says Bennett. “And it’s true, they do account for a large slice of the pie. But we’re finding that there’s a growing appetite for upscale, downtown condos among middle-aged professionals and baby boomers. From where I stand, it looks like a trend that’s going to continue.”

 

Visit www.bennettpros.com for all your real estate needs

Marnie Bennett - Taking the Reins: Today's Woman in Real Estate

Taking the reins:

Today’s woman in real estate

I love introducing women to the world of real estate. Since I began my career, the opportunity has been arising more and more often. The fact is, more single women are buying Ottawa homes today than ever before.

This can be chalked up to several factors. Many younger women are choosing to focus on their careers rather than getting married and starting families in their twenties. Such financially independent women see no reason to postpone home ownership. On the other side of the coin, it’s the unfortunate truth that approximately 50 per cent of marriages lead to divorce, leaving many women to house hunt solo for the first time. Finally, women live seven to ten years longer than men on average, which translates to a significant number of widows finding themselves in the market for a smaller home.

This adds up to a lot of women who are faced with making crucial financial decisions about matters such as mortgages, insurance and investments, for the first time in their lives. Having been raised by a single mother, this is an issue that’s close to my heart. I watched my mom struggle financially and long ago decided that, married or not, I would take control of my personal finances; for me, real estate investment was key. I strongly believe that engaging with the real estate market can be an excellent way to leverage your current funds. Many people give their savings over to financial advisors, acquiring paper assets; but such investments give them little control over their own finances. Property investment, on the other hand, gives the owner complete control: real estate can be leveraged, improved or rented out as you see fit.

Interestingly, 15 per cent more single women are buying homes as compared with single men. This may be connected with a nesting instinct, with a heightened desire for security, or with a preference for investing in something tangible as opposed to paper assets. Whatever the explanation, it’s a trend I’m happy to see. When women overcome their initial apprehensions about investing, they tend to do very well; in fact, studies have shown that all-women investment clubs regularly out-perform all-men investment clubs by as much as 20 per cent.

The reason for this? I believe that, just as women are more willing than men to ask for directions, they’re not afraid to ask questions when it comes to learning something new. They’ll listen to professionals and weigh in all the factors, whereas men are more likely to want to do things their way. Women are also often more moderate risk-takers; having succeeded, they’ll take their money and move on to the next endeavour. Applied to real estate investment, these traits stand women in good stead.

Unlike some career ventures, I believe there is no glass ceiling in the world of real estate investment. Given the motivation and the proper know-how, there’s nothing holding women back from finding significant financial success through property ownership.

Marnie Bennett

Visit www.bennettpros.com for all your real estate needs.

Marnie Bennett says don’t let tighter CMHC rules thwart your real estate aspirations

TheGlobeandMail.com reports low interest rates and easy mortgage terms are creating higher prices in Canada’s housing market. Marnie Bennett, millionaire real estate investor and wealth coach educates Canadians to help find the kind of home they need and can afford while avoiding the type of problems the housing market has caused many uniformed buyers in America.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is a gatekeeper of sorts, deciding who gets to buy a home and who doesn’t based on its standards. It used to be strict about its rules by making sure that there were down payments and forcing people to pay off homes in no longer than 25 years.
A few years ago, however, CMHC changed its rules and started allowing what home purchasers in America were used to when it came to buying a home. Canadians could pay off their mortgage’s interest first and pay back their principal over 35 years. This gave purchasers greater financial ability to buy bigger homes, but at the same time, it left mortgagees with more debt down the road.

These changes did not really come about because CMHC wanted to lower its standards as much as it did. Instead, according to TheGlobeandMail.com, the crown corporation didn’t have a choice as it was faced with a lot of competition and needed to bring in more business.

And, financially, CMHC did very well from the relaxed standards it had implemented by increasing its earnings from $375 billion in profit in the year 2000, to nearly triple that in 2006 when it made over $1 billion in profit.

In addition and for a variety of reasons, in the last few years, home prices have risen much faster than income has in Canada, and Canadians now collectively owe more than $1 trillion – almost three times the amount they held in mortgage debt in 2000.

This “short-term gain for long-term pain” sort of debt (that resulted from the relaxation of the CMHC rules) is the exact type of ill-considered or unwise debt that Marnie Bennett can help prospective buyers to clients avoid.

Marnie Bennett acknowledges the spike in housing costs that has been greatly aided by such bad mortgage decisions and, advises and educates the general public as to how to avoid such pit-falls and instead educates consumers on how to find the perfect deal for their family. Real Estate values relate to local market conditions and not global conditions. So finding the perfect investment or home is a matter of knowing socio economics of the city, the demographics, trends and employment rates.
Intelligently, last year the Canadian government cut the maximum length of a mortgage back to 25 years, so now fewer people will be lured pre-maturely into the housing market and will end up struggling to afford over-priced houses for longer periods of indebtedness.

Far-sighted financial commentators and observers are now calling for specific benchmarks to be created and adhered to in order to keep such damaging mortgage rules changes from happening again, and in order to prevent political goals from unwisely impacting upon the long-term financial structure of the economy.

Although some realtors claim that the government panicked and needlessly intruded into this marketplace and unnecessarily cooled or slowed down sales, Ms. Bennett was glad to see responsible actions were undertaken and has found that these betterments have not harmed her ability to continue to find wise real estate opportunities for her clients.

Marnie Bennett is a self-made millionaire real estate investor, an award -winning businesswoman, real estate wealth coach, international speaker and a radio show host.

When divorce rocks the matrimonial home

We’ve all heard of people who stay in an unhappy marriage for the sake of the kids. But what about staying married for the sake of the house? It may sound crazy, but many of us have deep rooted attachments to our homes. They hold memories – some happy, others sad, but all meaningful. It can be scary to contemplate leaving the place where, more than any other, we feel we belong.

 That said, few of us would advise our friends to remain in a bad marriage simply to keep their beloved house. The latest Canadian study shows that 40 per cent of first marriages end in divorce. That’s a lot of people facing the same tough decisions about what to do with the “matrimonial home”, as it’s known in the legal profession. Some can afford to stay in the same dwelling, but sadly, many cannot. Couples may even find themselves in a custody battle of sorts, when neither partner wants to give up the family home. And then there are others who are all too eager to move out and make a fresh start.

Should you find yourself in one of these unfortunate, yet ever so common, situations, here is what you need to know. In Ontario, the Family Law Act states that the full value of the matrimonial home should be divided equally between you and your ex. It doesn’t matter whether one of you bought the home prior to your marriage, whether it was left to one of you in a will, or whether only one name is on the title. The only exception to this 50/50 split occur when a pre-nuptial agreement exists, or when the court finds unusual circumstances that make such a split unfair.

 There are many things to consider here – finances, logistics, emotional attachments and chiefly the children in these situations. Part of you may be ready to move, but you question the wisdom of uprooting your children from everything they know.  In all cases, these decisions require a great deal of soul-searching as well as professional advice from your lawyer, mortgage broker and real estate agent.  Remember that these situations are common and that talking to a professional is the best decision you can make for yourself and your family.

Selling the home to a third party is often the best scenario from both a financial and an emotional perspective. (Resentment can certainly build when one partner witnesses the other still living in the family home.)  By the same token, it can be difficult for divorcing partners to sit down with a real estate agent and calmly discuss matters such as the listing price and negotiating tactics. A good agent will guide you through this process with minimal discomfort and help serve as an objective voice.

Whatever path you do choose, make every attempt to embrace this chance to have a new beginning, and a happier home.

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Marnie Bennett is the marketing consultant for Bennett Property Shop Realty, a full premium service real estate brokerage specializing in marketing and selling new and resale homes, condominiums and investment real estate. Marnie is the host of the weekly radio show the Real Estate Hour, a millionaire real estate investor and a wealth management coach. bennettpros.com 

Bid Adieu to This Old House: How to stage your home for maximum profit

As if purchasing a new home isn’t intense enough, home buyers (with the exception of first-timers) also have to sell their current properties. The fact is, few homes are ready to go on the market as-is.

It’s not just a matter of tidiness – though that’s certainly crucial. It’s about helping potential buyers to connect emotionally with your space. That means making your home welcoming to as many people as possible, often at the cost of your own personal taste. This isn’t easy, but a professional stager can help; your realtor may even have one on staff. If a stager isn’t in the cards, there are steps you can take on your own.

 

First off, de-clutter. Chances are you’ve got twice as much stuff as you need to show your home to its best potential. In addition to removing obvious messes, this includes things like extraneous furniture, children’s toys, knick-knacks and family photos. This can be emotionally difficult, but remember: the goal is to make it easy for potential buyers to imagine their own possessions in your space.

 

Next, fix unfinished projects. If buyers see loose floor tiles and cracks in the wall, they’ll wonder what other issues are lurking under the surface. Don’t give them cause to worry.

 

To make rooms appear larger, replace puffy, over-sized furniture with sleeker pieces. In the bedroom, you’re better off showing a queen-sized bed and two small bedside tables than a king with none. To find the right pieces, you can beg, borrow and, if necessary, lease.

 

Bright paint or outdated wallpaper? Replace them with neutral wall colours and add vibrancy with throw pillows and vases. Splurge on fresh, sweetly scented flowers for an open house; they’ll pay for themselves. Mirrors are a wonderful tool for filling empty walls. And, whatever the décor in your bathroom, thick white towels will lend a hotel-like vibe.

 

For extra curb appeal, give your front door a fresh coat of paint and temporarily take your storm door off the hinges. Invest in two urns; plant them with pretty, seasonal flowers. In winter, cedar branches draped with ribbon are just as beautiful.

 

I can guarantee that all this work will have a huge payoff, so keep your eyes on the prize. After all, in your brand new home, you can have things exactly the way you want!

Marnie Bennett is the marketing consultant for Bennett Property Shop Realty, a full premium service real estate brokerage specializing in marketing and selling new and resale homes, condominiums and investment real estate. Marnie is the host of the weekly radio show the Real Estate Hour, a millionaire real estate investor and a wealth management coach. bennettpros.com

Marnie Bennett Home Smarts: Opening Yourself to the Possibilities

Marnie Bennett is an exclusive columnist for New Home and Condo. Pick up your FREE copy at news stands and distributors throughout the city of Ottawa. See below for her column "Home Smarts".

Buying a new home in Ottawa is an exciting process with a happy outcome – but to be perfectly honest, it can be a bit of a roller coaster ride. In reality, few of us are able to find our dream home, delve into our bottomless pockets and move in the following day.

While most people have a fixed idea of the type of home in Ottawa they want before they begin searching, it’s surprisingly common for buyers to change their minds mid-search. One person may realize that they’re not as eager to mow a large lawn as they’d thought; another may discover that the detached home they’d dreamed of is beyond their means.

I encourage Ottawa home buyers to become familiar with the different property types on the market, and to keep an open mindset as possibilities are everywhere!

Condominiums - Condos are often purchased by single people and couples without children, with good reason! They offer a maintenance-free style of living that’s ideal for those with busy work and social lives. However, the owner pays a monthly maintenance fee for the privilege known as condo fees. Condominiums tend to come with smaller or no outdoor spaces, but they usually have an abundance of lifestyle amenities such as fitness studios, home theatres, hot tubs, roof top terraces and party rooms – an important consideration for downsizers and active singles.

While we often associate condos with downtown high-rises, they are increasingly popular in suburban areas; they may be townhomes, semis or even detached homes, and are common in adult-oriented gated communities. Condominium is actually a legal definition referring to the method of ownership, not the type of building. When you purchase a condo, the interior space of your home belongs to you. “Common elements” such as elevators, recreational facilities and outside grounds are jointly owned by you and the other homeowners in your condominium community.

Detached homes - A fully detached home provides the most privacy and, often, the most space of any home type. New detached homes are commonly built on lot sizes between 35 and 60 feet, although some new home builders – particularly custom home builders – may offer larger lot sizes.

Semi-detached homes - A semi-detached home is joined to another home on one side. If you’re having trouble finding a detached home in your budget, you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised with some of the semi-detached homes on the market. They often offer similar layouts and features for a lower price, due to lower construction costs and marginally smaller lot sizes. If privacy is a concern for you, be sure to tour the builder’s homes to observe how sound travels from one home to the next. Most modern semis and townhomes provide good sound insulation.

Town homes - Like semi-detached homes, town homes often offer more than you might expect. Many condominium townhomes are “executive-style”, boasting high-end finishes. Condominium terrace townhomes are “stacked”, with upper units providing a large balcony or roof-top patio instead of a yard. Non-condominium townhomes, known as “freehold”, offer more freedom to change the landscaping and outer appearance of your home.

Happy hunting!

Marnie Bennett is the marketing consultant for Bennett Property Shop Realty, a full premium service real estate brokerage specializing in marketing and selling new and resale homes, condominiums and investment real estate. Marnie is the host of the weekly radio show the Real Estate Hour, a millionaire real estate investor and a wealth management coach. bennettpros.com