Vancouver Real Estate Blog

1. What is revenue condominium ownership?
Revenue condominium ownership is private ownership of a revenue-producing suite for the purpose of earning a profit. You purchase a high standard condominium, furnish it yourself or we furnish it for you.

By hiring Bruce Ward Realty Ltd. to be your manager, the day to day work of renting, marketing, cleaning, maintaining and servicing your tenants is taken care of. Bruce Ward Realty takes care of everything except your ownership costs, including setting up your small business and handling all the paper work. You merely sit back and enjoy your investment.

2. Where do the rental customers come from?
Bruce Ward Realty markets fully furnished suites worldwide. This involves daily advertising in The Vancouver Sun, full Internet service with complete pictures of your suite, monthly updating of the top search engines to insure that our customers can find us easily, a toll free number throughout North America, plus full cooperation with the real estate community and travel industry.

These costs and services are paid by a commission structure that amounts to 16% to 25% of all rents received. This includes any travel agent’s commissions as well as any wholesaler’s fees. Our high occupancy offers you maximum returns; plus it offers you or your friends a chance to use your own suite at any time with proper notice.

3. Why choose personal ownership through Bruce Ward Realty?
Experience is one of the main reasons for our success, both in sales and rentals. Our management experience took us through training from a commerce degree, hotel management schools, hotel management and real estate sales. In 1989 we started selling condominiums in the West End and Downtown area of Vancouver where year after year we were consistently in the top 1 to 5 % of all real estate sales teams. In 1995 we formed our own company to fill the niche market for looking after investors with hands on service.

4. Why is Vancouver an excellent location for revenue condominium ownership?
Vancouver’s geographic location at the edge of the Pacific Rim and minutes from the US border make local short term rentals very high demand items. Add to this the high cost of hotels, the best winter climate in Canada, the largest cruise ship activity in western North America, the large number of English as a Second Language (ESL) schools, the film industry, and the fast growing high-tech sector and you can see why we are currently running 95% occupancy year round.

5. What are my responsibilities as a personal owner?
You are responsible for ownership costs, such as mortgage payments, monthly maintenance, utilities, depreciation, insurance and taxes. Bruce Ward Realty takes care of everything else while you sit back and enjoy your investment!

6. What do I pay for insurance?
We offer a special bulk rate insurance that covers $10,000 on fixtures, equipment (appliances) & Owners Improvements, $45,000 Rental Income Loss, $25,000 Special Loss Assessments Property, $5,000,000 Commercial General Liability, $1,000,000 Special Loss Assessment Liability, $10,000 Owner’s Contents (furnishings). All of this is available to you with a $500.00 deductible and this package costs you only $280.00 to $320.00 per year!

7. Will I have full disclosure about the management of my revenue condominium?
Full Disclosure has always been the policy at Bruce Ward Realty. We keep our owners completely informed on the everyday details of the business. We provide you with copies of all rental documents and repair receipts when you need them. Then you can see exactly how much money we have collected and the occupancy rate of your unit. This is not a rental pool situation.

8. Will I receive monthly statements?
Monthly statements are sent to you except when there is no expense or revenue activity on your suite. Statements are completed in the middle of the month following the month of the last transaction. All funds received up to the 10th of the month are disbursed by the 15th of the month. Because our months are reckoned as a 30 day stay, they quite often do not fall at the end of a calendar month. Thus a check coming in on December 16th will not be paid out until January 15th.

Each monthly statement includes a “year to date” portion at the bottom that summarizes all your accrued revenues and expenses as the year progresses. The December statement serves two functions because it accounts for December and also summarizes the entire year for you and your tax accountant. This statement is sent to you before the end of January each year.

9. What guarantees can you make?
Guarantees are not expressed or implied; however, we will show you successes from our previous years of experience. We provide testimonials from our customers that will give you a good insight into the ability of our program to achieve the goals we all have – make money, have fun, save taxes, build up our net worth…all with a minimum of risk.

10. What are the risks?
Risks are always present in any investment. So we must not only look at the good side but ask ourselves “what if?” and examine a worst-case scenario. The worst case is that the revenue stops…you own your own suite and you may have to make the payments. The property is an asset owned solely by you and it can be liquidated.

However, since you will have made every effort to succeed in making it a business, any loss incurred may be a tax-deductible expense. Expenses such as mortgage interest, depreciation, maintenance, management fees and taxes may be eligible as deductions. It is always good to have your own personal tax advisor outline the extent of these tax savings and advise you if you qualify.

11. Is revenue condominium ownership right for everybody?
Revenue condominium ownership is definitely not right for everybody! If you are going to stay awake at night worrying about who is sleeping in your bed and spilling wine on your carpets, or worrying if your condo will be occupied next month, then this type of investment is not for you.

However, if you can find comfort in the fact that someone else is making your mortgage payment and that if something does goes wrong, Bruce Ward Realty will look after it, clean it, maintain it, rent it out and take care of any tenant problems, then this is for you!

12. Why doesn’t everybody do this?
Not everyone can qualify for the financing needed to purchase an investment property and not everyone can afford the down payment and monthly payment should the suite be unoccupied. The personal ownership plan merely provides you with the most practical way to build up investment in real estate.

13. Will I be locked in?
Your only obligation to us is to honor any lodging reservations that we have made on your suite. If the rental customers can be accommodated in another unit, then you can cancel your agreement with us anytime, as long as you provide 90 days notice. There are no mandatory fees or penalties to ever worry about. It would be nice if all business ventures were this easy to get in and out of.

14. When will I be able to use my condo suite?
Your suite is never restricted except on short notice when we have already committed your unit to a rental customer and there are no other alternatives available. We should point out that the federal government requires that at least 90% of the lodging time is made available to produce revenue before allowing a tax write off. So, if you plan to use your suite more than 30 days a year, you should prorate your tax deduction accordingly.

15. What if my friends and relative want to use my condo suite?
No problem – just ask them to call us and we will take care of everything. If you phone us ahead of time and tell us what discount and/or amount of time you are allowing your friends, we will then give them the same service as a normal rental customer. They will receive all the service and benefits of our contracts and facilities, ensuring that you are protected if any problems do occur. Your friends can remain friends and you do not have to lose all the revenue or control. Your account will be charged a management fee for this service based on the normal rental rate.

16. What suites are the best for this program?
Answer these two questions first: 1.Is my personal comfort the most important requirement, or is spending the least amount of money to earn the most dollars the most important? 2. Can I compromise?

If personal comfort is more important, then you will choose well by this rule of thumb: bigger is better. If budget is more important, then the smaller units save on the initial outlay and the rental demand is always very strong. Large units do not earn as much per dollar spent. So this fact may steer some buyers toward a more middle of the road approach. If you look at the whole fleet, you will see that demand exists for all the suites we rent. Perhaps you should discuss this in more detail with your sales representative to decide which suite is best for you.

17. A statement rather than a question: It seems too good to be true!
This is one of the statements we hear most often but as soon as you check us, and our program, out thoroughly, you will agree that it does just what we claim it does. This program can provide you with the ownership of a luxury condominium with a substantial portion of the cost being paid for by our tenants.

Plus, the expenses spent to obtain this revenue may qualify for some tax deductions. Compare this to the people who just purchase a suite for all cash and only use it several times a year. Our real estate management service is one of the world’s best-kept secrets because we do not advertise it. Our customers come from our tenants, word of mouth, other real estate agents or direct referral from our owners. As quiet as this program is, you were probably not aware that in many industries around the world, this is one of the most successful methods of building wealth. Did you know airline companies, government companies, trucking companies, machinery companies, hotels, resorts and many more companies all use this method of building resources by sharing the benefits?

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