Buying a home is an exciting time in your life. It’s a monumental occasion, and you should celebrate and enjoy every moment of the experience. But at the same time, there are a lot of new stresses you’ll discover. From trying to find the right space, to bidding and financing, the whole experience is a roller-coaster ride. Once you gain possession of the property, you’re about to start on a whole new adventure as a...
As a new homeowner, I’m in the process of discovering all that it takes to maintain the up-keep on my house. Every step of the way is a learning experience, from re-mounting old light fixtures to finding out that the leaky tap requires more than just a new washer. Some problems you can anticipate–like knowing that the old air conditioner might not work when you fire it up in the summer. But some problems you...
Canadian cities are often part of discussions involving the most expensive property markets in the world, news that shouldn’t be remotely surprising to anyone in the Great White North. Over the past year, our list of least affordable cities has reshuffled in somewhat unexpected ways and may continue to do so in the future as people gain greater flexibility to work remotely. This has caused an overall shift in the Canadian real estate market. Once...
When Canada first went into lockdown last year, we braced for the worst. As much of the economy shut down, many Canadians suddenly found themselves jobless and in a precarious financial state. Experts warned of the dire effects this would have on households, and their ability to pay off their debt and mortgages. Without steady income to keep up payments, people were likely to face insolvency and foreclosures given what we knew at the time....
It’s a remote-access world now, with everyone making the leap to digital services together. Truth be told, the real estate industry has been heading this way for some time now—the COVID-19 pandemic just sped up the timetable. Before the virus, the incentive to digitize operations stemmed from a desire for convenience and efficiency. Instead of relying on mountains of paperwork (which needs to be sorted, filed, and secured), it made sense to implement modern software...
“There’s no place like home”, although with the way things are going, perhaps “there’s no place but home” is more accurate. Shelter-in-place, stay-at-home, quarantining, self-isolation – however you want to slice it, we’re all stuck in our homes whether we like it or not. With COVID-19 case counts rising in some regions, that doesn’t appear to be something likely to change anytime soon, either. But there are silver linings even to these dark, dark clouds....
The future is now-ish, if you’re brave enough for it. With Alexa, Google, and Siri becoming household names, we’re right on the cusp of living in futuristic spaces that are equal parts habitation and technological wonder. However, it remains to be seen whether all this emergent technology will elevate us to a shining utopia, or leave us trapped in a Black Mirror episode. Here are a few incredible technological developments popping up on the horizon,...
Fraud related to COVID-19 pandemic on the rise. Canadians have seen everything from phoney fundraisers and products to sham testing kits and door-to-door solicitations. The aim of these scams is either to get money, steal your personal information or install malware on your device. Here’s how to avoid being scammed. Prominent scams to be aware of The most widely spread scam in Canada related to COVID-19 has to do with face masks. Fraudsters have been...
It’s time to break out the face masks (if you haven’t already). During the early days of Covid-19 health officials said there was no need for the general public to wear face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus. But now, we know that wearing non-medical masks coupled with physical distancing can help stop the transmission of the virus. On May 20, Canada’s chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, said that “use of non-medical...
In Ontario, the government is gradually reopening the economy, allowing facilities from retail stores and parks to open with restrictions to prevent COVID-19 spread. Premier Doug Ford hasn’t set hard deadlines for things to go back to normal completely, but over the next few weeks, people are expected to slowly return to their offices — with caveats. “If there are two words that will characterize the post-pandemic world, it would be behavioural change,” says Ram...
