Yesterday I attended the Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board's Xpo and Trade Show. Brian Thwaits hosted our lunch. For anyone who is not familiar with him he calls himself a "Brain Trainer"...and a very funny guy :) Did you know: If you make both hands into a fist and put them together so your thumbs are facing you, that is the size of your brain? That everone's brain is unique, like a fingerprint? You may find someone "like-minded" but no two brains think alike. 41% of us forget what we were going to say...ummm...while saying it. Listening is a joke - Speaking/listening rates are about 100 words per minute - our brains work at a miminal of 1,000 words per minute, so our brains are busying themselves with more interesting things to think about while someone is speaking to us. Albert Ei... 04/16/2010

All throughout school, I went on field trips to Doon Heritage Village (formally known as Doon Heritage Crossroads) where I experienced what life was like in 1914.  There have been improvements since I've been there. The most recent being enhanced and restored buildings, more activities and more farm animals for your family. Another huge improvement is the gateway into the village. It is a very colourful building that will be the Waterloo Region Museum - unfortunately, the Museum won't be open until 2011. The Museum features a 115 seat theatre and three multi-purpose meeting rooms available for the community to use. As you approached the museum, you will notice it is covered in a glass facade. The 16 coloured panels have been translated into hexadecimal computer code and represent the 26... 04/13/2010

I just had an interesting conversation with my 22-year-old daughter that made me proud. It showed me that all my preaching about looking at the big picture has paid off - she is able to see passed her own nose... First a little history: Sam has just finished her three-year advertising program at Mohawk College and is working the second half of her Interim (training without pay) with an ad agency in Burlington. She works three days a week there and works four days in a retail store. Her wages at the retail store have just gone up, because minimum wage has gone up. She will now be paid $10.25 an hour. She said to me it's sad that she's getting paid that much money - and this is a girl who works hard for her cash, values it, pays her bills, but in her present situation is always struggling... 04/05/2010

As part of being a business professional I read my competitions' advertisements and what I've noticed is they all seem to say the same thing... Want to sell your home...let me help. I am a professional that knows the area well. I can help you find the home of your dreams. There are even ads that tell you what they "don't do" as a slam towards other REALTORS®. And I have to admit - as I look at some of my older advertising I am guilty of doing some of those as well. So what should they be advertising, if not what they can or won't do for you? How about an ad that tells you something personal that will help you to form a bond with him/her? Having a good relationship with your REALTOR®, being on the same page, knowing that your REALTOR® understands what you need, what you are going through... 04/02/2010

Yesterday I received a news update that a 16-year-old boy stabbed a 49-year-old to death in his home. This happened just down the street from me in a rental apartment building. This building is very poplular - it has had a waiting list ever since I can remember. A lot of things ran through my mind as I watched a police helicopter fly low over the woods behind my building (the boy had fled the seen without his shoes). I thought about how terrible it was that this happened. I wondered what events led up to this very young person doing such a thing. I shuddered as I thought about how scared this kid must be. And then I thought about that waiting list. How would an event such as this effect the tenants in this building? Would they decide to move? Would people who have been waiting for an ap... 03/31/2010

Recently, I read a magazine article which profiled the wedding day of a particular couple and one part of their story really struck a chord with me. The bride was determined that they would spend as little money on their wedding day as possible. She got the bright idea that she would do her own hair for the wedding - from colour & highlights to cut and style. Nevermind that she'd never done it before, she'd always gone to a hairdresser and she had absolutely no idea where to start. She plunged ahead, dollar signs that she was saving in her head and dove into disaster. Her blonde hair ended up green because she chose a harsh colour with too many chemicals. The haircut she gave herself was absurd and she ended up looking like some sort of strange bird. She finally had to acknowledge defea... 03/29/2010

I don't think I would go as far as to say that a change is as GOOD as a vacation, but it is certainly a way to rejuvenate. Everyone gets in a rut. The same day over and over again. Even in an industry as unpredictable as real estate, where you never know what your next conversation will bring, you can get in a rut: day after day marketing in the same fashion, having each hour slotted to do a certain task to make sure you stay focused so you can get that next lead, a new client...yeesh. So what can you do to snap out of it? Change things up a bit. And I don't mean blog at 9:00 AM instead of the usual 10:00... I mean get out there. Do something you normally wouldn't do. For example: This past Friday and Saturday I volunteered at the Breithaupt Centre's Book Sale where I met a number of gr... 03/29/2010

I am a REALTOR®. I have basically been trained the same as other REALTORS® - some may have less training; some may have more. I have basically the same tools that other REALTORS® use - the bells and whistles may vary. I have similar marketing strategies - some may say what they will do for you with less or more exuberance. But what about a REALTOR's life experiences and how their experiences can help you find your next home or sell your existing one? I have moved many, many times: as a child, a young adult, a wife, a mother, a single mother, a new wife again, and a single wife. As a child my parents bought fixer uppers all around Kitchener-Waterloo and we even went to Peterborough for a bit. As a young adult I moved from apartment to apartment, going where the wind took me. My friends a... 03/24/2010

  Over the past few weekends, I have been travelling down to my hometown of Burlington to help my mom recover from major surgery. Amidst all the things I’m doing to help her, I have found time to go to a number of open houses – hey, its a passion of mine – and see what’s available. I’ve seen some great properties and been tempted by a few, but that isn’t the point of my blog post today. Today I want to talk about the essence of home staging. The reason I want to do this is because I think people get caught up in the “glam” of staging and go for a finished product when they haven’t even begun to address what’s underneath all the “props” to make a house sellable. Case in point, some of the properties I have viewed in recent weeks were being listed by a realtor partnership which openly adv... 03/22/2010

A Seller wants to sell his home and he wants to use a REALTOR. To do so he has to agree to pay for that REALTOR's services and rightly so. A Buyer wants to buy a home and he also wants to use a REALTOR. To do so he DOESN'T have to pay for a REALTOR's services. WHAT? Who started that? Why is it that buyers do not have to pay for our services? One explanation I've heard is that Buyers should not have to take on the financial burden of paying a REALTOR because it's hard enough to buy a house, never mind take on that extra expense. But I have to ask in response: "If a Buyer's finances are so strapped that he can't afford to pay for services rendered, should he even be buying to begin with?" AND "A Seller has worked very hard for the privilege to own a home; why should he have to pay for the... 03/19/2010

This beautiful sight is of the trees that inhabit the community trails, which wind for miles behind my building. As the sun was going down it cast its orangish glow upon all it could touch. A little bit of warmth on this particular cold winter day.                         A few facts about trees: Trees replenish our oxygen. Trees filter out air pollution (including such nasty things as carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter - PM10 and PM2.5 - and sulfur dioxide, which are known to cause health concerns in humans, including headaches, lung, throat and eye irritation, respiratory and heart disease, and cancer). They contribute to better mental health and wellbeing. They are vital for the water we drink, they help cool our cities and towns. They are home to many... 03/14/2010

Use your imagination and give it your best shot. No clues...let's see what you can come up with.    No winners this time around, John doesn't want to play in this sandbox anymore, and personally, I think it's time to move on... So, to see the bigger picture, go to: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1545378/name-that-photo-can-you-guess-reveal   03/10/2010

YOUR QUESTION:"Why should I sign a Buyer Representation Agreement?"PAM'S ANSWER:When sellers list their homes for resale with an agent they do so under contract. That contract basically outlines what is expected by all parties. It also shows that the seller is committed to selling and the agent involved is committed to getting the house sold.It only makes sense that buyers and agents have a contract too.I want to be committed to you - I want you to find that home that makes your heart race and your mind sing. And if you are my client, I'll be more than happy to go to the moon and back for you. I'll preview homes to save you wasting time on something that sounds good, but may not be right for you. I'll make appointments for you and take you through as many homes as you need to see. I'll ... 03/06/2010

As usual I took Joker for a walk behind my building where all the beautiful community trails are. This was the third out of four walks he gets in a day. During this particular walk, as I was getting a pretty good work out blazing a trail through the new fallen snow, I looked at the trees. In them I saw ribbons of snow defying gravity...at least for the time being. One strong wind and the beauty of it all would be blown away. So after Joker's walk, I grabbed my camera and headed back out. These are some of the pictures I took (don't be too critical; I'm still learning the new camera I got for Christmas). These trails are my little piece of paradise in the city. Spring is coming...I can't wait to see what comes out of my camera next! 02/23/2010

During the past couple days on my other post (http://activerain.com/blogsview/1484829/competition-bureau-s-challenge-could-be-the-start) I have been receiving responses from an agent who doesn't exactly see things in the same light as I. Here, I am posting only his questions and my answers; his other, more passionate opinions, I've left in their original place, if you'd like to read them. ------------- BILL ASKED: "Does it make sense to you that Sellers should go it alone, unrepresented and unprotected,receive no fudiciary duty from a licensed government regulated Realtor in their largest financial transaction of their lifetime?" I ANSWERED: I have to answer that it does. I am all for our freedoms and truly believe if someone wants to sell their property on their own that's their right ... 02/23/2010

I don't know if you've noticed, but as you get older you have a tendency to look at the city you grew up in with "I remember" eyes. And this is especially true for me since I left the KW area, where I was born and raised, ten years ago and have just recently moved back. I often drive by a place where there used to a restaurant I used to haunt as a kid, which is no longer there, or see an entire development where at one time the city actually ended. I remember stores that went under, and businesses that have thrived to the point of being unrecognizable. One such instance is Bingeman's...holy cow, Bingeman's...where I spent a huge amount of time at the ol' roller rink with its cement floors and pinball games. Where I used to rollerskate to, rollerskate two sessions, then rollerskate the a... 02/21/2010

I spend a lot of time reading ads belonging to those who want to sell their homes privately. I also contact some of them with tips about how to make their ads more effective. The advice that I seem to give the most is, "If you want as many responses to your ads as possible, less is not more." I tell them this because.... They seem to be afraid to post pictures of the inside of their homes. They don't provide contact names (not even first names only). They want people to contact them through e-mail only (they don't provide a phone number). They don't provide their addresses (even if they're advertising an open house).   And all this is with the hopes that buyers will contact them "for more information". Now, how can they expect to sell their homes if they won't provide the information up... 02/20/2010

Ever since we moved from the DOS programs to Windows, multi-tasking has been the "big" thing in business. The big joke has been that if you could only do one thing at once you must be a DOS program. But the joke's on them. Realistically, a computer only has one central processing unit and that unit can only do one thing at a time. It just does it soooo fast it appears that it's doing more than one thing at once. But then the system gets bogged down from doing too much - the hard drive gets fragmented, so the CPU slows down. It just can't access information as quickly anymore. Things don't get done as fast when that happens, do they? So let's think about your brain. Your central processing unit. How effective do you think you are if you're trying to do more than one thing at a time - swi... 02/17/2010

The buzz in real estate today is about how Jim Flaherty, Financial Minister, has responded to concerns that Canada's first-time home buyers may be taking on too much debt. He feels making it harder to borrow will resolve the problem. Buyers will need to meet stiffer criteria to qualify for a mortgage. A larger downpayment will be required for speculative investments. There will be tighter restrictions on how much money owners can borrow against their houses. An "income test" will be a condition for those needing a CMHC insured mortgage. While I am a firm believer that people should not financially over-extend themselves, the timing may be very unfortunate. Between an unsteady economy, the HST kicking in, in July (which will be charged to transactions dated before, but closing in July), ... 02/16/2010

Most condos in Ontario allow dogs now and Joker really appreciates that. He is a fairly large dog (95 pounds), but has adjusted well to apartment living. He is very quiet...partially because he gets four walks a day on the surrounding wooded trails. Joker is also very patient. Joker lives in an apartment condo with an elevator. He has learned to be patient, because his pet has taught him to be. When he and his pet wait for the elevator they are back against the wall. He sits and waits until an elevator door opens. Before he and his pet moves they look to see who might be in the elevator. When he gets the "okay" he enters. If someone else is in the elevator his pet asks if they can join him, her, and/or them. Joker understands that not all pets like dogs and some may have allergies. He i... 02/15/2010