Model Homes: A Trip For Your Senses

How will you ever learn as an agent or as a consumer what is out there in new condominiums and new houses? You could obviously do factual research, but how far will that take you? You could go on the internet and look at sales sites or talk to other new homebuyers or agents, but how far will that really push your knowledge? Maybe you need something tangible.

Maybe what you need is a more hands on experience, a tantalizing sensation for your senses to really get the full experience. You need to see model homes. Being someone looking for the future, down the road I have been spending many a Sunday driving around the city and seeing different models, and wow has it opened my mind.

I now no longer can look at a simple brochure and be excited by it about a development.
I need that new carpet smell, that fresh coat of paint, the staged rooms; all of this gets me excited. I’ve realized that seeing these perfect glimpses into what life could be races my pulse and gets my heart beating fast. Now I know to some this may sound totally overdone or over exemplified, but truthfully it is a fun way to spend a Sunday. Even if you do not plan on purchasing for years to come or ever, these models sometimes can give you the greatest ideas on what to do with your living space. Usually these houses also show you what the community will like as well. In twenty minutes to an hour you can get a real feel for what life would be like.

So for me no more brochures, instead candid walks in model homes where I can really see what I want!

Property Virgins on HGTV: A REVIEW

Have you ever wished you could find the perfect first property to own and that you could list all your wants and needs and a knowledgeable real estate guru would help lead your search? Well this is your lucky day now that the popular HGTV show “Property Virgins” is going into its smash 4th season. The show airs a new episode each day and re-broadcasts up to 4 times daily. Sandra Rinomato a real estate and property guru leads the “Property Virgins” (A person or people who have never owned personal property) through the hassle of finding the entity that is right for them. The show for the most part takes place in the GTA and Toronto but sometimes veers off to the U.S and other cities.

The way the episodes work is that Sandra meets the person as well as their family, spouse or whomever they choose to bring along. They discuss what they are and are not looking for in a property and then Sandra finds usually 3 properties to show them. At the end they pick a property, make an offer and we see what happens. They also talk about what works for them and what makes them happy in a property.

Now you might be asking, why am I blogging about this little show? It is an amazing show, and personally as someone who is new to property, every episode I watch opens my eyes. We see the fear and fun in picking a property as well as the naiveté of the purchasers when Sandra asks them how much they think the house or condominium are worth (they answer $60,000 below or above sometimes). We see the human condition at its best and the vulnerability of people and their choices.

“Property Virgins” broaches a topic that is important and that topic is fear of commitment. Fear of commitment can mean many things but in this sense with housing obviously. For anyone watching the show really helps give you ideas and quenches fears and lingering questions.

Sandra Rinomato has a great presence and commands the audience and “PV’s” respect and adoration. She is definitely someone who you would want advocating for you and or your family to find a place.

So for someone interested in first time property, this show is a must.

Social Networking For a New Generation

It is a new day in age we live in and everything we know and have come to learn is changing in some fashion. Technology has become a prime source of change and in so many careers and jobs over the past few years especially. With the introduction of products like ipad, iphone, blackberry and skype we have seen how technology has literally revolutionized the workplace.

The time of face to face social networking is passé and almost dead. Remember the days of early morning breakfast networking groups? They still do exist but, a whole new generation coming into the work force all but ignore them. For a new generation social networking means one medium—the internet.

Right now the hottest entity for the working world is the use of social networking programs on the web. From linkedin to twitter to facebook to even blogging, business types (especially real estate agents) are logging on to this trend in droves. What is nice about these programs are the options they give. Blogging as I am doing right now makes it possible to let your clientele know about article style issues. Twitter is great for linking articles and sending links as well as letting people know what you are up to. Facebook is adept at fusing pictures, articles and notifications to a younger echelon. For business though the “BIG” name in social networking is linkedin. Linkedin is a program that connects you to different people you know or have worked with. It is a much more professional network and a favorite among agents.

Social networking is the way of tomorrow, today! It lets professionals link their respective careers and job together and helps create a flow of information. It is quite different than the networking of past decades and a little daunting when starting, but you will see how beneficial it can be.

Time For a Place of Your Own?

So, you are in your late twenties or early thirties and you are renting a basement apartment, a room or maybe an apartment in a building. You think to yourself that the rent is a manageable price and now is not the time to go all out and get a condominium or a house of your own. When is the right time then? As consumers we buy and buy smaller ticket items, but when it comes to the more crucial yet expensive purchases (Example-Houses, Cars) we are much more hesitant to take the proverbial plunge. Obviously that is good fiscal responsibility, but we also have to take risks to as well as think outside the box.


As most real estate agents can and will tell you there is something to be said for owning a condominium or house of some sort. Mortgage payments can sometimes be as reasonable as rent and once you have your own place the money you put in is going to you and not a landlord.
A good first step is to find a real estate agent to help you weigh your options and shows you what is on the market. This can definitely open up a world of opportunity for you and open your eyes to options.

C-L-E-A-N

Love them or hate them chores have to be done if one wants to keep the place they live in nice. Can it ever be though that chores take over our lives as we know it. Some people spend their whole weekend toiling over cleaning a stove, fumbling in the garden and cleaning the floors. There are even chores at work from keeping the washroom clean to keeping your lunch area clean. For me though I do not mind fixing up my room, kitchen and such. It is truly nice to live in a clean and organized environment.




So here is a great word to live by and what is stands for:

C-leanse: Clean your place to the point that is fresh

L-ighten the Load: Always recycle and giveaway clutter

E-xcite Yourself: Do not ever make cleaning a downer make it an upper

A-ct Environmentally: When cleaning always used environmentally sound products

N-ever Give up: As hard as it is stay in for the long run

Oh HST!

July 1st 2010 came and went and on top of Canada day Parties, fireworks and movies battling it out at your local theatre something else crept in the door; a little unwelcome friend name HST. For months people have been talking and talking about how this would eventually come into place and how it would affect us.

Well with the new tax in place, the next few months are really going to tell us what in the spectrum is going on.
Will this new tax make people avoid spending like the plague? Will HST do the positive things some have said it would do? Will HST be this decades Y2K, an explosion of pre-empted fear that goes nowhere? These next few weeks will tell!

Music, Memory & Dwellings

It can be said that music is the soundtrack of our lives. Every moment of our lives can be summed up by a song, whether it was playing at that point or if the moment matches a tune. Think back to a point in your life, whether it is that big sporting event you won, a wedding, graduation or perhaps that first kiss. Now try to associate a song with it. Pretty easy is it not?


Now why do we as humans have this sensory system where events can link our minds to music? One could say we are born with this ability, one could say we learn it. All this said it is a powerful ability that most people possess.

Now if events can be linked to music what about a house or apartment? The place you live? Could you have a deep sensorial attachment to the place in which you dwell? I for one think so.

When I think about the houses I have lived in over the years of my life I can 100% link songs in my head that make me recall incidents and events in the different homes. For example hearing The Beatle’s song “8 Days a Week” reminds me of how I used to study for exams in my basement and loop the song over and over; Hearing Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Our House” reminds me of doing house chores in the backyard; And of course hearing Gordon Lightfoot’s “Winter ‘s Night” makes me remember being 6 years old curled up in front a window at night staring from the warmth of my house into the snowy streets.

Music can really transform where we live. Now you give it a try! Pick a place you once lived and pick a place in the house. Now try really hard to think of a song that describes your memories and feelings. It is not that hard!

Music is the soundtrack to our lives and even more so the soundtrack of where we live and have lived.