How important is confidentiality when it comes to the sale of Real Estate? For some, it is an “iron clad” rule never to be broken, and to others, well the lines are a bit blurry. Let’s go back to the market of the early 1990s and review a sale I had worked on. The Seller had his home on the market with an agent and received a notice from the bank that they would be seizing the p...Read More

Housing prices have declined since February 2022 but guess what? The price of renting a home or apartment has jumped similar to how the values of homes increased during the pandemic. To help clarify why rents have risen it helps to look as an investor does when considering buying a property to offer as a rental. The average price of a home in Oshawa is currently around $880,000. Investors need a ...Read More

A few weeks ago, I went to a local councillors debate here in Durham Region. It doesn’t matter which community as I felt the debate topics covered issues and talking points found in most towns. Especially, with candidates having limited or no knowledge of how the municipal act controls much of what goes on when it comes to, well in my world, building homes. Let’s get one thing ou...Read More

Think back to September 2020…. Lockdowns, masks, hand sanitizers, restaurants doing take out and delivery with no indoor dining. It was a crazy time and thank goodness we are past the restrictions and the fear of the pandemic. Another crazy part of the pandemic is what happened to Real Estate in Durham region over the past 24 months. When our first lockdown happened, in March/20 Real Estat...Read More

The big news over the past week has been the destruction caused by something named “Fiona.” The hurricane devastated parts of our east coast as it moved north along the USA coastline. I was speaking with a person who hails from Newfoundland, and she shared that her parents purchased a property in Port Aux Basques to use as a rental until they moved back home. They closed on the propert...Read More

Rates are up. Inflation is up. Uncertainty is up. Why would anyone consider buying now? This could be the best opportunity for a Buyer in the past year to buy a home. Let’s dig in and find out why. In February, the average home in Durham was selling for $1,209,000 and as of the end of August, that average has dropped to $854,000! If that is not enough to get some “market watchers&rdq...Read More

 We recently had an experience that caused quite a bit of conversation and introspection. What came out of the experience was a short list of “things that sound sexy to a Seller, but do not serve them.” The experience that had us looking at how different strategies work and how what worked before, is not working now was this. I have shortened the story down to give a quick idea of...Read More

    There are two parallels with the economy that are unfolding. One is the stock market, and the other is our local Real Estate market. The Dow Jones had an amazing rally that started in July and peaked in mid-August. Below is a graph and for those who like numbers, at the beginning of August the Dow was at 32,800 and climbed to $34,000 by mid-month, only to reverse direction and end ...Read More

Look over there, way over there. There is a couple, let’s call them Cynthia and Bob and they are sitting on the bleachers sipping lattes. What is important about this couple? They are Buyers, sitting on the sidelines waiting. Waiting for, well in the words of Dr. Suess… “Waiting for the fish to bite, or waiting for the wind to fly a kite, Or waiting around for Friday night, or ...Read More

In the past week, Oshawa had 57 properties sell and of those homes, 27 sold for over the asking price. This would indicate that over 50% of the properties sold had multiple bids. It looks like little has changed however when we in dig a bit, we can see that the market slowing down has had an impact on strategy. Of the homes that sold for more than the asking price, several of them sold for $200,0...Read More