Seriously if you want a landscaped waterfall grotto/pool, you might have to BUILD IT YOURSELF.
Honestly I think I would tempted to go all in with respect to making a two-in-one greenhouse / pool, that way you can enjoy swimming outdoors in the pool even during the winter. Just turn the backyard into one large enclosed greenhouse, add a pool, and voila!
Or an outdoor pool attached to an indoor pool? Why not, right?
It has been 10 years since then, and the blog is nearing the 200 blog posts mark.
When I first started this blog I was living in downtown Toronto and feeling rather unhappy with the size of my small apartment.
Now I am married, living in the neighbourhood of Leaside, and my wife and I have a son together. We are also discussing getting a new place in January 2021.
My wife has even been pushing me to become a real estate agent or broker. She feels that I am a "people person" and would be good at it. I am not so sure that I would be good at it because I don't believe in "pushing people" into buying something that they might not want. Maybe that is just my impression of real estate agents/brokers are sometimes pushy people, but I don't want to be that type of person.
I even consulted with a friend at Royal LePage on the subject of me becoming a real estate broker and he was against the idea, saying it is very difficult to get into the business and highly competitive.
Still despite his objection I haven't given up on the idea of that becoming a possibility. My Aunt Edna was a real estate broker in Sudbury for many decades, and she was hardly a people person. Talkative yes, but she had a problematic personality. So if she could do it then it is entirely possible I might take the leap and get into this.
If I did become a real estate broker it would mean I would need to clean up this website and turn it into a more business oriented machine to help me sell homes. Or maybe I could specialize in selling condos.
For the past 11 years my main occupation has been teaching archery in Toronto. Supplementing that has been my writing and advertising businesses. But I am getting older and I have a hunch I won't be able to teach archery forever. In many respects archery
So what do you think folks?
Should I try to become a real estate agent or broker? Leave a comment below on whether you think I should at least try and see what happens.
A bit off topic, but I am posting this anyway because a lot of our food in Toronto comes from Bruce County. Plus technically this is a real estate issue because the province purchased the farmland already and now they want to dump nuclear waste on it.
And who wants to own land next to a nuclear waste dump where it is no longer safe to drink the water???
And who wants to eat the food products that comes from the land when the ground water becomes contaminated with radiation???
Doug Ford.
The name brings fear to the minds of many people in Ontario.
Doug
Ford is the Premier of Ontario, and he is a jerk. A real nasty jerk. He
wants to dump nuclear waste in Bruce County, close to the town of
Teeswater. The Teeswater River (and the underground aquifer beneath the
region) supplies the drinking water to:
Tens of thousands of people.
Dairy cows.
Water for agricultural farming (corn, potatoes, soy beans and more).
Water for Aquafina bottled water.
Cattle, pigs, turkeys and
chickens. Bruce County is the Beef Capital of North America, but it also
produces a lot of other meat products.
If you live Ontario you've eaten food many times from
Bruce County. Guaranteed. You've drank the milk. You've eaten the
cheese. You've eaten beef, pork, turkey and chicken. You've eaten the
corn, the potatoes, the soy products. You've drank Aquafina water.
Even
if you are a vegan and don't eat milk and dairy, you should still care
where your soy products and other vegetables are grown and where your
bottled water comes from.
And that is why you should care.
If you care about what you eat, then you should protect what you eat. Learn more at:
In 2020 Luxury Real Estate Markets in Paris, Singapore and Vancouver are Opportunities to Investors
In 2020 luxury real estate investors would be well advised to keep an eye on three key cities: Paris, Singapore and Vancouver. Each of these cities has a real estate market that is expected to heat up, boosted by sweeping transit upgrades, increasingly robust tech sectors, and changing political conditions in their regions that has positive signs for their local economies.
In Paris, for instance, a multi-billion-euro Grand Paris project is planned to improve transit and revamp metro stations, and anticipation of the 2024 Summer Olympic games is further helping to invite investment and development.
But the cities are not alone in this boost to the values of their luxury real estate. The tourist areas and the rich resort towns across France are also expected to see a dramatic rise in real estate values.
And one of the best regions to invest in is Provence, with its scenic lavender fields, picturesque towns, and gorgeous waterfront resorts.
As a region in the south of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Provence is uniquely situated on the border with Italy, but not so far from other tourist locations in Monaco, Switzerland, Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, Paris and more. All the benefits of being close to all the big tourist attractions in the region, plus easy access to the Mediterranean. It is also a popular place for British people to purchase holiday lets (holiday rentals). As such there is a booming industry of British people (and expats) renting holiday homes in Provence. Thus it makes significant sense to invest in the luxury real estate in Provence because barring some kind of catastrophe the markets are only going to go up in value. So buying property (and insurance) makes quite a bit of sense. Provence is not alone either. The whole of south France is a hotbed for tourists and holiday rentals, and as a result the local economy is continually booming and the tourists and expats just keep coming. In the south of France, many villas are for sale and are then being rented out. Five Tips for Real Estate Investments
Do your research on the location and the property.
Consider all your options, including wholesale properties.
Look for tax benefits and understand how they work.
Avoid borrowing money to invest unless you have collateral.
If you are renting out the property aim to make at least 1% of your total investment off the rental per month. Eg. If it is 300,000 Euros then you want to be renting the place for at least 3000 Euros per month. The more premium the location the more likely you can get at least that much from a luxury investment.
Every year in Canada over $40 billion CDN is laundered through real estate transactions. Over $130 billion CDN is laundered in Canada every year, but over $40 billion is being laundered via real estate because it is so easy to launder money via real estate.
And the real estate brokerages are in on it.
So how does it work?
#1. Get lots of dirty money by being a criminal.
#2. Hire a lawyer with no ethics who doesn't ask a lot of questions.
#3. The lawyer sets up a dummy corporation that can be used to buy and sell properties, using cash.
#4. Find an unethical real estate broker or brokerage who won't report suspicious behaviour and doesn't ask questions.
#5. Pay in cash.
#6. Later sell the property and get paid via electronic transfers to your bank account. That money is now "laundered".
It is stupidly easy to do too, and while it is illegal to launder money, the above steps aren't actually illegal (except for #1 obviously) and there is no laws requiring lawyers or real estate brokers to report suspicious behaviour.
So how does this effect YOU???
Well, it means that a percentage of houses in Canada every year are bought up by criminals who can outbid you easily because their primary goal is to launder the money.
It means that real estate prices in cities like Toronto and Vancouver frequently go up by 5% or more annually (purely from criminals driving up prices).
And as noted in the video above, 5% per year is the difference between a $1 million house selling for $1.65 million after 10 years of ballooning prices.
So this is actually a huge problem and it is contributing to Canada's real estate bubble.
And when that bubble bursts it will be home owners who end up getting hurt the most, not the criminals.
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