Happy Property

The new owner of two-thirds of the condominiums at Bushnell on the Park in downtown Hartford plans extensive renovations to the 33-year-old building, including cleaning the façade, resurfacing the concrete patio and updating mechanical systems.

Hamilton Point Investments, a real estate investment group based in Old Lyme, acquired 129 of 180 units in the 12-story building in a foreclosure. Since the units in the Wells Street building were converted to condos in the late 1980s, the majority have been held by a single owner and rented out.

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If you ask people why they invest in real estate, one of the top answers you’ll get is freedom. Contrary to this driving force of wanting more freedom, many investors self-manage and end up instead limiting their own freedom.

In my article Building Your Real Estate Investment Team – Part 7: Selecting a Property Manager, I discussed some of the items a property manager would normally be responsible for:

• Advertising
• Showing the property
• Interviewing tenants
• Tenant screening (including credit and background checks)
• Filling out leases
• Collecting rent
• Handling evictions and other tenant issues
• Managing trades for repairs and maintenance
• Coordinating lawn care and snow removal
• Regular property visits

As a landlord, how many of these items take away your free time and limit your freedom? If

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More and more families in our economic times are deciding to have staycations in their own cities rather than splurge for expensive vacations.  A staycation is when you have a vacation in your own city and Winnipeg is a great place to have a staycation holiday.  You can have a great time in Winnipeg with just a little bit of planning.

1.     Go to the Forks – enjoy shopping, great food, and a great outdoor atmosphere

2.     Go to the Children’s Museum

3.     Go to the Fringe Festival

4.     Go to the Jazz Festival

5.     Enjoy an outdoor concert

6.     Go to the Museum of Man and Nature

7.     Go to the Planetarium

8.     Go to the Opera

9.     Go to the Symphony

10.  Go to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet

11.  Enjoy a hockey game

12.  Go to the Red River Exhibition

13.  Spend the day at Bird’s Hill

14.  Take a walking tour of downtown Winnipeg

15.  Go to Oak Hammock Marsh

16.  Take a tour of the Manitoba Legislative Building

17.  Go to the waterslides at Fun Mountain

18.  Take the kids to Tinkertown

19.  Go to Fort Whyte Alive

20.  Tour Dalnavert House

21.  Tour the Basilique-Cathedrale de Sainte-Boniface

22.  Go to the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden

23.  See a baseball game at CanWest Global Park

24.  Tour the Western Canadian Aviation Museum

25.  See a play at the Manitoba Theatre Center or the Prairie Exchange

26.  Go to the Teddy Bears Picnic

27.  See a play at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People

28.  Tour the Manitoba Electrical Museum

29.  Tour the Air Force Heritage Park and Museum

30.  Spend a day golfing

31.  Enjoy the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

32.  See a concert at the Centennial Concert Hall or the MTS Center

33.  Go to the Assiniboia Downs Horse Track

34.  Take a trip down the river in the water taxi

35.  Go on a boat cruise with Paddlewheel River Rouge Tours or M.S. River Rouge

36.  Take in the Festival du Voyageur

37. 

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At a cursory glance, the high-rise under construction at 600 Brickell Avenue might seem to be just another in a long line of sleekly modern downtown Miami office towers.

But 600 Brickell is no ordinary building. From its heat-repelling skin to its ultra-efficient mechanical guts, the 540-foot tower stands as a bravura demonstration of the latest and highest standards of environmentally friendly building design. It also happens to be the new face of big commercial construction in South Florida.

The tower combines gee-whiz technology and advanced materials energy-saving reflective roofs and air-conditioning systems, and lights that adjust themselves as daylight streams in through clear, heat-dispersing windows with some old-school ideas.

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WASHINGTON, DC
Colliers Expands to NoVa, Taps Klaff as Head of Expansion

Colliers International opened a new office in McLean, VA, and launched a regional property management practice in Washington, DC.

Commercial real estate veteran Andrew Klaff was tapped as executive vice president and director of the NoVa expansion. The regional specialist was most recently a senior vice president and top producer in Grubb & Ellis’ Office Group in Tysons Corner.

“This is big news for the commercial real estate services industry throughout the District and within other critical markets such as Northern Virginia,” said Tim Hague, executive managing director of Colliers’ metro Washington, DC region. “By lau Find more info…