OTTAWA AREA HOMES

The take-home message from Tuesday’s OC Transpo briefing is that the city’s public transit system is about to undergo a massive overhaul that will almost certainly affect every single rider. And many of the proposed changes will become a reality even before the Confederation line opens in 2018. Here are five things you need to know about the new OC Transpo. Colours and signs Bus routes and train lines will be organized into five main service types: O-Train, rapid, frequent, c

1. Know the neighbourhood One of the best Real Estate Agents I have worked with told me that, when you buy a home, you’re buying the location first and the building second. She recommends that buyers take a trip to their prospective neighbourhood, park the car and walk around. Take some time and get a feel for the area from the ground – it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a feel for life in a neighbourhood through your car window. 2. Making the conditional offer When

Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains announced Wednesday the federal government will invest up to $8 million in the Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards. “We must scale up. The goal is to give SMEs, small and medium-sized companies, the support they need to bring their goods and services to market a lot faster,” Mr. Bains told the 350 gathered at Mechanicsville’s Laroche Park for the announcement. The park is across the street from the

So you just bought a house that needs some work, but you are a short on cash and ever shorter on the skills needed to fix up your place. Not to worry! There are plenty of home improvement projects even the most beginner of DIYers can handle. In fact, here are 10 such projects that can work for practically every budget and skill level. We’ll start with the very easiest of projects and then add some more interesting ones once you feel you’ve gotten the hang of some of them. 1.

Windows are an important part of interior design that often go overlooked. When open, they offer a beautiful view of the outside world that looks better than any poster or piece of wall art. Besides, you never know what might find its way inside. As great as they are when they're open, there are times when we want our windows covered and closed. Whether you need some privacy, or don't want to be woken up by the sun's bright light at 6:30 a.m., a good window shade can come in

Saying Canada’s housing market is at a record high is somewhat misleading because the truth is, the real estate market is weakening in at least four major cities. Buoyed by red-hot markets in Vancouver and Toronto, the country’s overall housing market may appear to be on fire but in reality real estate is slumping in Quebec City, Halifax, Calgary and Edmonton, where houses prices are down. “The reason is their economies are incredibly flat and you will see housing really star

The number of home sales in the Ottawa market in May was largely unchanged from a year earlier. There were 1,921 sales thorough the MLS of the Ottawa Real Estate Board, slightly below the 1,926 sold in May 2015 but remaining above the 5-year average of 1,864. Month-over-month there was an increase of 207 properties sold and the average sale prices edged higher; for residential class properties there was a 0.6 per cent rise to $406,063; for condominium class there was a 1.

Kanata North seems something of a departure from political and bureaucratic Ottawa, the capital that Canadians think they know so well — and it is, literally as well as figuratively. It’s a 15-minute drive from Parliament Hill, but for all its high-tech research and innovation, its community atmosphere and esprit de corps, the unique community off Highway 417 might as well be light years away. It’s a youthful place of brilliance, creativity, and optimism where some of the bes

A U.S.-based mentorship company offered workshops on real estate flipping over the last week in Vancouver, a development that has led the Better Business Bureau to issue warnings to the public against such seminars. Aside from allegedly proliferating “misleading and manipulative” industry practices, the workshops have also been tagged by over a hundred complainants as fronts for fraud. “This warning comes out of the United States. BBB's there have heard many stories fro

Two weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed Rosie into the world -- our first child. Last week, I had her entire college education paid for without spending a single dollar of my own money. How? Through a single real estate investment. The theoretical plan was simple, if not necessarily easy: Buy a piece of property. Let my tenant pay off the mortgage over the next 18 years. Sell or refinance the property after it has been paid off. Use the proceeds to pay for my daughter's college