Turner Drake Blog

No one wants to tell a client their space looks like a recent episode of Hoarders. However, it is essential to show a space in its best light to reduce the marketing exposure time and get the best price (rent) for your client.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when selling or leasing your space:

1. Clean Unit: There is nothing worse than walking through a cobweb, jumping back in fear that you have a spider crawling on your back, only to brush your good suit jacket up against a wall covered in gyproc dust. Tip: Take a duster and vacuum through the unit on a regular basis to ensure it is fresh and clean for each showing. 

2. Clean Washrooms: Believe it or not, people actually open the toilet cover while touring a space. Although pink is pretty, it is not so much when it comes in the form of a ring around a toilet bowl. Tip: Flush the toilet every few days to ensure the stagnant water does not leave a mark.

3. Fresh Paint: Let’s face it; some people cannot get passed the harvest gold paint! While it was modern in 1970, it is not anymore. Tip: Although it can be a bit of an investment, prime the walls (and ceiling if applicable) in a contemporary white colour. Not only will it enhance the appeal to potential tenants and purchasers, but it will help them envision their organisation’s color scheme and give the unit a fresh feeling

4. Flooring: Can you see the subfloor through the carpet? Are there multiple chips in the ceramic tile from accidentally dropping a heavy piece of equipment? Tip: If a good cleaning does nothing to improve the appearance of the flooring in the unit, I recommend removing it and leaving exposed concrete.

5. Garbage & Storage: While it is very tempting to use your vacant unit as a storage room for garbage, excess materials, for your own company etc… don’t. Tip: Leave the unit empty. It is hard for a potential tenant/purchaser to imagine themselves in a unit when it is full of clutter. Plus you will have to remove the garbage, excess material etc., for the incoming tenant/purchaser anyways so why move it twice.

6. Windows & Window Coverings: Do the blinds look as though they have been the latest victim of a cat attack? Are there finger prints, paint overspray or perhaps even a face print on the window? Tip: Ensure that the window panes are clean and only leave the window coverings up if they are in good condition.

7. Lighting: While it is tempting to turn the electricity off to a vacant unit, it is important to be able to see the space. Though we always bring a trusty flashlight, it can become a real safety issue for both the client and the agent touring the space if they have to feel their way around. Plus, it is not showing your space in its best “light”. Tip: Lights on! 

2. Camera: A picture is worth a thousand words… and will save you a lot of writing!  A good quality camera can help you relive that inspection experience firsthand once you’re back at the office.

3. Flashlight: The last place you want to be is under the street, in a dust covered 200 year old room that you just saw on Ghost Hunters last weekend... only to find out that the lights don’t work. Tip: If you’re often in the dark, invest in a headlamp… stylish and practical!

4. Batteries: Useful to power electronic measuring devices and the above referenced camera and flashlight. These tools aren’t much help without the juice!

5.      Extra Writing Utensils: Once I jogged across the street to quickly snap a picture of an apartment building but when I got back to the building I could not find my pencil for the life of me. So I stepped outside and looked around… only to find my pencil crushed to bits in the middle of the road.  Not to worry though, my back-up pencil and I completed the job just fine!

I recommend placing all of your inspection gear in a plastic tote that can easily be moved between the office and the trunk of your car.  By keeping everything in one place you will never forget to pack that one item you so desperately end up needing. 

Happy Inspecting!

Advice given by Matthew Smith, Consultant in Turner Drake’s Counselling division and Manager of our St. John’s office. For more real estate counselling advice, you can reach him at msmith@turnerdrake.com or 1 (800) 567-3033.

On January 13th 2014 all property owners in Nova Scotia received their 2014  Assessment Notices. Over the past five years commercial assessments in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) have risen by an average of 26%. Time to shoot the messanger? Not yet!

Property assessments are determined by the Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC), a "not for profit" entity controlled by the municipalities. However it is the latter who set the tax rates and they are the real villains of the piece. PVSC's assessments are based on Market Value: as values rise so do assessments. Tax rates therefore should fall....but they don't...studies carried out by our Property Tax Division show that municipal budgets expand instead, to take advantage of the increased assessments.

Take Halifax Regional Municipality for example. Over the past five years assessments have increased, on average, by the following amounts: Automobile Dealerships 29%; Apartments 28%; Industrial property 27%; Offices 26%; Hotels/Motels 10%...while tax rates have fallen by just 4%. That's right: 4%.

So where did all that extra money go...into additional or better services? Sadly not: over 60% of HRM's expenditures are consumed by staff salaries and pensions. And staff compensation increased by 82% between 2000 and 2010...during a period in which the cost of living increased by just 24%. In part this was because the municipality's staff complement continued to balloon. While competition was forcing the private sector to innovate...to do more with less...the public sector faced no such pressure. But largely it occurred because the average annual salary of their full time equivalent employees rose from $47,301 to $76,821, a rise of 62% over those ten years.

Municipalities have to face the facts: the next 10 years will not be a replication of the past decade. The Province's population is shrinking and aging: the ratio of working to non-working age population is declining rapidly. Some municipalies are now experiencing this reality but HRM has been buffered from it because of rural to urban migration. This will stop as rural areas are denuded of population. There is no evidence that HRM or other municipalities will take action until they face a Detroit type bankruptcy. It is up to property owners to minimise their exposure by ensuring their assessments are not excessive. Since commercial property owners often pay three times as much tax as their residential counterparts they should aggressively pursue an assessment appeal whenever the opportunity presents itself. They have until February 13th. to do so.