Betsy Carstairs

This article was forwarded to me by a mortgage broker..Karen Gibbard karen@gibbardgroup.com & I thought it would be of interest to anyone with a mortgage or anyone looking to see where the market is headed.I found it to be very interesting ...... Below article from The Globe and Mail  indicating the bank of Canada has reduced their key lending rate by ½ a percent and more cuts may be ...

The new "tax free savings plan" is a bit of a joke. With interest rates low ... 3.25% about as high as you will get on a GIC, this equates to under $200.00 per year in interest that this new savings plan will allow to be saved "tax free". For most people I feel it would be smarter (provided they have that $5,000.00) to make a lump sum payment against one's mortgage. It irks me t ...

The Government has changed the qualification for exemption on the Property Transfer Tax for First-time buyers. Previously, a first-time buyer could qualify for an exemption with a purchase price of $375,000 or less.  This limit has been increased to $425,000! A partial exemption is available for purchases between $425,000 but less than $450,000. For more information, pleas ...

Once a year we have a luncheon to celebrate the top producers in the office This year we went to The Hart House at Burnaby's Deer Lake. I always enjoy going to these luncheons to connect on a more personal level with others in the office AND also compare notes with the other realtors as to what is going on with their business ...... something we don't seem to have time to do when we a ...

Was up at Whistler visiting with my daughter AND having a GREAT time skiing!!  It amazes it everytime I drive back down into the City at how excited I get 'cause these Whistler VIEWS simply take my breath away!!

Richard Sam was the feature speaker at our office meeting toay. Richard is CMHC's market analyst so he came fully armed with statistics and predictions. With the subprime disaster in the US, I was interested in how Richard  thought that would affect our market. He seemed to think that: Eastern Canada with her close knit ties in manufacturing to The States would be more negativel ...

  Callahan Valley   Here is a picture looking out to one of  the 2010 Whistler Olympic ski venues in Callahan Valley where the cross country skiing and ski jumping will be held. The ski jumping, or more precisely named by the participants, as fliers, not jumpers is up and running. It's amazing to watch the athletes train, and, yes they do fly through the air. One can not even hope to ...

This weekend I met a friend at The Farmers Market held at The Wise Hall( just off Commercial Drive at Venables). It was so much fun!!!   Not only were there lots of great foods being sold (mostly organic) but there was entertainment inside and out Stephan Taylor & Xania Keane were outside tapping out rhythms and playing everything from violin/keyboard/horn/xylophone/ to percussio ...

I just bought a new Macintosh putr AND am delving into all the options that this new toy offers me. The great thing about the new Macs is that they now offer "Parallels". Parallels allows me to operate in the Mac or PC world so instead of running from my PC to my Mac I basically have 2..2 ..2 putrs in 1!!!!! While I was exploring options in this I found a great new tool offered by Hewett Pack ...

I seem to have developed a niche for recreational properties in the Vancouver area. I have knit my passions into my work world. My love of water and kayaking have helped me explore all that Indian Arm has to offer. Often in the summer I head off to visit the seals or otters playing on the shore. Since kayaks have no noise factor I can quietly paddle up to these animals and enjoy their ...