The Barrie Ontario mid summer real estate limbo dance - 06/30/10 10:53 AM

For as long as I have been a Realtor in Barrie Ontario there has been a pattern to real estate activity year after year that for the most part remains unchanged. Around about the middle of March, once we have had two or three days in a row of above freezing temperatures and the previous few months of accumulated snow banks appear to be shrinking, that's when it happens. A natural phenomenon that tells geese and robbins to head north, and people to plan for a move. Home owners start purging their stuff for goodwill and garage sales and can be spotted Saturday mornings  at … (2 comments)

Tweeting Bears, earthquakes, Tornadoes and Luminaries - 06/23/10 11:51 PM

On Wednesday technology gained some relevance I hadn't really considered before. Around 1:45 in the afternoon I had just logged in to check my email and take a mid day peek at twitter and facebook when the room began to vibrate like a train was passing through.
Immediately I noticed the water I had just opened and set on the desk was dancing around in the bottle. It took a second or two but I realized we were experiencing an earth quake. A rare occurrence in Ontario but a flash back to my childhood years living in LA. 
Even as everything around me … (1 comments)

Real Estate resources Barrie area home buyers and sellers can't afford not to have - 06/23/10 01:41 PM

Mike Montague Sales Representative Sutton Group Incentive Realty Inc. Where are today's home buyers and sellers looking?
Same places you do.
The links below take you to my Barrie Real Estate facebook page which is kept up to date with the latest local real estate news, statistics and information that current and future Barrie and area home owners need to know. If you are a facebook user, add this page to your favorites and visit regularly to stay in the know.
Are you using Twitter? Hit the link below and add me to your list of people to follow. Not … (0 comments)

Real Estate Myth Busters - 06/18/10 03:20 PM


Something relatively new to real estate in the past ten years is the private home selling company. The proposition of saving thousands of dollars is enough to catch the attention of anyone. The idea of listing a home for anywhere from $700 for a sign on the lawn and an ad on a website, to a couple thousand dollars if you want some of the additional services that a REALTOR typically provides such as setting your price, getting your house ready to sell, to assisting you in closing the deal is tempting and awakens the entrepreneur inside some of us.

… (47 comments)

Was that a Real Estate Bubble that just floated by? - 06/17/10 12:12 PM
 

 
 A real estate bubble is defined as a period of  rapid increases in valuations of  housing until they reach unsustainable levels relative to incomes and other economic elements, followed by a reduction in price levels.
As the economic pendulum swings to and fro in Canada, in Barrie Ontario that sway has always been less exaggerated than in other larger Canadian urban centers. Maybe it is our conservative nature. Maybe it has to do with our persevering attitudes that see us through extreme weather shifts.
When Barrie awakens to two feet of fresh snow we get on with our day. Toronto shuts down and calls … (3 comments)

Drunk drives into house. Who should pay? - 06/16/10 09:48 PM
A call this evening to a friend I haven't talked to in a while began with "Hey what the hell happened to your fence?" The townhouse she lives in backs onto Mapleview Avenue in the south end of town where I happened be be driving earlier in the day. These  homes were built with deep back yards of about 70 feet or more to buffer the road noise and additionally, at the back of these lots the city erected eight foot high wooden fencing  when the area was developed.
As I drove past I noticed a section of fence about 16 feet wide was gone … (4 comments)

Looking to Barrie's future - 06/13/10 09:14 PM




Barrie at this point and time is in need of and in a position to provide some key economic growth. That future growth is likely to come through entrepreneurial enterprises that can only take place with stepped up efforts by municipal leaders to create an “ecosystem” that will stimulate this growth and attract the people needed to sustain and develop it. Many of the elements necessary are pre-existing.
More than 4 million people live within an hour of Barrie. It has international air, sea and rail transportation close by and a major 6 lane highway running through its centre.
Barrie … (1 comments)

Best of times....worst of times - 06/07/10 10:08 PM

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us," --Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Profound words that seem to apply as much today as when they were penned a century and a half ago. 
These words came to mind … (5 comments)

Barrie area Home sales down in May - 06/04/10 03:07 PM


Residential property sales recorded through the MLS® System of the Barrie District Association of REALTORS® Inc. were down from year-ago levels for the first time in a year in May 2010.
 
The average price for homes sold via the Association’s MLS® System in the first five months of the year was $278,708. This is up eight per cent from the year-to-date average price last May, and represents the highest average price for this period on record.
 
The Barrie & District Association of REALTORS® cautions that over a period of time, the use of average price information can be … (1 comments)

Weekly Mortgage Rate Adviser from Shelley Black and Mortgage Alliance - June 4th, 2010 - 06/04/10 02:15 PM

… (2 comments)

Barrie Ontario on shortlist of the best Canadian city's to invest in Real Estate - 06/02/10 05:57 PM

 
 
Barrie Ontario and the shores of Lake Simcoe to its north and south have made the Real Estate Investment Network's (REIN) new shortlist of top Canadian places to Invest in Real Estate
http://bit.ly/9sGELH
… (2 comments)

How rising mortgage rates could be a good thing - 06/02/10 10:34 AM

There are things I can recall from childhood and our parents generation you don't see today.  One that merits positive regard was our parents fiscal responsibility, especially regarding the family home.
Something that was common then was mortgage burning parties. This is one social gathering I have never heard of in my generation as mortgages seem to be eternal rather than a means to an end. Today, as paid down principal on a mortgage accumulates, its whisper grows louder and becomes overwhelming to many, manifesting itself in unshakable visions of hot tubs, home theaters and luxury kitchen and bath projects. For many more that equity is a cry for … (2 comments)

Attack of the godless Bank of Canada rates - 06/01/10 01:41 PM

 
Today I saw headlines regarding the Bank of Canada's rise of the national prime lending rate by .25%. All of these headlines were variations of the same theme like a coast to coast tsunami was heading our way. "Get set for...brace yourself for...my favorite was the Globe and Mail's headline this morning right out of The Book of Cataclysm... "The end is Nigh for low interest rate heaven."
The more Nostridamus like the bold face headline, the more chance you will grab that paper on your way to work right?, or so the theory goes. In real estate on the … (3 comments)

 
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Mike Montague

Barrie, ON

More about me…

sales representative : Keller Williams Experience Realty

Address: 516 Bryne Drive, Unit I & J , Barrie, ON, L4N 9P6

Office Phone: (705) 720-2220

Cell Phone: (705) 718-6119

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