Thursday, May 25, 2006

So You Want to Buy a House?

I found a great cache of archives from CBC Radio entitled "Get Smart with Real Estate." Check them out here. I haven't had time to go through all the broadcasts yet, but the one I listened in on was well worth it. "Is Vancouver in a housing bubble and what is a housing bubble?" Check that one here. BTW, you'll need a Real Player to listen in on the goods.

On another note, when we signed our initial purchase contract and placed a downpayment on our apartment, the sales person had an interesting comment for us. "So you are 'real home buyers'?" She must have said this three times - as though she were staring right into the elusive eyes of Sasquatch for the very first time in her life! We were the first actual home buyers she'd ever met - not some yahoo investor rep/standin guy. That very same week, a bunch of real estate agents we contacted to assist in finding a home in our price range, called us back and gave us grief for not signing on with an agent. After some confusion, I discovered that there was a spot on our sales contract that had a space for a real estate agent - opps, we just buy things back in Calgary. I didn't know we needed someone to represent us on getting new digs, in Cow-town when purchasing new you just hit the builder for the bill - yeah, pay some kook to buy slurpees for me . . . right. Perhaps, I was just turned off by the all-too-common-turn-down attitude of most Lower Mainland realtors. I don't even think they want business - seriously. Back in Calgary, we had roughly 1,900 listings in a city with 4,000+ realtors. Heck yeah, they'll work for your business. Vancouver, you need to wake up! Props to y'allz in Cow-town - you deserve the gold!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Tory Budget

Okay, I never really took notice in the past, but now it's personal. Since we came to Surrey, we've been noticing this PST on some of our receipts. Ouch! Thanks to the new Tory PM, we might just see some 1% cut off from our current GST (currently sitting comfortably at 7%). That's a whopping 6% GST (Goods & Services Tax for those of you still wondering)! I guess for those of you with kids are also quite happy - come July 2006 we will see a universal child care benefit that will put $1,200/kid under the age of six in the pockets of parents . . . apparently, this is still taxable, but to whichever spouse earns the lower income. Dude, it's nice living in Canada. If you are still going "huh"? Check out a summary of the 2006 Federal Budget here.