Greg McCarvell

Spring is here... in Ontario, I believe the weather has turned to the point where the snow isn't returning until next winter. You can enjoy your warm seasons so much better when you are in "warm season" mode. Here are my tips for adding 10% to your warm months each year.

- PUT AWAY. We store things for the winter and for the summer. Christmas decorations, winter coats, boots, skates, snow shovels, etc. Get these things in storage THIS WEEK... it will get it all overwith and you'll start enjoying the new season sooner.

- TAKE OUT. Unpack the patio furniture, find the spring jackets, dust off the bicycles, pull out the roller blades, unearth the gardening tools and turn on the outside water hoses. Take out all the things you'll eventually take out over time THIS WEEK... get into Spring!!

- Share a dumpster with neighbours. Offer to host a dumpster for 2 days with your closest 5 neighbours. Offer to split the costs and allow each one of you to get rid of the winter junk storage that no one bothered with.

- Sit in the sun. The next sunny day over 15 C, get out on a lawn chair and soak in some sun. It's good for the soul! This will kick start the relaxation part of the season.

Best of luck and enjoy the season!

The slant is often told towards the benefits of mature, resale homes. Hey, I'm one who's talked this talk many times. True enough, mature homes have significant advantages over newer homes - I should know, I bought my current home for just those reasons.

Tonight though, as I am updating the baseboard trim throughout the main level, I can't help but appreciate the benefits of building new or buying a home within 5 years of construction! Let me outline a few key benefits, some may apply to you while others don't, but everyone can agree there are benefits:

1) Updates not generally required. If you want to update a newer home it is usually to update the quality of finishings - maybe you put hardwood in where carpet was, perhaps some granite countertops or a big deck. These updates are more or less optional, where older homes can actually REQUIRE updates.

2) Young families. If you have a family with children, fact of the matter is, one key demographic that you will find in newer homes is families. I think nieghbours are important, I think having community interaction is important. If you have children, condsider this point.

3) The big stuff. If you tend to move every 10 or so years (or less), you can often be in and out of a newer home without ever doing any of the major improvements like furnaces, windows, roofs and flooring. Don't forget, while you usually save some money on the purchase price of an older home, you need to factor in the average monthly maintenance into the equation.

If you want some solid information about home builders in the London area see www.londonhomebuilders.com

There are a lot of angles to cover when you are selling a home! First you have the mediums: print, internet, direct, referral and more. Secondly you have many branches within each medium. Today I am going to tackle one very specific branch of internet marketing - the Virtual Tour.

What is a virtual tour? Some think of this as a warped image that is projected in such a way that it appears a first person navigatable shot of a room. This was the original concept. Today I think this is too narrow a box. In my mind a virtual tour is an online representation of a walk through.

Just like Realtors have different styles and techniques of showing a homes, they also have different styles of displaying properties online. Realistically though, this style also has a lot to do with budgeting. Realtors face to face showings are largely different because of personality - which is free! An online virtual tour takes investment of time or money on the part of the Realtor.

Trends and directions for virtual tours are interesting. I am finding less and less of the panoramic images and more video. Videos in many cases are painful to watch - editing video is much more complex than editing images. I am in the middle of having a new virtual tour technology developed that will combine the best of everything. Still photos in my mind give the best visual representation of a room. They tend to be better quality (as in less shakes). The new virtual tour will naturally flow between animated still photos and small video clips.

From a lead perspective, virtual tours are critical. In my market, this is the only link you have that connects you directly with the public. On your virtual tour site you can do what you want versus on the MLS sites you need to conform to the standard format.

Do you want stats? Do you want hard numbers on the London real estate market so far in the Spring? Sorry, you will have to read elsewhere ;) This post is strictly my perspective - the pulse of the market. The truth is stats are history, if you are selling your property in the near future the pulse is what you are looking for!

A good Realtor spots trends, spots avenues to opportunity and areas of blunder on behalf of their clients. To date I am happy to say that for all listngs priced properly the market is quite brisk! You will notice I put a qualifier in to that statement...

The last two offers I put in on behalf of a buyer were multiple offers - 2 offers on the first and 3 on the second. Keep in mind the homes were both well priced. They were not priced like a fire sale, not being given away, they were WELL PRICED.

What would you say is the key to knowing where to price your home? There are a few key factors - proper home work and research, experience (as in years) and current experience (as in deals per month). Do you think it's rude to ask a prospective Realtor what their volume is? How many homes they sell in a typical month? Even more so to have them prove it (far be it for me to suggest a sales person would exagerate their performance!!)... I think you have every right.

Now don't get me wrong, many lower volume producers are fantastic - give their clients excellent service and are extremely competent. Common sense tells you that a Realtor who can spot the pulse of a market will be doing some deals right? They will have been in the thick of things recently.

How many deals is right? I think you should look for no less than an average of 3 deals per month. That's the bare minimum to know what is going on in most areas of London.

As I mentioned, pure opinion, but an opinion with some history and experience!

Have you ever run into an environmentalist who has an 'all or none' attitude? They are obsessed with perfection and often paralyzed by the same thing! I take a different approach - if a 30% improvement can be gained easily, using readily available technology without a huge investment and I can also convince 10 other people to take the same actions I think I'm doing a better service for the planet. We always need idealists, but physical progress in mass numbers is what we actually need to happen for things to move quickly.

Here are some very basic steps you can take to lessen your impact on the environment and probably save yourself a chunk of money on the way!

1) Replace your lightbulbs.Get energy efficient bulbs. It seems to me LED is the trend that's gathering a lot of traction right now. I'm having a hard time recommending anything with Mercury (CFL's in many cases). Should you swap out CFL's for LED? I can't say this is a great idea, the CFL's are going to end up in the landfill either way, so you may as well use them. The other option is to bring all your old Compact Fluorescents to a family member who still has a pile of incandescent bulbs burning.

2) Insulate. An easy, inexpensive way to conserve is to add insulation. Even if you built new chances are the level of insulation in the attic could be improved. Do some reading for your climate in particular and find out what is recommended for maximum efficiency. The other place to consider insulating is the siding of your house. I recently had my house resided with a shelter wrap type product underneath. The cost was about 10% more, but the gain in efficiency is substantial.

3) Fix leaky water sources. Check your outside taps, baths, sinks, utility areas and toilets. A resolved drip can make a huge impact.

4) Get out the caulking! Sealing air leaks around doors, windows and other openings can go a long way toward decreasing the amount of air leakage.

5) Plan your trips. Gas money is not the best way to spend. Limit your trips to the store, plan when you can and attend errands in the same general part of the city while there for other reasons.

6) Open your curtains. If you find yourself leaving lights on during the day, maybe it's because you have too many curtains closed. Natural light is a better and free alternative during the day.

7) Get an electric mower.I know the cord can be a pain, but there are effective ways to manage this concern. You'll be glad you didn't buy a polluting 2 stroke gas mower when you notice you aren't pouring gasoline all over your shoes and waking up the neighbours with the eardrum breaking noise!

8) Avoid lawn sprays.Many municipalities are now banning certain types of lawn sprays. You know when the goverment finally gets around to banning a product that it must be bad! Save your money and enjoy the status of being the 'new cool'... you can only be 'new cool' with imperfect lawn!

9) Exercise for real.I remember clearly one day I was about to get on my treadmill while training for a marathon. I started it rolling as the lights dimmed due to the strain these machines take on the electrical system. Then I looked outside - it was a beautiful sunny day. Why was I running inside? Get outside and exercise! Another thing to do is pair up your exercise with errands - take your bike shopping, ride to your Mom's place to drop off those photos - you get the idea.

10) Adjust the furnace / AC. A couple degrees up or down can reduce the amount of energy used substantially. Get a programmable thermostat - you have different needs when awake and when sleeping - when you're home and when you're not home.