Auction succeeds
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. recently sold its first piece of B.C. real estate since 2011 at auction in Edmonton.
Sandspit Adventures Sport Fishing Lodge and three adjacent residences on Moresby Island – a two-hour plane ride north of Vancouver – sold for an aggregate sum of $785,000 on September 5.
The lodge sold for $600,000 to a bidder from Alberta, said Ritchie Bros. marketing manager Ellen Engelsbel, while the three residences sold for a combined sum of $185,000.
The new owner of the lodge bought one of the residences, another sold to a local property owner, while the third sold to a buyer from Saskatchewan.
The transactions are set to close in early October.
Sandspit Adventures was formerly owned by Sylvan Swanberg, a well-known entrepreneur in the Peace River country. Swanberg died suddenly in April 2011. The estate shut down his airline venture, Swanberg Air Inc., in November 2011, and originally sought to sell the Sandspit Adventures property through traditional sales channels.
This summer, the estate turned to Ritchie Bros., which had worked regularly with Swanberg prior to his death – a decision that led to the recent sale.
On offer
Two other major getaways are on the block in B.C.
The owners of Apex Mountain Resort west of Penticton are seeking buyers, with an asking price of $5 million. Purchased 16 years ago, the property is profitable but it also offers a new owner room for improvement and expansion.
“What it needs is someone who wants to get in, hands-on,” said Brian Martin, part of the eight-member consortium that owns the property.
Previously listed with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada in 2008 for $6.5 million, Apex saw several improvements this past summer. The former Longshot Bar has been transformed into a multipurpose guest area, and more than $400,000 was spent upgrading snowmaking, grooming and lift equipment. A total of five new runs were cut.
“We’ve taken out our initial investment, we’ve all got it back,” Martin said. “We don’t have to sell it, so we’re not going to turn around and just give it away.”
Meanwhile, on Vancouver Island, the 77-suite Pacific Sands Resort in Tofino was recently listed with DTZ Victoria Real Estate Ltd. Bids for that property will be received through October 31.
Rent seeker
Vancouver seems set to become a hub for companies specializing in flexible rent-payment systems.
RentMoola Payment Solutions Inc. opened a Toronto office on September 1 to serve a growing clientele in that city and throughout Eastern Canada. The move follows the national growth of Tenant Pay, a pioneer in the field founded in 2006.
RentMoola, which launched in April in Vancouver, differs from Tenant Pay insofar as it charges the tenant rather than the landlord or property manager for its service. It focuses on credit card payments, rather than the direct-deposit method Tenant Pay touted for reducing business costs. Property management companies offer the payment option to tenants, and RentMoola charges users a service fee of 2.75% to process remittances.
But why would any tenant want to pay to make rent payments, especially 2.75% more? (By contrast, the annual allowable rent increase in B.C. for 2014 was recently set at just 2.2%.) Of the 1,000 users to date, RentMoola co-founder and COO Philipp Postrehovsky said the system has been attractive to out-of-town tenants at the higher end of the rent spectrum, particularly those depending on overseas payments or without a local bank account. RentMoola helps them use a payment method competitive with bank charges.
“It’s much more convenient for everyone involved,” Postrehovsky said.
Partnerships with credit card rewards programs offer a bonus to tenants using credit cards, especially small to medium-sized business owners.
“If you’re putting everything else on your corporate card, and now you’re able to add your rent on to it, then you’re going to definitely elevate and accelerate those rewards,” he said.
RentMoola is working with 15 property management firms representing 10,000 residential units. Postrehovsky declined to detail financials, save to say that processing volumes are doubling monthly.
RentMoola’s expansion plans include Texas and major cities in the U.S., as well as a UK launch in 2014. •
