You may have heard about indoor air quality being a health issue. But I doubt you factored the fumes from an illegal drug operation into family's well-being.
But maybe you should. More than 50,000 homes across Canada operate as methamphetamine labs, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). That nice-looking house in your suburban neighbourhood could be harbouring harmful chemicals ...
Posted by Don Lawby
on August 9, 2009
Crime doesn't pay... but apparently, monitoring crime for homeowners and home buyers does.
A new American website, Neighborhood Scout describes itself as a "patented search engine" that uses crime statistics to build neighbourhood profiles. The site charges users for "exclusive" neighbourhood estimates for violent crime, property crime, total crime, your chances of becoming a victim of violent or ...
Posted by Don Lawby
on August 4, 2009
Are you working so many hours that you can't do the cottage commute? Or maybe this is the summer your gang doesn't go on that big road trip because of creeping gasoline prices and household budget cutbacks.
Have you thought about building a backyard "resort' - say, an expansive deck with hot tub or gazebo? Or how about using your vacation days to finish up an indoor renovation?
That would ...
Posted by Don Lawby
on July 23, 2009
Big Brother (aka Google) may have physically been in your town recently. The (in)famous Google car with the roof-mounted camera has cruised Canadian streets to capture pictures of neighbourhoods to put up on the maple-leaf version of Street View in the near future. Google-cams have been spotted in:
Abbotsford, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria, BC
Calgary, Lethbridge and Edmonton, AB
Regina, ...
Posted by Don Lawby
on July 22, 2009
I just completed visiting all the provinces, starting May 30 and ending today - meeting with realtors in 20 locations across Canada. (And this year, my annual road trip got a new techno-twist: I Tweeted updates from each of the cities from my Blackberry.) I visited at least 1 city a day, in this order:
St. John’s, NF
Dartmouth, NS
Moncton, NB
Ottawa, ...
Posted by Don Lawby
on June 16, 2009
Q: Since when does CNN mention Saskatchewan in its news coverage?
A: When it is experiencing a hot job and home sales market! The hugely popular US news channel's web article was titled Saskatchewan a jobs 'hot spot' in Canada," and CNN even quoted an American relocation service company president as saying he's moving more people to Saskatchewan than ever before. Of course, these (extremely lucky) ...
Posted by Don Lawby
on May 12, 2009