You know that the weather is starting to get halfway decent when the heavy equipment starts coming out and the easiest way to get to work is blocked off with pilons. At the Century 21 office we currently have the pleasure of having to contend with a road crew right in front of our driveway. They started last week and they will be there until September. I'm already annoyed. I'm usually the first one at work, so I'm the guy that has to get out of my car every day and remind the fellows to leave a space so that cars can pull in and out of the entranceway. They are nice enough about it, but I shouldn't have to remind them every day, you'd think they would remember by now. No big deal really. The roads in Trenton are in pretty decent shape, but I have noticed that the volume in traffic has i... 05/01/2012

Une des meilleures choses au sujet d'être un agent immobilier dans la région de Quinte est d'apprendre à conduire autour de la zone présentant des propriétés. Nous avons quelques zones très belles et certaines propriétés très sympas qui sont une aubaine comparativement à d'autres domaines de la province. J'ai développé un petit faible pour les chalets riverains et les propriétés de loisirs. Il n'y a rien de mieux que de montrer ces endroits pour les gens des grandes villes comme Ottawa ou Toronto. Beaucoup d'entre eux ont déjà cherché des propriétés similaires dans la région de Muskoka, et sont très heureux quand ils constatent que leur dollar peut étirer un tas plus loin dans le comté Prince Edward ou le long de la rivière Trent et c'est beaucoup de lacs et de leurs affluents. Mon affa... 04/27/2012

I have recieved quite a few emails from people who are trying to sell their own homes lately. Some are from people who are truly trying to sell their homes on their own (or with the aid of one of those "For Sale By Owner" companies) and some are from people who have their homes listed with one of those flat fee minimum commission agencies in Toronto, Ottawa, or Hamilton. These emails are pretty similar and I suspect that the people who are emailing me have been told to do so (and even told what to say) by the people who they have paid to help sell their home. I believe that contacting local real estate agents is a part of their strategy. The gist of these emails (about five or six a week) is that they admire my web presence and would like me to promote their homes. Of course they insist... 04/18/2012

Come and join me at the Quinte West Home and Leisure show at the Community Gardens in Trenton tomorrow afternoon. I will be there from noon until 1.30 p.m. on Sunday (I was supposed to be there until 2, but I have an open house, so I'm rushing off a little early). I will be manning the Century 21 booth, so if you feel like dropping by and saying hello (or anything else), just come by. There are lots of prizes and give-aways, so chances are pretty good that you might win something. I quite enjoy the Home and Leisure show every year, it gives me a chance to see all the latest innovations and ideas that all the different companies have come out with in the last year. If you're looking for ideas and inspiration on how to jazz up your home, this would be the place to be this weekend. You kn... 04/14/2012

This handy visual guide should make it a bit easier to confirm your suspicions if you think you may have run across a meth lab. Despite people's best efforts to keep them a secret, there are some obvious tell-tale signs that you have to keep your eyes open for. 04/04/2012

Normally I don't even open these emails, but I'm glad I opened this one. I was a little struck by the irony.   UNITED NATIONS /SCAM VICTIMS.Our Ref: U.N/WBO/042SWISS/2012. Attention: You may not understand why this mail came to you. We have been having a meeting for the past 2 months which just ended Few days ago with the secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This emailis to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world especially here in Nigeria, the UNITED NATIONS IN Affiliation with WORLD BANK have agreed to compensate over 250 scam victims,with the sum of USD$800,000,00.This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems... 03/20/2012

Most of us who have spent any amount of time on the internet have run across the TED series of speakers (Technology, Entertainment and Design). If you aren't, I'm sure you will find the speakers very good at making their points and certainly worth listening to. Ted is one of the most interesting sites on the internet (in my humble opinion). There are people who can earn a decent living without paying any attention to the internet, alas, I am not one of them. I find that I do have to take an interest in what is going on, and I find myself sifting through tons of crap to get to the few precious gems that may be there. TED delivers the gems.This particular video is delivered by Rob Reid, a very astute thinker and author of the book Architects of the Web. He is also the creator of Rhapsody.... 03/19/2012

There are two main types of Irish people, real ones (about 7 million of them) and Plastic Paddys (everybody else). Plastic Paddys tend to wear silly things like green paper hats and wear shirts that with the words "Kiss me, I'm Irish" on St. Patrick's Day. Nice try Mr. Pretend Irishman, I'm not kissing you, you've had too much to drink. Sober up and call me in the morning, here's my card, we will see about your kiss then. You're probably Polish anyway.I am really looking forward to the day when St. Patrick's Day becomes popular in Ireland, I think they would celebrate it in style over there. In the meantime, let's listen to a very popular song, written by an Englishman who had never set foot in Ireland, and sung by three fellows from Wales (nobody can sing like Welshmen). If this song b... 03/17/2012

Last month was a great month for me. Both of my kids had their reading weeks at college so they could come back home for a while. Unfortunately they both had different weeks off, but we did have one gloriously fun overlapping weekend. The upside of this arrangement was that I got to spend more one on one time with both of them than I usually would. This can be quite daunting, especially in the case of my son who isn't terribly loquacious. Towards the end of the week I realized that most of the time I spent with him in public consisted of walking a few steps behind him exhorting him to pull his pants up. It drives me nuts, but he's the one with the droopy pants and it doesn't seem to worry him in the least. He seems to be an expert at hiking his jeans up just before they are about to fal... 03/13/2012

The village of Batawa is about three miles north of Trenton along the Trent river. It's a little bedroom community for the Trenton and Belleville areas and about 300 or so folks live there. Batawa is the only village that I know of where one has to drive through a factory parking lot to get to it. Naturally it would be the old Bata factory that one has to drive through. Unfortunately it has proven to be too expensive to manufacture shoes in Canada, so the factory is no longer in operation. At one time this factory employed almost 2000 people, but by the late 1990's it was no longer feasible for Bata to keep it open. Thomas Bata came to the area from his native Czechoslovakia in the 1930's to escape the chaos that the Nazis were causing in his home country. The village of Batawa was crea... 02/21/2012

This has been a very mild winter so far, in the Quinte area we haven't had very much snow or terribly cold weather at all. While I haven't enjoyed the winter, I must say I have disliked it much less than other winters. I have only had to shovel the driveway twice so far.   It was actually pretty nice to wake up this morning and see some fresh snow blanketing the landscape. It was very pretty. The schoolkids might be a little sad, if this had been a weekday, it probably would have been a snowday and the school bus would have been cancelled. It seems that the busses are cancelled for the flimsiest of reasons these days.       This is the perfect kind of snow to make snowballs with. It's big, fluffy, and slightly wet. I believe the kids call this type of snow "packing snow" because its eas... 02/18/2012

71 Bayview Estates PROPERTY DETAILS $79,900 LISTING INFORMATION MLS: 2120733Bedrooms: 3Full Baths: 1Partial Baths: 0Sq ft: 0Style: Mobile HomeHeat Source: GasTaxes: $0.00 PROPERTY DESCRIPTION Very Affordable Living in Quinte West. The lot fees for this spacious three bedroom mobile home will be $306 per month for the new owners. There are no property taxes on this Bayview Estates mobile home. Now for the good stuff. This well maintained home has a newer furnace, roof and windows, all work done in 2009. Simply move in and enjoy life in Bayview Estates, minutes from C.F.B. Trenton. This economical 26 year old home could be a great investment property with an attractive ROI, or it could be your new home. Either way, it's priced to sell. One of the more notable features of this particular ... 02/06/2012

It's Superbowl Sunday in Trenton, Ontario, and I was surprised to learn that it happens to be Superbowl Sunday all over North America as well. What a happy coincidence.I have never watched an entire football game, the sport never quite caught my fancy. In my opinion the games seem so long, and there's always a thousand other things I could be doing on a Sunday afternoon. I know I'm not alone, the stores seem to be busy and there are a good number of people out and about doing things such as washing their cars, doing their laundry, or eating out at restaurants. I even heard that some real estate agents were conducting open houses today. I hope they had a good turn out.I'm sure some people will tune into the game just to watch the advertisements. I have learned that Century 21 will be air... 02/05/2012

  Here are the statistics for Single Family Residential Unit sales for Trenton Ontario for the month of January 2012. 34 houses were listed in January and 14 houses sold. These numbers are not radically different from 2011. The average selling price in January 2012 was$147, 371 . This figure is down slightly from January 2011 when it was$148,846.     Here are the statistics for Single Family Residential Unit sales for Belleville, Ontario for the month of January 2012. 65 houses were listed in January and 22 houses sold. This is a rather large increase in the number of new listings from January 2011, when only 43 were listed.   Strangely enough, the number of units sold in Belleville is the same for both years. The average selling price in January 2012 was $196,736. This figure is down ... 02/01/2012

I guess I'm not a brand new real estate agent any more, I've moved up into the category of being a fairly new agent, I've been doing this for over three years now. I suppose that's quite a bit longer than most people who get their license. A lot of people give up. It is an intimidating prospect to be entirely dependant upon oneself to create enough business on your own to earn a paycheque.Another intimidating prospect is learning all the paperwork so that deals are done properly and we don't screw something up. We are talking about large amounts of money changing hands with each transaction. It's very easy for real estate agents to find themselves in court these days. This shouldn't scare anyone from trying though, we all just have to be really vigilant. Each transaction can be fraught ... 01/31/2012

An incident occurred on New Years night in Trenton. A man alleges that he was beaten by the police, and the photograph accompanying the article would suggest that there are merits to his allegations. The fact that he was in breach of his probation and the the man's arm length criminal record will be factors in the investigation. I do know the man in question, but I don't know anything about the events of that night other than what I have read in the newspaper article. I will wait for the SIU to conclude their investigation before forming any opinions on this particular matter. But I do know this; The Quinte West O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) detachment have a lot of trouble dealing with the public. I have quite a bit of first hand experience with them. I can sympathize with them to... 01/05/2012

Ah, New Years, that arbitrary line in the sand is upon us. It's the time when one year flows into the next. Some of you will be out celebrating, others will be at home celebrating, some will be asleep, some will be trying to get to sleep, some will be playing World of Warcraft, while many others might not be fully aware of where they are and what they are doing when the clock strikes 12.However and wherever you may be, have a safe and happy one, and lets all make 2012 a great year. 12/31/2011

  Matthew 1:22-25So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.And he called His name JESUS.       Merry Christmas everybody. It's time for me to log off and spend time with the family. I hope you all have a wonderful day. 12/24/2011

Earlier in the week I wrote a blog post about SPAM. For those of you who didn't read it and don't feel like following the link provided (and I don't blame you in the least), it was really just a few random facts about this iconic luncheon meat. I became interested in Spam because I had (for reasons unknown even to myself) said I was bringing some to our office Christmas bash. My only real knowledge of this food was from the Monty Python Spam skit, so I thought I'd look into it a little more. I did discover some pretty neat facts and figures and have gained a new respect for the product. Sad to say, it wasn't the most popular item at the Christmas party, and I was left with some uneaten sliced Spam on my hands, pretty much the entire can (the crackers went quite quickly though- they were... 12/17/2011

Maybe Santa Claus isn't dead after all. There's a phenomenon that's occuring all around the good old U.S. of A. this Christmas season that's bound to warm up the cockles of even the most jaded of real estate agents' hearts. Apparently anonymous people are going into Kmarts all over the country and paying off the balances on people's lay-away accounts. I wasn't even aware that some stores still had lay-away accounts, it seems like such an old fashioned concept, but I suppose some people need this program to squirrel money away to buy their kids gifts for Christmas. Anyhow, certain angels among us have been going into Kmart stores and have been paying off the balances owed on strangers accounts. Read the Associated Press article here. It doesn't sound like it's an organized movement, it s... 12/16/2011