It happened!!
After two years and many Zoom sessions, we went back to in-person for last Saturday's Your Life. Your Terms. Event!
See some of the pics above.
We were capped at 750 people and we had a jam-packed full house.
It was amazing.
Seeing so many Rock Star members who have become friends over the years felt so, so good!!
And the reaction Rock Star members had seeing other members after two years was cool to see.
New members came out for the very first time and we had Gerry Gatto, Kelly Hawkes, Ruben Furtado, Victoria Suen, Cherry Chan, Felix Vortsman, Dan Patton, Lorenzo Podda, Michael Zanzini, Connor Eagleson, Andrew Palhetas, Andy Tran, Andrea McDonald, Montu Dhillon, Mark Krikke, and Anthony Molinaro all hosting roundtables to share their knowledge.
They covered everything from the Tenant Act to Triplexes in Welland to Legal to Joint Ventures to Short-Term Rentals to Buying Real Estate in your 20s.
We had Peter Politis from Greybrook in-house to chat with Nick about the real estate market. The insights shared during that chat about how difficult it is to build in Ontario was eye-opening.
We shared our newest Rock Star Economic Update where we discussed the possibility of a recession ahead.
And with the inflation we're currently seeing, this means the economy is set up for some serious volatility over the next few months.
Just this week we've seen:
Headlines from the Financial Post asking if it's time to stop the rate increases here in Canada because of the way the real estate market is behaving (Source: Financial Post).
Just think, we've been promised 7 more rate increases and there's already talk of enough is enough!
What a world.
Blackstone, one of the largest asset managers in the world, just opened up a real estate office in Toronto to add more Canadian property to its portfolio (Source: Globe and Mail)
We can't say we're surprised.
Canada's fundamentals are still some of the very best in the world.
Our immigration target looks like it's going to come in HIGHER than our already high goal of 411K people.
The first two months of this year had more "New Study Permits" for students issued than ever.
People just keep arriving.
The real estate market is in the middle of adjusting to the new cost of money but the long term has not changed.
More people, not enough supply...and a long-term debt problem which, to us, means you want income property or hard assets.
So as the equity markets come down, Bitcoin and the crypto world gyrate and real estate finds its footing...it's important to build yourself some context of what's going on.
We'll do our best to share our own little summary right here...
Rates have been held too low for much too long (like a decade too long, LOL!).
Hard assets have all benefited.
Easy money was then handed out during the pandemic.
Inflation arrived and it wasn't "transitory".
Central bankers had a heart attack and are now desperately trying to raise rates to ensure inflation doesn't ruin everything (namely, the US and Canadian dollars).
This historically quick jump in rates is causing real estate to re-adjust (no more $100K a month increases, LOL!).
Equity markets have come down and are now signalling a recession.
Bond markets as of this week look like they are signalling the same (yields coming down).
Get ready, we're in a volatile new economic world.
If you've read the book, The Fourth Turning, it's really starting to feel like we're in it now.
What was up six months ago can be down now and back up in six months!
Hold on tight.
We'll do our very best via podcasts, YouTube videos, and our in-person YLYT Events to share our thoughts. Hopefully they're a tad helpful in shaping your own.
Good luck out there, fun and volatile times ahead.
And thank you to everyone who came out on Saturday...it was great to see you!!
Tom & Nick
