An apology to all my Australian friends–and to all of you
Seven new Australian friends are chattering away as they and this lone Canadian share our last El Salvadorian dinner. I've already spent 5 days with these 7. Plus 2 more Aussies, 2 Kiwis, a Scot, a German, 2 other Canadians, and a Salvadorian guide. I'm not surprised...
On finding your happy place
So, we’re not so happy here in BC! So says a study released this week by Point2 Real Estate which created a happiness index for the hundred largest Census Subdivisions in Canada. Only one BC city made the top 10; only 2 made the top 20 on the list. The happiest...
Learning to stay young
“The moment you stop learning is the moment you start dying.” That quotation, by Travis Towne, echoes a similar one by Albert Einstein. Perhaps it’s my curious mind, but I’ve always felt similarly (though I don’t tend to coin famous sayings.) Learning counters the...
How much house can I afford?
Stunned silence! That’s what I sometimes get when I inform a rent-2-own applicant of the maximum property value they can qualify for. They look at their neighbours in million-dollar homes and wonder why they only qualify for a $400,000 property. Usually, the answer is...
A government-assisted rent 2 own?
A government-assisted rent 2 own option? Frequently, government involvement in one’s economic activities is less than an exciting prospect. That’s certainly true when it comes to meddling in home ownership. Witness the First-time homebuyer’s matching grant the feds...
A Rent 2 Own for homeowners?
While the rent-2-own strategy is designed primarily to assist renters, especially those getting into the market for the first time, you may be surprised to hear that it can be a life-saver for some homeowners. Now why would someone who already owns a home be...
What is CAROP?
What is CAROP? You’ve seen it attached to the bottom of my posts: a logo with a house in a blue diamond, with the acronym CAROP underneath. And then there’s a link. But that link is almost never clicked. So, I thought I’d provide a bit more information about this...
Pivot and adapt, or…
A winter getaway to Joshua Tree National Park occasioned a side trip to the Salton Sea. OK, to clarify, my friend and I did fly in and out of Las Vegas, and did spend an afternoon in Palm Springs. But the focus was Joshua Tree: hiking, seeing the amazing rock...
You get to choose your own home
You get to choose your own home Looking back through the history of this blog, I realized that I’ve now been doing it for more than 10 years. If I’d looked sooner, I might have posted a reflective anniversary piece. But I missed that opportunity. I came across one of...
Have housing prices hit the bottom?
Many would-be home-buyers are waiting until housing prices bottom out before getting into the market, whether as outright buyers or rent 2 own clients. If that’s what you’re waiting for, you may already be too late. First, let’s look at the big picture. During the...