Once again, we can expect the Vancouver Real Estate Market to have an active year.  With low interest rates and more product becoming available, buyers can be selective in their home buying decisions.  The extremely high demand of a couple of years ago (we all remember the lineups at sales centers) sent housing starts through the roof.

Many new and existing projects are expected to be coming up for sale early in 2011 including a new price strategy at Olympic Village.  New prices are expected to be announced some time in early February.   The low interest rates paired with an increase in inventory should calculate to a higher number of sales and a slight increase in prices.  Yes.  That’s right.  Increase.  The economy remains strong and confidence has once again been instilled in the public.  The buying public has embraced the new changes with HST (for the most part) and I will be curious to see what developers are offering in sales centers this year in the form of rebates or incentives for HST.

Do you have an opinion on the coming year in Vancouver Real Estate?  Leave a comment below, or contact me via my contact page.

Do you remember your first pair of skates?  As far as I remember, mine had 2 blades.  Makes sense for someone learning at age 2.  This may seem young, but I’m not alone.

My family and I hit up the winter wonderland skate this holiday season.  My nephew Jaxon was on the ice for the first time in his first pair of skates.   I would love to tell you that he flew around at lightning speeds and was doing crossovers, but let’s just say it’s a work in progress.  Jaxon had a blast and I was really glad to be there and proud of the little fella.

If you were to do a survey of homes in the lower mainland, you’d find that the average household has at least one pair of skates.  How many pairs are in your house?

For the second year in a row, my friend and I registered for “The Province Golf Card.” If you play golf in B.C. and you haven’t heard of it, you should definitely check it out. The Province card offers 2 for 1 on green fees at various courses around the lower mainland, Vancouver island and B.C. The card usually goes for around $50, so if you use it once, it’s paid for. Some members use the card as many as 100 times throughout the season and take advantage of over 100 free green fees. If you have a partner that you play with regularly, you can split it at $25 each and save each time you play.

Throughout the year, members with the card enter their score on the Province Golf Website. (click here to check it out). At the end of the year, the lowest qualifying gross and net scores are invited to play in a qualifier tournament on a Sunday afternoon.  There are two shotgun flights of approx. 144 players each.   After the round, we were treated to a great buffet dinner, there were prizes for KP’s, long drives and then there were various draw prizes as well.  If you don’t know what a KP is, don’t feel bad.  It means “closest to the pin” on a particular hole.  I could never figure out why it wasn’t CP instead of KP as “closest” starts with a “c”.  Anyways, moving on….

The field is then narrowed to 144 players for the following Sunday.  Another 18 holes of golf in shotgun format.  I was lucky enough to qualify for the final round this year, and wouldn’t you know it, I have one of my best rounds of the year right at the right time.  It didn’t start off too great.  I made a crowd pleasing quadruple bogey 8 on my first hole, but didn’t give up and grinded it out for 74 and 1st place for the tournament.

After the round, we were again treated to a fantastic dinner followed by MORE prizes.  I’ll definitely be signing up next year, and not only to defend my title, but because it’s such a wicked deal and a lot of fun for only $25.

As the tournament is known as “The Province Golf Classic”, the results were published this week in the sports section.   This was the coolest part for me, as my family up in Powell River can pick up a copy of the publication and check it out.   I hope to see a few familiar faces out there next year.

It seems like the dog days of summer are just around the corner. If you haven’t gotten to your Spring cleaning, you might want to get started. The sunny beautiful days provide us a chance to get outside and take care of the yard and improvements around the outside of the house.

In my experience showing homes, I am always taken by how effective curb appeal, cleanliness and presentation can be. Most Buyers will see 4-5 homes consecutively in the same day and the home that is clean and well presented can really set itself apart from other comparable homes. A first impression is so important. Most Buyers have made up their mind within minutes of previewing a home, sometimes seconds. A well maintained home that shows pride of ownership (all the time, not just one week before you sell) will always attract more buyers and ultimately get you the most money when you Sell. The Spring can be a great time to Spruce up your place a little bit, move some things to storage, power wash the patio, give some old clothes to big brothers or Salvation Army.

Maybe you’ve been considering home renovations? My network is your network and I have numerous contacts in many trades that I would be happy to recommend. One that comes to mind is my good friends over at “Best Quality Roofing” My brother and sister just gave their website a makeover. These guys are reliable, they give fair prices and they get the job done on time.  Click here to check out the website.

I hope you’ve had a great Spring and I hope I’ve inspired you to do some “de-cluttering”. I’m off to power wash the patio…..