Should you let children choose their bedroom paint colours? In this Canadian Living post, Brett Walther suggests a way to let your child participate when deciding what colour(s) to paint their room while also avoiding a choice that is unacceptable to you, or one that they will want to change next week.  The key is to guide their choice by presenting a few options that appeal to them while also meeting your own criteria.  To read more click here.   ...

Machu Picchu Challenge for Shelter August 2015  in Machu Picchu, Peru In support of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation people from Royal LePage offices across Canada have started the trek to Machu Picchu to help restore hope for women and children escaping violence. “For eight days, 70 enthusiastic supporters are trekking at high altitude, camping in tents, and forgoing running water, electricity and cellphone service to raise funds and awareness for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation.  Each participant was required to raise $5,000 and will be covering their own travel expenses.”  …read more Royal LePage Team Realty is proud to have our sales representative Hanna Browne representing our company and supporting this amazing cause!   Good luck to Hanna and all of the participants we can’t wait to hear about your adventures.     ...

The latest statistics from the Ottawa Real Estate Board have been released.  The information below includes market highlights from July 2015 stats and include all of  Ottawa and the surrounding area. Are you curious about a specific neighbourhood or property?  Please Contact Us – we’d love to hear from you! Typical summer resale market in Ottawa (information from the Ottawa Real Estate Board ) Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,436 residential properties in July through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,440 in July 2014, a decrease of 0.3 per cent. The five-year average for July sales is 1,380. “Last July was the second best on record, and this July was only four units short of that record, coming in well above the five-year average,” says David Oikle, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. “Overall, the Ottawa resale market has been performing quite well with ...

Royal LePage Team Realty in the community:  We were so happy to be able to help fund this great project at St Patrick’s Home in Ottawa with for their new Horticultural Therapy program.      We’re so honoured to be a part of this success story! Congrats to St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa Foundation – on launching… Posted by Royal LePage Team Realty on Monday, 27 July 2015     Background Story – What is Horticultural Therapy? Horticultural Therapy is a process in which working with plants and active participation in gardening activities are used to improve the body, mind and spirit of people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.  For our purposes, this program will provide the opportunity for our Residents to experience meaningful interactions between people and plants to improve cognitive, physical, social, emotional and spiritual well-being. Our Project The St. Patrick’s Home Horticultural Therapy Program will allow the Home ...

Royal LePage is once again the proud recipient of the Consumer’s Choice Gold Award as Top Real Estate Brand in Ottawa for 2014.  A big THANK YOU for supporting Royal LePage Team Realty in the Ottawa Real Estate Community, we couldn’t have made this list for the last 18 years without your support. ...

Curious about what’s going on in the Ottawa Real Estate Market?   Below are some highlights of our June market.  Curious about a certain area?  Please contact us and/or one of our Sales Representatives  for details, we have up to date statistics on all Ottawa neighbourhoods.     Ottawa Real Estate Market Update:  The busy spring real estate market in Ottawa continues in June 2015 – from the Ottawa Real Estate Board  Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,694 residential properties in June through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,657 in June 2014, an increase of 2.2 per cent. The five-year average for June sales is 1,664. “The Ottawa market is performing very well month-over-month and year-to-date compared to last year,” says David Oikle, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. “Year-to-date sales for the first half of 2015 are up 4.9 per cent over the ...

We would like to send out our congratulations to Jody Lavoie of Royal LePage Team Realty, Barrhaven/Nepean office, who was just elected as the Chair of the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO). At Royal LePage Team Realty we value organized real estate and we are very proud of our members who have a long history of representing our industry through various institutions. Our thanks goes out to Glenda Brindle of Royal LePage Team Realty, Stittsville office, for her past 2 terms in 2013 and 2014 as RECO Chair and for her past 9 consecutive years participating at RECO. A job well done! We would also like to congratulate Steve Boxma of Royal LePage Team Realty, Manotick office, who continues his term as RECO Director, Region 3.   CONGRATULATIONS JODY!   ...

            We are pleased to announce another step forward in our efforts to help abused women and their children find help. The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation has been named a national partner in Sheltersafe.ca — a new online resource managed by the Canadian Network of Women’s Shelters and Transition Houses — along with RBC Foundation. Any time of day or night through Sheltersafe.ca, women can find help close to home. Sheltersafe.ca provides a single point of information for women seeking safety by quickly identifying a shelter in a specific geographic area. The map provides 24-hour emergency telephone numbers, while protecting the confidential locations of shelters. With this partnership, we will continue our commitment to helping women and children who have experienced domestic violence. For details on the new website and the Sheltersafe.ca partnership, please read the full release. Source: Royal LePage Canada, posted June 23, 2015 click here for details     ...

  Real Estate News: Effective July 1st, 2015 real estate consumers in Ontario will be able to use electronic signatures on agreements of purchase and sale! OREA (Ontario Real Estate Association) has promoted the fact that electronic signatures on agreements of purchase and sale will help improve transaction efficiency by reducing the time required to complete a deal.  In doing so, e-signatures will help improve the consumer’s experience while saving REALTORS® time. OREA  (Ontario Real Estate Association) will be participating in an official government announcement towards the end of the month.     ...

WOW! We are so honoured that we made REP Magazine’s (Real Estate Professional) list of the Top 60 Real Estate Brokerages in Canada! “These Brokerages are more than high transaction, high-volume players – they are also leaders in innovation for clients and agents, and in their communities.” -REP MAG page 25             At Royal LePage Team Realty we work to provide the best real estate training and technology for our Sales Representatives.  Our Sales Representatives provide outstanding real estate services to their clients.  We love Ottawa and our communities and we truly believe in giving back. Thank you to our Broker Owner Kent Browne, our management team and our awesome sales representatives for making Royal LePage Team Realty a truly awesome place to work!     Click here to read the issue: Real Estate Professional Magazine 1.02         ...

  Stats stats stats! It’s being called a “Buyer’s Market” but overall the Ottawa’s Real Estate resale market was strong and steady in May 2015.   Below are some of the highlights from the Ottawa Real Estate Board.  This type of Real Estate Market overview is interesting but please speak to one of our REALTORS or Contact us for the statistics in your specific neighbourhood!   We’d love to hear from you and we’re here to help.       Posted by the Ottawa Real Estate Board June 3rd, 2015   Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,926 residential properties in May through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,789 in May 2014, an increase of 7.7 per cent. The five-year average for May sales is 1,812. “The Ottawa housing market continued its strong performance in May, making it the best May for unit sales on record ...

Canada’s Best Places to Live 2015: Measuring quality of life in 209 cities Wow! Ottawa ranked #1 amongst large cities and #2 overall in MoneySense’s Canada’s Best Places to Live 2015 rankings!  Read Full Article Here We’ve always loved Ottawa but with a resurgence in amazing restaurants, arts and culture, farmers markets and start up companies like Shopify making headlines,  in recent years our national reputation has gone from drab to fab! Finally the rest of Canada is seeing what we do: Ottawa is a truly awesome place to live! “Ottawa benefits from being fairly stable while other cities have slipped back in key areas. Ottawa earns high marks for incomes, transportation, access to health care and low taxes. And while Ottawa’s average home price of $422,000 might not sound cheap to many Canadians, its affordability score is on par with cities half its size.”  –MoneySense          ...

  Every year on a Tuesday in  May, Royal LePage Team Realty and Royal LePage Gale Real Estate get together for a charity auction. It all started in Almonte in 2001, when Butch Oldford bought a tie at a company breakfast meeting for $250. Butch asked that the money go to charity.  Realizing that cancer has touched many of  our lives we decided to celebrate Denim Tuesday together and we have raised over  $400,000 for local cancer charities. All of the auction items are donated by our Sales Representatives, Management team and Staff.  We also have some great sponsors – Mortgage Brokers Ottawa, TD Canada Trust, PODS, Colour By Design and the Ottawa Wine & Food Festival.  All of the proceeds were donated to the Ottawa  Hospital Women’s Breast Health Centre.   With the help of some very generous people on May 12th, 2015 we were able to raise over $66,500 in just ...

The Average Price of a home in Ottawa in the year 2000 was $159,511 – last month in March 2015 it was $361,572 (including Residential & Condos!) What was the Average the year you bought your first house? The year you were born? The year you got married? Check the chart below for details. Interested in finding out what your home is worth today?  We’re happy to provide you a free home evaluation, contact us today! ...

Canadian Franchise Association bestows honour on Royal LePage—A first for the real estate industry! April 14, 2015 A first for the real estate industry TORONTO, APRIL 14 – Royal LePage Real Estate Services has been named the 2015 Outstanding Corporate Citizen by the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA).  Royal LePage, Canada’s largest and oldest real estate firm, received this award for demonstrating sustained support for the local communities through its network of over 600 brokerage offices from coast to coast, and for philanthropic innovation on a national scale. The company’s 16,000 Realtor® network has raised over $20 million through the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation, the largest public foundation in Canada committed to ending violence in the home, and providing support to the women and children who fall victim to it. In establishing the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation in 1998, Royal LePage – the only national real estate company with its own branded charity ...

Is now the right time for YOU to buy or sell?  For a full report of what’s going on in your Ottawa area neighbourhood talk to your Royal LePage Sales Representative  or if you’re looking for a great Realtor®, e-mail Kent Browne kent@royallepage.ca or 613-725-1171. Helping YOU is what we do. _______________________________________________________________________ Busy spring season arrives amidst March snow banks! – Ottawa Real Estate board Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,208 residential properties in March through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,184 in March 2014, an increase of two per cent. The five-year average for March sales is 1,236. “Sales increased month over month, with 356 more properties sold in March over February, a 41.8 per cent increase,” says David Oikle, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board. “Indications of a fast approaching spring market were noted in February, and these numbers are proof ...

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With the help of many generous supporters, every year Mary Lindsay, a Royal LePage Team Realty sales representative,  organizes a  “Yesterday’s” sale at our Royal LePage Team Realty branch at 1335 Carling Avenue.  This group collects gently used clothing, jewelry and silent auction items which are then sold over 2 days. All money raised is then donated to a local women’s shelter. Earlier today Mary Lindsay, Theresa Seguin and Brian Sukkau presented a $2000 donation to Ottawa’s Nelson House.  Nelson house exists to “provide safety for women and children who are being abused and to work with other groups and individuals toward ending violence against all women.”   Click here for Nelson House’s website Thank you to Nelson House for everything you do to help women and children in our community and thank you to Mary and all of the people who came together for another great sale!   We’re already ...

  Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 853 residential properties in February through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 868 in February 2014, a decrease of 1.7 per cent. The five-year average for February sales is 914.   “Even though we had one of the coldest months on record, resales for the month of February are only slightly down from last year,” says President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board, David Oikle. “Looking at residential properties alone, 13 more properties were sold this February over last February – a 1.9 per cent increase; while the condo market on the other hand, has been a little slower to gain momentum. That being said, both residential and condo sales are up a total of 226 combined units since January and there are a total of 6,519 residential listings going into March – both telling signs that the spring ...

OTTAWA RECORDS FLAT HOUSING MARKET IN THE THIRD QUARTER High inventory leads to an uneventful third quarter OTTAWA, October 15, 2014 – The Royal LePage House Price Survey released today saw prices for homes in Ottawa remain relatively flat. Detached bungalows and standard two-storey homes increased 1.2 per cent year-over-year to $403,091 and $406,264, respectively. Standard condominiums saw a slight decline in price, dropping 0.3 per cent to $258,132. “Buyers had a surplus of inventory to choose from this quarter, with much of the inventory left over from slower than usual winter and spring selling seasons,” said John Rogan, broker manager, Royal LePage Performance Realty. “However, there are still interested buyers and we have seen multiple offers on great properties that are priced well.” Rogan sees Ottawa trending towards a buyer’s market at the moment due to the excess inventory. The condominium segment, in particular, has seen an influx of inventory as developers are moving quickly to ...

From the Ottawa Real Estate Board September/October 2014 “Members of the Ottawa Real Estate Board sold 1,133 residential properties in September through the Board’s Multiple Listing Service® system, compared with 1,118 in September 2013, an increase of 1.3 per cent. The five-year average for September sales is 1,103. “Our community is fortunate to enjoy one of the most stable real estate markets in Canada,” says Randy Oickle, President of the Ottawa Real Estate Board   “This is evidenced by the fact that the units sold and the average sale price in August and September has stayed within a few percentage points from the year before. We are also right on par with sales and average sales price year-to-date compared with 2013.” September’s sales included 232 in the condominium property class, and 901 in the residential property class. The condominium property class includes any property, regardless of style (i.e. detached, semi-detached, apartment, ...

When it comes to measuring square footage for a home or condominium it’s not so easy! Buyers always ask their sales representative for information on the square footage of the home they are considering buying and realtors always want to know approximately how many square feet exists in the home or condominium they are selling.   Unfortunately organized real estate no longer promotes the use of square footage in the details of housing  due to the potential liability on the homeowner and real estate agent as a result of the inconsistency of how a home can be measured. Unfortunately there are no universally applied standards for measurement in existence today.   For example, you can hire different appraiser to measure the same home and they will come up with  different measurements because of the multiple ways to measure and the mechanisms used.   If you are selling a home or ...

Help us in an effort to “Say no to another home owner tax” – It is our mission to help prevent the spread of a new municipal land transfer tax (MLTT). This tax is in addition to the Land Transfer Tax a consumer already pays to the province when purchasing real estate and this provincial tax is already a large amount. Now your local municipalities want to Tax the home buying consumer again by introducing a new local Municipal Land Transfer Tax. Currently only implemented in Toronto, this tax has a great possibility of spreading to other regions of Ontario. Research reveals that this tax has had a negative impact on Toronto’s economy and has hurt consumers and the housing market. Specifically, research on the effects of the tax reveals that Toronto has lost 15,000 jobs as a direct result of the MLTT. The slogan, “Say no to another home ...

  Your Royal LePage Team Agents from across Ottawa and surrounding areas want to recognize those individuals that make our communities such a great place to live. Collectively they have created a Contest to allow for you to tell them about your “Great Neighbour”. Tell a  Royal LePage Team Agent  About Your Great Neighbour and Your Neighbour Will be Entered to Win  Great Prizes Monthly of an Ottawa “Staycation” and a Chance to at the Grand Prize of a Caribbean Cruise! You only have to nominate your neighbour once – each entry is eligible to be selected as a winner in the consecutive months after the entry has been received. Visit our main web site page   for contest rules and entry forms.         ...

Finally it feels like Spring has arrived and with it comes an increased desire by consumers to start looking at the potential of buying a new home. If the home buying bug has taken a nip at you this spring, consider enlisting the services of a Trained Real Estate Professional who can ultimately save you time, money and from costly mistakes. Now, the Buying Consumer has the same privileges that has always been afforded to Sellers and can hire a Real Estate Professional to protect their interests when purchasing a home and it doesn’t cost the Buyer any money for the Agent’s Services. When considering hiring a real estate agent, it is important to have a clear understanding of the services the  Real Estate Agent will be providing, and secondly to ensure that the services being provided are in writing. Prior to any house hunting adventure ask your Real Estate ...