The Collingwood – Blue Mountain Real Estate Blog

In my books, there are few people better at creative thought and writing than my close friend and assistant, Chris. With thanks to Rabbie Burns for his timeless new year inspiration, Chris has penned this real estate version of Auld Lang Syne for all of our beloved clients and friends: Auld Lang Syne, REDUX! The real [...]

Be forewarned.  This is a long post.  I hope you’ll find the use of space worthwhile. Recently, I was reading a dialogue between American REALTORS® on a real estate weblog and was kind of surprised to see how strongly they felt about Canada being THE place to invest in real estate.  They pointed to our [...]

Thanks to television, one of the hottest trends in real estate investing is the idea of buying, renovating and flipping houses.  I think we’ve all heard of people who have done well in this type of venture and so, on the surface, it seems like a very good idea to many people.  Over the last [...]

I’ve been sitting here thinking about what to post on the blog today that reflects the holiday season.  Everyone says, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays at this time of year but, what are they really saying? So many people I know say that it doesn’t feel like Christmas.  Well of course not.  I think they [...]

If you need a little jolt to get you into the Christmas spirit this week-end, I have an idea. Although the City of Owen Sound is not in our South Georgian Bay real estate trading area, it is our nearby neighbour and a good one at that. It’s less than an hour from Collingwood and [...]

First, the Buses Several months have now elapsed since I first wrote about Collingwood’s new buses.  Since then, things have been looking up indeed!  At the end of November, COLLUS Executive Director Ed Houghton told Collingwood council that the new buses and expanded routes have been a huge hit with an increase in ridership of [...]

Hey you. Yes, YOU!  I can see you reading this page right now and I want you to have some fun with me over the next few weeks.  C’mon, I know you are artistic and have a keen eye for design. Let’s have an online design contest! I’ll tell you right off the bat that [...]

On Thursday, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan unveiled new tax measures in the province’s Economic Outlook and Fiscal Update and that includes tax relief for first time home buyers. Under the news rules which are effective immediately, first-time home buyers will now be eligible for a refund of land transfer tax of up to $2,000.00 on [...]

  While not as dramatic as some of the previously profiled transformations, this house in Meaford benefited from a good clean and polish.  The siding was repainted as were the shutters. A new wooden walkway was added along with an old-fashioned and welcoming lamp standard.  Well done!

The first rule of real estate is location but the first rule of real estate advertising might be locution.  According to a Canadian study completed last year, the words used to describe a home in advertising may be worth money in the bank and can affect the time it takes for properties to sell. Professor [...]