Szabolcs Pall

There has been a $5MIL settlement reached with Northstar Aerospace. This comes from a class action lawsuit launched by residents in what's known as the Northstar Zone, approximately 400 homes in and around Bishop, Concession, Dunbar, Grand Valley and Coronation Blvd. TCE was discovered to have leeched into groundwater, and has affected air quality in homes near the Northstar plant. It's a chemical typically used as a degreaser for metals. Northstar is in the process of remediation and is actively cleaning up the area.

Here is the full release. Have a look at the map of the affected area.

Genworth Canada, mortgage insurance agency, has launched a web-site called myhomeplanner.ca. It's a neat little web app, that let's you specify your moving date, and it gives you a nice little calendar with icons showing your upcoming tasks. So you'd add Home Inspection, Property Insurance and Status to a list of tasks, then each of those tasks could be represented by a different icon, and visually shown to you on a calendar. It also has a countdown to your closing date.

Along with this feature, is included a bunch of calculators and other resources that make the home buying process a little simpler. I especially like the glossery of terms commonly encountered. Have a look, you might find something of use on there! :-)

Housing Market Update - May 2009

Did you know, that only 10% of agents attend the local MLS meeting in Cambridge Ontario, on a regular basis? It's a great opportunity to preview up to 10 homes each week. I even find out about homes coming up for sale before they ever hit the market. My knowledge of the available housing inventory, and preview into where the market is heading, allows me to accurately price a home based not only on market data, but seeing your competition first hand. Can you see how that is a huge benefit to you?

"Please help; do you have a buyer for my house?" It's a common request, but not always as desperate as the seller sounded this time. The answer in most cases, sadly is "no". I alone can only provide service to so many buyers. But that's the power of the MLS system; there are a host of other agents that may have buyers for your home. They just need to be told about it. And that job falls on the shoulders of your Realtor, and the place to do it, is the MLS meeting. I'll talk in another article about the importance of attending MLS meetings with regularity. But in this column, I want to talk about how else we can spread the word about your house.

We need to tell not only other agents, but the whole wide world. I was shocked to learn that this home in question, did not have its own web-site and that two of the most common online Classifieds were completely ignored. I couldn't even find the listing agent in a Google search. And as you already know, if you are not on Page 1 of a Google search, you are irrelevant. If your property is not on the first page of a search, it's invisible to everyone. How can this be? In today's day and age, someone claiming to have your best interest at hand in marketing your property, has completely ignored the one place where studies have show most people start their search?! The internet.

Here is what I provide for you, at no cost. A professional web-site with 21 favourite photos of your house. I buy the URL (allowing people to type http://www.youraddress.com) for your property address and make sure it's used in all of my advertising? Where will your home be advertised? How about realtor.ca, ready2move.ca, cambridgenow.ca, kijiji, craigslist, activerain, facebook, twitter, etc... I guarantee, that when someone searches your property address, it will be found at the top of the first page on Google. Your house will no longer be hidden in the back pocket of some agent, but will properly be exposed to the entire world.

Do not hesitate! Let me give you a demonstration of my marketing plan, without obligation, and you'll see the competitive advantage you will have over all others. Isn't it about time, your agent worked for you?

Send me an email at szabolcs.pall@century21.ca and let's get started.