Ontario

Its the spring market here in Toronto and the market is a busy one so far. One of the most important factors in choosing a new home for young families is close proximity to good schools.

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There are many factors to consider such as;

location, location

shopping and restaurants

community centres and community centres

close to transportation and a safe place to be.

One of the most important aspect for families are the school.

Follow this link and check the ratings of schools in the neighborhood. You may be surprised see how the school rank when compared to other neighborhoods.

http://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/redir.asp?lid=0&newsite=http%3A%2F%2Fontario%2Ecompareschoolrankings%2Eorg%2FSchoolsByRankLocationName%2Easpx%3Fschooltype%3Delementary

Let me help you find the perfect home and the best school for your kids.

Last month was a great month for me. Both of my kids had their reading weeks at college so they could come back home for a while. Unfortunately they both had different weeks off, but we did have one gloriously fun overlapping weekend. The upside of this arrangement was that I got to spend more one on one time with both of them than I usually would. This can be quite daunting, especially in the case of my son who isn't terribly loquacious.

Towards the end of the week I realized that most of the time I spent with him in public consisted of walking a few steps behind him exhorting him to pull his pants up. It drives me nuts, but he's the one with the droopy pants and it doesn't seem to worry him in the least. He seems to be an expert at hiking his jeans up just before they are about to fall to his knees. Seems pretty risky to me, but he's got it down to an artform. It shouldn't be terribly difficult to convince this generation that wearing clean underwear is important.

I found myself looking for topics to start meaningful conversations with him, It wasn't easy.

I tried to start a conversation about the merits of wearing a belt or suspenders. He didn't seem very interested in that particular subject. I talked about how important it can be to wash your jeans regularly so they cling a bit better to the waistline. Again, he wasn't too impressed and that ended up going nowhere. An attempt was made to discuss how to accurately assess the size of one's waist so that properly fitting pants can be purchased. This too was a non-starter. One final effort was made to talk about how inmates in prison have saggy pants because belts are verboten because they can be turned into a weapon. You'd think that this might interest a teenager, but no, he already knew this.

I had run out of things to talk about. Teenagers can be difficult, that's for sure. I was out of material.

Sometimes I guess it's just best to quit nagging and let him be.

We really don't need forced conversations and lectures to have a meaningful interaction. Sometimes we play Xbox, sometimes we listen to music, we go for quiet drives, and best of all is when he just tags along with me and helps me get some of my tasks done, we can both feel useful and happy at the same time.

Perhaps on certain occasions just a look and a smile can convey way more meaning than a conversation ever could. I also know that when the time comes he will pull his pants up of his own accord, or maybe the right girl will come along and entice him to dress just a little bit better. Either way, it's not something I should worry about too much.

“They just don’t build homes like they used to” is a commonly heard phrase. While often used, it is truly a misconception. Homes are built a lot better than they used to be. In fact, on January 1st, 2012 a new Building Code came into effect mandating a lot of changes. Most notably are the changes to insulation values, heating and air-conditioning.

The Pink board on the exterior of our new homes in Barrie is an insulating board that helps seal up the home and reduce the amount of heat loss.

At Pratt Homes we embrace the changes even though they mean a slightly higher cost of building. Better insulation values and a tighter built home means savings for our homeowners in the long run. Buying a new Pratt Home means that you will save on your heating bill and help reduce the environmental footprint produced by your home. So before you buy, compare the many benefits of purchasing a new home with a resale home.

To comply with the new provincial building code, our new townhouses in Barrie use pink insulation board that helps seal up the home and reduce the amount of heat lost.

Are You As Secure As You Think You Are?

We're talking about home security here. Guess what brought it to the forefront of our minds is that a few weeks ago we had an uninvited guest cruise through our backyard. Not an appealing thought as we got up and saw the footprints of the intruder in the snow. We found out from neighbours later that cabanas and sheds were checked out for valuable items and taken.

We always felt safe in our neighbourhood. Yes, we have and use a security system, but we used it only when we were away from the house. Since discovering the footprints a little too close for comfort we have now been using the system even when we are home. Probably a good idea for anybody with a system. Yes we know it can be inconvenient, we have set the horns blasting a few times as we adjust to the fact you can't just open doors and windows without checking.

It occured to us today that one of our alarm panels is in full view from the glassed front door. Who cares? Well the little green light means go and the little red one means stop and if it is in plain view of a would be intruder, well, what good is it? They know whether your security alarm is set or not.

Just thinking out loud here but maybe for those of you with panels in view like ours, you should cover those lights with tape or something for added security. Why advertise that the alarm is off when you have forgotten to turn it on!

Are You As Secure As You Think You Are?

Assessment and Property Taxation in Uxbridge, Ontario

You and Your Property Tax Bill

While we all hate to pay taxes we know that the services we ask for from the various levels of government are paid for out of the taxes we pay. The question then becomes how do we ensure we only pay our fair share.

When it come to property taxes we can do this by ensuring our assessment is fair and equitable ..... by spending some time getting to know and understand the process and then appealing our assessment if we feel it is to high.

The First Step

Once you have determined that your assessment is to high you need to file a Request For Reconsideration (RFR) with the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Once MPAC has given their decision on your RFR you have 90 days from the date of that decision to file an appeal with The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) if you still feel your property is overassessed.

This is a subject I usually leave to my web guy/hubby who is know around Active Rain as Realtax.

Over the last few years he wrote a series of Articles On Assessment and Property Taxes entitled You And Your Property Tax Bill that highlighted some of the inequities he has found in the process.

While he seldom posts many articles today his posts are still worth reading if you are interested in learning about the Assessment process here in Ontario.

About Realtax.

The knowledge that he has acquired as a Real Estate Broker, in Assessment Appeals and courses on Assessment , in researching for presentation's to: The Fair Tax Commission, local Municipal Governments, a Provincial standing Committee, the Assessment Review Board and the Ontario Municipal Board over the years has left him with little faith in the assessment process here in Ontario. He believes the process might work very well in an area of subdivision type homes unfortunately there are large areas in and around Uxbridge that are very dissimilar thereby creating "in my opinion" assessed values that are unreasonable and unfair. He has

• successfully completed the Real Property Assessment Course (the one the assessors take to become assessors) with high honors. Over the years he has successfully appealed the assessment on every property we owned that he filed on, in some cases several times on the same property. He has also successfully reduced the assessment on several hundred properties for other people. He has appeared at local Assessment Review Board hearings and Ontario Municipal Board Hearings on Assessment with successful outcomes. He has successfully taken on Assessment Officers, Assessment directors and Lawyers representing the Assessment Department.
• made presentations to the Local Councils and to The City of Toronto on behalf of local taxpayer groups and the The Ontario Taxpayers Coalition prior to it joining forces with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
• made presentations to the Fair Tax Commission and a Standing Provincial Committee that was reviewing market value assessment on his own as well as in cooperation with a Regional Councilor and a school trustee.

Assessment and Property Taxation in Uxbridge, Ontario