growing your own food

You may remember from your childhood, watching adults in your neighbourhood or at friends’ houses working in their garden. It may have been a hobby or a necessity to feed the family. Regardless of the reason, growing your own food in a garden is a great way to save money at the grocery store, and it is not difficult to start. With a few pointers, you can be on your way to growing your own food better than anything you’ll find in the stores!

1. Your Garden Can Be Any Size That is Practical

Whether you live in a suburban house, on an acreage, or in an apartment, there are plenty of options to get started growing food. You don’t want to go all in and create a huge garden right off the bat. The trick is to start small and…

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RE/MAX real estate professionals believe in giving back to the communities in which they live and work, with a charitable focus on strengthening the foundation of this country’s great neighbourhoods. RE/MAX does this by lending support to valuable local initiatives, organizations and programs that make a profound difference in the care and quality of life for Canadians, such as Children’s Miracle Network (CMN), through the Miracle Home Program and Miracle Commercial Property Program.

Since RE/MAX and CMN first partnered in 1992, Canadian RE/MAX agents have donated more than $89 million to their local children’s hospitals through the Miracle Home or Commercial Miracle Property program. CMN raises funds and awareness for 12 Children’s Hospitals in…

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Do staged homes sell faster

Do staged homes sell faster, and for a higher price? The short answer is yes and yes. Conditions have started to moderate from the frantic seller’s market Canada has been experiencing since the start of the pandemic, largely due to rising interest rates. With homes taking longer to sell and buyers having more time to shop the market, sellers may have to step up their game to win the attention of prospective buyers. This includes engaging an experienced, professional real estate agent, evaluating the comparables and their asking price, and then staging the property to appeal to the right buyer.

Do staged homes sell faster?

According to a study by the Real Estate Staging Association, staged homes spend 73 per cent less time…

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Monitoring our carbon footprints is more important now than ever before. As we develop new technologies, learn about greener solutions to past ways of life, and become more aware of the impact our actions have on the planet, more and more people are looking for cities that align with their personal green goals. 

GreenScore, a non-profit foundation dedicated to “economic and environmental harmony,” uses their GreenScore City Index to rank cities across Canada based on their environmental footprint. They use more than 20 indicators ranging from city size and recycling percentage, to domestic water usage and natural land percentage. They also use data collected from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Statistics Canada, the Federation of Canadian…

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Most affordable Canadian real estate markets_Saskatoon

Despite recent cooling in Canadian real estate markets due to rising interest rates, the fact remains that housing prices are still hovering at a high, relatively speaking. Add to this the record-high inflation rate, which reached 8.1 per cent in June, up from 7.7 per cent in May, and there’s no arguing that housing affordability in Canada has taken a big hit. While this is particularly true in major markets such as Toronto and Vancouver, as well as their suburbs, there’s still affordable housing to be found in Canada – and Canadians are willing to relocate to find it.

RE/MAX Canada’s 2022 Housing Affordability Report analyzed 24 major housing markets across the country (for Quebec market insights, please visit RE/MAX…

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Covering everything from furnishings and finishing touches, universal design addresses the entire spectrum of needs for anyone who lives in and uses a space. One in five Canadians identify as having  at least one disability, according to Statistics Canada, and as we age the chance of developing mobility issues increases.

Designing accessible spaces that are convenient for everyone provides more housing options for individuals with mobility issues, enabling us to age in place, remain independent, and stay in our homes longer. 

“Universal design enables access and function for all people regardless of size, shape, ability, or disability,” explains occupational therapist Jason Dalton, who is also chair of the board for the Universal Design Network…

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Homeowners have felt the financial pinch of flooding and thus, have questions about floor insurance. Flooding has surpassed forest fire as Canada’s top cause of property damage. Six per cent—and up to 10 per cent—of homes across Canada are already uninsurable for flood risk.

As major floods have become more common in communities across Canada over the last decade, it has brought the issue into mainstream consciousness. However, despite growing awareness, homebuyers purchase homes in flood zones without knowing the risks and the protection they need.

With so many homeowners living in high-risk regions, we wanted to examine the importance of flood insurance and share tools that can help determine if you live in a high-risk area.

What is flood…

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Many homeowners use their garage for more than just parking vehicles. This multi-purpose area is often used as a storage solution, a workroom, a gym, an office, and even an entertainment hub. Whatever function your garage serves, one thing remains the same: you need to maintain the space to ensure its longevity. The process begins from the ground up.

It’s important to pay attention to the health of your garage floor just as much as the doors and walls. The floor takes a beating throughout the years—from car tires and engine grease, to snow shovels and DIY projects. The damage eventually shows in the form of stains, cracks, and pitting, which hurts the overall integrity of the floor. 

Whether you’re proactively trying to avoid the wear and tear,…

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Property Taxes

In Canada, everyone has an opinion about property taxes. Whether city dwellers or rural folk, each side will argue that the other is not paying enough in property taxes, making for a heated and spirited discussion about levies on the residence you worked hard to purchase.

That said, aside from discussions over what the property tax rate should be, this is an important subject since many prospective homebuyers do not consider their annual tax bill as part of their ongoing expenses, whether they own a condominium or a single-family home, which could hurt their wallets in the future.

Planning for annual property tax payments is just as important as researching the rate on your mortgage or determining what your closing costs…

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Housing affordability in Canada

Relocation, relocation, relocation: Canadians love their neighbourhoods, but will move to achieve housing affordability

  • For 64 per cent of Canadians, relocation is among the top sacrifice they’d be willing to make in order to achieve housing affordability; however, half (50 per cent) agree that the farthest they would go would be less than 100 kilometres
    • 56 per cent say that moving to a different neighbourhood/community would be one of the top three sacrifices they would make
    • 38 per cent would make the sacrifice of moving to a different city/province/region regardless of distance
  • 38 per cent of Canadians define housing affordability as a home they can afford that meets their basic needs, and includes some…

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