On dark, dreary days, your home may not be looking its best.

Sometimes the last thing someone wants to do during the winter months is shop for a home. As real estate agents we always dread showing units on dreary, rainy days because it often doesn't show a property in its finest light (quite literally).

Now that the holidays are over, let's have a look at some tactics to make your house stand out in the crowd. Don't let the winter blues get you down, just follow this great advice and your property sale will happen sooner rather than later.

1. Don't Let Winter Win

Even when it's driving rain and super cold, there are things you can do to use this to your advantage. Focus on providing a warm, dry home to prospective buyers, make sure your

Vancouver, BC—With real estate prices and affordable housing a frequent topic of discussion throughout the province, The Society of Notaries Public of BC is offering tips and resources to help BC’s seniors stay in their homes.

“There are several good resources available which provide more information for busy baby boomers who might be downsizing or moving into a strata property for the first time; and also for more mature seniors on a fixed income who may be looking for financial assistance or supported housing,” said Tammy Morin Nakashima, a Richmond Notary and President of BC Notaries.

 Eight Housing Tips for BC Seniors:

1.  Know the strata laws before you buy:

Many active aging boomers are downsizing to free-up funds for retirement or

Kamloops and District Real Estate statistics for October 2015

In the month of October the Kamloops real estate market slowed down from September As can be seen from the latest news from Kamloops and District Real Estate Association (KADREA) there was a  drop in sales in the Kamloops property market, not untypical for this time of year. As can be seen by the following chart there was an overall drop of around 20% of sales over September.

Kamloops And District Real Estate Association
Kamloops Residential Sales by Sub-Area - Monthly - October 2015
Generated on: November 1, 2015

Brocklehurst keeps the highest number of sales as it did in September 2015 even after a 36& decrease. The difference between September 2015 and last months sales

The city, along with Kelowna and Victoria, has among the lowest rental vacancy rates in Canada

Rent on an average two-bedroom apartment in Vancouver rose almost twice as fast as average for Canadian cities, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The CMHC tracked vacancy rates and the rent being charged on two types of apartments — purpose-built rentals, and condominiums put up for rent — between Oct. 2014 and 2015 for its annual Rental Market Survey.

Purpose-built rentals in Vancouver went up 4.6 per cent — the largest rent increase in all of Canada — so an average two-bedroom would cost $1360 a month, compared to $960 in an average Canadian city.

That steep rise was followed closely by:

• Barrie, Ont. — 4.3 per cent

The City has received a number of questions about the Performing Arts Centre and Parkade. We want to share the most common to inform voters for the November 7th referendum.

7 questions to help you decide

Performing Arts Centre & Parkade FAQs

1. Why is the City proposing a parkade and performing arts centre (PAC) complex?

There‘s a shortage of theatre space and parking in our city centre. Building an underground parkade with a performing arts centre above meets our needs and makes full use of the property.
Adding performing arts with sport tourism allows us to diversify and compliment our local economy. The complex will attract performers with speci!c requirements on venue and seating capacities. And local performers will bene!t too with access

KAMLOOPS - Clocks in most of Canada will go back an hour early Sunday morning, but not everyone is pleased with the extra time for sleep.

"People with sleep disorders don't get an extra hour of sleep. They get an extra hour of laying there thinking about not sleeping,'' says Tara Holmes.

Holmes is one of two Kamloops residents who have created an online petition urging the provincial government to do away with daylight time, where clocks leap forward an hour in March and fall back in November.

Daylight time has been a pet peeve for Bob Dieno, the petition's co-founder, since university when he slept in on the day the clocks switched and missed the final exam in his chemistry class.

The time change is archaic and disruptive, Holmes argues,

The Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) released the 2013 edition of its Top British Columbia Investment Towns report.

 Why not sign up for our free home buyers e-book - CLICK HERE

The 110-page report analyzes the current and future prospects for real estate investment opportunities in the province over the next decade and has once again ranked Kamloops as a top investment community. However, the city’s ranking has dropped slightly, from third place in a previous edition of the report to fifth place in the most recent edition. The entire report is available for download free of charge at www.topbctowns.com.

While remaining a popular vacation destination for BC residents, Kamloops has also succeeded in attracting many non-tourism related

When I talk to real estate investors about the deals they’re doing, I’m surprised how often they choose to skip working with a real estate agent in favor of doing the deal themselves. From a dollars-and-cents perspective, I can understand that they are counting the cost of doing the work themselves versus paying a fee to an agent. And, it’s an unfortunate reality in the real estate industry, that there are many agents who are not “investor-savvy” and operating with the investing mindset that these types of investors need.

However, I can also tell you, as someone who invested in his first door at the age of 18 and then became a real estate agent in the 1980s, there are a group of us investing-savvy agents who are simply NOT being utilized to the degree

The biggest problem in Canada’s hottest housing markets today seems to be finding something available to buy.

The Canadian Real Estate Association offered up the explanation of a shortage of listings in Vancouver and Toronto for a 2.1 per cent seasonally adjusted decline in existing home sales from August to September.

“Although national sales activity was not as strong in September as it was earlier this year, a lack of supply in some parts of the country is likely keeping a lid on transactions,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist with CREA. “The greater Toronto area and Greater Vancouver made sizeable contributions to the monthly decline in national sales activity. They also rank among the tightest urban housing markets in the country due to a

Property Tax News

The B.C. government, among others, is taking a close look at the province’s property transfer tax. But broadening or raising the transfer tax will have harmful economic consequences for current homeowners. The province should instead look to replace the property-transfer tax with less harmful taxes.

Many provinces and municipalities across Canada levy property or land-transfer taxes. The buyer pays a tax proportional to the value of the purchase. British Columbia has a progressive rate on transaction values. Buyers pay 1 per cent on the first $200,000, and then 2 per cent on the rest of the value.

Many people think that transfer taxes also curb housing speculation. But there is international evidence that transfer taxes are