- Joined
- Sep 25, 2007
- Messages
- 201
Hi all,
An article from today`s edition of The Edmonton Journal. Excerpts:
Buying vacation properties essentially has the same caveats as investing in any real estate in Canada: Buy something you like in an area you like at a price you can afford.
But investing in that sun-splashed, American dream condo will almost certainly have more risks than buying in Canada.
Pat McKeough, portfolio manager and publisher of investor newsletters, including The Successful Investor, recently warned clients about the possible pitfalls of buying a U.S. property:
- Beware of unexpected costs.
- Take a skeptical view of U.S. bargains.
- How long do you plan to spend at your new home?
- Any rental income you hope to generate in part depends on the weather.
- If you buy in a new condo development you could face the risk of your fees increasing without warning, and some new developments can go out of business before your unit is even built.
For our part, we are not buying because our condo here in Waikiki would stretch our modest resources to a point where we might become "house poor." But we are intrigued when we see condos for sale here at $50,000 and less. Intrigued, yes, but skeptical.
Don Campbell has talked about this issue often - invest in Canada and then rent your dream condo for a week, a month or whatever.
A few weeks ago an investigative reporter for a local paper (The Vancouver Sun) had a great article about exempt market dealers (all he does is investigate and report on the murky goings on in the often seedy world of publicly traded companies). I sent him an e-mail asking what process he follows to research companies and individuals (when the companies aren`t listed on an exchange). At the end of his response he said:
The problem is, most unsophisticated investors don`t know how to go through the process, or don`t want to. They fall for the sales pitch and it doesn`t matter what you tell them, they are going to invest.
I think the same holds true for US investment and vacation properties. Either people won`t do their due diligence or they will ignore that which doesn`t agree with what they want to hear. And they will complain later if and when it goes badly. Of course, if your niche is US properties or you really do proper due diligence it is a different story.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/fp...8480/story.html
Keith
An article from today`s edition of The Edmonton Journal. Excerpts:
Buying vacation properties essentially has the same caveats as investing in any real estate in Canada: Buy something you like in an area you like at a price you can afford.
But investing in that sun-splashed, American dream condo will almost certainly have more risks than buying in Canada.
Pat McKeough, portfolio manager and publisher of investor newsletters, including The Successful Investor, recently warned clients about the possible pitfalls of buying a U.S. property:
- Beware of unexpected costs.
- Take a skeptical view of U.S. bargains.
- How long do you plan to spend at your new home?
- Any rental income you hope to generate in part depends on the weather.
- If you buy in a new condo development you could face the risk of your fees increasing without warning, and some new developments can go out of business before your unit is even built.
For our part, we are not buying because our condo here in Waikiki would stretch our modest resources to a point where we might become "house poor." But we are intrigued when we see condos for sale here at $50,000 and less. Intrigued, yes, but skeptical.
Don Campbell has talked about this issue often - invest in Canada and then rent your dream condo for a week, a month or whatever.
A few weeks ago an investigative reporter for a local paper (The Vancouver Sun) had a great article about exempt market dealers (all he does is investigate and report on the murky goings on in the often seedy world of publicly traded companies). I sent him an e-mail asking what process he follows to research companies and individuals (when the companies aren`t listed on an exchange). At the end of his response he said:
The problem is, most unsophisticated investors don`t know how to go through the process, or don`t want to. They fall for the sales pitch and it doesn`t matter what you tell them, they are going to invest.
I think the same holds true for US investment and vacation properties. Either people won`t do their due diligence or they will ignore that which doesn`t agree with what they want to hear. And they will complain later if and when it goes badly. Of course, if your niche is US properties or you really do proper due diligence it is a different story.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/fp...8480/story.html
Keith
