..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Business Phone Systems SERVING ALL LOWER MAINLAND CITIES ABBOTSFORD, ANMORE, BURNABY, CLOVERDALE, COQUITLAM, DELTA,, GIBSONS, LANGLEY, LIONS BAY, MAPLE RIDGE, MISSION, NORTH VANCOUVER, PITT MEADOWS, PORT COQUITLAM, PORT MOODY, RICHMOND, SQUAMISH, STEVESTON, SURREY, TSAWWASSEN, VANCOUVER, WEST VANCOUVER, 10/28/2010

This is a short rant about the constant lies I see in the media.  Excuse me if I'm a bit too passionate but I feel my AR colleagues are on the same page.  First, have you watched Money Master's the movie?  Well, that's a good start.  Second, the way in which financial institutions ensure people can (NOT) afford the mortgages they need to buy a home is something to revel with.   I hear about affordability time and time again, as though it is a construction made up by the Market, which is rubbish.  Yes, people are willing to pay reasonable prices for the value they see they will recoup over time, provided all other variables remain equal.  Those other variables are NOT in the hands of the markets, they're in the hands of the few.  The housing affordability measures used by bankers are str... 10/26/2010

Don’t buy or sell your home without coming to this workshop! Put all the Professionals into ONE room and milk them.We will show you how to:· Accelerate your mortgage payments using tax savings· 3 tax strategies that can save you thousands· Mortgage strategies to maximize your equity· Real estate trends in the Greater Vancouver area· Why Investors covet meetings like this and ATTEND themPresented byJark Krysinski - REALTOR®, BA, ABRDavid Perkins - Certified Financial PlannerPauline Tonkin - Mortgage Broker, The Mortgage CentreReserve Your Seat Now.Wednesday, November 10th, 7:00 pmRE M AX Cre st R e a lty We s ts id e1428 W. 7t h Av e , Va n c o u v e r, B C 10/26/2010

Para Paints & Sarah Richardson Collaborate in Vancouver It has been an exciting few days here in the design world.  As a Home Stager, I'm always anxious to keep up on the latest trends and styles.  Paint is a huge part of what we do.  We offer colour consultations for preparing your home for sale, or if you are planning on living in your home.  A designer I've often admired is Sarah Richardson of Design Inc.  Sarah blew into town for the Interior Design Show West recently, bring her sidekick Tommy Smithe along with her.  The design duo were here to promote Sarah's new paint line through Para Paints, the Sarah Richardson Designer Palate.  Coincidentally, the first Para Paint flagship store in Western Canada has just opened in Vancouver, and we were invited to their grand opening wine & c... 10/22/2010

Maps and MLS, Save Time and Money by Geraldine Santiago Information for Buyers:  www.vancouverhomes.info and www.bchomebuyer.ca   Many years ago, I used a tool on my hand held phone called "GeoJet" e-mapping. (www.e-mapping.com through GeoJet Information Solutions Inc.) This was a great tool for real estate agents, especially those who specialized in buyers, because it provided potential home buyers with a directional map on my hand held phone, showing not only the precise location of the listing property, but other information on the MLS such as the price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.   My hand held was a Siemens SX56 which was a pocket PC phone offered through my real estate board, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.This service was invaluable, especially because it... 10/20/2010

I was reading the "THE 70 YEAR BANKRUPTCY CYCLE" by Guy EudenThe genius of the article reminds me of a few simple points, which I shall recount here, perhaps to spark some good discussion here on AR1. What happened in 1799? That's when they introduced income tax in the UK.  This is just one of many events at the end of the 18th Century.2. Next, the Bankruptcy Act of 1869 was a devastating blow for the people, however the people did not even know of it!  What did this mean for the 1870's - that a slate of a corporation or an entity could be wiped clean if they declared that they couldn't handle it anymore.  This meant that the burden of financial troulbes could be passed onto the people.  And, therefore, the precedent for doing so in history was born.   Remember also that the US gold pri... 10/19/2010

Why would anyone want to search by Postal Codes?  Sheesh... I have a number of requests every week from out of town buyers who are not familiar with the city.  They send me partial postal codes from their friends, assuming that this will clear up confusion in my searches.  It's easier to cut-and-paste what their friends said was a great neighborhood instead of learning the actual name of the areas, I suppose.  I'm all for hard numbers and codes and specificity and, more than that, I'm all for a good challenge and learning a new skill to help stay on my toes.  So on to Google I leap, searching for nifty and FREE resources for Postal Code Lookups.  AND what have we here...!Excellent smithers, eeeexcellent!  I've got a new weapon for this phenomena.  Aaaaand, it's NOT a pay service, or a D... 10/18/2010

  Solidarity for Women As a lover of my lovely city of Vancouver I make it my business to know everything about it, day in and day out.  It's also a service I provide to my clients to stay informed about everything that's going on in the heart of my city.  The Real Estate business is not just about properties but also about the people, the communities, and the neighbourhoods people build. I read an article that made me worry about the welfare of women in my favourite city, and I wanted to share this article with the rest of you. Apparently "B.C. has received poor marks, including two Fs, on a report card measuring its treatment of women, says a report being released today by the West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund." We learn that, if you use the international standards an... 10/18/2010

Our favorite Articles on AR over the last week are as follows for the obvious reasons - give them a read and you'll know what we mean.  For convenience, the link is given on the left and our commentary is on the right of each article.  Enjoy! The Tea Kettle Is Whistling - Steve, if the money spent on defacing and criticizing the opposing party was put to looking after the homeless and getting them a place to stay - among all those foreclosures that will remain unoccupied and unrented - it would be money well spent.  Partisan politics are a back and forth elastic dance that don't actually accomplish anything, indeed they draw attention to what is not being done whilst the 'debates' ensue.  Thanks for the post.  Jark. How Often Do You Need to "Remind" Your Sphere of Influence that You Se... 10/18/2010

  Here are five meditations on Vancouver and where I feel it's going in the next little while.  First, where does Vancouver locate itself today?  Should my neighbours care about this?  Perhaps.  In this "devaluating" period for many regions, it's good to keep an eye on what is appreciating, to get some perspective on how "spread" the markets can be from one locality to another. A lot of Vancouverites and our neighbours remember that the municipal government placed a moratorium on construction in Vancouver’s downtown core in 2009, further limiting the available building space, bottlenecking supply and helping condo prices ride through the current period of price "corrections". Despite being in one of the priciest area codes in Canada, Vancouver’s residential real estate continues to be i... 10/13/2010

This is hopefully a discussion-generating post.  In this time of few assurances if any, and foreclosures left right and centre, I do a double-take when I read anything about guarantees.  Short of 30day money back guarantees on television commercials, good "escape terms" in the contracts I put together for my clients, to humble returns on most "passive income" investments, experience tell me there are few "guarantees" in the investment markets.Hence why I'm writing this post.  I just read the latest Business Edge News Magazine and they had a short article on "Guaranteed" income investments I wanted to share with you.  The title of the post is: "More than 100,000 Canadians Now Guarantee and Protect Their Investments For Life" a title that is bound to spark interest from any investor-minde... 10/13/2010

Coal Harbour's Condos is proud to present our Coal Harbour Quarterly Report for Quarter 3 2010. This report features building specific sale and listing information as well as real estate board economic and market activity reporting! Please click HERE to view the Quarterly Report in it's entirety via Adobe PDF! 10/12/2010

  Condo vs. Apartment I was doing an open house and had an older couple ask me an old questions I've forgotten all about.  They said: "What's the difference between a Condo and an Apartment?"  It sounds absurd that there is a distinction, but there is a very important one.  I spoke of legal ownership of Condominiums versus the lack of the title ownership of the Apartment, but I felt like maybe I was missing something, so I promised them that I'd look it up again just to be sure.   My findings confirm my answer to them, and I've sent them a link to this article just to elaborate on it further. The difference between a condominium and an apartment is purely legal, in that there is no way to know a condo from an apartment simply by looking at or visiting the building.  It's a bit more subt... 10/09/2010

I've searched the internet and wanted to ask my intelligent colleagues on AR for your opinion! I've got a listing in Coal Harbour, Vancouver that has (1) newly installed "engineered laminate flooring" as my client calls it, not the cheap thin laminate floors sold in hardward stores.  The client (2) has also re-painted the unit professionally, and laid new baseboards all throughout, which is great.  NOW, the problem is the unit has that renovation smell in it, almost like a thick glue smell, despite leaving the windows open for a few days to air it out.  - I've heard chemical air fresheners work but I don't want to appear like I'm trying to disguise a smell and chemical air fresheners are so obvious.  I don't want people asking what the fresh smell is covering up.- I've heard coffee work... 10/08/2010

Some of you have heard about the Competition Bureau in Canada and the Canada Real Estate Association "battling" it out in the media and, possibly, in court - unless of course they strike a deal or agreement next month. It's absurd to suggest that the to-be-voted upon agreement between the Real Estate boards of Canada and the Competition Bureau is going to force agents out of the industry.  Some media, however, would like for the public to be lead to believe such nonsense.   The Vancouver Sun (article link here), to name one such source, makes such a point.  I feel that it is exactly media such as this that serves to further confuse the public on the matter.  Clearly very few of the writers of articles such as this have actually completely a purchase or sale of real estate.  I say this n... 10/07/2010

How To Sell a Condo in Vancouver Episode 1: Mortgage Penalties? By Mike Stewart, Vancouver Realtor View on ExposureRoom   This is Episode 1 of How to Sell Your Vancouver Condo. This new video series will be your start to finish guide of how to sell your residential condo in Vancouver, B.C.  No question is too simple!  Contact me any time with your questions and/or comments. Click the previous link and scroll down to the comments sections.  All submissions are read and answered by me personally.  What's the Status of Your Mortgage?  Will You Have to Pay a Mortgage Penalty? If you are fotunate enough to have no mortgage on your condo, lucky you, skip to Episode 2!(Coming Soon) Your mortgage is a contract that commits you to pay your lender a series of payments over a specified period of t... 10/06/2010

  Every Wednesday I come up with what my favorite articles are of the last three days.   You really have to give it out to these writers for sharing this information, and I am doing so here.  I like to give the credit to some of my favorite writers for the week and, well, here they go: 1. You Can't Replace a Living, Breathing Agent - Even With the Internet - I agree fully that not all the access to the googles and wikipedias of the world can replace practical and empirical knowledge, nor can they replace the ability to interpret and process the information which only experience allows you to recognize "as" useful information.  We are twice removed from the simple processor of information "as" information and nothing more.  As an example, today I went to 8 open houses in 1.5 hours with o... 10/05/2010

Introduction to Selling Your Vancouver Condo Selling a Condo in Vancouver IS Different Than Selling a Condo in Other Places! Vancouver is richly populated with a huge number of residential condos. This demographic makes marketing and selling residential condos in Vancouver unique from most other urban centres in BC. In this video, I introduce my new series about How to Sell a Condo in Vancouver. The series will detail everything from pre-listing preparations to listing with a realtor to marketing your listing and finally to finalizing the sale of your Vancouver Condo. . I may be discussing a lot of terms and concepts that may not be familiar to people outside of the Vancouver Real Estate community. If you find that you do not understand any of these terms and concepts, please let me kno... 10/01/2010

Now on the Market: New Pre-Sale Residential Condos in Vancouver South Main at "Uptown" by Concord Pacific. Uptown Vancouver by Concord Pacific Price List and Features By Mike Stewart Realtor Introducing Uptown, a new Pre-Sale by Concord Pacific located in Vancouver BC’s South Main/Mount Pleasant area. Uptown is a soon to be completed residential condo tower located on Prince Edward Street at Kingsway and East 12th Avenue. This 10 story condo tower will offer views to the north of the North Shore Mountains and False Creek. Uptown will have 102 suites, 25 of which are going to be 1 bedrooms with some 2 bedrooms and a few larger townhouses. Pricing For details see the price list below for this new Vancouver Off-Plan Development. Concord Pacific mentioned that 65% of the suites for sale at ... 10/01/2010

I just wanted to share with everyone that I recently did a Real Estate Workshop with a few other professionals: A Mortgage Broker, a Financial Planner, and a Lawyer.  These three colleagues and I presented on our real estate experience over the last 10 (and some of the other's) more than ten years of experience.  The results was 14 people in the audience, and a great number of leads we know we'll be working with over the coming weeks.  A few short presentations led to an hour or question and answers and to a great community building experience.   Would I suggest you do this in your community - Absolutely!  Here is the workshop we put together, so you can get a good idea of what's worked well for us.  I'm sharing a wonerful resource with all of you, especially if you know any first-time ... 09/30/2010