Written by Klaus Rohrich on Wednesday, 10 March 2010
With the explosive growth in adult lifestyle communities across North America, the concept of differentiation has assumed a crucial level of importance. There are broad reasons why individuals chose to move to an adult lifestyle community, but there are also specific reasons. And these specific reasons are turning out to be more important than the broad reasons.
The broad reasons for relocation are usually based on sizing down and cashing out of an existing home that has become too large as the kids grew up, moved out and started families of their own. As such, most people selling a large family home do so to enjoy a leisure lifestyle in a smaller home and have some cash left over after the change.
But, as art historian Aby Warburg noted, “the devil is in the detail”, meaning that when it comes to adult lifestyle communities, it’s the specifics that count.
Written by Klaus Rohrich on Monday, 01 February 2010
In Ontario numerous forms of tenure are in use and the laws of the province govern them all.
Freehold- the simplest and most straightforward tenure, meaning that the purchaser owns his home, as well as the lot on which it sits.The municipality is responsible for the care and maintenance of the streets, garbage removal, water and sewage, while the homeowner is obligated to maintain the property to municipal standards and is required to use the home only as permitted by municipal zoning.Property taxes are calculated on the value of the home and the land.
In the context of a freehold adult lifestyle community, however, there could be restrictive covenants, usually set forth as a condition in the Offer of Purchase and Sale, which are subsequently registered on title.These could include the number of permanent residents occupying the dwelling and/or compulsory contribution to the care and maintenance of a common area, such as a community centre.Failure to pay one’s share of scheduled fees is lienable by the residents’ association and has withstood legal challenges.
Written by Klaus Rohrich on Saturday, 30 January 2010
A friend recently told me the story of an elderly couple who sold their 2,700-sq. ft. home through a “friendly real estate agent” on the same day the property was listed. The home sold for $279,000 firm, which was the asking price. The kicker is that similar homes in the neighbourhood sold for upwards of $100,000 more. This reminded me of elderly neighbours of mine who sold their home last year. The home was on a 100-ft. Lake Ontario waterfront lot and it sold the day they listed it for $259,000. Similar homes on our street would sell for substantially more than that, if they ever came on the market.
