Barrie, ON

I have investment clients looking for 3 or more unit residential buildings to purchase in Barrie. Give me a call if you think you have property to sell that may interest them.

The “Baby Boom” generation is quietly fading into the whispering tranquility of retirement. NOT! This is the same group that branded the 60’s as the decade of peace, love and Rock and Roll, at least until they became distracted with defining the tastes and trends for food, fashion, entertainment and the cars we have driven for the last four decades. No this bunch isn’t likely to quietly fit themselves into the retirement patterns that their parents followed.

The leading edge Boomers turn 65 in 2010. Those around 50 now are finding themselves with no practical need for the 4 or even the 3 bedroom homes that likely sheltered their now gone children. For many that same home has little or no mortgage to pay out and has most certainly appreciated handsomely over time. Most in the 50 to 65 age bracket are reassessing their needs and wants in life and are looking to see what real estate options are out there, best suited to a member of this independent trend setting generation.

Forecasters and developers in the Real Estate industry have been paying attention to this demographic as is evident in a substantial part of new housing growth in Central Ontario. Ads for new Lifestyle communities outside of the GTA are a common site in our print media. These communities continue to sprout up near our ski resorts and golf courses, beaches and marinas and are designed to be low maintenance, providing peace of mind while away on those extended vacations their owners will now find they have time for.

Another popular choice in accommodation I see “empty nesters” opting for is the bungalow. Scaled down living with everything on one level should the time come when stairs become less than manageable. Boomers are opting for bigger family rooms and kitchens over formal living and dining rooms. The “Great Room” combining the kitchen, family room and eat in kitchen area into one interactive living space is popular in bungalow design.

Condominium living is more popular than ever and combines the best of all needs mentioned thus far. Most are communities onto themselves with pools, fitness and recreational facilities. Give the snow blower and lawnmower to the kids. So long as there is a balcony to enjoy evening drinks as the sun sets, some potted plants and a nice view to look out over, many boomers are finding contentment in condominium living.

If this is your time of life, a starting point is to sit down with your financial planner or Mortgage Broker and an up to date appraisal of your current home then find out what options are within your grasp. Memories are portable and follow with you. A change of address is less an end than a new beginning and with so many options and opportunities available to us here in Ontario it is worth the time to investigate just what they are and what they could hold in store for you .

This year has got to hold the record for in progress - road repair projects here in Barrie. There are at least as many orange road cones placed around our streets as there are tax payers I think. City Hall could make a few bucks if it were savvy and rented out advertising space on some of them to Barrie Realtors. Why not, I think we single handily finance the local transit system by paying to place our glowing faces on buses, benches, recycle bins and bus shelters all over town. The nice thing is the majority of long over due road repair and widening projects are getting done now and not being dragged over years and years.

Another thing I notice around Barrie is not only are the roads busier in town on the weekends of late, the driving style of many is gradually becoming more aggressive as well. I think much of the extra volume on the weekends can be attributed to residents who commute to Toronto Monday to Friday and are in town, out and about doing their shopping and local errand's on the weekend. They have to contend with the grid lock and big city road rage through the week leaving us more relaxed and stress free locally employed drivers to share our road etiquette with one another. Heaven forbid on a Wednesday mid day four of us should arrive at a four way stop simultaneously. We would still be there as it grew dark. “you go”, “no you”, “no please I insist”.

To those who have to suffer through the big city drive during the week I empathize as I did it for 18 years before moving back to the more user friendly City of Barrie.

Here are a few tips when driving in Barrie:

• There is a pretty good chance that person signaling to change into your lane ahead of you is not the same person who tried to send you head long into the guardrail as you tried to merge onto the Don Valley Parkway last Thursday. Go ahead, let them in, you'll likely feel good for the wave of thanks you get for the effort.
• Relax, that light that is turning orange a hundred yards up ahead will be green again in about a minute and a half, hit the peddle on the left. I know you watched the light turn red then green then red, again and again before you got through on Friday, but that was at Bloor and Bathurst and there were twenty cars between you and the clogged intersection.
• It's not the winning 6/49 ticket, it's just a Wal/Mart parking space for crying out loud!, you won't run out of gas looking for the next one like that time at Fairview mall, there are dozens more spots just like it in the next two isles. Save your horn for the World Cup finals.
• That person driving 40km/hour ahead of you likely knows something you don't about the latest speed trap locations in town. I know, scared turtles can bolt for short distances at a faster pace than the community safety zone speed limits but just take a breather and back off the bumper a bit. I'll bet you are less than ten minutes from your destination just like everyone else on the road in town right now. You spent more time at that intersection on Friday remember?
• You and I both know you have just enough time to make that left before that oncoming car hits you. You see that kind of physics in action every week day south of Hwy 7. But there's a pretty good chance the guy coming home from the curling rink in the other direction isn't as confident as you and might just spill his fresh Tim Horton's coffee in his lap out of shock.
• Be careful on the choice of hand gestures you use to converse with other drivers in Barrie, the middle finger pointed strait up is the signal for geese overhead to some local hunters. He needs to be focused on the road ahead, not gazing skyward for V formations of waterfowl. A simple wave or nod is the best and safest form of communication.

Relax, enjoy the weekend, it's one of the reasons you moved to Barrie to begin with remember? Before you know it, it will be Monday all over again.

Location , location. It might sell the neighbourhood but it wont necessarily sell your house. Your home needs some assets that will set it apart in its price range and make it stick in the minds of the potential buyers who will be visiting your and probably a half dozen or so other homes before and after on that day. We are taught that certain things will help to sell a home. An updated master bath with a soaker tub, a modern kitchen with higher end appliances and walk in closets are features that along with having your home well staged and clutter free will score it points with buyers who will be filing through to give it the once over.

If making gender specific remarks might get me in trouble then let me apologise here and now, as the rest of this article will be my observations over ten years as a Realtor of men and women and some of their differing home shopping behaviours. The above mentioned details of a home tend to catch the attention of the woman more so than the man in most instances. He is paying as much or more attention to her enthusiasm as to the home and if she is enthusiastic he will smile and follow along knowing her happiness is good for him too. If there is nothing about the home that appeals directly to him rather than saying so he is more likely to encourage the searching to continue and might make a couple “yes but” comments about the existing or potential faults such as the need for a new roof or windows, perhaps the lack of room in the driveway.

If there are at least one or two things about the home he sees that appeal to his testosterone driven needs such as a recroom hideaway, he will quietly continue to nod and smile, envisioning himself in the future picture possibly in front of a 60 inch big screen watching the super bowl half time show. Or maybe its the image of being surrounded by a dozen candles while in the corner soaker tub and Dianna Crawl playing softly in the background. I'd bet on the former to be safe.

There is one room in the house that is usually the last one to visit if at all. The garage. Typically the door is opened for five to ten seconds during a home showing. Everyone peeks in, the light is switched back off and they leave. On the few occasions I have had to show a home with a garage that even Jay Leno might approve of, the response is likely to be “honey why don't you go check out the bedrooms and those closets again, I’ll be in here” as he steps in and soaks it all in.

The last home like this I sold in 48 hours. It was only a single garage but it was insulated, had bright fluorescent tube lighting, a high wall mount heater and a rubberized painted flat grey floor. Across the back wall were black metal cabinets with stamped and chromed steel doors and a wall to wall work bench below. To finish it off was a beer fridge and a TV on a high wall bracket in the back corner. The owner had spent $500 on the cabinets, $400 on the foam insulation and $40 for the garage floor paint and for under $1000 dollars, turned the garage from a room likely to be overlooked into a big boy’s sanctuary making an older roof and windows things that could be dealt with.

You can spend $4000 or more on a new roof and three times that on new windows as part of your preparing to sell investments. These are all good things to make your home more saleable don’t get me wrong. At the very least you should stage your home and bring the interior finishing's up to date with paint and decent floors. My suggestion is instead of looking on the garage as the place to stack up all of your clutter while the sign is on the lawn, give some serious thought as to whether this might be the one room in your home that could set it apart from the competition and earn you back the expense and effort invested, a few times over.

This funny video emphasizes the point somewhat.