Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Drivers get ready


Alberta Oil Sands Investment Real Estate News®
Glenn Simon Inc., Suite 1217, 5328 Calgary Trail NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tel 1-888-780-5940 Fax 1-888-276-4517
www.glennsimoninc.com   email: info@glennsimoninc.com


May 1st., 2013
Volume 14, Issue 6

Dear Friends and Partners,

As we dip into Q2 its like a touch of spring optimism with the occasional chill of winter caution. You can see some interesting developments in Northern BC and Western Alberta in regards to Suncore's sale of their conventional gas play to two U.K. based companies. I see this as a very positive sign for Suncore to redeploy this capital (along with the cancelled Voyageur upgrader) to the proposed Kitimat LNG port.

I also think that Centrica and Qatar will be keen to develop (and export) their newly acquired fields. Gas has taken a beating the past few years peaking at $14 BTU and wallowing at $2 BTU but is trading near $4.20 at the time of writing. Although most drillers want to see north of $6 to drill more, we're heading in the right direction.

Many of the economic drivers we research are lined up. Where the market seems to waiver is in confidence of which direction the global market will turn. Overall - we're sailing with a strong wind behind us.





 















East Edmonton: Legal Triplex Cashflow Property near River Valley 
Turbo charge your portfolio. Upgraded 1940 built legal 3 unit property with separate entrance to each suite. All units to be upgraded using our Purchase Plus Improvements strategy at purchase time and costs wrapped into mortgage. You'll find a spacious 4 BD main floor unit, a 3 BD + loft upper unit and a bright 2 BD unit downstairs. There is en-suite laundry for each unit as well.
Each unit has its own parking space and a double detached garage adds cash-flow. 2009 Safe Housing certificate approved. Excellent location a short walk to Ada Boulevard and surrounding River Valley. 7 minutes to downtown Edmonton, ravine, with routes to the Yellowhead and Wayne Gretzky Drive minutes away, 15 minutes to UOA and NAIT. Fast access to to all bus routes.

Comes complete with great tenants making this a totally turn-key property for you. Convenient east central area with easy access to transit and downtown. Highlands is a mature, sought after area near the River Valley. Highly rentable; solid value and increasing rents. HUGE upside potential due to the great purchase price, strong economic fundamentals and the proximity of this property in relation to Edmonton's desirable River Valley.

Purchase price: $550,000K Total Investment: $127,135K. Your Estimated 5 Year Profit $76K. Your pre-tax Total ROI is 60% or 12% per year


These 3 suites rent for top dollar and have everything arranged, including financing structure and incredible tenants. Your investment includes: impeccable tenant selection, financial analysis, professional inspection, insurance, financing set-up, legal fees, basic accounting, reserve fund, CMA, bi-annual statements, strategic market planning to ensure successful entry and exit, plus much more!


=========================
Centrica, Qatar Buy Suncor's Gas Fields for $1 Billion

By Brian Swint and Nidaa Bakhsh, Bloomberg, April 15th 2013

Centrica Plc (CNA) and state-run Qatar Petroleum agreed to buy natural gas fields from Canada’s Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) for C$1 billion ($981 million) as the largest U.K. household-energy company seeks added supplies for North American customers.
The assets, mostly in southern and central Alberta, will be operated by Centrica and produce about 250 million cubic feet of gas a day this year, the company said in a statement today. Centrica will own 60 percent and Qatar Petroleum International 40 percent. The deal is Qatar Petroleum’s first investment in an overseas gas field and the first by the two companies under a cooperation accord signed in December 2011. 

“The acquisition provides attractive returns in a region we know well, and significantly increases the size and quality of our portfolio,” Sam Laidlaw, chief executive officer of Windsor-based Centrica, said in the statement. With the prospect to develop another 1 million acres, it has “the potential to improve returns further.”  FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE


===============


Will Eastern Oil Pipelines Lead to Lower Prices at the Pump for Canadians?

By Lauren Krugel, Globe and Mail, April 19th 2013
The Conservatives in Ottawa are staunch supporters, the New Democrats have called it a “win-win-win” and the premiers of Alberta and New Brunswick have loudly touted the benefits of an oil pipeline from west to east.

But the degree to which Eastern consumers will benefit at the pump is unclear, as it’s up to the pipeline’s customers – oil producers at one end and refineries at the other – to determine which barrels go where.

“One thing that I’ve learned over the years is the market will do what the market will do and it’s difficult to predict beforehand,” said Geoff Hill, oil and gas sector leader at Deloitte Canada.

The crude could flow to Eastern refineries clamoring for cheaper domestic supplies. Or, offshore buyers may drink it up. Most likely, it will be a combination of both.  READ MORE HERE


 
===============

Energy Firms Want More Oil and Natural Gas Processing in Alberta
More oil and natural gas processing in Alberta could bring in an extra $600 million


By Beacon Reporter, Beacon News, April 17th 2013

CALGARY — A multibillion-dollar project to send Alberta oil to the East Coast won federal political support on Tuesday and will likely also be supported by producers, an analyst says.
A new report says Alberta could take in an extra $600 million in annual revenue if there was more oil and natural gas processing in Alberta.

The report says processing locally instead of shipping raw to other jurisdictions could increase the province’s gross domestic product (GDP) by $6 billion a year, creating 18,000 new jobs that pay $1.8 billion a year in salaries.

The paper by a University of Calgary economist was commissioned by municipalities and energy companies in the Edmonton region known as Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association. GRAB THIS STORY

 
 ===============

I appreciate all your calls and emails. I'm looking forward to helping you with your next step towards building real wealth.
Your success continues EVERYDAY, let me help you build for tomorrow.

"It's never crowded along the extra mile."  -Wayne Dyer

Warm Regards,

Todd and Danielle Millar


===SPECIAL NOTICE: NO CASH, BUT GOOD CREDIT? CALL US TODAY TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN OWN INVESTMENT PROPERTY===

P.S. Stay ahead by checking out Danielle's  blog at Edmonton Real Estate Investor for all your cutting edge market news and information.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to visit our website and take advantage of the Resource Tools and product section including REIN's #1 real estate books and Quick Start homestudy sets at a discount. Get your copy of the Canadian Success Stories book and the 2010-2014 Top Ten Investment Towns of Alberta and Ontario.




Thursday, April 18, 2013

Edmonton a history in Pictures

from i65photobucket.com










 You can vote and have a say on what historical pictures of Edmonton go into a calendar they are making (not sure for when I think 2014).

Some are so interesting as you can see huge changes to familiar areas now. The comments are also enlightening hearing from people who these pictures spark memories of events from their lives.

Check it out! Vintage Edmonton

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Alberta Current Market - REIN Newsletter

"When it comes to the real estate market, the conjecture is flowing, the questions being posed, the concern mounting. In the majority of the country, this concern is all focused on markets perceived to be ‘over-priced’ or ‘over-heated.’

However, with a quick trip west to Alberta you find the concern is on the opposite end of the scale with the experts asking the question: “Why isn’t the market booming like it was in 2007?”

This is a great question because I feel like we are back in 2006 - mortgage rates are low, employment figures are high, in-migration is visibly high and yet the house prices are lagging....

READ WHY

Monday, April 15, 2013

The Rabbit and The Crow

Alberta Oil Sands Investment Real Estate News®
Glenn Simon Inc., Suite 1217, 5328 Calgary Trail NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tel 1-888-780-5940 Fax 1-888-276-4517
www.glennsimoninc.com   email: info@glennsimoninc.com


April 15th., 2013
Volume 14, Issue 5

Dear Friends and Partners,

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day.  A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?  The crow answered: "Sure, why not."  So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested.  All of a sudden a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit, and ate it.

Management Lesson:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

I was reminded of this parable while watching my two sons play; I watch my older son do things that immediately are copied by the 17 month old with completely different and often disastrous results. Such is life.

It reminds me to keep me that what others are doing isn't necessarily good for me. I have to weigh every choice that comes my way and determine it's future effect on my portfolio/life/waistline. 

If only that rabbit had weighed his options just a little longer...


South Central Edmonton: 4-Suite Cashflow Property in Bonnie Doon






















Turbo charge your portfolio. Upgraded 1965 built 4 unit property with separate entrance to lower suites. Upper units have been renovated and using our PPI strategy the lower units are upgraded at purchase, and costs wrapped into mortgage. You'll find 2 X spacious 2 bd units upstairs and 2 X bright 1 bd units downstairs. There is common laundry for the lower units and upper suites have en-suite laundry. Each unit has its own exterior storage locker as well. There is also a double detached garage adding cashflow. Excellent location directly across from Bonnie Doon mall on a small side road, 1 block north of Whyte Avenue.  5 minutes to Rowland Drive and ravine, with routes to the Yellowhead and Whitemud minutes away, 10 minutes to downtown and UOA. Fast access to Wayne Gretzky Drive and on all bus routes.

Comes complete with great tenants making this a totally turn-key property for you. Convenient south central area of Bonnie Doon with easy access to transit and downtown. Bonnie Doon is a mature, sought after area near the university and Whyte ave. Highly rentable; solid value and increasing rents. HUGE upside potential due to the great purchase price, strong economic fundamentals and the proximity of this property in relation to Edmonton's desirable south side.

Purchase price: $625K Total Investment: $145,601K. Your Estimated 5 Year Profit $77,327K. Your pre-tax Total ROI is 53% or 11% per year + $400 Cash Flow

These 4 suites rent for top dollar and have everything arranged, including financing structure and incredible tenants. Your investment includes: impeccable tenant selection, financial analysis, professional inspection, insurance, financing set-up, legal fees, basic accounting, reserve fund, CMA, bi-annual statements, strategic market planning to ensure successful entry and exit, plus much more!

===============
Momentum Builds for Alberta Oil Pipeline to East Coast TransCanada asks producers to sign take-or-pay contracts

By Dan Healing, Calgary Herald, April 2nd 2013

CALGARY — A multibillion-dollar project to send Alberta oil to the East Coast won federal political support on Tuesday and will likely also be supported by producers, an analyst says.
Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. — the energy transporter trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline to Texas — announced it will hold a binding open season on its proposed Energy East Pipeline to gauge shipper support.

The project, estimated to cost between $5 billion and $6 billion, would involve converting part of its existing west-to-east natural gas Mainline to carry oil from Alberta to Quebec, with a new extension to the port city of Saint John, N.B., where it would be able to access export markets where oil currently fetches higher prices.  GRAB THIS STORY 

===============

The Oil Sands are an Amazing Story Canada's Not Telling


By Todd Babiak, Globe and Mail, March 1st 2013

How Green Was My Valley, the novel by Welsh writer Richard Llewellyn, is about a young man born into a village of black air, of strikes, of deadly explosions. At the end, you’re keen to accompany the hero, Huw Morgan, out of the coal mines.

More than 50 years earlier, Émile Zola had come to similar conclusions in Germinal.

The novelists and filmmakers who adapted these two works for cinema focused on people – particularly the miners. They were sad, happy, passionate, defeated, pure, compromised, creative, dull, intelligent, stupid.

That is, alive.  FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE

===============


Alberta's Bold Plan to Cut Emissions Stuns Ottawa and Oil Industry

By Shawn McCarthy and Nathan Vanderklippe, Globe and Mail, April 4th 2013
The Alberta government has quietly presented a proposal to sharply increase levies on carbon production and force large oil-industry producers to slash greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 40 per cent on each barrel of production, a long-term plan that has surprised Ottawa and industry executives with its ambition.

Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen stunned a recent meeting in Calgary attended by senior oil executives and her federal counterpart, Peter Kent, with the proposal, which goes well beyond anything Ottawa or the companies contemplated, industry and government sources said Wednesday.

The three sides are engaged in intense negotiations, with the industry warning that regulations that are too onerous could undermine the competitiveness of the oil sands sector as it seeks international investment to drive production growth.  READ MORE HERE

 ===============
 ===============

I appreciate all your calls and emails. I'm looking forward to helping you with your next step towards building real wealth.
Your success continues EVERYDAY, let me help you build for tomorrow.

"Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner."  -Les Brown

Warm Regards,

Todd and Danielle Millar


===SPECIAL NOTICE: NO CASH, BUT GOOD CREDIT? CALL US TODAY TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN OWN INVESTMENT PROPERTY===

P.S. Stay ahead by checking out Danielle's  blog at Edmonton Real Estate Investor for all your cutting edge market news and information.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to visit our website and take advantage of the Resource Tools and product section including REIN's #1 real estate books and Quick Start homestudy sets at a discount. Get your copy of the Canadian Success Stories book and the 2010-2014 Top Ten Investment Towns of Alberta and Ontario.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Never Stop Learning

I signed up for a seminar from Chris at Credit Info Canada. I love seminars. Even at the worst ones I've been able to come away with 1 nugget that will help me improve my business.

I also love meeting people who are going through the exact same challenges day in and day out that I am. We share ideas, contacts and who knows you may even walk away with the golden egg in Alberta - a good handyman.

Chris has been a featured speaker at REIN events and his company fills a unique niche for landlords. They offer special packages from simple credit screenings to tenanting to evictions. I've received money from bad debt that Chris has managed to collect - big smiles here.


Advanced landlording 101
“Minimize your headaches, maximize your returns”


Please accept this invitation to attend the ‘rental course’ that may change the way you do business.

After numerous requests, Chris Bradnam, owner of Credit Info Canada, considered one of the leading experts in Canada dealing with the Residential Tenancy market, is offering this live premium interactive course to answer all your landlording questions you seek.  For the first time landlord to the experienced investor or management company, this course is designed to provide current information on taking a tactical and profitable approach to all matters in your rental and investment dealings.

Here’s a brief description of the agenda, act fast as seats are limited:


·      Investment locations                       
·      Credit Profiling
·      Tenant Demographics
·      Evictions       
·      Advertising your rental      
·      Self-Management of your property
·      Tenant Screening
·      Lease and rent to own investments

and much much more!
Cost of this event is $200.00.  For reservations of booking information, please contact the offices of Credit Info Canada directly at (780) 486-1183 ‘or’ by email at creditinfocanada@gmail.com.

Date                          May 4, 2013
Event locale        The Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel
                                    10155 105th Street Edmonton, Alberta
Time                        1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Advanced booking is taking place now.  Due to limited seating, all reservations are final.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Don Campbell says Chill out

Don't worry about the Canadian housing market. Learn about your area and what's going on there. Toronto prices aren't going to touch you in Red Deer.

“There is no Canadian housing market...At no other time in history has the real estate market in Canada been so regional,”

 “If you go to Hamilton, that market is strong. But in Waterloo the market is starting to slow down, even though the cities are only half an hour apart. And what’s going on in Ottawa has nothing to do with Halifax.” Don Campbell, senior analyst and founding partner with the 2,900-member Real Estate Investment Network (REIN).

Alberta's economy is drawing people from all across Canada. Read More Here

Monday, April 01, 2013

Take two aspirin and call me...

Alberta Oil Sands Investment Real Estate News®
Glenn Simon Inc., Suite 1217, 5328 Calgary Trail NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Tel 1-888-780-5940 Fax 1-888-276-4517
www.glennsimoninc.com   email: info@glennsimoninc.com


April 1st., 2013
Volume 14, Issue 4

Dear Friends and Partners,

When were you last on all fours, head in the toilet, gut heaving and eyes popping; when was your last hangover? I have quaffed less than half a bottle of fine vino over the past decade. The last time I drank too much was probably sometime back in my 20's. Its hard to remember how great the night was, or how much fun I was having, but I sure do remember how bad I felt the next day.

 I bring up this disgusting image because I realize that it is very much a kin to a marketplace hangover. See, we have a lot of good news stories in Alberta and then we have the scary global ones. We take two, three, four steps forward with our Alberta economy and then a giant one backwards with politics and pipelines. When we scrutinize a proper real estate investment here, we get excited because it IS a good deal and it will do well. But, just like you might never drink Malibu again, that hangover can burn an image in your mind that really turns your stomach.

For those of us that bought in the late 90's or pre mid-2007 we look back without hangover... For those of us that bought at the party's height, we may still feel a tinge of pain in the temple when we see all the 'good news' stories in Alberta and wonder 'When the heck will my property be at that value again?!"

Real Estate investing is a long-term game. The cycles can last for years and sometimes even decades, just as you can flip a house in a day and make money. Unfortunately real estate isn't a very liquid asset and the time we want to, or need to, cash out may be at the worst time in the cycle.

Moving forward, investing in Edmonton and other parts of Alberta is going to seem like a warm house-party. There will be good news stories, lots of laughs and long friendships made. Some will enjoy the festivities too much and leave with a hangover while others will have made friends (investments) for life.

The best thing you can do is stress-test your potential property by calculating higher interest rates, factor in lower rents, use down payments of 20% or more, manage effectively and know what your exit strategy is before you buy. There are more ways to mitigate risk and different strategies to employ that will allow you to leverage better and protect yourself more, but for now we will focus on avoiding a hangover.

South Central Edmonton: 4 Suite Cash Flow Property in Bonnie Doon 
















Turbo charge your portfolio. Upgraded 1965 built 4 unit property with separate entrance to lower suites. Upper units have been renovated and using our PPI strategy the lower units are upgraded at purchase, and costs wrapped into mortgage. You'll find 2 X spacious 2 bd units upstairs and 2 X bright 1 bd units downstairs. There is common laundry for the lower units and upper suites have en-suite laundry. Each unit has its own exterior storage locker as well. There is also a double detached garage adding cashflow. Excellent location directly across from Bonnie Doon mall on a small side road, 1 block north of Whyte Avenue.  5 minutes to Rowland Drive and ravine, with routes to the Yellowhead and Whitemud minutes away, 10 minutes to downtown and UOA. Fast access to Wayne Gretzky Drive and on all bus routes.

Comes complete with great tenants making this a totally turn-key property for you. Convenient south central area of Bonnie Doon with easy access to transit and downtown. Bonnie Doon is a mature, sought after area near the university and Whyte ave. Highly rentable; solid value and increasing rents. HUGE upside potential due to the great purchase price, strong economic fundamentals and the proximity of this property in relation to Edmonton's desirable south side.

Purchase price: $625K Total Investment: $145,601K. Your Estimated 5 Year Profit $77,327K. Your pre-tax Total ROI is 53% or 11% per year + $400 Cash Flow

These 4 suites rent for top dollar and have everything arranged, including financing structure and incredible tenants. Your investment includes: impeccable tenant selection, financial analysis, professional inspection, insurance, financing set-up, legal fees, basic accounting, reserve fund, CMA, bi-annual statements, strategic market planning to ensure successful entry and exit, plus much more!



=========================

Alberta Economy Continuing its Impressive Boom

By Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald, March 19th 2013

CALGARY — Any dark clouds that are currently hanging over Alberta will clear by 2014, paving the way for strong business and consumer activity, says a report by RBC Economics.

The bank’s latest Provincial Outlook, released Tuesday, said the province’s economy will continue its “impressive boom” through 2013, after leading the country’s economic growth in 2012, despite facing challenges.

RBC forecasts a provincial real GDP growth rate of three per cent due to strong crude oil production as well as high levels of capital investment, employment and population growth. This will be second in the country behind the 5.1 per cent growth expected in Newfoundland & Labrador. GRAB THIS STORY

 
===============

Lamphier: Alberta's population Boom isn't Shaking Foundation of housing Market

By Gary Lamphier, Edmonton Journal, March 22nd 2013

EDMONTON - If you’re looking for a job in Newfoundland and Labrador, good luck. You’ll need plenty of it.

For every job opening, there were 16 job seekers in December, according to recent StatsCan data. In New Brunswick, the ratio was a still-stratospheric 10.5-to-one.

The odds of landing a job were only marginally better in Ontario, where eight applicants fought over every vacancy.

Here in Alberta? It’s a completely different story. For each unfilled job there were fewer than two people unemployed in December. No wonder newcomers continue to beat a path to Wild Rose country. Despite worries that discounted crude prices may prompt a slowdown in the oilpatch, the stampede shows no signs of abating.  FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE

===============

Alex McBrien: Why Alberta Needs a Diversified Economy and, Three Ways We Can Get There

By Alex McBrein, Huffington post, March 23rd 2013
The Alberta government is facing a deficit in the area of $4 billion. By now we have all heard the discussions regarding the recommended courses of action that the government should take to make sure that Alberta's finances get back into the black; reform Alberta's taxation system (although the budget saw no such reforms), cut government spending, and diversify Alberta's energy export markets.

All of these will certainly be needed in the short term, to some degree or another, to get Alberta's finances back on stable footing. However, all of the above are just that, short-term solutions to a more systematic issue facing Alberta's economy. University of Calgary economist Ron Kneebone was right to suggest that the real issue at hand is "the [provincial] government's historic reliance on resource revenues to bankroll its operations". Instead, what is needed to mitigate the economic risks associated with being a resource- based economy is a sustained focus on diversifying Alberta's economic base.

This will be a complex and challenging task (as it is for most resource-based economies), however placing focus on areas that build off of Alberta's current economic strengths, that make it easier to set up a small business, and that increase investment in arts and culture are sure to go a long way in achieving this goal.  READ MORE HERE
 
 ===============

I appreciate all your calls and emails. I'm looking forward to helping you with your next step towards building real wealth.
Your success continues EVERYDAY, let me help you build for tomorrow.

"Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level."  -Max L. Foreman

Warm Regards,

Todd and Danielle Millar


===SPECIAL NOTICE: NO CASH, BUT GOOD CREDIT? CALL US TODAY TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN OWN INVESTMENT PROPERTY===

P.S. Stay ahead by checking out Danielle's  blog at Edmonton Real Estate Investor for all your cutting edge market news and information.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to visit our website and take advantage of the Resource Tools and product section including REIN's #1 real estate books and Quick Start homestudy sets at a discount. Get your copy of the Canadian Success Stories book and the 2010-2014 Top Ten Investment Towns of Alberta and Ontario.