BRACING FOR AND DEALING WITH THE STORMS
It seems a bit ridiculous to talk about real estate investing when our friends, family and colleagues are facing Hurricane Fiona. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those people and families, and fur-babies!
But I am in awe of the symbolism today. Mother Nature has decided to flex her muscles, and show off her powers! The humble humans are simply forced to stop their regular lives, prepare, and deal with both the storm, and the aftermath. At the same time, the Feds have aggressively flexed their muscles to try to control inflation. And the market is freaking out –with a fiscal storm. Yes, the issue is far more complex than today’s events. But my point is that the financial storms FEEL similar to a massive weather storm, for many people.
There are a lot of stresses in Canada today! It’s a tough time to keep emotions in check, and remain as rational and strategic as possible.
Safety always comes first. On the East Coast, some are renting hotel rooms, some are leaving the province for a while, and some are filling their homes with food, water and flashlights. Apparently storm chips are a thing too? Wink, wink. My point is simply that it’s the same storm. But each person assesses their risk, based on their location or specific needs, and determines what actions they need to take.
Financial storms aren’t much different. When we have time to prepare, we can be proactive. Older investors may prefer to move money into a “safer” investment for a while. Experienced investors may simply ride out the storm, trusting in their cashflow and mortgage paydown. Aggressive investors may remember 2008, and might already be looking for new opportunities.
We are not prescribing any specific action for any other investor. YOU know what you need to do to be able to sleep at night.
For us, we love assets that we can touch, kick, fix, and improve. And we know that everyone needs somewhere to live. And we are VERY excited about the diversification in the Alberta and Calgary economies. Did you see all the jobs coming with the De Havilland announcement this week? https://calgaryherald.com/business/varcoe-heartbeat-is-going-to-be-here-in-alberta-de-havilland-to-announce-major-aircraft-manufacturing-complex-west-of-calgary (fyi, it’s east of Calgary).
We see Alberta and Calgary as the national contrarians these days. We have weathered storms since 2013, we’ve dealt with the aftermath, we’ve grown our resilience. The 2013 floods, the Fort Mac fire, the hail storm that devastated NE Calgary, were all physical storms. Financially, we had a recession while many areas of the country were booming. But now, we’re comfortably in our recovery phase of the real estate cycle. But as any storm survivor will tell you, the clean up and recovery phase is plenty of hard work!
Today’s post is intentionally a bit light. Don’t we all have enough on our plate this week? Be safe, be well, and when you’re ready, give us a call to chat real estate investing.
