RIPARIAN AREAS RAR Salt Spring Island DPA 7

This is the second go-around for this land use bylaw. The first time it was proposed as an island-wide bylaw covering most of the watersheds. There was a massive pushback from the residents of Salt Spring. This time around the Island Trust has mapped all of the steams/creaks/lakes.

Here is the map that of the island with the new DPA 7 (Development Permit Area) on it. map-28-proposed-rar-map If a home you are looking at is in the area there will be no impact until you want to do something ie renovate or add on. At that point you would need to follow the proposed new bylaw; ss-bl-480-2nd-reading

I think this is a workable and good bylaw that will protect the streams, creeks, and lakes on Salt Spring.

Cheers

Scott Simmons

As lots of you know I like to find out about ever thing pertaining to Salt Spring real estate. Especially if it’s for sale. I have been working on putting up a few new web site pages up on some of the various developments on Salt Spring over the last few weeks. Maybe you have checked out one of the pages like this one Bishops Walk Salt Spring. What I have been doing is visiting the developments and going over everything from the plans to the driveways, wells, views, etc… It’s really convenient when there are no homes and it’s all open. I can go by and get all the info I want as long as I have permission to visit the lots. Part of my process is to shoot a pricture of the wells and capture the well ID plate number.

Here is a photo of a well with an ID plate. You can see the 5 digit number.

With that number you plug it into the provincial data base here

and you will see the well report.  It’s simple.  They have a good well.

Now please try and put these number in;

Did you get any results? What the heck? This is a new subdivision. This should not happen. I will be checking this out a little “deeper”.
 

 

Cheers

Scott Simmons

It’s not as if there are hundreds of new Salt Spring homes on the market but every year there are 10 or so.  Some are build as spec home and some are owner built homes.

In BC all builder who build new homes must be licensed with the Homeowner Protection Office and all new homes must have 3rd party warranty insurance. Here is a brochure about the mandatory 2-5-10 home warranty insurance GuideToHomeWarrantyInsurance

If your buying a new Salt Spring home you would want this subject to clause to be in the contract of purchase and sale (along with the usual home inspection, state of property title, etc);

Subject to the Buyer confirming by (insert date) that the Seller is duly licensed pursuant to the Homeowner Protection Act and that the mandatory warranty insurance pursuant to that Act is in place.
This condition is for the sole benefit of the Buyer.

If the home is an owner built home and less than 10 years old the sellers need to provide an “Owner-Builder declaration and disclosure notice” prior to getting an offer. The home many not be sold for one year after completion.  BuyingOrSellingOBHomeBulletin

If you are going to buy a home owner built home you would want this term (a term is not a subject to clause) in the contract of purchase and sale;

The Buyer acknowledges having received a copy of the Owner-Builder Declaration and Disclosure Notice dated(insert date),  prior to making this offer, in accordance with the Homeowner Protection Act and regulations.

 

Ever new homes in BC are registered in the data base below. All you need to do is enter in the address or the property PID number and you can find out who built it.  PID numbers are available for almost all homes listed on PCS.  Try it.

 

 

All new homes are subject to 5% GST and or transitional HST 2013-02-18-transition-rulesF41BDD22E20F  On April 1, 2013, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) was replaced by the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the BC Provincial Sales Tax (PST).  If the home was started before April 2013 HST might be chargeable on some of the home.

GST is exempt from most used homes.  An example of when GST would be charged on a used home would be if the home was used as a vacation rental more than as a residence.

All BC homes and or properties are subject to the dreaded property transfer tax at 1% of the first 200k and 2% of the balance.

 

 

Cheers

Scott Simmons

 

 

 

5  steps of selling a home.  Can you tell which step the sellers on?

As a Realtor that works mostly with buyers knowing the motivation of the sellers is one of the main keys to getting a deal for my buyers.  If I can figure out which step of the 5 steps the sellers are in I will have a better chance of getting the deal done.

What are the 5 steps of home selling;  Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and the final step of Acceptance.

1. Denial;  Sellers usually always list with the fancy pants Realtor who gives them the best marketing lines and or the highest list price based on the best marketing lines.  These type of Realtors usually have a string of overpriced listings.
2. Anger; The sellers start to see the flaws in the first Realtors marketing lines and fires them and hires Realtor number two but list the home at the same overinflated price. While going through this step seller will sometimes send angry notes to buying agents; ie “you left the light on in the basement, don’t you know what electricity cost!”
3. Bargaining; Sellers will start to bargain anything but the price usually this can be spotted in the little things like showing times.  At the first step, they would only let people show the home between 12-3 and not on Sundays and had to have a 90-day possession on any deal.  Now they are flexible and will let anyone show at any time and they could be out in 30 days or less.
4. Depression;  is a dark spiral down, during showings the home is not clean, dishes left out, total lack of caring.  Forget making the bed they might just be in it during showings.  Usually, the empty wine bottles are an indication of self-medication during this step.  At a certain point, they will reach rock bottom and hopefully come out of it and enter the last step.
5. Acceptance; This is when luck number 3 Realtor is hired.  Usually, the third agent is a jaded veteran of the Real Estate industry.  She/He takes no prisoners, It’s price, price, price not made up marketing over-promises.  The sellers buckle and adjust the asking price of the home to market price and or below.  The home sells.

 

As a buying agent who shows homes almost every day, I like dealing with people who are in step 5 Acceptance and accept the market for what it is and list at a real price.  I really dislike hyped up new listings.   Every seller goes through these steps at a different speed,  some sellers in day or months some take years.   It’s a process, everyone want top dollar, everyone has to try and get it the most for their home.  It’s all part of the game of Real Estate.

Cheers

Scott Simmons

Article contributed by Doug Glaum, Manager Archaeology Branch, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

The September 3, 2014, Times Colonist article Homeowners no longer face bills for archeological excavations – Local – Times Colonist concerning archaeological research and private property has caused some confusion with property owners.  Property owners should be aware of the following:

• The Heritage Conservation Act automatically protects archaeological sites meeting the act’s heritage protection criteria. 
• There are approximately 40,000 known sites that are automatically protected.
• These sites continue to be protected after the 2013 B.C. Supreme Court ruling regarding archaeological research on private property. 
• To alter a protected site, the property owner will require a Site Alteration Permit.
• Where there is sufficient existing information regarding the nature of the site and proposed impacts to the site, the Archaeology Branch will consider site alteration permit applications.
• If there is insufficient information in the site alteration permit application, the Archaeology Branch will not be able to process the application until the information deficiencies are addressed.  
• The onus falls upon the property owner to provide the branch with the necessary information about the site and this may include the  completion of an archaeological impact assessment.  The Branch is not requiring that this work be done but it does require sufficient information before it can issue an alteration permit and the impact assessment is one way of obtaining this information
• It is up to the property owner if they wish to undertake an archaeological impact assessment, but without the necessary information, the branch cannot issue an alteration permit and the property owners cannot alter the archaeological site on their property.
• Property owners can use the Archaeology Branch online site data request form to find out if there is a protected archaeological sites on their property
• Many people engage an archaeological consultant to research and prepare a site alteration permit application.  Archaeological consultants can be contacted through the British Columbia Association of Professional Archaeologists or may advertise independently.

 

Here is the legal case Mackay v. British Columbia  2011bcsc270

With the summer of 2014 uproar over Grace Islet in Ganges harbour this is timely information.

Cheers

Scott Simmons

So you want to own and operate a B&B.  June and I ran our Salt Spring B&B for two years it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I’m not an expert but did learned a few things running ours.  Here are my top 10 B&B owner/operator tips;

1. Minimum two night stay – twice the money for half the work – one night stays are not worth it.

2. Offer a discount if they do not want breakfast and want to go out.

3. Buy the best quality vacuum and vacuum before you clean the room.  Hair and spiders are the enemy.

4.  Have a non fixed price.  Charge more in the summer on the long weekends. This may sound not fair but one could fill a hundred rooms on the long weekends in the summer.

5.  Even if you are mildly thinking of running a B&B register your domain name and get your web site up now.  It takes years to rank on Google.  If you open and start your web site as an after thought you will be on page 20 of Google for the first years or so.

6. Stock the mini bar with all that will fit.  People actually seem to drink a lot.  It was not uncommon to find 2-4 empty bottle of wine per night per couple. Mini bar is a small cash cow.

7. Make sure all is legal i.e. zoning, suits are to building code etc.  Insurance is not cheap and if something happens you will hopefully be covered if you are totally legal.  Good luck on a claim if the insurance company finds out your breaking the zoning rules.  My brother worked at a big insurance co in Toronto and they would spent tons of time looking at how to get out of paying a claim.

8. Every B&B room needs it’s own full sized 4 piece washroom – no one will ever share a bathroom – home stay is not a B&B

9. Never sell for cash declare all income even if they pay in cash.  Keep meticulous records.  Everyone think all small business skim 15% Never Never do it. Audits are not fun.

10. Enjoy meeting the people this was the best part.  We still have people calling to see if they can stay (10 years later).  Some still want to pop in for a visit and do.

These are photos of our B&B suit that we ran for two years about a decade ago.  It was simple, clean and self contained.  Each suit had it’s own living room, bedroom and bathroom.  You can have smaller rooms and suites but not shared bathrooms.

What are the B&B rules? Here are the relevant pages out of the Island Trust land use bylaw 355;  ssbylaw355 B&B info

For those born before 1970 or so here are some imperial translations of the metric used in bylaw 355.

1.2 Hectare (ha) = 2.96526  1.2 ha is not 3 acres it is less.  I have found properties that just squeak by on this and it can make a huge difference.  You can only build a 56 sq meter (602.779 sq ft) guest cottage on 1.2 ha or more.  You can build a seasonal guest cottage on ALR land.  I know this as a fact because I built the first one ever on Salt Spring.  A Seasonal guest cottage can rent for $1000 or more per week in the summer as part of a B&B.  You can not rent out a seasonal cottage full time ever.  See picture below;

70 sq meters = 753.474 square feet.   185 sq meters = 1991.32 square feet.

How much can one expect to make?  This is always the big question.  It really depends on how many rooms and how hard you want to work.   I would guess that a good operator could expect after the first year to be full 100 days a year give or take.  Lets say your average price per night is $150 and you had two suits that would gross you $30k per year.   If you do all the work (cleaning took me 45 minutes to clean one suite) one could probably expect to clear $25k per year.   Which is not a bad income for the hours put in.  Note in my calculations there are no cost and time calculations for breakfast (June cooked I cleaned).  Some B&B do simple breakfast some make gourmet breakfast you will have to calculate your own time and cost accordingly.  Some B&B charge more some charge less.  These are just basic number for research purposes only.

There is no business license required to open a B&B on Salt Spring and you property tax should not increase.

On Salt Spring at any given time there are approximately 70 B&B in operation each year there is about a 10% turnover.   Some stay open for years others close.  Ours closed because June took over a wine making business on the island.   I liked the business and would run one again.

I hope this helps.  If you have any questions you can always stay at a few B&B and ask the owners most will share info readily.  It’s not as if one more B&B is going to put them out of business.  Most Salt Spring B&B owners get along and juggle booking with each other to accommodate clients.

Cheers
Scott Simmons