The Bower Blog

Jazzed by Kindness

I was musing the other day; do that quite often-read in the newspaper that the Toronto Star had done an experiment.  They distributed 20 wallets through-out the city with $47.13 cents, some identification and pictures of a family.  The goal was to see how many wallets would be returned.  There were wagers on this; some said 4 out of 20, some wagered 1/2 of the wallets would be returned.  At the writing of their article, a whopping 15 wallets had been returned, money intact and 2 calls for two others were pending.  That's a staggering return.  The comments from the kind souls were: "I took a look at that little family and realized someone may need ttc fare home" or "I had been a victim of identity theft and would not want it to happen to anyone else".  It was lovely and KIND.

Yesterday, I was at Tim Hortons. A woman rushed in, in an obvious hurry.  Suddenly she stopped and went back to help a blind man to the counter.  Once he had been settled, the cab driver waiting for him, came in to check on his progress and then gently guided the blind man into his cab.  KIND.

I'm one of two organizing a fundraiser for a Children's Breakfast program.  Yesterday, out of the blue, a woman of whom I buy cookies from (Churchill's on Millwood) called to offer a silent auction item of delectable goodies.  Out of the blue.  Bev Morris, you're KIND.

I toddled out to Milton to see my son yesterday.  He was overwhelmed by the daunting task of cleaning his home.  I had offered help a week ago but got busy myself.  It's funny; I can organize a home in about 2 hours.  There are others, my son included who feel just beseiged by the task.  Anyway, we went to the store at one point; everyon knows Skyler in Milton.  I was looking at something, then looked up and I saw my 6'1" son leaning down talking to a little boy.  He was lost in the store.  Sky brought him to the counter so he could find his mom and held his hand the whole time.  KIND.

I think we are really a society of good people; there are bad eggs, to be sure, but mostly GOOD AND KIND, from my experience.

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

Breakfast Program Fundraiser-A Fundraiser to Feed Kids

Breakfast Program

Fundraiser

Silent and Live Auctions

Food, Dance and Fun!

Thursday May 7, 7 p.m.

The Myth

417 Danforth Avenue

Tickets $25.00

(Sign up sheet at front desk; can be billed through the office)

 

Okay, so here are some of the goodies available:

Glen Angus Golf Package, Platinum Hockey Tickets, Platinum Basketball tickets, Home Theatre System, Chalet for two Days in Collingwood, Chris Bosh (Raptors) signed jersey, Luke Schenn (Toronto Maple Leafs) signed jersey, Box for 10 at the City Hall Jazz Festival, CN Tower Restaurant, Home Inspection Service, Signs in the Making, Blackberry Curve, 3 cases of wine, Behind the Bench Blue Jay Tickets, Dog Gift Basket, jewelry, Fine Art, Sign installations, Mosaic Bird Bath, Books, Physical Fitness stuff, Palace Restaurant, 2 camcorders, X-Box, Sound of Music Tickets, Sheree Punjab Restaurant, Gift Baskets (chocolates and Pashminas)Lolita’s Lust Restaurant, Golf at Meadowbrook and more…

Plus lots of raffle items and free giveaways.

I'm pooped but enjoying my career!

I just passed a milestone-25 years selling real estate.  I was reminiscing about this the other day; how my first deal was a gay couple I had received as clients through a Toronto Star Ad.  My ads in those days read:  10% down, carries for $450.00/month.  The average home price that I was selling was around 50-70K.  At that time, I had two homes to show these boys; they picked one.  I remember doing the deal (my then partner, Dan helped me through it) and when I called them with the good news, they were screaming and joyous and I felt great.  I was a part-time agent at that time my son was just a pup.  When I went to open houses, I would take him with me in a little pouch attached to my front, like a kangaroo.  To this day I think he is as social as he is because of all the attention and interaction he had.

So, why am I enjoying myself now?  The deals often take anywhere from 3-7 days to pull together; people walking away from transactions, only to return a few days later and hard, hard, core negotiations.  Some may think this to be a grind, but I pull out my bag of experience and use it to help both the buyers and sellers maneuver their way through the wonderful world of real estate.  It's like being a teacher in a way; requires a tremendous amount of patience, perseverance and listening skills.  I'm also having a good time because I actually think this will be a good year; certainly there are agents out there who are hurting; maybe they give up too easily.  Water finds its own level and I think the agents who aren't succeeding will find alternative ways to make a living.  I feel sorry for some; they've hung their hats on making a go of it, however it's not necessarily the career for everyone.  The unfortunate part of the real estate courses is they do not teach you diplomacy or selling skills.  They teach you basic knowledge on how to prepare an offer, what clauses you need, etc.  Important stuff for sure, but you're either born a salesperson or you work damn hard to hone that skill.  Not for the faint of heart.

YAHOO-I'm almost at 0% on my mortgage!

Interest rate almost at zero

THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Bank of Canada is shown in Ottawa, Tuesday, March 3, 2009.

 

Ann Perry

Business Reporter

Warning the recession will be longer and deeper than expected, the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.25 per cent and said it will likely remain at that level until the middle of next year.

"In an environment of continued high uncertainty, the global recession has intensified and become more synchronous" since January, "with weaker-than-expected activity in all major economies," the central bank said in a news release Tuesday morning.

Deteriorating credit conditions have spread quickly through the economy, the bank said. "While more aggressive monetary and fiscal policy actions are underway across the G20, measures to stabilize the global financial system have taken longer than expected to enact," it added.

The recession in Canada "will be deeper than anticipated" and recovery will be delayed until the fourth quarter of this year, prompting the bank to slash its economic forecast. It now says the economy will shrink by 3 per cent this year, followed by growth of 2.5 per cent in 2010 and 4.7 per cent in 2011.

That is a significant revision to the bank's January forecast for a contraction of 1.2 per cent this year followed by growth of 3.8 per cent 2010, which many economists had judged to be overly optimistic.

While not unexpected, Tuesday's move means the central bank has effectively run out room to cut the key overnight rate, the traditional lever it uses to carry out monetary policy. The bank admitted that 0.25 per cent is "the effective lower bound" for the overnight rate, the rate at which major financial institutions borrow and lend one-day funds among themselves.

But the bank said it "retains considerable flexibility in the conduct of monetary policy at low interest rates," and said it will outline a framework in its monetary policy report on Thursday. That likely will entail "quantitative easing," a range of unorthodox measures by which a central bank creates money to buy assets directly in an effort to drive down borrowing costs.

Central banks in other countries, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, have already taken such steps after running out of rate-cutting ammunition.

The closely guarded Bank of Canada also offered unusually explicit guidance on the future path of its key rate in an effort to influence longer-term rates. It said the overnight rate "can be expected to remain at its current level until the end of the second quarter of 2010," conditional on the outlook for inflation.

The bank said core inflation will decline through 2009, and will not return to the 2 per cent target until the third quarter of 2011. It expects over-all inflation to trough at -0.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year before bouncing back to the bank's target in 2011.

Chartered banks, including the Toronto Dominion Bank, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal, quickly lowered their prime rates by one-quarter of a percentage point to 2.25 per cent. The prime rate influences interest rates on many consumer loans such as lines of credit and variable-rate mortgages.

The central bank last eased monetary policy on March 3, when it cut the overnight rate by half a percentage point to 0.5 per cent. With today's cut, the central bank has slashed the overnight rate by 425 basis points since December 2007 in an attempt to hold back the impact of the global economic crisis. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.

The recession has hit Canada's labour market particularly hard. There have been 357,000 net job losses since employment peaked in October.

 

 

Breakfast Program for Kids

A woman in our office Carolyn saw a need a few years ago that shook her up.  Some high-risk public schools were loosing their funding for their breakfast programs.  She rallied some co-workers at RE/MAX Hallmark to financially support and volunteer at one particular school to assist in keeping the program alive.

This program has mushroomed with assistance from the Toronto Real Estate Board.  Our company and others now supply nutritious breakfasts to 1,500 children in 10 public schools each and every day.  It costs $1.00 a day to feed a child.  Unfortunately the Toronto District School Board has identified 80 additional schools in immediate need of a nutrition program. 

Two years ago, we held our first Breakfast Program Fundraiser, raising over $23,000.00 to build a kitchen at First Nations Public School. 

On May 7, 2009, we are holding our second Fundraising Event.  The generosity of people is really overwhelming and our goal?  A modest $15,000.00, given the economy has hurt a few companies.  The event is held at my friend George's Restaurant, MYTH, 417 Danforth Avenue.  Start time is 7:00 p.m.  This year we have amazing donations:  Platinum Basketball Tickets, Platinum Hockey Tickets, Behind the Bench Baseball Tickets, Chalet for 2 nights in Collingwood, Wine Tour for 10 Niagara Region, lots of beautiful Art, Mosaic Birdbath (courtesy of me!), Jewellery and of course, our generous suppliers are providing much needed Real Estate stuff for us to bid on. 

There is a lively LIVE Auction and an excellent Silent Auction as well.  We hope to have over 60 items in the Silent Auction arena.

Tickets are 25$ and all proceeds go to the Children's Breakfast Program.  Hope you can come out! We'd love to see you!

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

Eco Friendly STUFF

My dear friends, Peter Chin and Nancy DeHart, created a company which promotes and sells Eco-friendly gear for Baby and Mama.....  The company's name is Kai Kids (www.KaiKids.com) It is gentle on your family and gentle on the earth. 

Kai Kids is a family-owned, Toronto-based online boutique specializing in ethically-made, eco-friendly clothing and accessories for babies, toddlers, new moms and moms-to-be!  From BPA-free bottles to bamboo scratch mittens, stainless steel food containers to sexy soy nursing gear, they've got everything you need to raise your family green! Many of the products are Canadaian and mom-made, plus they try their lines on their own family.  They have a local pick-up option in the GTA to avoid shipping costs.

I've tried the momma butter, a luxurious body butter that makes your skins feel sumptuous afterward.  Give www.KaiKids.com a try!  They'd love to hear from you!

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

 

Time to Take Back our Beloved Industry

Today I am copying a statement made by Michael Polzer, Executive Vice President and Regional Director of RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada.  He has been brilliantly communicating with us through various publication and his sage council is always welcome in these precarious times.  The piece is long but worth every word:

"It's time to take back our industry.

The all-you-can-eat real estate buffet in recent years has done little to improve public perception of the real estate industry. Truth be told, inactive and uncommitted Realtors have played a serious role in making it even worse, through simple ignorance and inexperience during one of the most heated residential housing markets in recent history. Fortunately, RE/MAX Realtors are head and shoulders above the competition, a point best illustrated by statistics from one of North America’s largest real estate boards.

Representing a relatively good cross section of agents, the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is one of many boards experiencing the inactivity happening nationwide. We know that if we were to look at statistics from other boards, the same story would unfold. Allow me to share some examples. Last year, 23 percent of Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) Realtors didn't sell a thing – that's almost one in every four. Fifty-six per cent of TREB Realtors did less than one deal per quarter. Notwithstanding the agents that are winding down after long, successful careers and those that are just starting in the business – the statistics are quite alarming.

You have to question how some of these companies are still in business. According to TREB figures for last year, close to 50 per cent of Realtors with Sutton Group and almost 60 per cent with Century 21 did less than one deal per quarter. Homelife and Right at Home agents were neck in neck, with 68.5 per cent and 70.7 per cent respectively, reporting less than one deal per quarter. And that’s before we moved into a recession.

Unlike our competitors, we are holding up quite well under recent pressure. In fact, these are the times in which RE/MAX traditionally thrives. During a boom, it's easy to confuse success with heated market conditions. In a bust, sales professionals require a higher level of service and skill. Experience and reputation are paramount. That’s where RE/MAX comes into play.

RE/MAX agents in Canada have earned the highest level of productivity of any company in the country, achieving 35 per cent market share in most Canadian markets. RE/MAX has the highest percentage of top producers (50 per cent of the top ten, over 40 per cent of the Top 100, 1,000, and 2,500) on the Toronto Real Estate Board. Our agents have the highest average number of deals per agent. TREB Realtors averaged three and a half deals in 2008 while RE/MAX Realtors -- on average -- negotiated almost ELEVEN. Our agents are responsible for one in every three home sales in this country and that speaks volumes about our commitment and dedication.

RE/MAX has seriously invested in training, career development, and technology -- a reality demonstrated on a daily basis by our agents. Our sales professionals are smarter, stronger, and more knowledgeable about the marketplace, outselling the competition three to one.

Despite market conditions, dedicated, full-time individuals who have built their careers on knowledge and exemplary service will continue to excel. Offers to purchase filled with conditions ranging from the typical financing and home inspection clauses to vendor take-back mortgages and offers conditional on the sale of the purchasers' home - the home buying/selling process is more complicated than in year's past. It's well beyond real estate 101 and both buyers and sellers will need the services of a skilled professional to help navigate these uncharted waters.

The number of fly-by-night agents who cast a shadow over our business in recent years will subside in the days and months ahead, but they will not disappear until the real estate industry raises the bar on standards. In my opinion, the introduction of apprenticeship programs -- monitored by local real estate boards and provincial and federal real estate associations - would go a long way in better preparing sales associates for a career in real estate. Licenses should be granted only after the individual sales associate has completed a six month or one-year apprenticeship program.

Education is the cornerstone of this industry and by far the best way to improve public perception of our business. As I said in the beginning...we need to take our industry back. We owe it to our customers.  Michael Polzer

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

Steel Magnolias

A number of years ago, my group of girls (about 10, near as I can figure) coined ourselves the Steel Magnolias based on the book and screenplay of the same name. The reason being? We are a group of people that trust one another, that are there for one another (thick and thin) and are also an incredible network of resource for each other.  This is also coupled with the fact that most of us are in our 50's and/or pushing it and have whethered illness, financial hardship,menopause, marriages (beginning and ending), love lost and found, menopause children, animals and the whole darn thing, oh, did I mention menopause-ugh! For example, I am a realtor; who can I help?  When I look around at my Magnolias, I've helped all of them in one way or another.  My two close friends Ruth and Laura are financial planners.  Who can they help?  All of us!  We have bankers, mortgage consultants, teachers, fitness instructors, nutritionists.....you name it, we have it.  In conversation the other day while helping my sister with a real estate matter, the coined name above came up from Laura.  My sister Michele said, "YES-that's so true!  I feel so protected and cocooned by my Steel Magnolias!"  The only thing we don't have in a female version is a lawyer so we have named Nic Catre, my lawyer, honourary Steel Magnolia.  I think he would be pleased. 

Cheryl Bower

www.CherylBower.com

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.