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Furnace Rentals: Deal Maker or Deal Breaker?
So I’m doing a little homework for a seller and stumble across a home listing. Everything looks pretty normal… until I get to this part in the comments: “Great news! Rental items have ongoing exceptional maintenance! Furnace + Hot Water Tank ($140/mth), Water Softener ($81/mth), and Security System ($45/mth).” And I thought… wait a second.…
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Why are Buyers Sitting on Their Hands? Is it the Price…of the Recipe for Doubt?
Alright, gather ‘round the kitchen island, folks. Let’s break this down like a good cheese sauce: clear, simple, and essential. Say I’m your head chef, and I show you a dish that’s been on the menu for 75 years. It’s a classic. Always a crowd-pleaser. Maybe it’s had a rough couple of months—too many jalapenos…
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Can You Spot the Imposter? The Real Estate Edition
Quick weekend trip to Ohio = great for my soul, not so much for my gas tank. I filled up at a mystery station and bam! my car started coughing like it had swallowed a bug. A full tank of quality fuel from a national chain later, and it was purring like a kitten again.…
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Is It a Buyer’s Market? That Depends… And I Swear This Won’t Make Your Eyes Glaze Over
I promise this post contains zero pie charts, zero jargon, and absolutely no expectation that you’ll need a calculator. Now, let’s talk about something that comes up a lot:Someone recently said to me, “There are so many homes for sale right now—it’s clearly a buyer’s market, right?”And my answer (which always feels a little like…
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Making Sense of a Market that Makes No Cents
Here is where we are currently – in the past month, this has been the activity. (Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington detached homes for the month of April) Total homes available: 1,009 Homes sold April/25: 304 Price reductions: 8 When you look at where we began in 2025, we had 446 homes for sale. This shows that…
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Doggie Dishes and Sold Signs (A Lighthearted Look at What Not to Do During a Home Showing)
There’s a saying in real estate: “When a buyer tours a home, nothing with two legs or four should be present.” Translation? Ideally, neither sellers nor pets should be home when potential buyers stop by. Why? Because it’s a bit tough for buyers to imagine themselves living in a space when the current residents—human or…
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Buy Canadian – Buy a Resale Home!
I read a fascinating article over the weekend in the New York TImes over the weekend titled “Building Homes Under the Trump Agenda.” This is not intended to be a political blog entry, just a breakdown on how new home construction will change under the tariffs and counter-tariffs. The article reviewed a home being built…
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Stress Test or a Test that Causes Stress?
In 2016 our federal government implemented a policy that was met with mixed reviews. Called the “stress test,” the policy required borrowers to qualify for a mortgage at a rate of 5.25% or 2% higher than the rate they were applying for. (Whichever was greater.) When this policy was introduced, the Bank of Canada lending…
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Have we ‘Progued’ the Real Estate Market?
Have we “Progued” the Real Estate Market? Prorogue is a word that has been bouncing around over the past few months here in Canada. If you are unaware what it means here is a definition; To terminate a session of something (such as Canadian parliament) by Royal prerogative. (BTW this is not a political blog……
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What Realtors Actually Do
I read an online comment from someone who had a bit of a “grudge” against Real Estate brokers. His comment was, “All they do is put the home on MLS, and it sells itself.” I thought I would do a timeline on a home we recently sold to share some of the tasks involved in…
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