Localism: Quebec

Mexican Real Estate Agent moving to Canada

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:01:00 -0600

Hi, I am a Real Estate Agent form Mexico who will move to Canada in a short term of time. I have some questions and I'd like to see if somebody can help me.

1- I am not sure if I'll move to Vancouver or Montreal. Which are the advantages and disadvantages of the real estate market in those cities?

2- What courses are needed in BC and QC to get a license to sell real estate?. If I get a license in Montreal, can I work in BC?, are there equivalences ?

3- Schools recommended in both cities to be prepared for the licensing examination.

4- Because the current financial crisis, was the Canadian real estate market so affected as the American real estate market?

Why didn't I move to a MacBook faster, I lost most of my files!

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:48:27 -0600

I was hesitating for so long about making a switch to a MacBook that I lost most of my file in the mean time! Darn PC, not the first time I have an issues, hope this will push me faster to make a move. I don't know about you but loosing all your pictures because your PC crashed is ridiculous, it's like if my house just burned and I lost all my family pictures. That is when I realized that I couldn't care less about the work on my computer, everything came back to basic values.

I almost lost the first year or two of my sons pictures and videos, memories that nobody can replace. I was lucky enough to be able to get my pictures back with a specialist, but I lost a lot of work. Anyway, I got what was most important, a part of my life, DON'T LOSE YOURS!!!

My reply to specify:

"VIRUS is the difference between the Mac and the PC, I forgot to tell you that I got a Virus.... Nothing to do about the motherboard! What the don't say when you have a password for the users, you cannot recuperate what is on the PC except for "my documents"."

Staging vacant properties - I am loving it now!

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:23:48 -0600

I am not sure why but I am being asked to stage quite a few vacant properties in the Montreal (Quebec) area these days. I think I am becoming the Vacant Property specialist! LOL

We all know that vacant properties are even harder to sell, as the defects on walls, floors and ceilings stand out more and over 90% of people are unable to visualize the empty space and what it MIGHT look like furnished...

I used to be scared of these phone calls for several reasons. I was afraid to make a mistake -miscalculate the amount of furniture required, choose the wrong furniture and accessories, not have enough stuff to stage it with, etc...Well, now they are my favorite kind of Stagings!

True, there is more work involved, more preparation, more organizing and more sweating! On the first visit, I take pictures and make my list of everything needed - especially the furniture for the living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom..Usually, I can reuse the same or similar furniture from one property to the next - off-white micro suede, chocolate brown leather - contemporary style - will look good anywhere! Then, depending on the wall colors, style of the house and the accessories available at that time in my inventory, I decide on the ACCENT color.

The day or two before the staging, I prepare my furniture, bins (all accessories), artwork, mirrors, lamps, bed coverings, etc...and I go shopping if I am missing some items. And then I am ready for a day of hard work and pleasure after I see the result. I hire an assistant from one of my Home Staging courses and we set everything up, sometime trying different things until we are satisfied. It does take several hours but the end result is worth the effort! And the best part is that it's going to stay that way until the house is sold!

The only part I dislike is DESTAGING - after the house is sold, when we have to come back and dismount everything, pack it up and move the stuff back...but that's part of the job, so I try to stay positive and think that all this furniture and accessories will be finding a new home very soon!

House number 1:

House number 2:

iPhone AppStore applications - software freebies

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:24:28 -0600

I'm very interested in anything from Apple, I'll keep you updated on interesting freebies and inexpensive software for the iPhone. The info will come from other sites, news papers and magazines. For now it will be experience from others since I don't have one yet.

Take a look on the site, it may convince you to get one!!! Launch in june 2008, more than 60 millions downloads are made up to now!

http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/

Here are a few interesting that I read about:

Log Milage

- Trip Cuddy Mileage Log to track your milage when traveling for business for only 9.99$

For finances

- myExpenses helps you follow and handle effectively your daily expenses for only 9.99$

News

- Bloomberg to receive New York Times news headlines FREE

Stocks

- MarketSummary for only 0.99$

- Goldprice for FREE

- Crude for only 0.99$

Currency Converter

- Converter Pro to follow the fluctuation in currencies for FREE.

Messaging (e-mail)

- BeejiveIM for instant messaging for only 15,99$

- Fring for instant messaging for FREE

Home Staging unknow to sellers, is it a disease!

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:12:01 -0600

«Dear seller, we shoud have a Home Stager come and help us out.»

A HOME WHAT?

I don't know about your area, but I work in an region that very few people herd about it. Even worse, we don't have a French translation that we can use that really defines home staging, we say it in English, so after a minute trying to explain this to a client I finally get an answer: " if they don't like the house they don't have to buy it and if I do some changes, maybe, just maybe the buyers won't like it anyway!", well I know that Pink and purple won't help!!!

How do you convince you stubborn clients to use a home stager?

About Home Stagers

I must get a new home stager sending me there proposition each week. They're "growing" in my back yard!!!

I'm not sure that most home stagers are qualified to do the job, there's a course we can take that last a few days to be a so called specialist.

I honestly don't thing that anybody can do this without a minimum of experience or training. It's easy to unclutter, but decorating need a certain touch to it, it's like selling, some are born with it, some not.