Early Birds, May 12, 2022

Don Davis - reminiscing on Bill Hoogstraten.  Condo project in Cabo San Lucas. One thing he remembers clearly is that he never paid taxes on the building per the law in Mexico. The rule is if the building isn’t finished, it’s not taxable…so they left one corner unknit on the top floor unfinished. Never finished the building so never paid taxes.

Bill made friends anywhere he went ad Cabo was no exception. He was an avid fisherman, got to know a lot of people down there. Locals. And some out of towners, but *interesting* out of towners.

There was a full moon party at some point. Don remembers Pat talking to a lady who misplaced her sunglasses on the plane. Her plane.

Tony Fisher – laughing recounting another Bill Hoogstraten story.

Bill and Ted Hellard set up chuck wagon races in Vegas! It was a party! Huge success as an event despite them being fined every day for dust. Ribs and beer were had by all! Bill’s love of life and energy

Brad Pachal – Currently working a renovation project one room at a time. The owner can stay in one room, then has to move to another as Brad moves through the project.

4 time repeat customer. Hopefully leads to a few referrals

Lumber still @ crazy prices re: pre-pandemic. Price increases at the LOW end are 200%. Somme prices still greater than 400% higher.

Dan Kennelly – The continuing story of supply shortages and the effect on estimates. Trans-Am holding estimate prices 25-48 hours.

They’re getting some oddball project spec requests, including strange country of origin requests, for example requesting steel from Egypt….and they don’t make steel

d steel?

Missing steel production from Ukraine is having a huge impact.

Trans AM has 11 containers arriving next week. 15 and 20 million dollars of material will show up in the next two months. No way to know what it costs is until it lands.

Matt Dart - good news for Johnson Controls - lead times are getting longer for competitor companies. Rumour is that Lennox won’t take orders again until 2023.

Matt’s 15 yr old son , strong strapping lad looking for work. If you know of anyone who could use a bit of muscle and labour.

Don Doolan – recommended a plastic surgeon, Dr Fernandez. In Market Mall the good doctor removed a non malignant lump from Don’s neck. Don’s off to Montana next week – hoping to stay out there a month – maybe catch some selenium-laden fish.

Dwayne Vinck – spoke about Braveheart Resources and their copper mine property. While they wait through the interminable approval processes, they’re spending $60 ,000 to $70,000 a month just standing still keeping the doors open. They’re sitting on $30,000,000  of profit with what’s there now without further exploration and development.

Selenium could be an issue, but things are encouraging between their technology and mitigation methods and the ongoing conversations with stakeholders. All that being said, they’re still a year out.

Dave Hicks – welcomed his second Vinck on staff. Thanked Dwayne.

Hixie Electric is still doing work in Jasper and will be working on a Starbucks next. They did one for the Ice Fields last year.

Echoing Brad Pachal about raw materials, Dave mentioned that a roll of cable that was $450 pre-pandemic is now $1200.

Rob Beasant – Justin Havre & Associates still assessing the market as “more of the same”, although it seems to be more balanced. Still a sellers market, but not as crazy as before.

Interest is scaring people and it’s harder to qualify for young people since they have to qualify for 2% higher than the lowest fixed mortgage which right now is 4.04%.

House affordability in Calgary is still better than the rest of Canada. He’s cautiously optimistic.

The story of multiple offers has quieted, to around 4-5 per property rather than 40-50. Which was actually happening recently. People are pricing closer to assessed value right now as opposed to pricing 10% below value and then generating too many multiple bids. 

Saying that, he’s still finding that the lower the asking the price the higher the final offer. Counter intuitive, but that’s the experience he’s had inn this market.