Over the years Halloween has taken on a lot of different shapes and sizes here at RE/MAX Garden City. Usually a party. Generally, a lot of agents decked out in creative costumes. Sometimes special prizes for the best outfit. Originally most of the activity happened at our front lobby. Walk in and you couldn’t help but notice it was Halloween. The decorations, including life size mannequins greeted you with a macabre ‘hello’.

The fall is the perfect time for a credit clean-up so that you are ready for the holiday spending season – and anything else the year can throw at you!

If you’ve ever taken one of my Money Machine Seminars, you’ll know I espouse a very simple plan for real estate investment: Buy one property a year for 10 years, never amortize for more than 15 years and never sell. A good many of you have over the years followed that simple plan, and in fact have gone far beyond that 10-property template. The first one or two properties are by far the hardest to acquire. It gets simpler as you go along. Your equity grows. Financing gets simpler. And quite frankly growing your portfolio gets addictive. But it raises the question, especially when you are just getting started of what to buy.

Last month we took a look at the fact that both here in Niagara and around the globe, economies are in turmoil. Inflation is running at a pace we haven’t seen in almost 40 years, and as a result, governments are scrambling to control it by raising interest rates. That situation hasn’t changed. In fact, even in the face of a possible recession next quarter, the Governor of the Bank of Canada has vowed to stay the course of interest rate hikes in order to combat inflation. We’ll see. So far that tactic hasn’t had much of an effect on run-away inflation, but it has definitely impacted the housing market.

Renovations and land development is expensive. There is no end to the surprises that could add great cost to your project. No one anticipates uncovering a burial plot when putting in a pool, expanding a driveway, building a deck, or adding a garage to their property. In Ontario, under the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 homeowners are required to immediately notify the coroner or police of any human remains discovered on their property.

Last year, you may recall, we ran a story about the first annual JKR Liddiard Memorial Charity Lacrosse Tournament, hosted here in St. Catharines at the former Tennis Club on Melbourne Avenue.