| I’m back!!! It’s Kathy from Regency Property Management and Real Estate and Splash Inn Dive Resort in Roatan Recently my ‘readers’ have been asking me why I stopped sending out my monthly newsletter, and I guess the answer is … well… somehow this past year just slipped by without me even noticing it. However, due to relentless requests (well… more like 3 or 4 people asked me about it) – I’m back with my take on Regina and Roatan-related topics! Have a look if you’re interested. What’s happening with Real Estate in Regina? Money is Still Practically FREE … So Why Not Borrow it? Apparently, mortgage activity in Canada dropped this past spring/summer to the lowest level since 2014. I was out with a few Regina realtors this past summer and they were saying how busy they were, but hadn’t sold much of anything in months. Why not? Apparently there are a lot of buyers but they are not qualifying for the mortgages for the houses that they want to buy. It would seem that the slump in mortgage borrowing is a direct result of Canada’s new mortgage stress test rules and higher interest rates (compared to 2017). But strangely enough, the bank’s lending rates for residential housing is still at the LOW LOW average rate of about 3.5%!!! I’m not completely buying into this explanation that the ‘stress test’ is the main reason for folks not qualifying for the loan. Personally, I think many of these buyers want to buy out of their affordability range. It’s kind of a new trend: first-time home owners want NEW! They want SPACE! They want everything on their wish list and then some. (I think they’ve been watching too much HGTV.) But it’s true! If these people knew the house Paulo and I lived in when we first moved to Canada 19 years ago, they would be mortified. It was an old ‘fixer-upper’ with 1 bathroom and no garage in a very modest neighbourhood. We lived with a wooden subfloor in the kitchen for about a year because we were more concerned about fixing up our rental houses than our own at the time. But it worked for us! The sad thing (for us as Regina landlords these days) is that renters want the same things on their ‘wish lists’ as buyers do, and with all the ‘over-building’ that was allowed in Regina in the past few years, they CAN get it. I’m not gonna lie… the rental market is a bit of a tough market in Regina these days but it’s still ‘doable’ if you know what you’re doing. Real Estate IS still the best investment in the world (in my opinion) and because it is predictably cyclical, we know that the good times will return to Regina, as they always do. We just have to wait a bit. But it’s a great time to be a buyer. There are some great deals to be found in Regina these days for those who have got the ‘know-how’. The best place to start if you’re brand new to the game is read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and look for a mentor (somebody who has already successfully been doing it). Please!!! Don’t go it alone if you’re new to the game and please, don’t take your real estate investing lessons from HGTV! That stuff is FAKE INVESTING! Anyway… here’s a little graph (for all you young guys who don’t know the history of mortgage rates in Canada in the past 80 years!) Let’s count our blessings Canadians! 3.5% is still VERY CHEAP MONEY! Have a look at 1981 – over 20% interest rates! That’s like buying your house on a credit card!  And Then there is the Start of the BOOM in Roatan! It’s got all the signs I recently saw a post of a real estate agent in Roatan out celebrating with a nice glass of wine with the caption: “4 deals in 1 week!” It’s true!!! Roatan real estate market is on the upswing. I talked to a Roatan broker this past January, and he said that their brokerage had 15 closings in that month alone. 15!!!! Unbelievable for one small brokerage on one small island! There are other signs of this pending boom besides busy real estate agents. The new mayor is currently rebuilding many of the main roads. There are many new (sold-out) residential developments and a fair bit of commercial construction (new supermarkets and office space) popping up all over the island. There is a brand new state of the art hospital already in operation, and there are plans to expand the airport some day. In a way, it’s a bit sad to know that the island will lose some of it’s authentic, island charm but there is still a lot of completely untouched beach-front property for sale, especially in the east end of the island. We live in the west which is already much more developed, but it’s also where all the action is. Now, keep in mind that generally, there is no financingfor foreigners when buying in a foreign country, so you have to bring your cold hard cash (and for us Canadians, don’t forget to bring an extra 30+% to accomodate for that SUPER U.S. DOLLAR), but people are doing it these days. They are buying. The good thing about investing in foreign property is that there is usually great opportunity to make a creative financing deal with the seller (ie. An Agreement for Sale with a VTB/a vendor-take-back). It’s always exciting for a real estate buff such as myself to be in the middle of a ‘hot’ market such as this one. Fun, fun, fun!!!! I, myself, do not sell real estate in Roatan, nor do I want to, but if you are ever interested in checking out the market, I know of some great agents who will take good care of you or I can help you put together an ‘Agreement For Sale’ deal with a private seller. Our BIG NEWS at Splash Inn! ✦ ✦ ✦ Our most recent big news is that Splash Inn Dive Resort has been upgraded to a PADI Instructor Development Center (IDC). This is not something that all dive centers are authorized to do as PADI is very particular about who they allow to teach divers to become instructors. After submitting an extensive application into PADI, they send a representative to inspect the facility, and take all this information back to NYC where a panel of expert PADI judges decide if the dive shop will be granted this privilege. Anyway….we passed!!! Splash Inn is extremely proud to say that we have been authorized to teach instructor courses. So Splash Inn’s 1st group of dive instructors graduated in June under the instruction of our ‘new to us’ awesome and experienced course director, Chris Elton from Chile. Have a look at our website for all the details if that is something you would consider studying. We Get It! Not Everyone Wants to Become a Dive Instructor – so we Have Something for You Too! Maybe you are just thinking of diving for the first time or upgrading your diving knowledge? If that is the case, come on down and get PADI certified over the fall months when the water is the warmest and room rates are the cheapest. Splash Inn teaches all the PADI courses from Open Water, to Advanced, to Rescue to Dive Master and some specialty courses like free-diving or underwater photography. And just to inspire you … here are a few of the winning photos from our diving clients, who entered our online photo contest. There were SO many amazing photos it was almost impossible to choose just a few. Paulo and I have some exciting news coming up this fall, so until next time … take care and we’ll be in touch next month. by Kathy Berner September 2018 http://roatansplashinn.com/en/gopro/ |
