The opportunity to buy a vacation or investment property in the U.S.A. has NEVER been better. Consider this. U.S. house prices, especially in Florida and Arizona have dropped upwards to 60 per cent. The loonie is now above par giving you extra buying power like never before AND mortgage rates are still near all time lows. Savvy Canadians are snapping up tremendous bargains. It’s almost like a new ‘gold rush’ said a friend who recently bought a new two bedroom condo apartment in Orlando for a mere $40,000 all cash. You know the saying “Cash is king”. Well it has never been more true than today. Think about it. The same condo here costs a minimum of $173,900. In simple terms this means you can purchase 4 condos in Florida (including closing costs) for the cost of 1 condo here. Wow. And the U.S. condo comes with a resort style pool, club and state of the art fitness centre. Oh and don’t forget about the free sunshine and warm weather, when ours is not. What a bonus!

A single family 3/2/2 bungalow (that’s 3 bdrm, 2 full bath, 2 car garage) can be had for $100,000 and up. Compared to here, the same home costs close to $400,000 so the 4 to 1 ratio still applies. Mind boggling isn’t it? Rent your new dream home out say 8 weeks a year at $1,000/week to Canadians and you live/play in the sunbelt for free, because you don’t have a mortgage if you can use your home equity here to purchase for ‘all cash’ there. Add a $25K to $50K premium for waterfront location and boating, and voila, you have a winter cottage in Florida. If you want to be an investor and buy multiple U.S. properties, call us for guidance. With a long term ‘hold’ strategy producing positive cash flows, the potential returns appear to be excellent as well. The keys are to pay cash, hold long term, and be rewarded handsomely.

As far as your personal vacation dream home is concerned, because it is so inexpensive (in relative terms) don’t even think about selling for profit. Future profits will come but think about keeping it in the family as your ‘Southern Cottage’. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? And please, by all means, call us first to give you the best advice going forward.

Our contest is over and the grand prize winner of a one week summer vacation at a beautiful log home/cottage (Lantern Lane) in Port Elgin in late August is Kim Lesperance from Fergus. Congratulations Kim.

Thank you to participating sponsors, The Breadalbane Inn, Tandoori, Stone Creek, The Goofie Newfie, O’Brien’s and The Brew House. Donny lived it up this past weekend at the Brew House enjoying Canada Day Weekend festivities and the great tastes around town all June long.

By the way, our life size cut out of Don was returned anonymously just 3 days before the end of the contest. Yeah, welcome back Don. We certainly had a lot of fun, especially meeting so many wonderful people at the local establishments in town. Happy summer everyone!

ON THE MORTGAGE FRONT: If you are getting a new mortgage from a bank, make sure you ask them up front if it is a Collateral Mortgage. If the answer is yes, ask lots of questions, and do so when you make an application; that is, do not wait until signing when all the legal work and expense has been incurred.  Ask if it will be registered above sale price/value and ask if the fine print gives the bank the right to increase the rate without your permission. We think that the new collateral mortgage product is definitely in their favour and we do not recommend them to our clients.

Better yet. Save yourself the time and hassle by calling us first for your next mortgage. We’ve got your back covered.