Here it is guys! Read ’em and weep! I mean, enjoy!

Well, it’s not The Donald. In fact it’s Canada’s youngest billionaire, Alex Shnaider. And not only is he the muscle behind the vertically challenged Trump Tower but he’s also a client. The Toronto Star had an excellent article that you can read HERE. Enjoy!

Did you know that the average home price in Canada’s 25 largest cities has risen to $332,442? According to the National Post report housing prices have risen more than 13% from a year ago. I bet you dodn’t even know that Canada had 25 cities! Can you name even 10?!

Even so, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is agreeing with ‘experts’ that Canada should have more than 25 cities…just kidding…CREA says that the housing market is cooling. Not crashing. Cooling. Ahhhhh…..

Condos are booming in the ‘burbs. I thought that the only thing to be found there was white picket fences and semi-detached shoeboxes? See! You learn something new everytime you visit this blog!

The financial mess in the States as a result of sub-prime mortgages is HUGE news down south. Just don’t see that happening in conservative Canade. But it does make ya’ll feel good, doesn’t it? LOL!

Sorry. I know it’s not funny. But if you want to know the history of the sub-prime crash read the following story that I found in the Globe and Mail.

Recently, many of you have heard about the literary phenomenon called “The Secret”. It’s a book and a movie about the concept of the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction simply states that what I think concentrate on with faith mixed with emotion and topped off with a little hard work will come to pass.

The concept is not difficult to understand. In fact, I came across this and many other success principles while reading a book called “Think & Grow Rich” which was written by Napoleon Hill in the middle of the last century.

Why am I telling you about books in this posting on INSPIRation? I wholeheartedly believe that inspiration and even motivation must be internal moreso than external. And reading such books can help us all figure out the tools we need to embrace so that we can live a life of inspiration!

I am just finishing reading “Think & Grow Rich.” When I’m done, I’ll leave a little report here on what I’ve learned.

Until next time.

Karim

09:48 AM
Canadian Press

Real estate firm Royal LePage Franchise Services Fund (TSX: RSF.UN) reported today its second-quarter earnings more than doubled to $3.6 million from a year-earlier $1.5 million.

Earnings per unit for the period were 36 cents on a diluted basis, compared with 15 cents per unit in the prior-year period.

Royalty revenue for the April-June period was $8.8 million, up 11.4 per cent over $7.9 million in the same period in 2006 on “continued growth of the Canadian residential real estate resale market,” the fund said in a release.
“The growth in royalty revenue exceeded our expectations, reflecting the ongoing expansion of the Fund’s underlying network of Realtors, the surprising strength in housing unit sales and steady average price appreciation across Canada,” president and CEO Philip Soper said.

Units of the trust, whose revenue comes from franchise and service levies charged to 600 locations of brokers and agents under the Royal LePage and Johnston & Daniel brands, were untraded early Wednesday at $13.56 on the TSX.

THE BATTLE OF 1 KING WEST

TheStar.com

Harry Stinson’s nightmare

“We love this building. … But we’ve been thrown like pawns onto the battlefield” Mark Russo , 1 King West condominium owner

His patience expired, David Mirvish goes to court to get his millions back

Aug 08, 2007

04:30 AM

Jennifer Wells , Business columnist

“Unfortunately, I have lost a great deal of money, and I have lost all confidence in Mr. Stinson as a person with whom to do business. Unfortunately, he is not competent to run the businesses operated by SHI and Club Corp.”
–Affidavit of David Mirvish

David Mirvish is calling on his cell. The reception isn’t great, but then, Mirvish would prefer to say little at this juncture.

At the end of last week, just as the city was downing tools for a summer’s long weekend, Mirvish filed a notice of motion in Superior Court seeking to have Harry Stinson removed from the operations at 1 King West.

Seeking to have a receiver step in and supplant Stinson Hospitality Inc., which manages the hotel component at 1 King.

Seeking to have certain properties within the development, including the club facilities, turned over to K One Holding Inc., a.k.a. David Mirvish.

Seeking, not to put too fine a point on it, to see the end of Harry Stinson.

“I’ve been forced to ask for this motion not of my actions, but because of Harry’s actions,” Mirvish says.

“Harry has not lived up to his agreement.”

At his office at 1 King, Stinson answers the phone with a deadening “Hullo.”
How is he feeling? “Well,” he says, “nightmare would be an appropriate word.”

The agreement to which Mirvish refers, little of which has been on public view, was meant, in part, to steer the long overdue resolution of an $11.8 million debt owed by Stinson to Mirvish.

Stinson had purchased from Mirvish certain commercial spaces at 1 King, including the private club facilities and the subground parking spaces.

Stinson first defaulted on that debt in June 2006. Extensions were granted. Last March, Stinson filed for bankruptcy protection. In April, a confidential settlement was reached between the parties. As part of that agreement, an undisclosed sum was due to be paid by Stinson to Mirvish on July 31. That didn’t happen.

That’s the dry version.

The fuller tale recalls the long-ago loan of $125,000 made by David Mirvish to Harry Stinson, which seeded an unlikely alliance between the theatre impresario and the condominium developer, which grew into loans totalling hundreds of thousands and then millions of dollars, including the Mirvish-backed acquisition of the old Dominion Bank building at King and Yonge, the historic, and somewhat cursed, component of the condo hotel.

Through it all, David Mirvish has repeatedly said that he only ever wanted to see Harry Stinson succeed. Harry Stinson has repeatedly acknowledged David Mirvish’s patience in awaiting his payback.

Up until mid-July, Harry Stinson thought he could call on David Mirvish’s patience yet again. He says he was “knocking on every bloody door we could think of” in an attempt to tee up financing to buy Mirvish out. When that failed, he hoped to appease Mirvish by sending over three cheques, each for $70,000, dated the first of August, September and October.

The cheques were returned.

There are, as there always are in corporate divorces, stories behind the numbers. In an affidavit filed in late March, Mirvish refers to “a number of events” that caused him to lose confidence in Stinson’s ability to continue as chief executive officer of SHI and Club Corp. He cites the sale of a 1 King condo for the sum of $2.4 million. The bulk of those funds, however, were not delivered to 1 King West Inc., but rather to Stinson Properties.

According to the affidavit, at a meeting in March 2005, “Mr. Stinson admitted culpability and assured us that this was the only instance of his misappropriation of funds due and owing to 1KWI.”

Mirvish Enterprises ended up covering the purchase price, in exchange for a promissory note from Stinson personally for $2.2 million. As of March 12, no monies had been repaid on the note despite demands made.

In an interview yesterday Stinson would not discuss this matter, nor the affidavit’s further assertion of the unauthorized use of residential units as hotel rooms, generating rental income for Stinson Hospitality. “I’d rather not,” Stinson said when asked to comment. “They’re really complicated.”

Bob Verdun, president of the condominium corporation, says Stinson “used the money (from the condo sale) to complete the hotel. … Mirvish wasn’t paying for the infrastructure for the hotel. That’s what Stinson used the money for.”

Verdun is standing fast in his support of Stinson who, he says, “has been a magician.” He’s busily trying to rally condo owners to protest Mirvish’s attempts to take control of the hotel rental management program. The authority for that, he insists, rests with the board. “It’s absolutely devastating to suggest a receiver will do anybody any good,” he says.

Mark Russo is one condo owner who sheds no tears for Harry Stinson. But he doesn’t shed any tears for David Mirvish either. Together with family members, Russo owns five units at 1 King. He has lived through the broken promises of guaranteed investment returns, and the ongoing battle over the taxation of units used as hotel suites. “We love this building, we want it to succeed,” Russo says. “But we’ve been thrown like pawns onto the battlefield.”

Russo would like to see a forensic audit of the whole operation.

In the meantime, Stinson supporters and Stinson detractors will undoubtedly gather to hear David Mirvish’s court motion, scheduled for Friday. Harry Stinson himself will be there for what could be his last stand.

Welcome to my first post.

This note has been inspired by by wife Minaz. She is an amazing lady. She is smart, funny, sexy, passionate, and headstrong. She never lets me get away with crap. Especially when she knows I can do better.

So this morning she challenged me. Not in any sort of rude or degrading way. What she was saying was, “Come on Karim! You can do better than this! Your family deserves more and you deserve more!”

So, Minaz, not only is this post dedicated to you; but so am I. I will do whatever I can and more to make sure that I do you and our son, Kahzmir, proud!

Love,

Karim

The view from the Second Floor of our palatial executive offices looks like this:

Canadian Cottage prices are going through the roof.

Remember Sam the Record Man in Toronto? Well, it’s closed, but here is the real estate story…

$15.78 million Toronto estate! MLS Details HERE!!!

Light-Hearted read with a nice “real estate” story at the beginning.

Looking to invest in real estate in Toronto? I hear there will be a big play on the Honest Ed’s real estate holdings.

Saskatchewanmania!! No we didn’t find a big hairy beast. Just a booming western real estate market.

Yeah!!! Miller lost…for now… More HERE.

Scotiabank says housing market in CANADA is cooling!

Enough with my ranting.

Here are some interesting articles….

After-Tax Exodus to 905-Area predicted.

Toronto Star backs Miller and Tax. (you gotta be kidding me!)

More proof Toronto Star loves Mayor Miller.

Toronto Sun reports on Tax Attack!

Peterborough weighs in on Tax debate.

Service Cuts vs. New Taxes.

Interesting analysis from a fellow blogger….

…more blogger analysis.

Demystifying the proposed Land Transfer Tax.

Globe and Mail calls Tax a recipe for slowing economy.

Open Letter to Mayor Miller.

Happy Canada Day Everyone! Hope that you had a great long weekend!

The blasts are starting to come from inside city hall as well. Many of you know that Mayor Miller of Toronto is instituting drastic changes to the tax code in Toronto that will hit everyone who drives a car and owns a home. For what purpose? We really don’t know other than he is appealing to no one with a brain. Read Case Ootes’ reaction HERE.

Can you believe there is STILL debate about the investing in real estate versus stock market? Can’t we all just get along? Geez! Well, HERE is an article from Sympatico/MSN.

Did you ever like David Letterman? Well, I sure did! And I really enjoyed his Top Ten List! On most nights they were a good source of ab workouts, if you know what I mean. Well, in this spirit, I would like to present to you the Top Ten Reasons to invest in Kitchener/Waterloo Real Estate…….

Top 10 List.

That’s all for now folks!

Karim Kanji

Yes. I am sitting on the Second Floor of our palatial offices here in midtown Toronto. The sun is baking, the sky is threatening and the real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down!

So, here is the news as i see it from here!

When the U.S. sneezes, does Canada catch a cold? Apparently, we have been taking our echinecea. Read an elightening article HERE.

Despite the public outcry from the public and groups such as TREB, it looks like David Miller has gained the necessary approvals for his controversial new land transfer tax.

What does this mean to prospective home buyers?

Well, on a home purchase in Toronto of $400,000, the land transfer tax portion of your closing costs just jumped from $4500 to $9000. This doubling of the effective tax rate will raise the city an extra $300 million per year.

This is a cash grab in the worst possible way. Taxes will be doubled but home buyers will have nothing to show for it. Mayor Miller says that raising these taxes are the only way to pay for the City’s massive budget shortfall. Apparently he sees no other solution than to force the entire financial burden of the city upon those willing to invest in purchasing their own home! Go figure!!!

Toronto will soon have the highest land transfer tax rate in all of Canada! Home buyers contribute approximately $2 billion to Toronto’s economy. Make no mistake, the city will feel the impact of this new tax.

HERE is a CBC article about the opposition to the City of Tax, opps, I mean, Toronto’s proposed taxes.

A nice article about CONDO MANIA in Canada.

This piece of news isn’t making much noise. Even on the interenet. Nevertheless, I thought I’d report it HERE for you folks to pick up on and debate. The government of Canada is selling off alot of taxpayer owned buildings. No big deal but at what cost? Guess what? Apparently, nobody knows ’cause PM Harper ain’t telling. Interesting….

Little Timmins at the head of the LIST. Serious. Stop laughing!

Funniest Agent’s Listings! Will put a smile on your face!

That’s all folks! Have a great day!