Russell Westcott, the VP of the Real Estate Investment Network, asked me to swing by their offices in the Lower Mainland last time I was in Vancouver, and we had a great chat. Part of that chat took the form of a REIN Interview with an Expert on the topic of internet marketing.

Russell and the whole REIN team are excellent marketers, and I was flattered to be asked to participate. You can click the play button below or use the link below that to download it for your iPod. It’s over an hour, so find yourself some time and enjoy.

Download Internet Marketing Tips – Chris Davies and Russell Westcott

No related posts.

Here’s the episode of CBC’s The Hour with George Strombolopolus with former CIBC World Markets Chief Economist Jeff Rubin. The folks at REIN kindly made it available. 

Rubin wrote a book called Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization and it sounds like an amazing read. Jeff Rubin is no fool, and that book definetly goes on my must-read list. 

No related posts.

Here’s a 20 minute video that gives some pretty cool insight into Mark Carney, Canada’s monetary policy and economic strengths.

The first half is an interview with Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada. The second half is a panel with Kelly Keehn, Jack Mintz from University of Calgary , and Russell Westcott. My notes (liveblogging style) are blow.

My notes and thoughts.

• Talking about Mark Carney, the youngest Central Banker in the G8
• Carney went to Harvard and Oxford. He’s an Edmonton boy, so when he was in town he took some some people to Earl’s Tin Palace on Jasper Ave.
• Do you agree that Alberta’s insulated? It’s a global recession, and there isn’t any part of the global economy which is unaffected. Some areas have some strength which help to mitigate the impacts.
• Alberta’s budget is being released. Here’s Mark’s three thoughts. First there’s a need for stimulus, to fill in the void. The second need is for credible policies with a long term fiscal outlook. Third, there’s a need to make an investment in long term productivity and sustainability.
• Original projections were recovery in ’09 and in ’10 but have been amended. The Bank of Canada actually reviews its forecasts on a quarterly basis, so it’s nothing too crazy. Things that have changed, the global recession is deeper and the timing of our recovery will depend on the stabalization of the global financial system. The problems are outside of Canada.
• David Dodge has criticized the projections. He responded by saying ‘read the transcript of his comments’. The BofC has a very transparent process, and they welcome other people’s inputs.
• Why such a wide variety of projections? There’s a huge amount of uncertianty. The band of uncertianty is wider than the range of projections. The question is how quickly the massive policy responce will take effect (monetary and policy).
• Interest rate cuts, not much farther to go, but are working? They are, monetary policy always works with a lag, but our monetary system is still working. The levels of corporate borrowing have remained steady.
• You’ve been critical of the banks in the past for not passing along rate drops. Now they’ve passed through all but 25 basis points.
• What are the big lessons from what has happened?
• Canada has many lessons we can teach others. You have to have rules and infrastructure, and a measure of prudence. We restricted the level of leverage banks could have.

Then at 12:04, Kelly Keehn, Jack Mintz from UofC, and Russell Westcott.

• Anyone surprised? Kelly Keehn – no. Russell – no. “He who forecasts the most often gets it right eventually.” Jack – “The variability of the forecasts often gets it right eventually.”
• The David Dodge clip at 13:45 is the one where he says ‘likely we’ll do as well as, or better than other countries, but why should we recover very quicky when the rest of the world is recovering moderately.’
• Is it a fair criticisim? Yes, it’s been a remarkable set of changes, and it’ll take the world economy will take a while to re-adjust. Growth will take some time come back. there are huge deficits which will slow that. (and put Alberta ahead)
• What should people be doing? Buying, selling? If you’re planning to live in your house you’ll be ok. It’s not like daytrading, just chill out. If you can’t afford to hold onto it for 5 years, you should still be renting.
• Kelly does point out that the small drop this year over last pales in comparison to the increase the year before.
• Housing is a consumption good, not just an investment.

Getting into Investments:

• Kelly: Understand fear and greed. Get back to basics, and understand your risk profile.
• Jack: Tough time to understand that. People are afraid it’ll get worse before it gets better.
• Russell: Pay yourself first. 100% of investment portfolio is focused on yield.

No related posts.

So Don did an interview for a CBC segment called Saskaboom. I’ve never heard of this program, but it’s some interesting perspective. It’s a 14 minute long video.

There’s a quick bit with Dale Ripplinger Vice President of the Canadian Real Estate Association. There’s no date on it, but this one must have been back a while. They mention second-half 2008 forecasts, so I’m guessing it was Q1 or Q2 in the early side.

About 1/3rd of the way in there’s a panel with Don Campbell, and Bob Dhillon from Mainstreet. My notes are below the video. Stick around for the end…Bob kind of sticks his foot in his mouth.

Notes:More than half of new arrivals are from Alberta.

• REITS make up 50% of the latest 50 commercial deals. Pensions/Public Companies were 25% and local buyers 25%.
• Don’s ‘reaction’: 2007 was the first year with positive intra-migration but people are over-reacting to the good news. The pendulum is going to swing back, and there are only about 3/4 of a million workers in the whole province.
• Don had a brainfart and forgot the third of the 3 F’s. Food, fuel…and….. It happens to the best of us.
• Bob Dhillon’s focus on buying buildings with significant deferred maintenance as they’ve got significant cash and prices are pretty low. Sell signal is CAP rates below 4%  but they’re not interested in selling.
• The affordability index has made Saskatoon more expensive than Edmonton.

No related posts.

Here’s a video of an interview Don had with the folks at BNN (the Business News Network). She starts off with one of Don’s old quotes, and asks if he still thinks it’s true today.

Even in today’s unsustainable economy, an investment in real estate is still a solid investment, backed by solid assets.

Here’s some bullet points I took from the video:

• Look long term. The next 18 months are going to be a roller-coaster. We’re looking for yield, and return on investment (ROI).
• The Three F’s: food, fuel and fertilizer.
• National stats don’t mean anything.
• Remember; people go to school during a recession. Towns with 2 or more  post secondary institutions are a good possibility. Pay attention to education. Avoid forestry driven towns.

The interviewer is a smart lady, and pretty sharp. As she says at the end of the interview:

It’s common sense, look where there’s robust economic activity.

The other guy says “he glosses over the costs of maintaining rental properties” and she stomps on him. Apparently she’s reading Real Estate Investing in Canada (and knows the truth). Good short video. Don’s good at rapid-fire interviews like that.

No related posts.

Greg Habstritt is a very successful commercial real estate investor, REIN member and he spoke at the Alberta REIN meetings. Before the meetings he did a phone interview with Russ. They covered some good topics, and there’s some great insight.

If you want to put a copy of this interview and the player on your own site, just paste this code into your html editor. You’re welcome to hotlink the mp3 file if you ask, otherwise just put a copy of the file on your own server and change the red text to where your copy of the file lives. 

<object width=”300″ height=”52″ data=”http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”><param name=”flashvars” value=”valid_sample_rate=true&amp;external_url=http://www.chrisdavies.ca/Podcasts/Greg-Habstritt-Commercial-Real-Estate-Feb09.mp3” /><param name=”src” value=”http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf” /><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /><param name=”quality” value=”high” /></object> Audio Hosted by <a href=”http://www.chrisdavies.ca/2009/04/greg-habstritt-russell-westcott-interview/”>Chris Davies</a>

No related posts.

Thomas Beyer is the President of Prestigious Properties, and a veteran (Diamond) REIN member. He’s also a great guy, a prolific contributor to myREINspace and he’s contributed guest posts here before (2010 Alberta Real Estate).

In preparation for the REIN meetings this week in Edmonton and Calgary, Thomas and Russel did a little conference call. It’s just over an hour long, but they cover lots of good topics.It’s a rare chance to hear the owner of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate reflect on the last few years, and the challenges involved in growing his business to that size in just a few years.

Some folks had trouble downloading it, but they got it sorted out, and now you can just click the little arrow below and listen to it from this page. You can also download a copy of it by right clicking here and selecting ‘save as’.

Enjoy!

If you want to put a copy of this interview and the player on your own site, just paste this code into your html editor. You’re welcome to hotlink the mp3 file if you ask, otherwise just put a copy of the file on your own server and change the red text to where your copy of the file lives. 

<object width=”300″ height=”52″ data=”http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”><param name=”flashvars” value=”valid_sample_rate=true&amp;external_url=http://www.chrisdavies.ca/Podcasts/thomas-beyer-rein-interview.mp3” /><param name=”src” value=”http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf” /><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /><param name=”quality” value=”high” /></object> Audio Hosted by <a href=”http://www.chrisdavies.ca/2009/03/thomas-beyer-russell-westcott-interview/”>Chris Davies</a>

No related posts.

Don Campbell’s of REIN is going to be on CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (you’d better believe I used copy’n'paste for that name) to chat the state of the Canadian real estate market.

It’s on Wednesday, March 18th at 11pm PST. Check your local listings for showtimes.

When I get the chance to watch it, I do enjoy The Hour. George is an intelligent guy, and he has fantastic guests. You should definitely check it out.

Thanks to Russell for letting the folks on myREINspace know.

No related posts.

Don R. Cambell did an interview with the fine folks from CFUN (1410 AM), a Vancouver talk radio show. REIN members have heard this stuff before, but if you’ve never been out to a REIN event, here’s your chance to hear some reality. And Don’s right, the female REIN members I know are kicking some serious butt!

No related posts.