By Brian Madigan LL.B.

Did you ever consider a retirement home as a business opportunity? Did you know that it is one of the fastest growing sectors in the market. Obviously, this is due to the aging population. And, the demand for space in retirement homes will continue to grow.

You should be aware that retirement homes unlike Homes for the Aged, Nursing Homes and Private Hospitals are somewhat unregulated. Space, accommodation and the services provided are all subject to the market forces of supply and demand. A good and successful facility will house a good mix of people. It will have a reasonable division between private areas and common areas. There should be plenty of places to sit and relax, and simply catch up on one’s reading. If you don’t have the time to read in your retirement, then just when are you going to read?

There is also a need for physical activities. Today’s aging population is far more active than were previous generations. A place for a gym, yoga class or dance class would work well. Playing cards and pottery classes are becoming less popular.

If you are considering starting a retirement home or acquiring an existing one, you should think about the maturation of the home population over time. A retirement home which opens up to new residents, will soon fill up with the young elderly. These are people in their seventies, often with an average age around 75. However, as time goes on, the retirement home will find that its average age increases with its residents. In 10 years, the home will have a population of 85 year olds, and in a further decade the average age will be 95.

Now, of course, there’s attrition. Some residents will move, some will become ill and require a nursing home and others will pass away. But, the important matter to note is that the average age is increasing. As new residents move in, they are likely to be attracted to a home with an average age close to their own. So, if your average age has increased to 85, then you are likely to attract 85 year olds. The 75 year olds will go elsewhere. That issue becomes the most difficult matter to manage when you are running a retirement home. So, what’s the solution?

Actually, the solution is obvious. You expand! You continue to build onto your existing facility. You need to attract the young elderly and in order to do so, you will have to offer relatively new facilities catering to the young elderly.

So, when you are looking for a facility you will need to ensure that there’s lots of room for expansion. You need to have a 20 year strategic building plan.

To simply acquire an existing facility and hope that the business will maintain itself would be rather foolhardy. Your business success is in the “mix’. The changes in demand for services will never be greater than the 75 to 95 age range. Residents will become more and more dependent and require more and more services to assist them in their daily living routines. Each of these additional services becomes an additional profit centre.

So, if you’re thinking about buying a retirement home, be sure you know the average age of the residents and be sure that you have room to expand.

http://ontariorealestatesource.blogspot.com/

reviewed by Moishe Alexander,  Canadian funding corp CEO

This world would be unquestionably a simpler place to live in, if one was at least given the right to know whom he is selling his own house to. But after nineteen years of real estate sales practice, I have come to the realization that this is not meant to be.

The common law Doctrine of Privity as it relates to contracts provides that a contract cannot confer rights or impose obligations arising under it on any person or agent except the parties to it. In essence, the Doctrine of Privity of Contracts simply states, that only the parties to a contract have the right to sue or be sued under it. This means, generally speaking, that third parties who get a benefit under a contract do not have the right to go against the parties to the contract beyond the entitlement to such benefit. An example of this occurs when a manufacturer sells a product to a distributor and the distributor sells the product to a retailer. The retailer then sells the product to a consumer. There is no privity of contract between the manufacturer and the consumer.

However, one exception to this doctrine is that for contracts, which create an interest in land. Contracts involving real property run with the land, so that a new property owner can sue or be sued on a contract, even though he was not a party to it. A second exception to the Doctrine of Privity is an assignment

In an assignment, a person (called the assignor) can assign to a third party (the assignee) his entitlement to benefits arising out of a contract. If he does so, the third party has the right to sue to enforce those benefits. Obviously, a person cannot assign liabilities under a contract.

There are two types of assignments: statutory and equitable. A statutory assignment has three essentials:

[ ] The assignment is in writing.

[ ] The assignment is absolute, that is for the whole amount, and unconditional.

[ ] Notice of the assignment has been given in writing to the original promissor.

If any of the foregoing essentials is missing, the assignment might still be equitable. Statutory and equitable assignments are enforced differently by the Courts. In an equitable assignment all three parties must be named as parties in a court action to recover the amount outstanding. In a statutory assignment, on the other hand, only the original promissor and the assignee are named as parties to the action. The assignor is not a party to it.

An assignment does not alter the rights of the parties to the original contract. The assignee has no better legal position than the assignor had. More specifically, he receives the assignment subject to any defenses, which could have been raised between the original parties. If the assignor has properly assigned his rights, he is free from any further liabilities. It is now up to the assignee to collect the benefits of the original contract. Should the assignee fail, he cannot sue the assignor for it.

Finally, the original promissor does not have to make payments to the assignee until he receives proper notice. Once this notice is received, the original promissor must pay to the assignee and not the assignor even though he has not consented to the assignment.

Although no one can assign his liabilities under a contract, as stated above, a promissor can have his obligations performed by someone else. For instance, a promissor can require his employee or sub-contractor to perform his obligations under a building construction contract. Where a promissor has someone else perform his obligations under a contract, it is called vicarious performance. Vicarious performance is not an assignment, in that it does not result in the substitution of one the original contracting parties for another.

In the aforesaid example of a building construction agreement, the original contractor (promissor) is still liable to the other contracting party. In addition, the sub-contractor who performs vicariously cannot be sued by the other contracting party for non-performance. Only the building contractor can sue the sub-contractor, and this is so because of the privy of contract intercurrent between the two of them.

Luigi Frascati

Luigi Frascati is a Real Estate Agent based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics and maintains a weblog entitled the Real Estate Chronicle at http://wwwrealestatechronicle.blogspot.com where you can find the full collection of his articles. Luigi is associated with the Sutton Group, the largest real estate organization in Canada, and is based with Sutton-Centre Realty in Burnaby, BC.

Luigi is very proud to be an EzineArticles Platinum Expert Author. Your rating at the footer of this Article is very much appreciated. Thank you.

http://houseenergy.blogspot.com/2009/07/assignees-nominees-and-other-extra.html

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, canadian funding corp CEO

Those who think Canada is immune from credit problems need to think again. Over 500,000 Canadians are at least 90 days behind on credit payments. Please consider how Debt is tripping up Canadians.

More than half a million Canadians have fallen behind on their various credit payments, fuelling a 19 per cent rise in the average national delinquency rate in the one-year period ending May 31, 2009, says a new report from Equifax Canada.

The credit bureau called the double-digit jump “alarming,” noting the average delinquency rate for Canada hit 1.52 per cent at the end of May.

Much of the trouble stemmed from missed payments on credit card bills and for sales finance purchases of items such as furniture and electronics.

Equifax defines delinquent bills as those that are at least 90 days overdue.

Nadim Abdo, an Equifax vice-president, stressed the “sharpest increase” in delinquencies resulted from credit card and sales finance purchases, which have risen by 38 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively, since May 2008.

Rising delinquencies in those areas are troubling because consumers tend to miss payments on those unsecured credit products before they fail to pay back collateral-backed loans such as mortgages, bank loans and lines of credit, Abdo said.

US Credit Card Delinquency Rate Jumps 11 Percent

Inquiring minds might be asking for a comparison between Canada and the US. For the answer, please consider 1Q credit card delinquency rate jumps 11 percent.

Credit card holders who in ordinary years might have used their tax refunds to pay down their balances apparently spent the money elsewhere as the recession deepened in the first quarter.

That’s one of the conclusions that may be drawn from data showing the delinquency rate for bank-issued credit cards rose 11 percent in the first three months of the year, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion.

The delinquency rate jumped to 1.32 percent this year, from 1.19 percent in the first three months of 2008, TransUnion said. The statistic measures the percentage of card holders who are three months or more past due on their payments for cards bearing MasterCard and Visa logos, along with American Express and Discover cards.

The average total debt on bank cards also rose, jumping to $5,776 from $5,548 last year.

TransUnion measures credit card delinquencies at 90 days, but tracks mortgage delinquencies at 60 days. Becker said that is because card payments are typically much smaller than mortgage payments, and it’s easier to catch up on past due cards. For people in financial distress, it’s much harder to produce two mortgage payments once they fall behind, he explained.

Not surprisingly, bank card delinquency rates remained the highest in the states hardest hit by the mortgage meltdown: Nevada, Florida, Arizona and California.

North and South Dakota and Alaska, the states with the lowest rate of mortgage delinquencies, are also the states with the lowest credit card delinquencies, TransUnion data showed.

TransUnion, which samples 27 million consumer records to produce its data, expects the rate of credit card delinquencies to rise for the rest of the year, ultimately reaching about 1.7 percent.

Note that the US rate was a comparison of March 2009 to March 2008 while the rate for Canada was a comparison of May 2009 to May 2008. Thus Canada and the US are following a similar path.

Dynamic Maps

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has Dynamic Maps of Bank Card and Mortgage Delinquencies in the United States that some may wish to consider.

In regards to mortgages, Canada has some “catching down” to do, and it will. All the bubble areas such as Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, etc are going to get hit hard.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

http://offshoreinn.com/investing/500000-canadians-90-days-behind-on-credit-payments-delinquency-rate-hits-152-us-delinquency-rate-is-132/

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO