by Macrealty Marketing Team | Aug 3, 2017 | In The News
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With less than 2,000 active listings, Victoria’s real estate market remains firmly weighted in favour of the seller, according to data released Tuesday by the Victoria Real Estate Board.
There were 1,921 active listings at the end of last month, a drop from the 2,161 on the market in July 2016, which led to sellers getting excellent prices for their homes.
The median sale price of a single-family home in the region was $759,000 last month, a 14.3 per cent increase from the $664,000 recorded in July last year.
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by Macrealty Marketing Team | Jul 20, 2017 | Company
One year ago new amendments to B.C.’s Strata Property Act came into effect. The new rules made it easier to cancel or “wind up” a strata corporation by reducing the voting threshold from unanimous approval of all owners to 80% approval. The original requirement for unanimous approval made most wind ups all but impossible since, for example, a single owner in a 100 unit strata building could hold up the whole process even though 99% of the owners were in favour of a wind up.
As a result, the owners of more and more older strata buildings are voting for a wind up. There are a number of reasons to do this:
- Many older strata buildings are in bad condition and require extensive and very expensive repairs which owners do not want to pay for;
- Many older strata buildings were built at a time when densities were lower (fewer units permitted on the building lots). A developer purchasing such lots can build more units now;
- Consequently, many older strata buildings are in prime locations coveted by developers who are prepared to pay owners top dollar to sell their property.
However, winding up a strata corporation is a very complicated, time-consuming legal process requiring input from experienced commercial real estate brokers and lawyers. At Macdonald Commercial we have a team of specialist brokers who work with strata corporations on wind-ups.
Some key points to consider if you are an owner of a strata corporation and considering a wind up:
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by Macrealty Marketing Team | Jul 17, 2017 | In The News
Million-dollar communities have more to offer than just price appreciation.
In April MoneySense.ca produced their annual list of Where to Buy South of the Fraser River neighbourhoods. We’ve rounded up homes for sale in each of these Where to Buy neighbourhoods to make it easy for you to find your next home.
The top 15 South Fraser neighbourhoods for Buyers, according to MoneySense are:
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To view all active listings currently for sale in one of these areas simply click the neighbourhood links above or call our head office at 1-877-278-3888 to be matched to an expert real estate agent in the area of your choosing.
Read the rest of the MoneySense article here.
by Macrealty Marketing Team | May 17, 2017 | In The News
Yes, good value real estate is possible in Vancouver.
In April 2017, in their annual Where to Buy Now coverage MoneySense.ca selected their top Greater Vancouver neighbourhoods to buy real estate to see the best return on investment.
What’s a buyer to do? The best way is to buy based on solid fundamentals. In real estate this means finding good-value neighbourhoods that offer a good chance of continued momentum in the future. That’s not easy in a hot market, but this year’s Where to Buy Vancouver list shows it is possible. Read the rest of the article here.
We’ve rounded up homes for sale in each of these Where to Buy neighbourhoods to make it easy for you.
The top 25 Greater Vancouver neighbourhoods for Buyers, according to MoneySense are:
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To view all active listings currently for sale in one of these areas simply click the neighbourhood links above or call our head office at 1-877-278-3888 to be matched to an expert real estate agent in the area of your choosing.
by Macrealty Marketing Team | Mar 24, 2017 | Company, In The News
Vision and hard work – that sums up how Lynn Hsu grew a real estate company from one office to 20 offices and 1,000-plus employees, making it Western Canada’s largest full-service brokerage firm
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As seen in… Profiles of Excellence 2017
Originally from Taiwan, Hsu immigrated to Canada in the late 1970s – alone, with no family or friends, no job prospects and speaking little English. Today, she has turned Macdonald Realty into Western Canada’s largest full-service brokerage firm.
From the moment Hsu purchased that single boutique residential firm, she had a vision.
“The real estate industry has two distinct businesses – one creation, the other servicing. On the servicing side, almost all the companies in BC were a single-purpose company, i.e. residential or commercial brokerage, property management or project marketing firms,” says Hsu. “I wanted to create a company that could provide our clients all-encompassing real estate solutions under one roof –from guiding a home buyer through the biggest investment of their lives, helping an investor manage and add value to their properties, to assembling ground intelligence to assist developers to create the right products for the marketplace.”
Today, the company’s interests encompass residential sales, commercial sales and leasing, property management, strata management, development and project management, project marketing and mortgage brokering and lending. It now includes the Macdonald Commercial and Macdonald Realty Platinum Project Marketing divisions.
Dan Scarrow, vice-president, says it’s Hsu’s ability to hire the right people that also helped propel her to the top of the industry. “Lynn has always understood how important it is to empower employees. She is a leader who inspires people through a shared vision and she has created an environment where people feel valued and fulfilled,” says Scarrow. “Her strongest point is that she has never wavered from her commitment to serve and protect our customers.”
Hsu believes that a business model based on a fundamental principle of upholding the highest standard of excellence, coupled with a strong conviction that every problem has a creative solution, would allow Macdonald Realty to grow organically. “When you have the belief and knowledge that you are doing your best to adhere to your core values, problems, rather than deflating you, energize you to action,” adds Hsu.
Hsu went on to explain: “Professionalism and integrity mean a great deal to me and my entire team. They are our company’s core values.”
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