Neighbourhood Farming and the Internet

It is often said in real estate, that you need to plant lots of seeds to reap big rewards when it comes to farming a neighbourhood.
Here is an internet tool, that helps you make connections with people in a selected neighbourhood area and offers them a site that they can call home. It is "Connecting Neighbours" and its website is at connectingneighbourscanada.com. It works well with flyers or postcards sent to the area that help people find your new website. A unique concept!

Cambridge Sunshine Kids Mini Golf Tournament

Congratulations to all for another successful Sunshine Kids Mini Golf Tournament. On Friday we raised over $ 6,900.00 for the Canadian Sunshine Kids Foundation. Many thanks to all the sponsors, staff, and agents who worked hard to make the day a success. Please note in the middle of this photo, Gary Goodyear, our local MP who was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule to attend our event. Here are a few pictures from the day.


For the record, please note that Ken is the only one WITHOUT a drink! (But we can't see his left hand!)



Jerry and his two most favourite wives!



Lisa: Rumour has it that you are joining the Eastern Star! Does Scott know about this!


Most of the committee for Sunshine Kids. Keep up the good work!

Homebuying Step By Step

As most of you know, Canada Mortgage and Housing has had a great booklet for first time buyers called "Homebuying Step by Step". I know many of you have used the booklet as a hand out at open houses, and have given a copy to new buyer clients.
Recently, CMHC has elected to replace the booklet with a glossy four page brochure (half of which is in french) that briefly describes the homebuying process and directs the reader to their website. We have a stock of the new brochures at the office for your convenience.
The brochure directs you to ten dowloadable files that talk about qualifying for a mortgage, home inspectors, real estate agents, lawyers, closing costs, and many other topics to inform the first time buyer. You can download the pdf files yourself at Homebuying Step by Step.
There's also a book available for condominium buyers at:
Condominium Buyer's Guide
Have a look!

October MLS Statistics

Here are October MLS statistics from our two real estate boards:

	K-W This Month	K-W Last Year	Cambridge This Month	Cambridge Last Year
Avg. Sale Price	$ 236,188	$220,634	$232,040	$223,392
Percentage Change	7.0%		3.9%
Properties Sold	487	450	215	218
New Listings/Sales Ratio	66%	56%	52%	64%
Properties For Sale Now	1950	2003	962	819

2007 Prudential Convention in San Diego

Prudential has released all the information on the spring convention. It is being held March 18th to 20th at the San Diego Convention Centre. The entertainment highlights this year include Terry Bradshaw (retired NFL SuperBowl quarterback), Dr. Robin (a regular on Oprah Winfrey,) and The Beach Boys! One of the parties will be on an aircraft carrier in the harbour in San Diego.
There are many professional Prudential University seminars, including Mike Ferry, David Knox, and Bill Barrett.
I have reserved a block of rooms just a couple minutes away from the convention centre. If you are thinking about going, please see me or Goran in the next week for futher detaiils. There's plenty of information online on PREA Centre (you'll need your ID and password.)The registration price goes up on Dec 15th so we'd like to be all committed by then.

You're Not Getting Older, Just Better!

Of note this week is that some of our agents are being recognized by their real estate board for their long time service. Congratulations to David Kovats in the Cambridge office who is receiving his 30 year service award. In the Kitchener office, Janet Good is receiving her 25 year award. Congratulations!!! (Were you guys in Grade 4 when you started selling real estate?

Also being recognized are Scott Hube (20 years) and Jerry Jarman (15 years). It should be noted that both of these long termers work with their wives in the business. An accomplishment in itself, I would say!

Congratulations to all.

A Challenge to the MLS System

Over the past few years there have been challenges to the Canadian MLS system, in that parties have been listing properties on MLS without paying a nominal commission to the selling broker and legal challenges that allow private parties to list on the MLS system. The problem has come to a head in the past six months. CREA (the Canadian Real Estate Association) has received legal opinions that our trademarks are in jeopardy and we need to take action to protect them. The issues are all related to listings and transactions that have little professional involvement with CREA Members.
The CREA Board of Directors has taken action by making proposals that would stop the problem. However, some boards, specifically Toronto and Montreal (the two largest boards in Canada) are opposed to the changes because of legal issues happening within their own boards. After doing some research, CREA has discovered that should a vote be held now, the vote would be almost exactly 50/50. CREA, in their wisdom has decided not to call a vote because, whichever way it went, the decision would clearly divide the country. Here is a document on Realtorlink that you can read and help you understand the dilemma . Protecting the MLS Trademarks (You'll need to put in your board ID and password access it.) Instead, they have decided to hold "Town Hall" meetings across the country to help members understand the dilemma that we are facing. One such meeting is being held at Bingeman's in Kitchener on Wednesday, Novemeber 22nd at 2 PM. I would encourage you to attend. It is a topic that I think most us are not up to speed, and yet it is clearly a very important issue to all of us. Georges Pahud, a Prudential broker in Vancouver, and a CREA director told me recently, that if we don't move forward with the changes, we will end up splintering MLS into many more MLS systems that will not be good for anybody.
Please try to make an effort to attend the meeting on the 22nd.

Easy Web personal websites

At yesterday's Kitchener office meeting we had a presentation from Avi Singh from Easy Web. He is offering websites that are easy to maintain and inexpensive as well. For $ 19.95 per month, they host your website, they buy, register and connect your domain name, offer 26 different website design templates, and offer an easy to use program to set up your site with information you would like. You have a choice of having your personal listings posted from the mls.ca website or you can enter them yourself in a customized style. You also have an option of having all the office listings on your website. You can post lots of photos and link vitual tours if you like. You can check it out at easywebonline.com or call Avi in Mississauga at 1-800-792-4060

Printing OREA Transcripts Online

The Ontario Real Estate Association now has a policy of not sending you a transcript after you have taken a Phase 1/2/3 course, an articling course, or a RECO Update (the mandatory one) after you have competed the course. You must now go online and enter your student number and print it off.
Go to oreacollege.com and go to Student ID. You need to enter your 8 digit OREA number (it will be on any printed transcript that you have) If you cannot find the number, you will need to call OREA at 1-866-411-6732 to track down the number. If you have not been online before, you will need to call that same number to establish a password. Once you have your OREA Student Number and your password, you can now enter the sight.
There are three important pages to look at here: Document Centre, Course History, and My Info. Have a look at all three. The Document Centre contains the transcripts you can print out.

We Support Sunshine Kids

At Prudential Grand Valley Realty we support the Canadian Sunshine Kids Foundation. The charity organizes exciting, positive group activities (like trips to Disney World) for children diagnosed with cancer. The funds raised by the Canadian Prudential family are used to sponsor Canadian kids from the oncology departments in Canadian Hospitals.

At Prudential Grand Valley, we raise money by donating a portion of our commission on transactions, and by running Miniature Golf Tournaments in the spring in the fall. The Kitchener office runs their tournament in the spring, the Cambridge office in the fall. Last year, collectively, we raised $ 24,000. for Sunshine Kids, which was the highest amount raised by any Prudential company in Canada. We are especially proud of our staff for their hard work and generosity to help Sunshine Kids.

On November 17,2006 from 2 to 6 PM the Cambridge office is hosting their Second Annual Sunshine Kids Mini-Golf Tournament. Tickets are $ 20.00 to attend this fun social. We hope you can attend and support this great cause.

Congratulations to Mary McMurran

We are pleased to announce that Mary has been nominated by QSC (Quality Service Corporation) as one of the "Best in the Business" in the current issue of Real Estate Professional Magazine.

Mary is one of 260 agents across North America out of 25,000 plus members of Quality Service to be nominated for the award. Congratulations Mary, we are extremely proud to have you on our team! You can check out Mary's rating by doing a search for her on the QSC website which is at www.qualityservice.org

What is the definition of "the best agent"? Is it the agent that sells the most properties, or the agent that gives their client knock 'em dead service that causes them to tell all their relatives, friends, and co-workers what a great job you did for them. I think we all know the answer that question!