Calculating CCA on an Income Producing Property

A realtor acquires for his buyer client an income producing property for $3,875,000 with associated costs of acquisition being $78,500. The realtor negotiated for the purchaser, an allocation of 75/25 for building and improvements to land in the Agreement of purchase and sale (APS- OREA form 500). The property is a class 1 asset and the half year rule applies.

The taxable real estate income from the property is $185,000 per year for the next three years. Prepare a CCA schedule showing the CCA Taken and UCC for each year along with the potential recapture of CCA in the event the property is sold in the beginning of the fourth year – as the buying client wants to apply CCA and reduce their tax liability.

Step 1:  Total the Acquisition Cost of the Property ($3,875,000 + $78,500)= $ 3,953,500

Step 2: Apply the allocation [ 75 / 25 ] to the above total ; ($3,953,500 x .75) = $2,965,125

Step 3: The $ 2,965,125 is the un-depreciated capital cost [UCC] in period zero, at the start.

Step 4 :    The  CCA Taken Table construction starts with the end of first year (EOY1) by applying the half year rule [ so we take only half of the marginal rate of 4% for this asset] and then followed by the full rate for each following year. Each time we take the CCA the UCC gets reduced by that amount and it becomes our resulting UCC for that end of year period ;

CCA Taken                 UCC

EOY1    $ 59,302.50               $ 2,905,822.50

(2%)

EOY2    $ 116,232.90              $ 2,789,589.60

(4%)

EOY3   $ 111,583.58       $ 2,678,006.02

(4%)

Total CCA taken ;   $ 287,118.98            or  simply take $ 2,965,125 less last UCC above:

CCA Taken over the 3 year period, could well be the Recapture Amount upon Sale of the property at the beginning of year four, if property sold for above the adjusted cost base.

Therefore the purchaser here could conceivable reduce their taxable income by the amount of the CCA taken each year, some refer to this as tax free cash flow. Two great concepts cash flow and the idea of making it free of taxes in the short term.

A great economist once said only the short term is important, because in the long term we are all dead.

CCA is an optional exercise available to tax payers/ owners of income producing real estate.

Consult your tax advisor before completing an investment in real estate as there are many tax consequences to owning, managing, buying and selling investment real estate.

It is always a great idea to contact the appropriate experts before concluding an capital intensive investment in real estate.

The above information is meant as an educational exercise, it is always best to get good professional advice from the appropriate expert before proceeding in the real world as every investor’s circumstances are unique and personal and therefore consequences will vary.

Guide yourself accordingly…

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REITs and Inspirational Tax Policies

Everything is on the Table in Tax Time Review…

 REITs are an attractive way to look at real estate and to derive your cash flow from real estate – a big driver for the vast majority of investors with REITs is the tax strategy or rather the exemption they currently enjoy. They give you the shareholder 90% of their profits and you pay the taxes – without this tax burden, their yields look larger relative to other publicly listed corporations who distribute after tax monies to the shareholder and then you pay taxes again although at a lower marginal rate.

A regular and timely review of the tax code, citizen’s and investor’s charter of rights and the spirit and philosophy of taxation is a good thing. Change for the sake of change or simply to appear to have blocked an exemption from income taxes could well create some very real unintended consequences which would really hurt the real estate industry and take away any incentive investors currently have to put money into REITs. This would hurt all and benefit none.

“Since they were established in 1960, REITs haven’t had to pay corporate taxes on their income as long as at least 90% of their taxable income is paid as dividends. The tax savings from this exemption, which have allowed them to pay more in dividends, has been one of their main selling points.

Industry officials and analysts say it is unlikely that REITs will lose their tax exemption because it doesn’t result in a major loss of revenue to the Treasury. They point out that REIT dividends are taxed at a higher rate than other corporate dividends, 39.6% versus 20%.

REITs paid $29 billion in dividends to shareholders in 2012, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. If the 195 REITs lost the tax exemption and dividends were taxed at the same lower rate as other corporations, the amount gained would largely be offset by the amount lost from the lower tax rate on dividends, industry officials say.

Industry officials also note that the first REITs were established to give individuals an easy way to invest in income-producing real estate. If they lost their tax exemption, they would likely pay lower dividends and act more like other companies. “REITs are a creation of the tax code, so it’s no surprise that all parts of the tax code would subject to a review,” said Tony Edwards, general counsel of Nareit.” (Wall Street Journal, A.D.Pruitt April 2013)

More private REITs should be encouraged in Canada, with the appropriate policies, small investors can come together uniting their dollars and skills to build better communities.

To move the economy, government should consider allowing people to create and build new more efficient structures – using new technology and greener building approaches. This is expensive and therefore there should be a different approach to the taxation in this area. More levels and more marginal rates should be considered and  added to the code to differentiate different activities. Yes it may complicate things a bit more, but using a good accountant with a degree of competence in tax and tax strategy will also help your investments and businesses.

Increase the percentages for depreciation (CCA), altering and allowing more capital gains on newer projects built say after 2013/14 would also inspire the creative juices of the small investor – business category [ say under the ten million dollar capital range].

The infrastructure spending which is required for any new project should spread the burden over a longer amortization and this should be picked up by provincial and local government (they should control it, own it and yes pay for it).

New policies should be introduced that inspire and motivate, not policies that penalize spending money for the betterment of our communities and employment of our citizens.

These policies should also inspire the upgrading of our current inventory of buildings with upgrades of electrical systems, heating systems, windows and doors, etc… in commercial buildings. This could even be funded with  borrowed  money  from local government with a modest interest rate and yes with a lien on the  property until paid off, conveniently added to your local property tax bill (because the city is so efficient in this area of taxing and billing).

These improvements to the property should not be immediately assessed and taxed via MPAC, there should be an exemption say for a period of five years.

These upgrades should target Canadian made products so that our manufacturing sector gets a helping hand along the way again a part of the exemption from the improvement tax.

There are many things we could do better and work from a vantage point of motivating, inspiring and incentivizing our small business sector and investors to succeed and hire just one more person to learn the craft of the businesses in the community – keeping it local.

Focusing on the positive, helps all succeed.

Envoy Capitol Realty Inc., Brokerage would like to help you get inspired with real estate, developments , investing and managing it all. We can help you start and build your own real estate portfolio and set up your  management systems. Contact us for an initial meeting to review and discuss your real estate goals.

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Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Rules

Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

Caution you have a duty to help protect the nation from the criminal acts

of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and as a licensed real estate

practitioner in the province of Ontario in Canada, we must go through a number

of steps and verification and documentation.

We do not want criminals buying here in Canada, and especially with

their Large Cash deposits (all cash offers)

realtors must report them to the authorities when and if discovered.

There are two points above, point one deals with FINTRAC and the second deals

with Large Cash Transactions.

Both must be reported through your brokerages compliance officer who will

prepare the appropriate paperwork and forward to the Federal government

authorities.

Realtors are trained and understand the guidelines to follow to conclude a

successful transaction which are subject to routine government audits to

determine compliance. There is a lot of paper work in real estate today and

your clients need to understand this and make sure everything is completed

accurately. Photocopies of identifications presented should be placed in your file

for the deal, all this needs to be done at the initial meeting(s) with the client(s)

and certainly prior to any offer being presented.

Every real estate transaction ( subject to a few exceptions) requires a “Receipt of

Funds” to be completed Form 635 OREA.

If a large cash transaction (over $10,000) is involved and an appropriate record

is prepared … ( this is one of the exceptions of receipt of funds) … However

a Large Cash Transaction Report is required when funds received exceed

$10,000. More details are available and the report on the FINTRAC website.

Large cash transactions must be reported within 15 days of the cash being

offered by the client or potential client.

The better brokerage policy would be to accept No Cash – which is a problem on many levels, from security and heightened responsibility – keep a good paper trail as required and complete a Receipt of Funds report.

Back to the initial discussion of money laundering  and terrorist financing, so every real estate brokerage must have a compliance officer.

The brokerage must provide on going training, have policies and make them routinely known to their sales force.

Suspicious Transactions, Large Cash Transactions (as above) must be reported.

Terrorist Property ; “Every real estate brokerage must report property in their possession or control that is owned or controlled by ( or on behalf of ) a terrorist organization. A list of known terrorist groups and individuals is available on the FINTRAC website.” (OREA course 3 general real estate, p.284)

Verification ;  “ Every brokerage must verify that the names of their clients are NOT on the Canadian or United Nations list of known terrorists or terrorist organizations.” ( OREA course 3 general real estate, p.284)

“The new requirements concerning identification verification and receipt of funds were effective June 23, 2008.”

You could check the Department of Justice website :

 http:// laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2001-360/page-6.html#h-12 ,

“Regulations Implementing United Nations Resolutions on the Suppression of Terrorism” SOR/2001-360 as pf October 17,2012…

Thank God there are many realtors out there keeping the Watch against terrorist real estate and financial activities. O Canada, We stand on guard for thy.

In the event real estate brokerages fall short of the requirements of FINTRAC there could be thousands of dollars of fines and penalties levied.

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Investing Your Money In Real Estate to Make Money

Earlier today I had a meeting with an older gentlemen

investor who I usually have a telephone conversation with, however today was a coffee meeting.

“Anything new out there that’s interesting.

Anything worth investing in, he asked?”

“Well nothing screaming Buy Me,” I said.

“However I was driving down a street in the east end yesterday which seems under-appreciated

and some properties appeared to be available. They were in an industrial area with a real mixed

bag of uses and the buildings were of all sizes, shapes and vintages. But the location was

good and I saw potential.”

“What are the sizes of the buildings and the lands/lots they are situated upon?

What are they asking for them?” he asked

Let me quickly check my computer and see I replied.

This property is situated upon about an acre and has a building of approximately 20,500 square feet.

The building is about 40 to 50 years old and has a sixteen feet clear floor to ceiling (joists).

“What are they asking?”

“They want about $2 million, about $100 per square foot” – I said.

“Will they take  $1,250,000, he offers within seconds. It’s worth that to me and no more.”

The comparable sales are averaging approximately $85 per square foot, which would

give it a rough value (subject to a lot of things which we would discover only after a good

due diligence and an honest discussion with the current owner of the property via the

listing brokerage I commented. That would give it a value in the range of say ; $1,742,500.

“That’s too much, I would not be interested in it at that number.”

Well let me see, the building is 20,500 sf at a market rent of say $5 net psf that would give an

income of $102,500 at a 100% occupancy with say a 5% adjustment for vacancy and credit losses.

We arrive at $97,375 net to the landlord.

Playing a quick what if game of a range of cap rates, say from 8% to 4%;

the value range estimates based on a direct capitalization would be as follows;

Net income / cap rate = Value (estimate)

$97,375 / 8% = $ 1,217,188

$97,375 / 7% = $ 1,391,071

$97,375 / 6% = $ 1,622,917

$97,375 / 5% = $ 1,947,500

$97,375 / 4% = $ 2,434,375

This is a simple direct capitalization based upon one year’s potential revenues which

results in a value range estimate for this property.

The investor needs to worry about his cost of capital and factoring in the closing costs

(legal fees, land transfer taxes, reports, appraisals, survey, lender’s fees, etc).

The investor also needs to factor in RISK, as a safety margin over his cost of capital.

Is it really worthwhile doing this exercise of purchasing for the anticipated future profits — cash flows.

Is there enough here to motivate him or  keep him motivated?

The investor has to worry about how long it will take him to lease the property out and the challenges

of working with a tenant over the term of the lease.

For my real estate investor today, this was not an opportunity that was priced right for the level of risk

and the return expectations. It’s always a good exercise to know your investor(s), know their

investment criteria before you start going to far down the road and invest volumes of time and

energy with little results but experience.

What are your thoughts?

Share with us your comments and experiences we would love to know and grow with you.

Envoy Capitol Realty Inc.,Brokerage    Toronto  / Canada

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Starting Your Real Estate Investing Game…

As you consider investing in real estate, you may want to prepare

an interesting exercise for you may be the simple and complex game of Monopoly.

It presents its challenges and opportunities with every roll of the dice – a purchase

opportunity, a collection of rental income or a tax penalty, landing in jail or

community chest where you must pay all other players a certain sum (sounds like a

zoning violation, or a re-zoning application, a development agreement).

The game is fun and rewarding as a family exercise providing both entertainment

and understanding strategy.

In reality you need to be cautious when entering the real estate arena, using a

professional who is licensed and insured will help mitigate your risk(s).

However there are things to worry about and plan for, as you consider your

real estate investment(s). You should discuss these with your real estate professional,

How will you deal with financial leverage and what debt to equity ratio will you be using?

What about liquidity, does it concern you that it may take a long time to get to

your money invested in the property?

Do you have extra money to handle months when cashflow may be short?

Will you buy and put all your money on one property?

Are you concerned about the lack of diversification – again a defensive

investment strategy to help protect you and your money.

What about market cycles, market timing – are you concerned ?

Cyclicality of investments and the economy vis-a-vis the country you are in and the

demographics in the locations being considered for the investment opportunity.

Have you determined your investment time horizon?

When will you get out of the investment, your exit plan?

Exit strategy, getting out with your money and the desired return?

Have you determine this?

How will you hold this investment opportunity? Is there a structure set up?

This may impact the tax consequences, issues ; operational and sales proceeds/gain?

Do you have advisors or do you need to find some?

Such as lawyer, accountant, real estate representative, building inspectors, lenders, etc..

What about your investment criteria,returns,desired yields and expected objectives?

Have you considered the risk with the investment(s)?

How are you going to manage it; yourself or will  professional management be hired ?

Do you require the investment to be accretive from day one?

Or do you have a safety margin/ cushion to rely on as an option?

Just a few of the questions you should explore and discuss with your real estate

professional before you start your journey into the real estate investment game.

Whenever you feel you want to discuss investing in real estate and creating a cash flow

engine for your portfolio we at Envoy Capitol Realty Inc., Brokerage would be happy

to sit down with you and have an initial meeting and discuss the possibilities.

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[above images are credited ; from Google Images; Monopoly Game from the  www…]

Stop Wasting My Time!

Please Don’t waste my time, or I will hate you and your company!

Promoters of any kind need to worry about how and what they are doing today more than ever

when they decide to put on an event, call it a FREE event where people/prospects sign up and

put aside their valuable time to come out to your Event.

You must give them Value for their Time or you could lose a customer for life and

they will tell their friends and maybe even write a Blog about it to spread the word.

If you are going to put on a free introductory seminar to promote your real mission

(your Agenda, prospecting for new clients) – to sell your

future seminar(s), books/CDs , coaching/mentoring/consulting/training activity  then you must

do certain things correctly and very well.

Otherwise you will be creating a bigger problem for yourself and your organization.

In this high-tech,fast paced, rich content universe we live in – we expect more,

much more from people and professionals.

People that wish to do business with us, must educate and entertain profoundly.

The world is smarter now. Don’t waste my time with a weak or out dated presentation

which you have been delivering since 2008 and have not changed a story or a word.

Learn new material, try new things – stretch the envelope because the old world of marketing

the slap stick gimmick style of sales or the simple elementary education approach is gone.

The audience today will get up and leave because you have bored them, you have disrespected their intelligence

and worst of all you have wasted their valuable personal time. 

They came out to your presentation tonight, leaving other activities that give them pleasure and they sacrificed

themselves to spend time with you – honour them, respect them, give them a valuable gift of awesome entertainment,

profound information, a gift – something of value (your book, a CD,a free one hour session). Give them rich content.

They spent money and risked travelling to your seminar – you must do better.

The audience has a higher expectation today, don’t deliver content to the lowest common denominator.

Be Awesome!!! Blow them away, it must be a wow!

Time is Money!

Don’t insult them and their clients and future clients by robbing their valuable preparation

time to give them a 3 hour presentation with 45 minutes(or less) of content they can get on the internet

and do a comparison of you and your competitors as well as pricing of the services.

This is not earning their Trust. This is not delivering when it matters most.

Don’t waste people’s time, it’s their most precious commodity they have today.

Because if you waste my time if you throw it away, I will hate you and your organization forever.

We, you and I can not afford to be hated by our future potential clients – because then they will

never be – a client of  ours and they will tell their friends and anyone willing to listen – how bad you

and your company are and you are a waste of Time.

Whatever you do, make sure it is purposeful and of value.

Continuously improve your presentation with current technologies,new information and innovative concepts.

The audience is getting smarter and they do expect much more than before, your seminar must be fresh and honest.

Let’s deliver it in the best possible way.

Gage your audience’s appreciation and request comments, feedback and criticism for improvement.

Speak and test your material with a good cross-section of the people in your city – to determine

that the material is relevant and considered valuable.

Give your audience a gift upon arriving – a book , CD, a good pen and a nice pad with your logo on it,

that they will  take home and keep around for a while.

Win their hearts first and then their minds.

What are your thoughts about the seminars you have attended lately?

Have they been awesome, did they rock your world, did they compel you to action?

Share your thoughts, tell us what you would like to see at a future presentation or receive as a gift ?

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Empire Rises Again, New York City

Nightline of the Empire State courtesy of Getty Images …

What’s good for the Empire State Building is good for New York and could be a good sign of things to come to the City’s properties.

The Income of  the Empire State Building is” poised to double within four years and more than triple by 2026,

according to a new securities filing related to the proposed public sale of the building”

wrote Craig Karmin in the Wall Street Journal.

The  increase in  income comes during a $550 million upgrade to the building.

The Malkins, the New York real estate family that manages “the skyscraper and is

spearheading the initial public offering, has been combining the more than 850 office spaces

in the building in an effort to attract larger and higher-paying tenants.”

New Tenants like Skanska ( a Swedish construction company) and Air China who are enjoying

the upgrading of the 1930’s property into a more energy-efficient building helping mitigate the

acceptance of the rising rents.

The  net operating income is” projected to rise to $160.6 million in June 2015, up from $76.8 million

in June 2012, according to Securities and Exchange documents filed on Monday. Income is seen rising

to $248.5 million by 2026, and balloons to $422 million by 2041.”

If all works out as planned and contracted then the valuation will goose step in

an upward direction over this period.

The rental income of the property has been disappointingly flat for the past several years although

it is said that the observation deck was profitable.

“This long-anticipated rise in the building’s income has caused some of the 2,800 current investors in

the Empire State building to wonder if they would be better off from an IPO or by voting against it.

The proposed plan requires 80% of the shares to approve it.”

The projections are based on a discounted cash-flow analysis conducted by Duff & Phelps,

which has issued its opinion that these valuations are fair to investors, according to the securities filings.

The new public company, which will be known as Empire State Realty Trust, would roll up the iconic

building with 17 other Malkin properties. These buildings are also projected to see rising rents over this period of time.

The Empire State Building has been valued at $2.52 billion of the new company’s $4 billion valuation,

according to securities filings.

Why you may ask is the Iconic property coming to the market now?

Well according to Craig Karmin’s article it seems the catalyst to move now is “Leona Helmsley’s estate which

has a stake valued at $1 billion, needs to cash out its position in the building’s operating company.”

There are a number of good learning points in the above article…from the idea of an organized exit plan

for a syndicated joint venture arrangement and the requirement of the consent required from the shareholders.

The requirements of professional valuation estimates, the organized filings – what

was omitted was the associated costs estimates

with this organization cashing out and potentially inflow cash from investors.

Also the number of hours spent by lawyers to put it all together and orchestrated it in proper legal fashion.

The tax consequences of the above arrangement will require good tax advise from skilled tax lawyers and accountants.

It is interesting to stand back a bit and see all the moving parts in the

above organization, sale of the asset – as a new package individual purchasers should have all

the material reviewed so that their capital is

protected and they understand what they are purchasing.

New York is an amazing City and you will be more amazed when you visit the City – a mecca of commercial real estate.

Fifth Avenue retail properties with its absolutely fabulous rental rates and the volume of traffic gives stability to the prized valuations.

New York has many jewels and great properties in its variety of real estate categories.

The Empire State building remains one of  the significant icons of the City and with its

continuing upgrade will remain a good to great building representing the spirit and strength of the City…

What are your thoughts about the continuing strength of New York City?

Leave a comment below…

 

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Google leads with Leasing Space in Chicago

Google Inc. has leased space in Chicago Merchandise Mart,, one of the city’s largest office buildings, was viewed by many as a big win for downtown Chicago. But to real-estate industry executives, the deal is also a coup that may help Vornado Realty Trust the landlord speed up its exit from the furniture-mart business.This is a part of the complexity of Vornado Realty whose financial performance may well have been depressed by the furniture-mart division, the sooner the exit the better some say.

Since late last year, Vornado Realty Trust, based in New York and one of the nations’ biggest office and retail landlords, has surprised skeptics by whittling down its trade-show and furniture-showroom division. The company is selling a string of properties that include the Washington Design Center, Boston Design Center and L.A. Mart. The separate deals, valued at a total of $228 million, have closed or are expected to close by October.

Then, by bringing 3,000 jobs from Google’s newly acquired Motorola Mobility unit into the Chicago Merchandise Mart, Vornado Realty is shoring up the property and is widely expected to put it on the block to unlock the value.

 

“That’s the one that really matters,” said Michael Knott, a managing director at real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors, who estimates the 3.5 million-square-foot Merchandise Mart could fetch between $787 million and $875 million. “It’s the big mother ship.”

Vornado Realty Trust has not decided or commented as yet to publicly whether to  offer the property for sale.

Vornado Realty acquired the Chicago Merchandise Mart in 1998 and some related assets for $630 million from Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, the Kennedy family holding company. The sprawling terra-cotta building overlooking the Chicago River was built by retail tycoon Marshall Field and opened in 1930. In 1945, it was acquired by Joseph P. Kennedy for $13 million, and it became a national hub for the home-furnishing industry and one of the most valuable Kennedy family assets.

For the next half century its rents helped fund the lives of his children and grandchildren.And here is the value of real estate as a passive and secondary investment to your main entrepreneurial activity and a foundation for your family to fall back upon if and when needed.

The housing crisis in America has depressed furniture sales and showroom demand. Annual home-furnishing sales volumes hit $83 billion last year, up from a trough of $78 billion in 2009 but still below the previous peak of $94 billion in 2007, according to Jerry Epperson, a partner with financial-services company Mann, Armistead & Epperson in Richmond, Va., which tracks the industry. Some showrooms became creditors as a number of tenants folded, Mr. Epperson said.

In 2010  Vornado Realty felt the pain. It gave five High Point buildings back to the special servicer overseeing the company’s $191 million securitized mortgage in lieu of a foreclosure action. At about the same time Vornado Realty tried to sell the Mart business and “came close with one buyer, but no cigar,” Vornado’s Chairman Steven Roth wrote in his annual letter to shareholders in April. As of Dec. 31, the company’s Merchandise Mart Properties unit owned five properties containing 5.7 million square feet. Others saw a signal of change when Christopher Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, announced last year that he was stepping down from his post as president after many years with the division.(sourced , Wall Street Journal,07/2012)

Understanding cycles of  business and real estate and the use of the different investments as counter cyclical risk reduction measures is a great defence for the businessman and his family. Having the diversity of assets in your portfolio could help when one area may not be performing as you expect or is hurt by the bigger economy. And real estate as a quasi-passive/long term investment vehicle, does give you the time to work on other things and businesses and political campaigns whatever your heart desires meanwhile appreciating in value over time as we can see in the above case study. However having good management of this asset over this period of time with a great leasing/marketing program for the space is vital for your real estate’s performance.

A great location can mitigate poor management over time as values steadily rise over the decades,

if you can keep the real estate because cash flow will be impacted.

Knowing where and how to make money is only one part of the wealth equation the other is the

protection of your capital from major downside pressures/risks having a variety of assets ( asset allocation) helps.

What are your thoughts about the case study within this story about the different levels of value of real estate?

Leave your comment below, share your experience and wisdom with us.

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Apps To Assist Your Biz and the Commercial Realtor

      Apps for Commercial Real Estate and small investors have been expanding and the variety of tools available to the professional have made it easier to be productive and offer new perspectives to clients on investment opportunities.

For realtors the new Stratus, torontomls for Apple products; Macbook and iPad users has a nice map feature which is user-friendly and quickly locates for you the amount of competition within the radius of most interest to your client and you. You easily change the criteria and quickly the new flag appear for your overview.

Below the above which for most realtors that all they need as Toronto MLS provide many useful links and services; from GeoWarehouse ( with title search features) to RealNet to Assessments to Education and on-line training.

There is obviously a huge amount of  U.S. related content with any App and what follows are such, however there is much learning here and great perspectives about what you can consider doing as well; So lots of news wire  and blogs/ op eds , etc…stuff such as :

CoStarGo , Inman News

LoopNet ,  ActiveRain

Plus consider or at least visiting to see what is available to make your business and investing life more productive;

1. 10BII Calc Financial Calculator  – “If the iPad saves you from having to pull your laptop out, this app saves you from having to carry your 10BII calculator,” says Jonathan Epstein, CCIM, of Berger-Epstein Associates. in Allentown, Pa.
2. Dropbox (free) – Debi Carter, CCIM, vice president of Hudson Peters Commercial in Dallas, uses the Dropbox app to access property fliers, video, and pictures on the go. She shares files by saving them to a public Dropbox folder and sending the download links to clients and colleagues.
3. LogMeIn Ignition – Remotely access work files and programs via an iPad with LogMeIn. Users can also remotely log in to their desktop to view Flash Websites, which the iPad doesn’t support. The GoToMyPC and Remoter apps offer similar features.
4. TheAnalyst  – Developed by Blyncc, a tech company co-founded by Todd Kuhlmann, CCIM, this app includes lease vs. own analysis and investment analysis tools, financial calculators, and an environmental risk summary report generator.
5. Springpad – This app organizes notes, images, and places that users want to remember and syncs them on an iPad, iPhone, or computer. Springpad also can retrieve product information from a barcode scan and includes location-based features like business and restaurant searches.
6. Google Earth – Commercial real estate pros can use Google Earth to show clients aerial property images. Geo-located Wikipedia articles and user-submitted photos provide additional location information.
7. GoodReader – “GoodReader is an excellent app for storing and opening almost any file,” says one user of the app. The app works with Microsfot Office, iWork, audio, and video files. It also can be used to view and annotate PDF files. Office² HD  and Documents To Go Premium  have similar features, and iAnnotate PDF and SignMyPad  include a comprehensive set of PDF tools.
8. Penultimate – With “photorealistic” paper designs and a selection of ink colors, Penultimate positions itself as the stylish alternative to other note taking apps. Notes and sketches are organized into notebooks and can be shared as PDFs. For free alternatives, try Evernote or the previously mentionedSpringpad.
9. CamCard  – Networking pays dividends in commercial real estate, and the business card is the currency of in-person networking. CamCard digitizes and organizes those cards and also has features for adding supplemental information. Contact information can be exported to Excel, which makes it easy to import new contacts to Outlook and other e-mail programs.
10. Air Sharing HD – The iPad has built-in support for printing to any of HP’s 28 AirPrint printers. Printing to a non-AirPrint printer is possible with Air Sharing HD. It has to be networked with a Mac OS X or Linux computer – it’s not compatible with Windows. PrintCentral for iPad  is an alternative to Air Sharing HD.
11. Plus if you go to http://www.yeretsianonrealestateinvesting.wordpress.com there are at least 50 links to websites where you can get a ton of  information and insights to help you in your real estate career, links for investors and those generally interested in real estate.
12. If  we have missed anything above that you believe is worthwhile and needs to be mentioned kindly send us a memo on what we missed and what should be included in the above.

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Envoy Capitol Realty Inc., Brokerage        Toronto  /  Canada

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New Condo Law on the Horizon in Ontario

The new reformed Condo law being discussed in the Ontario legislature

known as Bill 72 (Property Owners’ Protection Act, 2012) will be

introducing a licensing provision for property managers.

Many say it is about time, these individuals with the important responsibility of

running the operation of properties where many people (mostly) live to be held

to a minimum standards of professionalism and ethics.

The Ministry of Consumer Services will issue the license for a fee and

property managers will be required to maintain new professional standards

which should be more detailed in the regulations or by the Ministry.

A property manager of Condominiums, is someone who manages and is responsible for the

finances, maintenance, repairs, enforcement and compliance with the declaration,

by-laws and applicable legislation of a condominium.

They are the most important person mandated to deal with the operations and

try to keep the vast majority of unit owners happy (keep the place clean, orderly and in good governance).

Which issues arose in the past, a unit owner would typically go to the property manager to

have it addressed. If it is a bigger problem, it would be put to the board of directors to handle at their

monthly meeting. And it was really Big then the issue would be dealt with a Special meeting and a vote

– if more money was needed by the Condo, than at a special meeting the unit owners directed by the board

would vote on and pass a Special assessment on every unit in the building to help pay for this obligation.

The other avenue for dispute resolution was an application to the Superior Court of Ontario…

Now if Bill 72 passes, it contains the creation of a review board in the event – mediation and arbitration

don’t resolve it . This will help arrive at a more timely decision and keep some or most people happier.

What are your thoughts?  Would you like to see other items included in the legislation before it becomes law?

Leave a comment below and call your member of provincial parliament and voice your concerns…

http://www.envoycapitol.com

Twitter : EnvoyCapRealty

Blog : http://www.capitalmoves.blogspot.com

Envoy Capitol Realty Inc., Brokerage             Toronto ,  Canada