The creation of an outdoor space requires some thought before launching off and creating one that will meet your needs. Start by establishing an overall objective and then develop a plan followed by financial estimates. Do not forget to investigate the need for any local permits that you may need to erect any structures that you plan to build in your back yard. It is your yard and property but it is also subject to local bylaws and building codes.

Outdoor spaces can be created to entertain family and friends. They can also be developed to offer a cozy backyard space for just chilling on a warm summer night or staying warm during those crisp autumn evenings. What kind of space do you intend? How many people will the space need to accommodate? What main features will be part of the area? These are some of the main questions that need to be answered in order to develop a plan for the creation of the outdoor part of your residence.

The most basic outdoor space will have a patio area. Add some chairs and a nice table and you have the nucleus. Will the patio become or be connected to a courtyard, deck, or porch? What about walls and a covered space? Will the space be protected from the elements? Will there be a wall or walls to keep out the prevailing winds? Even with a protected space there will generally be on side that is open so that you can enjoy the out of doors and any view that may be offered. Will there be an open covering such as a pergola or a fully covered roofed in space? Will the roof be opaque or see through? All of these questions should be answered by the overall effect that you are trying to create. Will the additional area be an extension of the home built to enjoy the outdoor area or will it be an additional space such as a covered patio built in the back yard? As you get more elaborate think of the spaces as rooms.

What will be the main feature and focal point of this outdoor living area? How about a gazebo, garden, water feature, pool, a stone fireplace or a hot tub? Perhaps a centrally located fire pit? Fireplaces and fire pits often draw people towards them. Will they be gas or wood fueled? Perhaps all of these features are planned for the back yard. How will they be connected? Will the patio extend out to connect each area? Will there be walkways or patio stones? The choices are almost limitless.

Next up the scale is what kind of eating area. Will there be a bar-b-q or something more elaborate like an outdoor kitchen? Will there also be a bar area? How often is the area intended to be used? Will it be four seasons or primarily built for the summer? Is the local area affected by bugs and how will they be dealt with to enhance enjoyment of the space? How will weather affect your plan and design? Will the area be designed to deal with rain, wind, and perhaps snow? What about the sun and its effects on things like furniture? Where will the sun be when you are outside and enjoying your space? Will sightlines be impacted?

What about lighting, water features for white noise, and music to enhance the effect and overall impact of your creation? These are often among the finishing touches that can push a space from good to great. Will this area be designed as one large connected area or will there be strategic zones? One area for relaxing, one for eating, one for gathering, and another for enjoying the view. Maintenance is also another consideration that needs to be addressed in the design stage. What type of maintenance will need to be done on the structures, the appliances, and the features? Ensure that there is the required access.

One more thing to consider is access and traffic flow. From where will you access the space both within and outside of your home? If you have a pool or hot tub, will there be a building to change and shower outside or will you have to do that inside. Ensure that you consider access to and from an area that will effectively deal with the water being tracked in and out. Walking across a tiled area with wet feet inside your home is no big deal but doing so on hardwood or carpet may create issues and/or problems that you do not want to introduce.

It does not matter whether you plan to build a simple deck or a much more elaborate design to enjoy your back yard and view. Build it to meet your needs and expectations and enjoy the additional quality of life that it will bring. The fresh air will help invigorate, and the features will help establish the overall mood and level of relaxation and enjoyment. Plan ahead, design it well, and you will be rewarded with another great living space on your property.

Crown Isle is not about royalty nor is it about an island. It is about high quality homes and a quality of life that is hard to beat. This resort and golf course community is located about half way up Vancouver Island in the City of Courtenay, British Columbia. You do not have to golf to enjoy living in this great friendly neighbourhood.

Variety of Residences

Take a stroll around the wide streets that provide access to homes of the Crown Isle resort. Here you will find many different styles of luxurious single family homes both on and near the well-known and highly regarded platinum rated golf course. People who live here come for the lifestyle and proximity to almost everything the Comox Valley has to offer. Walk to Tim Hortons, Costco and other local shopping. Enjoy the scenic vistas of the local mountain range, the Comox Glacier and the nearby Pacific Ocean. Visit friends in high end single family homes, condos, patio homes or townhomes. At night do not worry about finding your way along the sidewalks and wide streets because they are well lit with unique classy heritage style street lamps. As you walk around enjoying the fresh Pacific air you will encounter many other people outside doing the same thing.

Weather

The weather in this area is hard to beat. The summers are often pleasant and warm while the winters are very moderate with snowflakes a rare sighting. Micro climates are common and the nearby airport boasts the best weather in the Comox Valley region. Few parts of Canada can compete with the weather that is a regular occurrence in Crown Isle. Where else in Canada can you cut the grass or wash your car outside in February? Even in the coldest month the temperature rarely goes below freezing. When you do need a change the airport is a five minute drive away where you can catch flights to many different sun-drenched destinations.

Things to Do

Outdoor living, arts festivals, farmers markets, and wineries are a few of the many different things that are offered in the local area. Try fishing one day and fine dining the next. Watch the sun go down on the ocean, enjoy a meal in a local pub, and then go listen to some great jazz music in the city. The options are almost endless and they are only limited by your imagination. World class fishing, boating, and skiing are a short distance away from this centrally located community. When you get tired of going out and being active until the sun goes down, retire to the comfort of your home theatre room in your Crown Isle luxury home and let your senses be entertained.

Real Estate Options

If you choose you can have a home custom built to your needs in Crown Isle but remember that there is a waiting list for the better builders and that you will likely pay a premium when compared to buying a home that is already built and ready for you to move right in. You should really check out all of the Crown Isle homes for sale to see if you can find the right one for you. The Crown Isle community has a number of different subdivisions within its borders. The Britannia Place subdivision is a gated community of nice patio homes located at 3399 Crown Isle Drive that offer main floor living and many have great views of the 12th fairway of the golf course. The Corinthia Estates subdivision is almost right next door and it offers six different high end condo buildings with underground parking. Many of the condominiums offer great views of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th fairways. The Crown Point Subdivision is a bit farther away located at 3100 Kensington Crescent. It offers mid range patio homes that border the 1th and 13th fairways. The Hampton Gate subdivision is a gated community located at 1290 Crown Isle Drive. It offers higher end single family homes on bare land strata lots near the 16th fairway. Head south along Crown Isle drive to Sussex Boulevard and you will see a new development of single family homes in the Sussex Lake subdivision. Go a bit farther south to find the Southpoint subdivision which is a smaller development of patio homes nestled up against the trees. Come back north and as you drive up Crown Isle drive you will notice the Crown Isle Drive Extension near the 15th fairway T box. Farther north near the Quality Foods is a small subdivision of 18 Patio Homes known as The Grove. Across Ryan Road and past Costco you will find The Rise subdivision which is one of the newest developments in the area.

Future Development

The development of Crown Isle will continue for many years to come. Crown Isle Drive will eventually wrap all the way around past the 14th and 13th T boxes and connect with the part of Crown Isle Blvd that currently stops just past Kensington Crescent. As additional developments get announced we will cover them on this website and update readers with the newest information on this glorious community within walking distance of many different conveniences.

The Crown Isle Golf Course and Resort Community offers mostly single family Freehold homes but other options do include condos and patio homes as well as a subdivison of bare land strata lots. If you are looking for a new lifestyle that exudes our Island Style and Time come out for a visit and ask Brett to be your guide to this fabulous area. You may just decide to relocate here as many other people have and continue to do.

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• Why we need Fairtrade in Construction and Homes

The Fairtrade Mark is the independent consumer label that you see on a product that meets international Fairtrade Standards. Why is this important to you as a consumer? It shows that a product has been certified to offer a better deal to people like farmers who produce the product. Many products originate from around the world and they are made by people in developing countries. Fairtrade ensures that these people are paid a fair price, that they work in safe working conditions, maintain a high standard of human rights and there is a prohibition on child labour. Products need to be ethically produced and independently certified and we, as consumers, can be assured that we get a product of high quality and good value for money.

Fairtrade Certified Products use rigorous social, environmental and economic standards to promote safe, healthy working conditions, protect the environment, enable transparency, and empower communities to build, strong, thriving businesses. Currently the Fairtrade certified label applies to products such as apparel & home goods, beans & grains, body care, cocoa and coffee, packaged foods, flowers & plants, fruits and vegetables, honey, herbs and spices, nuts and oilseeds, seafood, spirits, sports balls, sugar, tea and wine.

The global reach of Fairtrade is significant but much more needs to be done with this well-known brand Currently more than 12,000 products from more than 70 developing counties can be found in more than 100,000 retail locations across North America. Fairtrade USA is a non-profit organization located in Oakland California and the leading third party certifier of Fair Trade products in the USA. Fairtrade Canada is located in Ottawa, Ontario.

Building and furnishing homes requires many different products that range from the building materials themselves to the fuel used to run the machinery needed to build homes to the many different products used to furnish our homes. Some of these products are supplied from within North America but many are supplied from abroad.

The Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) provided stability for industry in Canada and the US until it expired on October 2, 2015. These cost of softwood lumber is up along with ready mix concrete and gypsum. The rising costs of products like these gets reflected in a number of products used to build homes and in turn the prices of the finished homes go up. This is especially noticeable in small market areas where volume buy discounts are not often significant enough to counter the effects of the higher prices.

While many of the basic building materials are source from within North America, a considerable number of consumer products used to finish and furnish homes are not. When was the last time you were able to find lighting options in your local home hardware store that were made in North America. Many of them are made offshore and they are shoddily made. Moreover some of them are made in factories with little regard for human working conditions where the bottom line dollar value of producing the product for as little as possible is king. We, as consumers, are not well served by that approach and articles for decades have been stating the same thing. Here is one from the Harvard Business Review in 1988 that states manufacturing offshore is bad business.

The article states that companies went abroad initially to secure foreign markets or to obtain raw materials but they then went overseas to buy or make products to ship back to North America. They defended the moves by saying they had to do it to compete with inexpensive high quality imports. The problem, as we have increasingly experienced, is that the imports are often not high quality. In fact some of them are pure garbage. The reality simply did not match the rhetoric. It was all about the bottom line and making money and still is. We need a Fairtrade brand that can be applied to all materials and products used to build and furnish our living spaces. In fact such a process and certification should be applied to all consumer products.

Fairtrade USA and Canada what do you think?

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• Property Valuations – All Over the Map

“How much is my (or that) home worth?” is one of the most asked questions in real estate. Property valuations are one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of real estate.

Property valuations can be both subjective and objective. If asked how much their own home is worth, homeowners often provide a subjective answer that is influenced by an emotional attachment. Rarely does a homeowner think their own home is worth less than it actually is. Objective valuations can include:
• Actual value;
• Insured value;
• Lending value;
• Appraised value;
• Assessed value; and
• Market value

Before going further and discussing each of the above valuations, it is important to understand that definitions are often influenced established by context. What constitutes actual value can and often does vary by context and industry. For example, the Actual Cash Value of a home for insurance purposes is different than what an accountant will apply for financial calculations. Since most dictionaries define actual as real and not merely possible let’s consider the actual value of a home as its selling price. The selling price is real and not estimated. All of the other values mentioned above (insured, lending, assessed, appraised, and market) are estimates done for a particular purpose.

Insured Value

The insured value of a home is an estimate. Most homeowners are given the choice of insuring their home at either Actual Cost Value or Replacement Cost Value. Actual Cost Value is calculated as Replacement Cost minus depreciation. Replacement Cost is different from the market value of your home. Replacement cost would cover the actual cost of materials and labour to rebuild your home but your lot is not covered, just the structures.

Lending Value

Lending value is a long-term, conservative estimate of the value of the property pledged as security for the loan. An appraiser, reporting to a lender, provides a statement of the current value and possible future trends in the value of the subject property. Elements of market value that are short run or speculative are often disregarded. It is important to the lender that the value of the security exceeds the outstanding balance of the loan throughout the full life of the debt so that the lender’s investment remains protected. Lending value is generally less than market value, sometimes equal, and almost never above.

Appraised Value

Home and property appraisals are completed by an individual for a fee. Most provinces do not require appraisers to be licensed. In BC anyone may legally undertake appraisal work and charge a fee for the appraisal services.

The subject of the appraisal should include the value of the rights of ownership and the physical property in which those rights are vested.
Legal interests in the property which may include fee-simple ownership, leasehold estate, condominium ownership, airspace, easements or any combination of separate interests. Differences in ownership rights can cause differences in value and the appraiser must know exactly what ownership rights are to be appraised. As well, the appraiser may use either the cost approach, comparison approach, or income approach to conduct the valuation. Different methods can and do yield different results.

Done by a trained and competent appraiser, appraisals can be close to market value assuming that the same ownership rights and method of estimate are used in both valuations. There are many different people providing appraisals and it is necessary to distinguish between uniformed estimates (guesses) and properly prepared appraisals as well as the type and methods used.

Assessed Value

The assessed value of a property is one that is done for property tax assessment purposes. The assessor is supposed to value all interests in land but they are constrained to certain dates as follows:
Valuation date – July 1st of valuation year;
Assessment notice data completion – December 31st of valuation year; and
Assessment notice appeal deadline – early February following year.

Assessed values are always dated by many months and up to a year earlier so even if the assessment did actually represent the market value of a home it will be quickly out of date when the market changes. Also consider the following:
• The assessment is supposed to value all interests in land;
• Assessors often base their assessment on the statistical information they have on the home;
• Assessors rarely visit the inside of a home before doing an assessment; and
• Assessors must complete assessments on many different homes over a short period of time.

How can an assessor under the circumstances mentioned above provide an accurate market value on a home? The short answer is that they cannot. Also consider, that homeowners can appeal their assessments to have the assessment changed. How many homeowners argue for their assessment to be increased if they know the market value of their home is higher than their assessment? It is in any homeowner’s best interest to have an assessment as low as possible to have taxes payable as low as possible.

It is important to remember that property tax assessments are done for property tax purposes. They are not done to provide homeowners (or anyone else) with market valuations of their home that they can use to sell their homes.

Market Value

Market valuations are not without their challenges. First, there is no commonly accepted definition. For example, the Canadian Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, the International Valuation Standards Committee, the Federal Expropriation Act and the BC Real Estate Trading Services Real Estate Licensing Manual all use different definitions.

The market value of an interest in land is the price it might reasonably be expected to realize when sold by a willing seller to a willing buyer after adequate time and exposure to the market.

While market value is generally the best estimate of value for home sellers looking to advertize homes for sale in the Comox Valley, no valuation should be considered without an actual visit to the home by the person doing the valuation. Two homes can appear to be the same statistically in a database but the layout, features, and interior finishing can result in very different estimates of market value. As well, not all realtors have the same level of education, training and experience. The assessment should be done by an experienced and competent realtor who knows the local market well.

When you need to sell your home, turn to Brett Cairns of RE/MAX Ocean Pacific Realty to be your Realtor and to get the most out of your home selling experience in the Comox Valley.

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• Multi-Generational Homes in the Comox Valley

Multi-Generational homes are commonplace in most parts of the world but less so in Canada. Having said this they are gaining traction as an alternative to more expensive options for extended families. There are currently more than 511,700 grandparents in a shared home with their grandchildren also living with one or more persons from the middle generation.
 
In some cultures it is typical and expected that multiple generations of families live together but these families make up a small percentage of those in Canada. The following are some of the reasons for this growing segment of the home market in Canada:

• Financial reasons that include shared housing costs, to counter rising housing costs, and to help family members who may be or become unemployed;
• Family reasons such as strengthening family ties, helping with children and aging family members and having others to keep an eye on the home while some members are away, and providing a more flexible schedules for all members;
• Health reasons that include assisted living help and to take care of family members with long-term health issues;
• Social reasons that include preventing a sense of social isolation.
• Factors such as the high cost of living, especially in major urban areas, tough job markets particularly in smaller communities and high student debt load all contribute to reducing the stigma of adult children living at home.

Over 40 percent of 20-29 year old current live in the parental home. At the other end of the scale parents moving in with grown children are contributing to a growing percentage of growing multi-generational homes. The average age of Canadians is continuing to rise with more than 16% over age 65.
 
The layout of multi-generational homes is often a point of discussion and planning. All people like to have their own space and privacy but still retain an ability to be supported or supportive in some way. Features of homes are also a consideration and stairs for elderly people are one of the most common. Many towns and cities have become aware of this new need and they are loosening bylaws to facilitate the construction of these types of homes or renovation of existing homes to meet these needs. Suites within homes have always been with us to help with mortgages but these types of homes within homes go a step beyond merely having a suite or suites within a home.

Multi-generational homes may offer separate entrances, the additions of one or more wings onto the homes having extra bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens, wider doors and hallways, separate living spaces connected by hallways and common areas. The layout and features are only limited by the needs of the family and the resources available to them.

Check out Comox Valley MLS listings to view multi-generational homes in the Comox Valley region. The main part of the home has an inlaw suite and it connects via a hallway to a 2 bedroom condo-like living accommodation.

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• The Real Estate Business Exposed

The real estate business is highly regulated, highly competitive, and expensive. Most people will understand that real estate agencies, like any other business, have significant expenses associate with running a business.

What is not well known is how the business side of real estate operates at the individual agent level. While agents are required to be licensed through agencies in order to provide people with real estate services, in many cases they operate as independent contractors. As such, they are not employees of the agency, they do not get paid a salary by the agency, they incur many different expenses of their own to stay in business, and they only make money when they complete home sales for buyers or sellers.

People in business know that there are many expenses associated with running a business. These expenses are both fixed and variable. Fixed expenses are those associated with being in business. Variable expenses are those associated with the provision of products or services. Real estate is one of the many service-based industries in Canada.

Once real estate agents are licensed, they have to generate business to stay in business. The agency does not do this for them. They, and they alone, are responsible to do this. With any business, it takes money to make money, to stay in business, and to be profitable. A few of the real estate agent fixed expenses include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Annual licensing fees
• Annual professional insurance fees
• Annual professional association fees
• Annual membership fees
• Annual accreditation fees
• Annual tech fees
• Monthly real estate board fees
• Monthly management fees
• Monthly agency fees
• Monthly online marketing and advertising costs
• Monthly system fees
• Monthly utility bills
• Monthly equipment fees
• Office equipment expenses
• Office supplies
• Office expenses
• Motor vehicle expenses
• Ongoing Professional Development course fees
• Salaries of assistants

Some of the real estate agent variable expenses include but are not limited to:

• Marketing and advertising homes for sale (online, print, etc.)
• Personal marketing
• Agency fees
• Motor vehicle operating expenses
• Motor vehicle maintenance expenses
• Travel expenses (courses, meetings, etc.)

When you engage an agent, you are engaging the capability, expertise, knowledge, and competency of that agent. While these aspects often vary with each agent, some agents developed them through years of education, training, experience, and expense. Additional expenses are incurred to maintain and improve upon individual agent capabilities and knowledge through ongoing education and training.

Yes, real estate agents do incur many different fixed and variable expenses to be in and stay in business, and to provide real estate services to people. For buyers, agent expenses go far beyond the gas spent driving people around. For sellers, agent expenses go far beyond the cost of a few newspaper ads. Fixed expenses can easily add up to thousands of dollars a month and more. Variable expenses drive expenses even higher.

Real estate agents are willing to incur these expenses for serious buyers and sellers. When buyers or sellers are not serious or committed to near term transactions, agents must make business decisions in favour of those who are in order to stay in business and to continue to be able to provide real estate services to people who need them. Generally, the longer it takes to do something, the more it costs, and there is a “break-even” point for every transaction. As the old saying goes, time is money and this is no less true in real estate than any other business.

When you need to buy or sell a home in the Comox Valley, turn to Brett Cairns at RE/MAX Ocean Pacific Realty for help.