This is my Friday Real Estate Roundup, a post where I share some of the learnings learnt and deeds done for the week. I was doing real estate news like this this last winter. I don’t know why I stopped. I think I got too busy in the spring.
Why we won’t crash
I’ll start with the national news from REM – Real Estate Magazine Online. The article is titled “Why we won’t crash like the USA”. There are some very good examples of how the Canadian real estate market is very different than the American one. Yeah, we’re different in a lot of ways. Happy Thanks giving by the way.
Big wind blows
I got involved in an online discussion with some Ontario Realtors about wind turbines and their effect on real estate prices and I found that is a very contentious issue. Most people don’t like them and for many reasons. They may be a health risk. They are noisy. They affect bird migration. Those are some of the objections. This article states that wind turbines have a negative effect on real estate prices. The average decrease in value is 38%! I had no idea. I always thought they looked kind of cool and majestic but the “not in my backyard” mentality is strong for this issue. In one case, being close to a wind farm brought down the price of a home by 58.5%.
365 Rules About Real Estate
The big news in my real estate life is that I’m writing a book called 365 Rules About Real Estate. I’m going over my old blog posts as well as textbooks and other materials I’ve accumulated over the years culling together knowledge I picked up and carrying around in my head. The goal is to answer questions that I get asked most often. I hope to take the stress and mystery out of the real estate buying and selling process. I’m already up to Rule #293 (lock up your pets when you move) and I’m thinking I’m going to have far too much information for only one book. But that’s OK I’ve already got the name picked out for the second book 365 More Rules About Real Estate. That’s definitive!
It’s going to be an ebook by the way and my only question now is should it be free or does it have more value if I charge $2 for it? I’ve asked several people about this and there is not a consensus. What do you think?
From the Vault
Speaking of writing, on my blog over the years I gathered a lot of facts about Kitchener Waterloo so when I was looking at the old post I cobbled them together into a blog post titled Kitchener Waterloo Random Facts. Also when going over my old blog post I realize I had written a number of times about scams, and again I cobbled those together in one post to revisit these minor ills of society.
365 KW
I should mention 365 things to do in Kitchener Waterloo. It, of course is our community site engaging and informing the residents of Kitchener Waterloo or at least trying to inform and excite the residents of Kitchener Waterloo on the great things to see and do in Kitchener Waterloo. We added a little more structure, added some regular features. Briefly, we will post about food (restaurants) on Monday. Introduce “date night” for the weekend on Wednesday and family activities on Friday.
Broadcast media is boring
It’s at this time of year that Realtors have the time and inclination to reflect on what went well and what didn’t and work on what didn’t go well and plan out the plan of attack for the coming year. I read somewhere recently that 75% of the real estate transactions are done for the year by June 30! Talk about making hay!
Ever since leaving the advertising world, I’ve come to realize the errors of most real estate advertising – especially in new media. Most Realtors who are online, use their blogs, facebook, twitter and sometimes even LinkedIn as old media – broadcast media instead of engaging with their potential audience. Broadcast media is boring. No one is very interested that you are having an open house this Sunday 2:00-4:00. You don’t see accountants tweeting about balancing the books of some multinational corporation.
It’s fun to help the YMCA
The highlight of my week was a network event I was invited to participate in. I’m involved with the YMCA Cross-Cultural Association as a mentor, helping new Canadians find employment. Last week we had a speed networking event where new Canadians having prepared elevator speeches got to try them out on us. And we did some mock job interviews. Many thanks to RBC – the new branch at Ira Needles and Erb for providing the venue. I learned something interesting about how the Canadian government markets itself to immigrants. “It says come to Canada. We need you.” Many immigrants are a little upset when they get here and realize it’s what they consider a bit of an empty promise and finding their first job is very challenging.
Ain’t no body got time for that
At the end of the day I often find myself surfing around the internet. Last night after I wrote this post I somehow ended up here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh7UgAprdpM&feature=related
