Blog by Betsy Carstairs

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Artificial Intelligence & Real Estate

April 1st, 2025
I was on a cruise with Silver Seas this winter & was impressed with the lectures on board. The talks on AI.... Artificial Intelligence were facinating. Now that I am back home I am easing into this new world & find it facinating. There is so much support & information in this wild new world of "intelligence" I am starting to have this come along side of my "help button" with ChatGPT at the re ...
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New Rules Buyers Recission

December 5th, 2022
The government is implimenting a new regulation on offers. The new ruling commences at the start of 2023. This impacts the 1st 3 days after a offer is accepted & allows a buyer to change thier mind on proceeding with their promise to purchase. Given that the present market is sluggish I fail to see what the point of this new regulation is. For realtors it simply loads yet another manditory fo ...
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new financing rules

December 16th, 2018
I was doing some year end financing & was alerted by the bank's finance advisor as to the impact of the new rules on lending. This advisor relayed stories on  a few clients who had put in offers on properties & when it came time for them to complete were not approved for a mortgage. The end result was that these buyers walked away from their deposits. When I read Christos Gitersos' ( a Vancou ...
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Indian Arm North Vancouver BC

August 29th, 2017
I love being up this fjord. So close to home yet you feel like you are in a different world. With the high temperatures it is the purfect place to be this week. The water temperature is perfect!!!. We headed up to Silver Falls  to swim in the pool at the bottom of the falls & that was fun . We had the whole bay to ourselves. So beautiful up here
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Pre-Approvals

June 7th, 2017
I recently was involved in a offer that I placed on a property. Fortunately I was not in multiple offers situation so I could take my time in getting all the financing details organized before the subjects came off. I was very surprised at the new lending criteria from the banks. What in the past....ie less than 6 months ago was normal is now much different & the banks have rached up their ap ...
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Trex for decking

August 10th, 2016
I have a beautiful deck in my back yard that in the summer I spend many a morning sipping my coffee & waking up with the sound of the birds. After 15years my wood deck was needing restaining & a few boards replaced so I looked into composite decking as it was touted to be maintenance free. Welllll I thought no more painting lets get a new Trex deck. The price was very expensive but I decided ...
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Vancouver cost of living

September 2nd, 2015
I was sent this article on Vancouver's cost of living & found the graph on the rental prices very interesting. We are less than 1/2 the price than New York! From a limited perspective the rental prices here seemed very high but from this journalist's data guess not Vancouver #119 most expensive city in the world to live BY JILL SLATTERY 3:27 PM PDT, FRI AUGUST 28, 2015 Comment ...
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Fortus summer rebates

July 18th, 2015
I just had Budget Heating over to service my gas fireplace. Ususally wait til the fall for this to be done but with the $25.00 summer rebate thought I would take advantage. On til end of September.
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Vancouver Harbour side

April 5th, 2015
 I was down town this last week at Vancouver's Trade & Convention Centre at a MLS sponsored real estate event. On the break I headed outside & as I gazed over to Grouse Mountain & back down to Stanley Park & the harbour I felt like it was summer. My mind drifted back to my student days when I worked pool side @ Bayshore. Many evenings I was  serinaded by Frank Baker as he lifted his horn & ...
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Home Energy monitor

March 15th, 2015
BC Hydro is offering a discount on a energy tracking devise put out by Rainforest Energy Gateway. I am considering replacing my electric clothes dryer  with gas & want to see if it would be  worth while so will take advantage of the rebate  Here is the article  OME ENERGY MONITOR PROGRAM Get real-time feedback on your electricity use, and save $35 on a new Home Energ ...
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