Claude and Pierre Boiron Consulted for Two Wall Street Journal Articles

The Wall Street Journal has consulted with this leading Commercial Real Estate team for two articles on Canadian commercial real estate within the past two weeks. We were very excited to see our names in print in one of the most respected business publications in the world. Both articles were written for the “Getting Personal Canada” section of the Journal which is designed to address business issues of import to a Canadian audience.

First Article: Commercial Real Estate Lagging
The first article, Commercial Real Estate Lagging, was published on September 4, 2009. Pierre Boiron’s opinions on the recent downturn in the Canadian commercial real estate market are cited throughout the piece. Pierre Boiron is in a unique position to comment on the state of Canadian commercial real estate, having decades of experience in the business and a keen eye for trends. In this excerpt, Boiron indicates that the market has signaled that it is bottoming out, with solid explanations for his reasoning:

Boiron estimates the commercial market is nearing the bottom of the adjustment phase, a time characterized by slowing demand, inventory peaks and price declines. “It means that the mess is being cleaned up,” he said, adding that lenders are selling properties through power of sale, buildings that had been under construction are being finished and put on the market, and pessimism is widespread.

Boiron goes on to counsel commercial real estate investors to practice cautious optimism when investing in the market, stating that the momentum is sure to move slowly at first before it ramps up to “boom” levels again.

Second Article: Build Commercial Property Know-How
The second article, Build Commercial Property Know-How, was published on September 11, 2009. In it, Pierre Boiron shares his tips for running a real estate investment property successfully. He gives away one of the biggest secrets in real estate investment, which you will definitely want to read. He also counsels that multi-unit apartments are the least risky commercial property, due to the fact that you typically aren’t relying on one tenant to make mortgage payments in a residential apartment building.

Boiron also points out the importance of being a hands-on property manager if you do want to deal with a multi-family residential property, as property management options can quickly eat up profits for the smaller investor. For those who can’t deal with this hands-on approach for multiple residential units, he recommends a small commercial property with a few business tenants, such as a store with apartments above it.

In both articles, Pierre Boiron shares more expert real estate knowledge than you will typically get out of a one-week course. Any one of the valuable tips offered in both articles will give you a push in the right direction if you are considering or are already participating in real estate investment in Canada. We run our business this way as well, as most of you already know; if we have a valuable tip or opportunity to share, we will happily tell our friends and business colleagues. We’re very excited that these two articles gave us the chance to share these tips with the world.

“Commercial Real Estate Lagging” and “Build Commercial Property Know-How” were written by Andy Georgiades, a business reporter at Dow Jones Newswires. Georgiades mentions our book, Commercial Real Estate Investing in Canada – The Complete Reference for Real Estate Investors and Professionals, which is available at a discount.

We are your on-call experts for any kind of real estate advice. While we wrote the book on commercial real estate investing, we can also consult with you on residential real estate, land development, property management, or any other issues that you’ve been meaning to ask someone about. When you are dealing with the same people that the Wall Street Journal turns to for advice, you know you’ve got the right people on your team. Contact us today to make us your real estate experts.