The Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) appointed Pat Rudiger as chair and Ralph Salomons as vice-chair at a recent council meeting.   “As a long-time real estate industry member I have seen the positive effect that RECA has had on consumer confidence,” says Rudiger. “By introducing practices that improve professional and educational standards, RECA [...]

The national office vacancy rate will drop from the current 6.2 per cent by the fourth quarter of 2008 to 5.6 per cent as major urban centres continue to see the amount of available space decline, says Cushman & Wakefield LePage’s Outlook ’08: Annual Market Review. The report says that of the five surveyed markets, [...]

  It is with deep sadness that we advise of the passing of Pat Quinn, in the early morning of Thursday, November 29th, 2007 in Palm Springs with his wife, Heidi, by his side.   Pat was an integral part of the senior management team of CENTURY 21 Canada until 2005 when he took a [...]

Just over one half (52 per cent) of new immigrants to Canada have already purchased a home and did so, on average, within three years of arriving in the country, says a new study released by Genworth Financial Canada.   Genworth’s fall First-Time Homebuyer Monitor documents a strong desire by recent immigrants to own a [...]

Compiled by Kathy Bevan   At the end of every year, REM asks industry leaders across the country to respond to a question related to the upcoming year in the Canadian real estate marketplace. This year, REM asked:   With news analysts predicting that the U.S. real estate market will continue to be negatively impacted [...]

Ralph came out of the projects. He finished high school with some pretty impressive credentials. He had full scholarship offers from several universities. He was no miracle kid but for a guy who lived his whole life in assisted housing blocks with a poor single mom, you had to give him credit for not getting [...]

Each year at this time, I digress from coaching, commenting and sometimes ranting about this and that in real estate. My wife and I recently went to see Cats, the musical play. The event in itself was not a real milestone in our lives, and yet it was.  It was special to us, because we [...]

Ed Martens, senior vice-president of franchise sales for Canada, recently announced the opening of an Exit office in Fort McMurray, Alta.   “We couldn’t be more proud to have Kathy Bowers as our franchisee of Exit Realty Fort McMurray,” he says. “Kathy is a dynamo who absolutely loves people and the business of real estate. [...]

Re: Competition Bureau  Hats off to Brian Hirtle for his critique of the Competition Bureau and their collective badgering of our industry (Letters to the Editor, November). Why doesn’t the Competition Bureau get off their butts and do something about the gas prices in this country?  When you see every gas station on every corner [...]

Joanne Evans and Martin Minda, broker/owners of Century 21 Millennium of Brampton and Wasaga Beach, Ont., recently hosted a 10-year anniversary celebration gala. The elegant evening included 110 guests and highlighted a performance by accomplished opera singer Tonia Cianciulli, who is Evans’ daughter.   “In recognition of the retirement of previous company owner Peter McDermott and his [...]