July 2007

A new addition to our Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Investment Portfolio

On Monday, Sarah and I closed on an ‘investment-grade’ condominium in North Waterloo. There were some mild theatrics associated with the closing (i.e. where was the other side’s lawyer on Friday when we were to close the deal? Canoing ? Lawn bowling ? Enjoying a lazy Friday afternoon at Morty’s ?) but all is well that ends well – at least in this case.

When I say ‘investment-grade’ condo, I am referring to a handful of condominiums in town – buildings with good management, low prices, good rent, great location, modern wiring (and no aluminum!) & plumbing, healthy reserve funds etc. They can be managed for a very reasonable rate, and the annual maintenance and repair you will put into the unit are minimal. One Millonaire Real Estate Investor I know who owns many of these units said ‘The only time I’m there is Jan 1 when I go to pick up 12 rent cheques.’

These units Condominiums, semi-detached homes and townhouses have appreciated approximately 8% in the past 12 months (May 2006-May 2007, as provided by the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Board), and have shown very good appreciation over the past 10 years.

Our unit sold for $120,500, and will rent for between $850-950/mo + hydro depending on the polish we put on the place (we’re redoing the floors [today actually], refreshing the kitchen and bathrooms, new appliances etc.) Condo fees are $215 a month, and taxes are about $110 a month. Our mortgage, @5.89% with 20% down, is about $500 a month, and we’re paying it in biweekly (accelerated) instalments.

I have clients, colleagues and friends who have bought these units with less than 20% down – your mortgage costs will be higher and your cash flow will be correspondingly lower.

These condos (and there are a couple on the market [and a great one off market, but available to my clients] that I can show you) are a great way to get in on the real estate market, and start growing your wealth through smart investing!

Benjamin Bach is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo. He is passionate about helping his clients build wealth, and has recently been nominated (by the readers of the KW Record) as one of Kitchener Waterloo’s Favourite Realtors!

If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio, have any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property in the Waterloo Region, or are looking for a tip on a great book to read, please email Benjamin at (benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com) or call him at 519 570 4447.

Bach on Books: Liveblogging a review

 

(also known as ‘watch Ben read a book today’)

This morning my good friend Phil Gerbyshak chucked a book at me. Ouch !
Turns out, it was exactly what I needed (funny how life works eh?)

The book he threw at me is Joe Calloway’s new book ‘Work Like You’re Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz and Kick of being better tomorrow than you were today’

I was at Chapters at 8am when it opened, and I’ve dived right into the book.

Here are my initial reading notes:

[9:00am] Chapter 1:
Showing off means being the best you can be in any situation. When life gives you lemons, you ‘make a lemon meringue pie, a lemon cake with festive lemon icing rosettes and a lemon “watch this” souffle’

Chapter 2:
What have you wanted to do for a long time? For me, it’s finishing my first book.
What have you been putting off in your life? Go do it !

Chapter 3: All hat and no cattle
This is a great line, one I first heard from my dear friend Anne McIntyre. Do you talk a good game, but never step up to the plate? Don’t be that guy. Be the guy who hits a double to bat in a run, every single time. And don’t gloat

More to come…

UPDATE:

[10:45] Chapter 4: Make room for good stuff by getting the junk out of your life. You already know what you need to stop. So stop it.

Chapter 5: Be the ‘gold standard.’ Do it, every single time. Be the person who always gets it done. No matter what. Do this, and ‘the world will beat a path to your door.’

‘Consistency is the foundation of success and the great business builder.’

Chapter 6: You don’t know until you try. Take some action. Pick the cat up by the tail (see what happens!). ‘Be daring, not stupid.’

‘Adopt the strategy of taking action, rather than hesitating, questioning and doubting.’

[11:30am] Chapter 7: ‘I want to get better every day because that’s where the fun is.’ WOW – big statement, and so true !

Do you say stuff like this? “We were busy today. We didn’t have time to improve ourselves.” If so, you have excucitis. Cure? Go read a book. Take a course. Calloway says about thesetype, ‘You’re toast my friend, and the end is near.’

If you’re not getting better… you’re getting…. worse !

Chapter 8: A la John Maxwell, Calloway says that ‘we see things as we are.’ True ! The trusting man sees people as trusting. The jealous man sees people as jealous. And on it goes…

Become a reverse paranoid – everyone is out to help you!

‘If I can learn to change the way I look at my world, then I can change my world.’ True dat Joe, true dat.

Chapter 9: Don’t claim to be something you’re not. Don’t over promise and under deliver. Bad equation!

Ari Gold famously says “manage your client’s [@#%&^@] expectations.”

[11:59 am] Chapter 10:  Give up, or go for it ? I’d take Go for it – every single time

Napoleon Hill says (and today I’m also reading his Your Magic Power to be Rich!) that winners never quit, and quitters never win.  There is a good lesson there !

Chapter 11: Ask ‘what if,’  ‘If not now, when,’ and (my favourite) ‘Why not?’  Why not indeed!  That’s actually the motto of U of Waterloo, in celebration of their 50th anniversary (congrats!) this year.

‘Constantly challenge assumptions and complacency.’

Chapter 12:  Don’t get too weird. Get back in the box sometimes. If you do something well, don’t start doing things outside of that ‘box.’  I think  you need to balance growth and mastery.

Chapter 13: ‘Expect to Connect. If you don’t like people they won’t like you back.’  Connecting is way to ‘make the love get bigger.’

Make real connections with your friends, clients and colleagues.  There is no ‘business relationship’ or ’social friends.’

Chapter 14: Go all in. To quote my big brother Jesse Skurecki, ‘go %$@# deep .’

Joe asks ’should you wait to find work you love before you go all in, or should you go all in so that you will begin to love the work you’ve got?’

Now that’s a funny shirt

Via Scoble

(photo of Dave McClure from Jeremiah Owyang’s Flickr stream)

PS -  What funny t shirts have you seen around? Snap a picture of one and I will feature it here !

Benjamin Bach Nominated as Kitchener Waterloo’s Favourite Realtor

Hot off the presses – I’ve been nominated as one of five Favourite Realtors in town, in the Kitchener Waterloo Record’s Reader’s Select awards. Voting starts in early August, and I’ll post all the details here when I have them.

Thanks so much for your support !

The best law firm in Kitchener Waterloo is…

Giesbrecht, Griffin, Funk and Irvine…

details to follow…

(it’s been a long day)

Live from New York, It’s JJLN

Live on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 114 from 8 AM until 9 AM (Eastern time) on Monday July 16th  Greg Balanko-Dickson, Phil Gerbyshak, EM Sky, Steve Sherlock and I will join host and best selling author Karen Salmansohn on the the Be Happy, Dammit! show for what is sure to be an amazing and enlightening 60 minutes of conversation.

Can’t catch it live? Don’t worry, check out the Be Happy Dammit archives, especially this great show with Keith Ferrazzi, and soon, you’ll see the JJLN show there too!  Also, for those of you who aren’t morning-inclined,  or already hard at work by 8am, there will be an encore presentation on channel 114 8pm on Monday.

For those of you without satelite radio (Hi mom and dad!) you can go to http://www.sirius.com and sign up for a free 3 day trial (with only an email address provided), and then find us on channel Lime, in the Family&Kids section.

We’ll be talking about all things learning, and no doubt learn a thing or two from Karen! Hope you can hear us soon!

Facebook – past the tipping point

Malcolm Gladwell writes that the tipping point is “that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It’s the boiling point. It’s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards.”

Facebook has passed the tipping point, and is now being used by a large majority of my clients, friends, and even a growing number of my ‘youth challenged’ (read: old and scared of computers) colleagues.

Last week I wrote at Joyful Jubilant Learning about how you can use facebook as a tool to generate revenue for your business (although I’m not generating as much as Facebook founder, and my fraternity brother Mark Zuckerberg is), and today I want to share at why I think it’s so good for that.

One of my newest friends of the ‘book, Robert Scoble, has a great thought on why Facebook has made the leap from a ‘personal’ tool to a ‘business’ one:   “Facebook is the better networking tool is BECAUSE it’s personal.”

He goes on to explain:  Facebook “told me the day [Danny] got accepted into Cornell, for instance. That stuff just comes up in regular conversation. But I don’t remember his wife’s name, Facebook shows that (they just got back from their honeymoon). I didn’t know his favorite drink. Mojitos. I got just the place to take him for great Mojitos when he comes out to visit. Facebook shows that. And I didn’t know anything about his social network. Facebook shows that too. Looking at the groups he’s added I can tell a lot more about him. He’s into going to free movie screenings in NYC, likes BMWs, reads the Economist, and lots more.”

I think facebook works because their really is no difference between ‘personal’ and ‘business.’  For example, you can’t be a jerk at the office and a nice guy at home.  Or honest at the office and a cheat at home – people are who they are, no matter where they are.

Some people are uncomfortable with this, and don’t share lots on their profile (which is what we call a Facebook homepage).  Some embrace it, and open up their lives to the people they know.  I think I have lots of info on my profile – what do you think?  What’s on your profile?

What I like most about Facebook these days is that it is a great platform for me.  While I love my blog, it is a passive site – the only people who come to the site are those that type in the web address, click a link, or have it bookmarked.

In contract, Facebook is active, through no work of my own.

Everytime I publish a blog post, put up a new picture, add to Vinnie Chase Bach’s dogbook profile (yes, our Samoyed is on dodbook), put a new book into my iRead, change my status (which right now reads: Benjamin Bach is going to be interviewed by Karen Salmansohn on Sirius Satelite ch#114 Monday 8-9am), EVERYONE in my friend list, several hundred people spanning from teenage cousins of mine to best selling authors, get a notice about it in their  news feed.  Everytime someone visits my profile, they will see all of this, and more – including great quotes from the only thing on TV worth watching, Entourage.

It’s like having your own channel on the internet, and everytime a new show comes up, a message is sent out to everyone who has me as a friend.

Am I on your friend list?  If I’m not, add me here!  You’ll be able to see all the interesting people who are on my friend’s list, and find out about all the awesome things going on, right as they happen.

Benjamin Bach is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo.  Benjamin has been facebooking since 2004, and would love to help you use it as a tool in your life too!

If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio, have any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property in the Waterloo Region, or are looking for a tip on a great book to read, please email Benjamin at (benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com) or call him at 519 570 4447.

Vote for Kitchener Waterloo’s top Real Estate Office and top Realtor!

Can you help me?  It will just take a minute, and it would really mean a lot to me !
The Record, Kitchener-Waterloo’s local newspaper, has a survey at their website looking for your favourite Real Estate Company and favourite Realtor. I’d really appreciate it if you could vote (for me)! The deadline is Saturday, July 7th.

Just go to http://www.therecord.com , click on Readers Select Awards at top of page (or just click this link)

1) Fill out the first box which is your info;
2) Scroll down to Favourite Business – Real Estate Agency….. and fill in …. Keller Williams
3) Scroll down to Favourite People – Real Estate Agent….and fill in Benjamin Bach
4) Scroll down to bottom of page and click Submit Nominations

Thanks!

Benjamin Bach is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo.  Benjamin wakes up each morning excited to fulfil his mission of building wealth for great lives through comprehensive Real Estate investment planning, and helping people achieve success.

If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio, have any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property in the Waterloo Region, or are looking for a tip on a great book to read, please email Benjamin at (benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com) or call him at 519 570 4447.

Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Market Still Red Hot

I know everyone is waiting for June stats to see if the market can keep up with itself, so without further adieu I present to you part of the official June 2007 media release issued by the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Board

KITCHENER WATERLOO HOME SALES UP MORE THAN 14 PERCENT THIS YEAR

KITCHENER, ONTARIO – Residential real estate sales continued their record pace in June, leading to a year-to-date increase of 14.6 percent.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board has recorded a total of 3,751 sales of homes in Kitchener-Waterloo and area through the Multiple Listing Service® to the end of June, compared with 3,273 sales for the same period one year ago.

This strong sales performance translates into more than $900 million in residential properties sold during the first six months of 2007, a 20.5 percent increase.

Homes selling for $400,000 to $500,000 saw the most significant jump in activity during the first half of the year, increasing 61 percent to 161 sales. Strong sales were recorded across virtually all price ranges above $200,000, most increasing more than 25. The single exception was homes selling for more than $1 million; there were only two such properties sold to the end of June, down from five sales during the same period one year ago.

While sales remained on a record-setting trajectory throughout the first half of the year, the average sale price remained relatively stable, increasing just 5.2 percent to $246,428. The average price of a single family detached home sold between January and June was $280,690, a 4.3 percent increase.

The median sale price of all residential properties also increased 5.1 percent to the end of June, to $227,000. Single family detached homes increased an average of 4.7 percent to $254,472.
According to the president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board, first half results point to strong consumer demand driven in large part by the inherent value of residential real estate ownership in the Region.

In June alone, there were 752 home sales, the third consecutive month that sales surpassed the 700 mark. June represents the second highest month in the history of the Board, exceeded only by last month’s 779 home sales.

The pace of sales is exerting pressure on the supply of homes for sale in Kitchener-Waterloo and area. Active listings decreased 9.3 percent on a year-over-year basis. However, to the end of June, the number of listings processed increased 5.5 percent relative to the same period in 2006.

There have been a total of 5,678 new residential listings processed during the first six months of the year.

While sales continue at a record pace, some key market indicators remain remarkably stable, according to the president of the Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board:

• the time between a home being listed and its sale has remained at 49 days, despite strong consumer demand; and,
• the sale price relative to the list price has also remained consistent despite exceptionally strong sales.

More commentary on the market to follow…

Benjamin Bach is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo. Benjamin loves helping people learn about the local Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate market and make smart decisions based on what they have learnt. Benjamin wakes up each morning excited to fulfil his mission of building wealth for great lives through comprehensive Real Estate investment planning, and helping people achieve success.

If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio, have any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property in the Waterloo Region, or are looking for a tip on a great book to read, please email Benjamin at (benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com) or call him at 519 570 4447.

Trifecta of Wisdom

That Guy with the Nametag, Scott Ginsberg has some great advice, all in threes:

8. Boutiques, not mega-marts.

16. Discipline, not luck.

34. Finest, not first.

75. Unique, not different.

As always, Scott includes a call to action:

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What are your best three words of advice?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
Share them here!

Scott, they’re here:

Ask to receive
Build it Big
Can, not can’t
Deserve, not need
Dream, only big
Excellent, not average
Failure is fertilizer
Give, don’t take
Help, not hinder
I love you
Invest in Waterloo
Just be great
Keep it simple
Learn, to teach
Lift not lean
Lots not few
Mastery, not adequacy
Now, not then
Only the best
Pay in advance
Quality commands premiums
Read every day
Sing high notes
Teach to help
Understand people better
Value overcomes objections
Will, not should
Wealth, not stuff
Xerox training rules
You can shine
Zeniths are lovely

How’s that Scott ?