Mary-Anne Gillespie's (mgillespie) Blog

The July stats have come in and it looks like there's once again another fabulous month for the Ottawa Real Estate Market. Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,577 residential properties in July through the Board's Multiple Listing Service® system compared with 1,414 in July 2008. This ...

Ever bought a shelf or desk that was impossible to assemble? I especially hate it when you buy pieces in the finish you want and go to buy additional pieces and of course YOUR finish has been discontinued! Here are some simple instructions on how to build your own desk! When you build your own si...

Ever bought a shelf or desk that was impossible to assemble? I especially hate it when you buy pieces in the finish you want and go to buy additional pieces and of course YOUR finish has been discontinued! Here are some simple instructions on how to build your own desk! When you build your own si...

Put some sizzle in your veggie patch with the ingredients for a summer salsa - plant tomatoes, hot peppers, green onions and cilantro for a zesty harvest. This is an easy project for anyone to take on, it's fairly inexpensive and has minimal steps. Just follow these easy steps and you'll have a t...

Just as we had expected June was yet another record breaking month for the Ottawa Real Estate Board. In June, members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,895 residential properties which only include properties listed on the Multiple Listing Service. In June 2008 the sales in the residential p...

   As we wait for our final statistics to our Spring Market of 2009 we are expecting another month of great record breaking sales.   In May the Ottawa Real Estate board members sold  1969 residential sales through the MLS system.  This doesn't include new home sales or sales that we represented p...

Looking at the market statistics I realized to my surprise there was a huge number of overpriced listings sitting on the market.  I established this by how many homes have been on the market for over 30 days without a single adjustment.   Clearly, we either have unmotivated Sellers , or a lot of ...

I love open houses.  I love doing them and I love the results I get from them. If you are just doing your signs out the day of your open house and sitting their for 2 hrs then you are clearly not working them to your fullest potential. I'll be the first to admit that there are days that I really ...

For the past 5 years I have worked from home.  I enjoy it a lot because I have my beloved dog Eddie and cat Luke with me.  Not to mention a great big office space where I can have the freedom to play music, grab a drink or a bite to eat and most importantly I can wear my sweatpants and no one kno...

Ever wonder why someone painted a color? Where did they get so much stuff?  How you are supposed to tell the home owners during a listing presentation that the wall that holds all the photo memories of their family is way too cluttered right after they have personally explained each sentimental v...