Imagine you are placed in the role of ordering canned goods for a grocery store. For your first month, you watch the shelves emptying and being refilled and you keep track of what you have in inventory and how quickly they are selling. You notice that at the end of the month you sold 500 cans of tomatoes. You ended up with 250 cans. You determine that by carrying an inventory of 750 cans you had a...Read More

We have a wonderful couple that we are working with to find the first home. They are fully qualified, have a great down-payment and are ready to become homeowners. However, after their first offer on a property they did not end up buying they have the knowledge of how things work and that information will help them secure a home. Here is what their first attempt to buy looked like from my perspect...Read More

How do you cool a heated Real Estate market? Implement taxes to keep investors out of buying? Create incentives for Buyers to save down-payments or to get rebates on buying? End blind bidding? Or does any form of “controlling” a free market comes at the cost of collapsing Real Estate values and seeing equity stripped away from owners? It is all so complex. Let’s dig in a bit to s...Read More

It is that time of year again when I stick my neck out and make a few predictions about the first 3 months of the new year that is quickly approaching. First, let me find that crystal ball… I know it is around here somewhere. Ahh, there it is. Let’s see what it says. All kidding aside, it looks like the spring market, (in Real Estate the spring market comes from late January until Ma...Read More

Is it just me or do many people notice “bag” signs stuck into the ground at street crossings offering cash for homes? A quick google search with the inquiry “buy your home for cash in Oshawa” resulted in 25 companies on the first page. They are very easy to find.  The ads typically offer solutions to bad credit, no commission, fast closings and offering to deal with fo...Read More

  It seems easy. You connect with a Real Estate sales rep to sell your home in Durham and take for granted they are a local agent with local experience. A quick Google search for Durham Real Estate found that the majority of websites/sales reps that result are out of area agents. This shows that your search may result in local sales reps, or, you may find salespeople who do not know how to ...Read More

I am certain at some point you have been wandering through a mall and stopped to see a person standing behind a work -table with a microphone on and talking up a product.  Let’s call the product “ShamWow,” and as you watch and listen to the sales pitch, you see people with their visa cards out walking away with smiles and a new cloth. This experience can also be seen at plac...Read More

  Here are the leading headlines about our Real Estate market: “With average prices up another 14% Swiss bank UBS warns of housing bubble..” “Toronto has the second riskiest housing bubble in the world.” “Canada leads in most unsustainable housing bubble.” When I read headlines like the above one’s I smile knowing that much of what we see in media ...Read More

I will take Relationships for $1,000 I started my career as a Real Estate Broker in 1986. I remember a lesson I learned within a few months of working. This life lesson helped to shape my business and is a way of working I have never deviated from. It was the difference between “transactional” and “relationships” when working with people. Let’s dig into what both way...Read More

I had an interesting conversation with a woman this week. She expressed concern about her 26-year old son. She wondered with Real Estate prices rising, would he ever be able to buy a home for himself? This is a concern shared by many parents. Ten years ago, the average home in Durham Region was $317,000 and currently has risen to $968,138. That is an increase of $651,000! A young, first-tim...Read More