Finally we got some long awaited (if short lived) summer weather last weekend. My family and I decided to take a short trip to Hornby Island to take advantage of it and rented a vacation rental cottage for the weekend. After spending a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable weekend, it occurred to me that renting a vacation property is an excellent way to test out the location of your future real estate.

Even if you can't rent out the property you plan to purchase, you can make some observations you normally might not think of by renting out a nearby home for a couple of nights. Here are some considerations you might not think of until you actually stay at the location:

When you stay at a vacation rental, you can get an idea of the public foot traffic to expect on your waterfront. During the day at our rental there were only a couple of passers by so the beach was almost completely private, but due to the fantastic sunsets, small family groups would set up for a barbecue or campfire at the end of the beach. The property was still quite private though as no one seemed to venture within 100 metres of the beachfront in front of the cabin. Moreover, the property was the last one before the beach turns into high bank waterfront so there are miles of quite private beachfront to walk on from the property heading north.

Although the exposure can tell you a lot about the sun a property will get, don't forget that tress, hills and other natural obstacles may cause a site to get less sun than you would expect. Staying at a location will enable you to see where the suns falls at all times of the day. Do you prefer sunsets or sunrises? You will be able to see which part of the bay/beach gets the exposure you prefer.

Although you cannot always forecast this, staying at vacation rentals on a few different beaches should give you an idea of how much storm activity they get. Our little place at the beach at was noticeably less windy than other beaches on Hornby and the water was quite calm most of the time. Perhaps you want to hear the constant lapping of waves on the shore so you want a beach with a constant wind. In many cases, this is something you won't know until you've stayed at the beach you plan to buy on.

Staying at a vacation rental allows you to interact with neighbours and locals. Asking questions about the neighbourhood will give you invaluable insight into the area. Perhaps there is a grow op a few houses down or a problem neighbour. These are things you will not find out from a regular house viewing.

Ok, so most of the waterfront locations in B.C. will not be on an ambulance route but staying at a property will give you an idea of noise nearby. Things to consider might be traffic noise, noise from nearby heavy industry (shake mills, logging, etc...) and plane traffic (seaplanes or jets as many airports are located close to water).

Love the smell of a sun baked sandy beach? Spend a couple of days on the beach to see if your dream will come true there. Perhaps the smell from a local mill or seafood plant will put a damper on that dream.

Although most of the above disaster scenarios will be out of the norm for waterfront properties in B.C., it is definitely worth the time to check out your neighbourhood or beach before buying. As a bonus, you have an excuse for a nice relaxing vacation!

[...]

If our site statistics prove correct, 2008 could be a busy year in the BC waterfront market. Typically, unique visitors to our site increase every month from January until August and then slightly decline until the end of December. Our current forecast for this month is for approximately 10, 000 unique visitors, which is similar to our numbers at the height of the season for last July so this warrants well for 2008 waterfront sales.
In addition, inquiries going through the site have increased and some of our member Realtors are reporting a busy start to the year.

Although we haven't received the final stats for 2007 yet, we anticipate the results will show that 2007 waterfront sales were down slightly over the record-breaking 2006 sales, but that prices were up in most areas. Judging by the number of inquiries going through the site , two "sleeper" areas to note (although already gaining in popularity) were the lake country north of Kamloops (where prices are lower than other resort areas in BC) and the Cowichan Lake area on Vancouver Island.

In speaking with many Realtors throughout the year, we noticed a trend toward a quieter waterfront market in areas previously bolstered by US buyers- in particular southern regions of Vancouver Island outside of Victoria (Sooke) and the Southern Gulf Islands. Watch these areas in Spring for a possibly emerging buyers market.

[...]

Lately I have been thinking about if the downturn in Alberta's real estate market will effect the sale of B.C. waterfront in 2008. Since our launch, our Canadian site traffic has consisted of 20-25% Albertan visitors and many of our member real estate agents report selling their high-end waterfront homes to Albertans. The word is out-Albertans love B.C. waterfront and have been buying it up steadily in the last few years. The question is, will this demand last with the current market conditions in Calgary and Edmonton?

I decided to take a look at our site statistics to see if I could see any changes in our traffic recently. I compared the traffic from Sept. 5, 2006-Dec. 5, 2006 to the exact same period for 2007. The results? Our site traffic has increased substantially and Albertans still comprise exactly 21% of our Canadian visitors. Albertans comprised 17.4% of our worldwide traffic during this period of 2006, while they made up 16.9% during the same period this year-a drop of a mere 0.5%. Interestingly, I don't believe this minor drop reflects a waning of interest from our Albertan neighbours. Rather, I think it is a result of some additional marketing we have done on sites in the US and abroad, which have resulted in an increase in visitors from other countries.

While our stats show that Albertan interest in B.C. waterfront is still strong, some anecdotal evidence points to the B.C. market already being mildly effected. We have some family friends in Edmonton who put their home on the market about 8 months ago hoping to sell and move to Kelowna. Their house still hasn't sold and their plans to buy in B.C. are on hold. In addition, Ozzie Jurock states in his recent newsletter that he expects to see some Albertan investors backing off of the Kelowna area in 2008.

So what is the conclusion from all of this? Judging from our stats, the interest in B.C. waterfront from Albertans is just as strong as it was last year. In addition, many of our member real estate agents report that they continue to see an influx of Albertans looking for waterfront. Apart from the real estate market, the Albertan economy remains strong. I believe that those Albertans who have decided to buy here to make a lifestyle/retirement change are still set on purchasing; however, the continued increasing B.C. prices (forecast by CMHC) and impact of the Alberta slump may make this more difficult to achieve for those Albertans dependent on selling their own homes to buy their B.C. property. The result may be a more balanced waterfront market and more options for buyers in 2008.

[...]