Many people have the misconception that staging is simply adding decorative elements to make the home “pretty”.  Some even call it “house fluffing”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Home and condominium staging is the process used to prepare property for sale, regardless of price, or location. Stephanie Adams from the Barrie Condo Team states “staging uses buyers eyes to identify the problem areas as well as the best features of the home.” Decorating is about appealing to ones individual taste & style. Decorating is for living. Staging is about appealing to the broadest range of potential buyers. Staging is for selling. Think of staging as a tool used to sell your property quickly and secure the equity you have worked so hard for. A good stager will have an excellent understandi... 07/18/2010

  The majority of Realtors will invest more patience on mantaining relationships with past clients than we ever do with the people who could very well be our next clients.   Mantaining a connection with past clients is important and good business practice as the potential for referral business can provide Realtors with a flow of new business. I have known Realtors who in the twilight years of their careers relied completely on referrals from past clients for their business.   But realistically when will you benefit most from the information a Realtor has to offer, before or after you buy? Most people want to learn to swim before they get in the water, not after.   The person who has yet to purchase a home is more likely to buy within the next 4 or 5 years than the person who is still se... 07/14/2010

Homeowners insurance is a must if you are looking to buy a new home, townhouse, or  condo. You will be required to have this on the day of closing of your purchase. If you are getting a mortgage, your mortgage company will require it. Not only do you need to have it on closing, but you are required to keep it up to date for the length of your mortgage commitment.  A basic insurance policy protects you, the owner against any property damage that results from things like fire, lightning, wind or hail storms. It will also provide for motel and food costs if you are forced to leave your home while such damages are repaired. An exemption to a standard policy are things like flood or earthquake damage. Because these issues are usually specific to certain regions of the country and can cause e... 07/08/2010

Our parks, walking trails and beaches along Kempenfelt Bay are well regarded and this summer they have been appreciated as well as any other with the 30 degree plus temperatures of late. Barrie Ontario is known to be at the center of just about every outdoor activity for all seasons and rarely a weekend goes by between May and September without an outdoor festival that draws hundreds of thousands of people annually to take it all in. This weekend, July 8th through 11th is the Annual Ribfest and Craft Beer show. The ribs are always world class and the pulled pork sandwiches and bloomin' onions are well worth the sacrifice of a clean shirt. Local Rotarians felt the above mentioned distinctions were not enough for our city and this  year we will see the first annual Great Canadian Beaver ... 07/08/2010

07/02/2010

For as long as I have been a Realtor in Barrie Ontario there has been a pattern to real estate activity year after year that for the most part remains unchanged. Around about the middle of March, once we have had two or three days in a row of above freezing temperatures and the previous few months of accumulated snow banks appear to be shrinking, that's when it happens. A natural phenomenon that tells geese and robbins to head north, and people to plan for a move. Home owners start purging their stuff for goodwill and garage sales and can be spotted Saturday mornings  at home depot staring catatonically at shaking paint mixers and slowly running their fingers over floor tile and hardwood samples. By early April for-sale signs begin popping up randomly in neighborhoods all over town and... 06/30/2010

Free Real Estate Listings available to agents in the Barrie ON  area.  Barrie Real Estate Agents is open for you to post your listings for FREE.   This page comes up on the first page of Google for search term using Barrie Real Estate Agent. Email me a link with your listing particulars and I will email you back a login and password to allow you to post a free listing. This is a new site with lots of exposure and with your help it will only gain in ranking and viewing audience.   Enjoy the Free Listings   Roger Frost 06/28/2010

Mike Montague Sales Representative Sutton Group Incentive Realty Inc. Where are today's home buyers and sellers looking? Same places you do. The links below take you to my Barrie Real Estate facebook page which is kept up to date with the latest local real estate news, statistics and information that current and future Barrie and area home owners need to know. If you are a facebook user, add this page to your favorites and visit regularly to stay in the know. Are you using Twitter? Hit the link below and add me to your list of people to follow. Not only will you get daily posts from me but you can access my growing lists of some of the best "Tweeters", on Real Estate and municipal news, tips, issues and area information. Buyers know that the best deals often sell before they ever come ... 06/23/2010

Something relatively new to real estate in the past ten years is the private home selling company. The proposition of saving thousands of dollars is enough to catch the attention of anyone. The idea of listing a home for anywhere from $700 for a sign on the lawn and an ad on a website, to a couple thousand dollars if you want some of the additional services that a REALTOR typically provides such as setting your price, getting your house ready to sell, to assisting you in closing the deal is tempting and awakens the entrepreneur inside some of us. The burning question private sale companies use as their hook is why would you give profits from your home sale to a REALTOR if you didn't have to?   The saying "if it looks too good to be true it probably is" was something I first  heard my f... 06/18/2010

     A real estate bubble is defined as a period of  rapid increases in valuations of  housing until they reach unsustainable levels relative to incomes and other economic elements, followed by a reduction in price levels. As the economic pendulum swings to and fro in Canada, in Barrie Ontario that sway has always been less exaggerated than in other larger Canadian urban centers. Maybe it is our conservative nature. Maybe it has to do with our persevering attitudes that see us through extreme weather shifts. When Barrie awakens to two feet of fresh snow we get on with our day. Toronto shuts down and calls in the Army. Somewhere in there lies the difference but whatever spawns that herd mentality that drives Toronto and Vancouver's masses to orgiastic home buying crescendos is never seen... 06/17/2010

A call this evening to a friend I haven't talked to in a while began with "Hey what the hell happened to your fence?" The townhouse she lives in backs onto Mapleview Avenue in the south end of town where I happened be be driving earlier in the day. These  homes were built with deep back yards of about 70 feet or more to buffer the road noise and additionally, at the back of these lots the city erected eight foot high wooden fencing  when the area was developed. As I drove past I noticed a section of fence about 16 feet wide was gone and in its place was a neon orange mesh construction fence about four feet high over which I could now easily see the back walls and patio doors of my friends place, as well as her neighbours place. The neighbours place had plywood sheets covering, or more a... 06/16/2010

Barrie at this point and time is in need of and in a position to provide some key economic growth. That future growth is likely to come through entrepreneurial enterprises that can only take place with stepped up efforts by municipal leaders to create an “ecosystem” that will stimulate this growth and attract the people needed to sustain and develop it. Many of the elements necessary are pre-existing. More than 4 million people live within an hour of Barrie. It has international air, sea and rail transportation close by and a major 6 lane highway running through its centre. Barrie is a family friendly City that provides a healthy balance of urban, social and recreational landscapes. The financial and human capitol exists in Canada and Ontario to support such growth and it is the duty o... 06/13/2010

    Many people are drawn to townhomes in Barrie because they want the best of both worlds. They want to have a yard to BBQ in, but they don’t want the hassle of maintaining it.  Professional management of condo townhomes, means enjoying the perks of a yard and garage, without mowing lawns or shoveling snow.   Barrie is a great place to find the perfect townhome, and working with Realtor focusing on Barrie townhomes can help you find the perfect fit.   “There’s a lot of factors that go into finding the right townhome,” said Stephanie Adams of Barrie’s Condo Team.  “There’s a lot of choice locations available around the city, some centrally located and some on the waterfront. It’s all about trying to find the right combination of size, floor plan, parking, and available upgrades to suit ... 06/12/2010

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us," --Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Profound words that seem to apply as much today as when they were penned a century and a half ago.  These words came to mind after speaking with a young couple doing their research in preparation to buy their first home. My industry is adapting to an emerging generation of home buyers that base their decisions on facts to a greater degree than their parents generation did. They don't make decisions, real esta... 06/07/2010

When you’re searching for that perfect condo in Barrie, it’s smart to work directly with a Realtor that focuses on Condos. It's their job to make sure you’re getting the right condo for your lifestyle, and getting it at the right price.   If you’re in the market, you’ve probably already looked at a few condos, either online or in person. However, working with a Realtor can help you take a closer look. Once you're starting to lean towards a particular condo unit, it’s time to examine the price, pricing history, and benefits of that type of unit.   Your Realtor can break down the condo unit’s price and give you details that nobody else can.  They can research and examine the price history to see if there’s been any price increases, or if there's been any upgrades to the unit.  They also ... 06/04/2010

Residential property sales recorded through the MLS® System of the Barrie District Association of REALTORS® Inc. were down from year-ago levels for the first time in a year in May 2010.   The average price for homes sold via the Association’s MLS® System in the first five months of the year was $278,708. This is up eight per cent from the year-to-date average price last May, and represents the highest average price for this period on record.   The Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® cautions that over a period of time, the use of average price information can be useful in establishing trends, but it does not indicate actual prices in widely divergent areas or account for price differentials, between geographical areas.   “Demand fell back in May, following very strong sales in M... 06/04/2010

We know, you don't want a mortgage... you want a home! "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain" Vivian Greene Today is a great day to find out how you can qualify for a new mortgage or how you can restructure your existing mortgage to turn your dreams into reality! Whatever your goals are, we are here to help! For a personalized one hour free mortgage planning consultation please call (705) 727-9992 to book your appointment now! Click HERE to get approved. TERM POSTED OUR RATES* 6 Month 4.85% 3.95% 1 Year 3.90% 2.75% 2 Year 4.40% 3.45% 3 Year 4.95% 3.60% 4 Year 5.64% 4.09% 5 Year 5.99% 4.19% 7 Year 6.59% 5.25% 10 Year 6.90% 5.20% Variable Rate 1.90% Prime Rate 2.50% * Rates may vary provincially and are subject to change without notic... 06/04/2010

    Barrie Ontario and the shores of Lake Simcoe to its north and south have made the Real Estate Investment Network's (REIN) new shortlist of top Canadian places to Invest in Real Estate http://bit.ly/9sGELH 06/02/2010

There are things I can recall from childhood and our parents generation you don't see today.  One that merits positive regard was our parents fiscal responsibility, especially regarding the family home. Something that was common then was mortgage burning parties. This is one social gathering I have never heard of in my generation as mortgages seem to be eternal rather than a means to an end. Today, as paid down principal on a mortgage accumulates, its whisper grows louder and becomes overwhelming to many, manifesting itself in unshakable visions of hot tubs, home theaters and luxury kitchen and bath projects. For many more that equity is a cry for a more expensive home purchase and or a new set of wheels.  I went to a high school reunion a few years ago and found it interesting to lear... 06/02/2010

  Today I saw headlines regarding the Bank of Canada's rise of the national prime lending rate by .25%. All of these headlines were variations of the same theme like a coast to coast tsunami was heading our way. "Get set for...brace yourself for...my favorite was the Globe and Mail's headline this morning right out of The Book of Cataclysm... "The end is Nigh for low interest rate heaven." The more Nostridamus like the bold face headline, the more chance you will grab that paper on your way to work right?, or so the theory goes. In real estate on the other hand the more we can soften such news the more enthused we can keep our buyers. I'm going with neither approach, instead I'll shoot right up the middle. What does a quarter percent rise in the bank rate mean to you and me when we app... 06/01/2010