Bright’s Gallery of Burlington Moves to Collingwood and Hilary Hooks Up with Real Estate Blogger Marg Scheben-Edey
March 23rd, 2008 Categories: Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere, Burlington Beat, Fifty-five plus, Food for Soul and Spirit, Lighten Up, Oakville Real Estate News
Our family spent a ski weekend up at Blue Mountain in Collingwood over March Break. (If you were noticing I didn’t post for a few days, that’s why.)
Having just received a note from Oakville resident and neighbour of mine, Peter Bright, that Bright’s Gallery of Burlington is relocating to Collingwood this spring, I decided to check out the new gallery site, right in the Village at Blue where we were staying.
Best of luck in your new venture Peter. I am sure visitors and locals will appreciate the fine collection of Canadian artists that you profile in your gallery.
This weekend was also an opportunity for me to meet Marg Scheben-Edey of ReMax in Collingwood who has been an inspiration to me as a Canadian blogger and REALTOR.
By the time we met in person on Monday in Collingwood, we were like old friends! That’s the kind of connection that real estate bloggers have with each other.
Marg has a zest for life, a razor-sharp mind and a warm and easy-going personality.
Marg and her husband John grew up in West Oakville. Marg recalls when the land behind their Pinegrove Road house (now Speers Road) was a strawberry field and they would ride horses across the QEW to their friend’s farm on Burnhamthorpe Road. The Edey’s have been living in the Collingwood area for the last 22 years where they raised their two kids.
Our family of four were treated to a tour of Collingwood in Marg’s van.
Development in the area since I was up here last, quite a few years back, is mind boggling! It is certainly the vacation and retirement destination for many in the Golden Horseshoe and GTA.
(I chatted with a lady in one of the Village stores who had just moved up here with her husband, having traded their fast paced life in Southern Ontario for the slower recreational lifestyle of the area. She sold me a very delicious piece of home-made praline fudge.)
“No bird soars too far on its own wings” is one of my mottoes. Staying connected to people like Marg helps me to keep growing and innovating in my business.
By the way, Marg and I are hoping to help get a “Canadian Real Estate Bloggers Conference” going so that real estate professionals on the vanguard of using the internet can exchange ideas and learn from each other.
Any Canadian REALTORS interested in this? Let us know.
Check out Marg’s blog. If you’re looking to buy property in the South Georgian Bay area, she’ll take good care of you.
DON’T MISS OUT ON THE SPRING MARKET! TO LIST YOUR HOME IN OAKVILLE OR BURLINGTON, PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL HILARY (905) 599–3311 TODAY!
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TRANSPARENCY IN REAL ESTATE or “Why read my blog?”
March 4th, 2008 Categories: Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere, First Time Buyers, Oakville Real Estate News
I went to a listing appointment a few months ago for a couple I had met at the Oakville Centre kiosk. A comment they made got me thinking.
“You seem very nice etc., but the last time we bought and sold, we interviewed 3 agents and picked who we thought would be the best one, but she turned out to be terrible! It was such a bad experience. Now we’re gun-shy.”
Selling or buying a home is a big deal. No doubt about that.
Picking a REALTOR that doesn’t match our expectations or our values or our personality type can be uncomfortable and stressful.
One of the challenges of our generation is we have TOO MANY CHOICES, TOO LITTLE TIME.
One of the reasons I have chosen to write a blog with almost daily postings, is so that people who are buying or selling can use this as a PRE-SELECTION TOOL.
When one writes a lot of stuff over time, one’s true self does get revealed.
What does this REALTOR know? How well does she understand the real estate market? How does she handle situations? What are her values, preferences, interests, viewpoints on real estate and other matters? What are her clients saying about her? What are other agents who comment saying about her? How abreast is she of the latest developments in real estate?
All good questions to which you are likely to find answers right here on this blog.
Then, by the time you pick up the phone to call me, we are both reasonably assured that we are a “good fit”. And that is the best thing for you and for me!
Sometimes when I meet people who have been reading it, they say “ I feel like I already know you.” That’s my goal folks!
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Confessions of a messy real estate blogger… OK I said I would declutter my office but….
February 28th, 2008 Categories: Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere, Lighten Up
A couple of weeks ago, a post I wrote inspired a few people to get rid of the clutter monkey. But I confess I got caught up showing houses, going to seminars, making phone calls, blogging and looking for sheets of paper that were in piles on my desk.
Tomorrow I have set half a day aside for this self-imposed task.
(Hope you like the PROCRASTINATION cartoon.)
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Hilary Shantz, Oakville, Ontario Real Estate Agent Has Been Meme’d!
December 18th, 2007 Categories: Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere, Lighten Up, Oakville Events
Being “meme’d” in blogger’s lingo is being tagged, online, and then having to write 5 things about yourself that others may not know. (See Wikipedia for original definition of meme, in short a unit of cultural information that propagates from one mind to another).
Fellow real estate blogger Janice Gagliardi of Port Orange Juice in Florida meme’d me. Five days till Christmas and so much to do, but let me take a minute to give my random response to this, in the spirit of Christmas!
Five Things You May not Know About Me:
1. When I was five, and sitting in the back seat of the car, I put a paper bag over my dad’s face while he was driving. (Seemed like a good idea at the time.)
2. I have been married for 17 years to my husband Wayne, and we have two kids, Nathan (age 15) and Meagan (age 14). We live in South East Oavkille in a home surrounded by trees.
3. Going to our family cottage in Buckhorn, Ontario in the Kawartha Lakes for the last thirty-five years holds many memories for me. We have no cable tv, land phone or other technology up there, just a hand made birch bark canoe that glides across the water. We have seen deer on the property and have a resident family of beavers. I still remember the squeals of delight from our son when at age four he discovered some turtle eggs, saw them hatch and named each one before putting them back safely in the water.
4. I find real estate to be an emotional roller coaster ride, thrills and spills, one day you’re up one day you’re down, but one thing is guaranteed, it’s never boring. The best thing about it is the people. The most challenging thing about it is you’re always working with people who are under stress.
5. I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and lived in Jamaica, Scotland and the Cayman Islands as a child, and have lived in Canada for the last 3+ decades. My grandparents were from China. My husband is Mennonite. His ancestors were originally from Berne, Switzerland where his predecessor Ulrich Shantz left Europe for Pennsylvania 12 generations ago. The family subsequently moved to continue their farming lifestyle to the fertile lands of Kitchener, Waterloo, in Ontario, as did many other Mennonites, in the early 1800’s.
Now I am going to pass this on to to three other unsuspecting bloggers. Merry Christmas, you don’t have to respond till after the 25th!
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