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Grocery Bags, $100 Bills, and Why Real Estate Isn’t the Wild West Anymore
There was a time in real estate when things felt… looser. One seller once told me how he bought his home years ago. Negotiations had stalled. The seller wanted more money. So he arrived with grocery bags filled with cash. Around $200,000 in paper bills. Transaction complete. Another time, I watched a buyer count out…
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Strategy is the new Staging – It is Selling Homes.
Let’s just say it plainly.The market has slowed. And when markets slow, skill starts to matter again. Not panic. Not headlines. Skill. Inventory is still relatively low, but it’s rising. Buyers are re-emerging, and we are seeing selective bidding activity. In the past week alone, 44% of homes in Oshawa sold at full price or…
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Swiping is good for Food Delivery – Not so Much for Buying a Home.
A recent survey showed that nearly three out of four restaurant meals are now eaten off-premises. Delivered. Picked up. Consumed on a couch, half-watching Netflix, often in pajamas. Who needs to talk to a waiter when you can swipe. There’s no question technology has changed how real estate is delivered.But it hasn’t changed how people…
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Motivation Is Not a Marketing Feature
Last week I saw a listing on MLS that made me do that slow head shake you do when something just feels… off. It also sent me back to something most people don’t realize realtors agree to follow: a formal Code of Ethics set out by RECO (the Real Estate Council of Ontario). In plain…
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Thick Skin, Thin Takes, and Why Hoping for a Housing Crash Misses the Point
One thing I’ve learned from writing columns for local news outlets and contributing to blogs like this one is that a thick skin isn’t optional. If you put opinions into the wild, the wild writes back. Sometimes politely. Sometimes… less so. After a recent article, several comments landed in the familiar bucket of “I can’t…
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When your Realtor lives an hour away
A question came up recently that’s worth addressing:Does it make sense to list your Bowmanville home with an agent whose office is in Woodbridge—an hour and fifteen minutes from your property? I started thinking about this after reading a Woodbridge agent’s “areas served.” Their list spanned from Ajax to Aurora to Brampton to Caledon to…
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Pricing homes – Guesswork or Fact Based.
Over the weekend, we received a 1-star Google review. Out of 152 reviews—all 5-star except this lone outlier—it stood out like what it was – an unhappy comment from a stranger. We’ve never met the reviewer, never spoken to him, and he doesn’t live anywhere near the neighbourhood he claims we “undervalued.” So before anyone…
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Can a Buyer Renegotiate After a Home Inspection? Yes. Should They? That’s the Real Question.
A colleague in Arizona told me something that made me set down my coffee. In her market, buyers routinely make an offer, complete the home inspection, and then return to the negotiating table as if the deal were merely a draft. Nothing catastrophic discovered—just a second swing because, well, why not. Ontario felt very different…
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The Homes That Gave Up: What Expired Listings Reveal About Real Estate in 2025
In real estate, there’s a quiet heartbreak called the expired listing. A homeowner stages, scrubs, paints, hides their life in the oven, and lives in an endless state of “show-home readiness.” Then—sixty, ninety, one-hundred-twenty days later—the listing expires, unsold. The dream doesn’t crash; it just quietly times out. From early August to the end of…
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Small Upgrades, Big Returns: How Simple Fixes Can Help Your Home Sell
Every now and then, a home sale reminds me just how much the “little things” matter. Recently, we worked with a family who sold quickly — not to the first buyer who toured, but to the second, who paidthe full asking price. Before listing, I had walked through the property with the sellers and shared…
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