March 2012

Viewing the forest through the trees...

Submitted by Bob Langlois on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 06:54

When a sale says it all…

“There can be no better evidence of current value of a property than actual evidence of what a willing buyer paid to a willing seller in an arm’s length transaction on or about January 1st, 2008”

The quotation above is drawn from a recent decision of the ARB ruling on an appeal of a multi-tenant strip centre located in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

At question was an assessment that was 19% greater than an arm’s length transaction that occurred seven months in advance of the January 1st, 2008 valuation date.

The Board ruled in favour of the taxpayer and adjusted the assessment to the sale price.

Why…

1. It was easy and represented the path of least resistance

2. Hanging their hat on the sale to justify the large adjustment was logical for the Board and

A comparison between fair market rents (represented as gross income) of the subject and comparable properties (and their assessments) supported the subject falling in a range of comparables values of  $2,230,000 to $2,748,000 – the decision and sale price fell right in the middle of this range.

 

Dunn and Drummond Inc., v Municipal Property Assessment Corp. Region No 18

Scarcity vs Abundance

Submitted by Bob Langlois on Thu, 03/15/2012 - 08:55

I came across a link to a recent TED talk (March 12th, 2012) that is worth sharing and encapsulates my previous conversation about "Where do you live"....the invigorating element of this messge is that we all live in a world of abundance and simply need to step back for a minute and understand and be grateful for how fortunate we are....

I have provided the link to Peter Diamandis' most recent TED talk and urge you to invest 16 mins and reflect on how abundant the world around us is (despite what the media would have us believe)

Enjoy your thoughts...

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html

 

 

 

How is your team doing ?

Submitted by Bob Langlois on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 07:27

I spent the weekend in Buffalo NY as my son's hockey tournament.     Over the course of the 3 days I was able to take in a total of ten hockey games.   Hockey is a game that I love and have a passion for.  I love to play it, love to watch it and increasingly love to coach it.  My son's team came up short in the championship game and as my wife and I discussed how we fared it became apparent that the winning team played to their strengths.  Despite what we perceived to be an opponent that we could have easily beaten, they dominated the play and the scoreboard.  So what went wrong and knowing what we know now, what would we do differently ?    It all comes down to know thyself ...

If you know what you excel at and / or even better, possess a unique ability that others do not have, put it to use and focus on continually improving this unique ability.  I am guessing that part of the challenge with a team of excitable 9 year old boys is understanding (with the required clarity) where each players strengths or unique ability lies and more  importantly combining and balancing those strengths to eliminate the dangers at hand.  In the case of the hockey game, the dangers includes several big kids that were very strong on their skates and strong on the puck, making it difficult to win the little battles and we had a hard time getting and keeping control of the puck (something that's very important in the game of hockey).

Where do you live ?

Submitted by Bob Langlois on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 06:32

Where do you live ?

This question is not about your home or place of residence but rather seeks to dig into your mindset and in turn how your mindset sets the stage and utlimately drives your behaviour.

I was introduced to a very interesting concept yesterday that provides some wonderful insight into the world that we all live in and how we choose to see ourselves and better understand those around us.     The concept was introduced by Dan Sullivan of  Strategic Coach ® and is defined as “The 10x Matrix”.     The concept is simple yet very powerful and contrasts people that live in a worldview of scarcity, characterized by resentfulness with those that choose to live in a world of abundance which drives the behavioural trait of resourcefulness.  Dan works with very successful entrepeneurs all of which are seeking to multiply their respective worlds 10X and it is wihtin this context that Dan has developed and shared his theory.

You don't know what you don't know...and ensuing dangers

Submitted by Bob Langlois on Wed, 03/07/2012 - 09:24

This is my first official blog entry and comes as part of our new website. As a idea guy, I'm going to use this blog to share a bit about my journey, ideas and introduce some tools and concepts that I use to filter ideas, address dangers faced by our clients and talk a lot about confidence and the role that it plays for each of us. 

I came across an interesting situation yesterday that emphasizes the inherent risk or danger in today's world.  The issue related to a newly developed retirement home facilitiy that was being operated by a Receiver. The conservation started with an inquiry as to whether the taxes were in line and whether an appeal was warranted in an effort to assist operations and support cash flow from a struggling development.

Within about five minutes of legwork it became apparent that the original opportunity was in fact posing a greater risk and at the end of the day we have identified a sizable liability that was not otherwise understood. My view on this situation focuses on supporting my own personal confidence and those that are potentially affected by this previously unknown or un-stated liability. (i.e. a new and otherwise unknown danger)

Can we help the client with this situation...absolutely. Are there day to day challenges that the client has in execution of their mandate that impact their abilty to be confident and supporting the confidence of their client or stakeholders...absolutely.

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