Davelle Morrison

Guest Speaker: Andrew Sorbara, Co-Founder, Lanescape • What Lanescape is and how it started • Would Laneway housing improve the rental supply in Toronto? • What stopped Toronto from having more laneway housing in the past • Are there other cities with laneway housing? • Pushback from homeowners who feel their neighbourhood would become too crowded • The cost for a home owner to change a garage into a laneway house and what would be involved in the conversion •How many Laneway houses could we have in the city if they were allowed? • The steps of getting the City of Toronto to allow laneway housing • Has Andrew had any support from council on this? • Andrews results from the survey about laneway housing • What other roadblocks are there to making laneway housing possible?

Join Tracey Cook, Executive Director, Municipal Licensing & Standards, City of Toronto discuss the city's plans for the short-term rental market • What the City of Toronto will be doing with respect to Airbnb • Why Tracey and her team felt it was necessary to look at the impact of short-term rentals in the city • The feedback process from the various stakeholders • Are the hotels in losing out on revenue because of AirBNB and other short-term rental providers? • How much home owners are making from having their place on AirBNB • Are AirBNB rentals taking away units from an already low rental pool in Toronto? • Will the City end up taxing the end user or create some kind of short term rental license for home owners? • The ideas that Tracey has learned from other cities around the world dealing with AirBNB • When will the City of Toronto decide what it wants to do? • How can listeners have their say and be a part of the City’s AirBNB consultation process?

Join me as I speak with Rob Palm, Resort Marketing & Sales Specialist with the Whistler Real Estate. • What is compelling about Whistler and why should people purchase there? • The lifestyle in Whistler • Whistler's landscape for real estate investors • Landscape for downsizers and people looking for a vacation property • How is the vacation rental market there? Do people use AirBNB? • The projects in Whistler that Rob likes • Price ranges in real estate • The demographic of people you would generally find in Whistler • The upcoming improvements • The areas for better buys and places with high demand

Guest Speaker: Patrick Egan, Broker, Royal Lepage Locations North in Collingwood, Ontario. • Where is Collingwood? • What is compelling about the area and why Patrick thinks that people should purchase in Collingwood • Is Collingwood good for real estate? • Advice for downsizers and people looking for a vacation property • How is the vacation rental market there? Do people use AirBNB? • Quarter-share rentals in the village • The price ranges in Collingwood & Thornbury • Patrick's take on the lifestyle in the area • The general demographic of people in Collingwood • The upcoming improvements • The areas for better buys or places where there will be a lot demand

Guest Speaker: Murtaza Haider Associate Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University in Toronto , Director of consulting firm, Regionomics Inc. and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. His Insights: • What the Toronto market can learn from other cities around the world with respect to housing • Are our city officials are doing enough to increase the housing supply through permits and innovative thinking like condos in houses & laneway housing? • Is the city doing enough to ensure our infrastructure can keep up with the pace of condo development in the 416 with respect to transit & sewers? • Murtaza's advice for first-time home buyers • Purchasing now before prices get too high vs. waiting for reprieve in the market • How that will ease the housing supply in Toronto • Should developers be able to build taller buildings in order to meet the housing demands we face in Toronto? • What city officials should be doing to build better transit for people making decisions based on

Guest Speaker: Daniel Toma, Chartered Accountant • Write-offs for people with basement apartment or another suite in their home they rent out • What percentage of their home expenses can they write-off and how is that determined? • Write-offs for real estate investors that own 1 or more property • What is depreciation and how does it work when you sell your property? • Depreciation of principal residence if it includes a rental component • Are there any differences if someone is renting their place out on AirBNB? • How long do you need to live in your home for it to be considered a principal residence? • How HST works for purchase of a new condo when you are planning to live there vs an investor • How HST works if you are purchasing a home built by a builder • Should an investor form a corporation to purchase real estate? What are the advantages or disadvantages of it? • Do investors need separate bank accounts for each property? • Should parents consider buying a rental property in their child’s name?

Michelle Binette, Interior Decorator, guides us through the 8 finishing touches you need to finish off your home. • Do you really need the right colour, patterns, textures or even wallpaper for your home? • Does the amount of light you have in your home matter? • Is black really back?

Josh Sherman, real estate report from online real estate portal BuzzBuzzHome gives us his market insights. How do you come up with your story ideas? Do you find it easy to pull information from your sources? Do you ever find inconsistencies with the information you’re receiving from them? Do you think a foreign buyer tax is a possibility and what your sources saying? What other impacts do you think this may have in the market? What percentage of the market do you think represents foreign buyers? Have you seen any effects on the Toronto market from the foreign buyer tax in BC? Do you think a Toronto real estate correction is coming soon? Do you think other markets would be impacted by a correction in the Toronto market? I’ve noticed over the years that the major print publications like The Globe, Macleans etc spend a lot of time generating negative headlines about the real estate market. What are your thoughts about that? Is it fear mongering? What do you think is the most affordable area across Canada? How mu

Chris Kiely, Associate Broker, Breckles Insurance highlights the importance of having insurance whether you are a home or condo owner, renter or landlord.

Alan Carson, Owner and President of Carson Dunlop Home Inspection discusses some of the important things you need to know about home inspection. Who is Carson Dunlop and how long have they been around? What does a home inspection do? Why should someone consider getting a home inspection? Should a buyer have their own home inspection or is it okay if the sellers have one? What are the worst things that a homeowner can find on an inspection? How can you tell if there has been moisture in the home? How can you tell if there is knob and tube wiring and what’s so wrong with it? How can you tell if there are issues with the foundation? Would you ever buy a house without a home inspection?

Alan Carson, Owner and President of Carson Dunlop Home Inspection discusses the importance of home inspections for condos. Why should you consider getting a home inspection for a condo? What kind of systems exist in a condo that need inspection? What is kitec plumbing? How can an inspector find kitec plumbing?

Lucie Brand, co-owner of Toronto Condo Staging and Design discusses why it is important to stage a property before putting it on the market. Why should you stage a house or condo? What paint colours can make the biggest difference in a sale? What paint colours can turn buyers off? How much of a difference can staging make to the actual sale price? Do buyers really need to see staging? What are some of the biggest faux pas that you see sellers making with their decorating?

Connie Parsons, owner and a Financial Planner at Portfolio Clinic gives us some tips and insights into the financial planning world. What does a financial planner do? Why should people do up a will? How many people do not have a will? How often should someone update their will? Why would somebody need disability insurance? What is the difference between having mortgage insurance than life insurance? Are mortgage insurance is essentially just to make sure that the mortgage gets paid off if you die? How can you help someone save for a down payment on a home if they are wanting to get into the market? What is a Tax Free Savings Account? How can a financial planner help people budget their money more effectively?

Davelle Morrison, Sales Representative at Bosley Real Estate discusses some of the things that buyers need to know before buying a condo. How is location important in your decision to buy a condo? Which is better older condos or newer condos? What are the positive and negatives of both of both buildings? How does the size of the condo play a factor in determining whether you pay a high or a low maintenance fee? Why should you create a wish list of what your priorities are when you are buying a condo? Are fixer upper a really great way to get value for your money in the condo market? What are the positive and negative aspects of buying a fixer upper condo? What is a conditional purchase? What is a Status Certificate? Why is it important to go see the parking spot a head of time? Why is it important to buy a unit in building where the percentage of renters are below 30%? Why is it important to consider the demographic of the building when you choose to buy a unit? How is the price fluctuation for a condo on

Michelle Senayah, Co-Founder and Director at The Laneway Project walks us through some of the ways laneways could be utilized. What technically is a laneway? What city rules or by laws do you need established for the laneway projects? What are some of the things that could be done in the laneway? When it comes to doing something like a murals, how do you determine what kind of artwork suits the community and all the neighbours for that particular laneway? Who foots the bill for some of these special projects? What kinds of events would have been done in the past? What is done in the greening front? How did The Laneway Project get started? Where did that come from? How many people are working at The Laneway Project? How has the support been in the city? Has other cities been utilizing their laneways? Are their considered to be high profile laneways in Toronto? Is there an ultimate laneway you would really love to do a big project with? Do you have a couple of ideas that you have in regards to the lanew

Shaun Hildebrand, Senior Vice President of Urban Nation walks us through some of the trends in the condo market. What does Urban Nation do? What has been the trend in the market over the years in terms of the size of the condos? What kind of price points are the larger units coming in at? Why are more developers going with rental buildings now? Why it is not a big concern that there are so many condo building going up in a particular area? Why we are not over building condos? Why the volume of completions have gone down this year? Why will investors not be impacted at all by the number of purpose built rental buildings that are coming up? In terms of the preconstruction condos, what are the percentage in the preconstruction market who are end users, foreign investors and local Canadian investors?

Rachael Stafford, Owner of Order in the House, provides us tips and advice on getting organized. What does Order in the House do? What services does Order in the House provide? How does Order in the House help home owners unpack, when they have listed their property or settling in? What are some of the things that some people have too much off? Or don’t want to let go off? What are some of the things people in different age groups struggle to let go off? What was the longest that has taken Order in the House to pack somebody up? What was the size of the property that Order in the House had to work with? What are the rules of thumb of things people should get rid of and not have in their home? What are the seasonality to clutter? What are some of the age groups that use Order in the House services? Who were some of Order in the House’s difficult clients? What are some tips for unpacking a kitchen, living room and bedroom?

Karen Shinn, Cofounder of Downsizing Diva walks us through the services that are available to seniors looking to downsize. What services does Downsizing Diva provide? How is Downsizing Diva different from a traditional moving company? What are some of the age groups that have used Downsizing Diva services? How is an objective viewpoint important when deciding which items to take with you and leave behind? How does a floor plan assist you in deciding which furniture’s to take with you? If thinking of downsizing, why is it important to make the move sooner rather than later? How does residences like condos, senior apartments and retirement residences have a higher appeal for people with reducing mobility? What signs should you be aware of for you to seriously consider downsizing? Why is social isolations common in seniors who lost a spouse? Why is there an increase in the phone calls for downsizing in September, October or before winter? How does neighbourhoods play a factor in choosing to downsize? How have

Joe Sammut, Mortgage Broker at Mortgage Architect walks us through some of the changes the new mortgage rules passed by the Bank of Canada will bring, and how it will affect homebuyers with 20% down. What is the Bank of Canada benchmark rate? What is the purpose of this new mortgage rule? What is the new qualification rate? What was the old qualification rate? What is the element of the stress test that has to do with debt servicing or percentage of debt servicing? What is a TDS ratio? What is the credit score you need to qualify for a bank mortgage? What is in the qualifying ratios of a GDS of 35%? Why are there now more competition in the condo market? Which segment of the population will be affected by the new mortgage rule? What is the default rates for mortgages? Who are some of the lenders that have bulk insured mortgage portfolios? How are people with more than 30% down affected by new mortgage rule? Why homeowners who wish to refinance the home to take equity out are affected under the new mortgage

Michelle Binette, Interior Designer talks about the top five design mistakes people make in their home when it comes to decorating their space. What are the top five design crimes common in every home? What are the two main guidelines you could keep in your back pocket when you are hanging your art? Why should you hang an art 8-10 inches above a furniture that is more than 30 inches? How would extending the rod 3-6 inches on either sides of the window frames could make your room look bigger? How could creating a floor plan make your decision process easier about buying the right size furniture’s? How could living in a house for a while aide you in buying the appropriate furniture’s? What is the mindset behind most people’s decision to buy a whole furniture set? How could blending different textures, elements, scales and proportions make you feel like living in a home put together by a designer? How could having a statement piece in your home personalize your space and draw people in? Why should you avoid a