Fall Newsletter

Fall issue of The Home Zone – now available online

Read the full issue for details on how to add colour to your garden, find local fairs, a recipe for “chili” days and more.

Renovated Old North home

This listing has been featured on page 12 of London Citylife magazine which outlines the history and details of this home, to find out more read the full article or see the full listing.

5 year conventional – 3.04%

5 year high ration – 2.94% – all deals must close within 30 days to take advantage of these super low rates.

To see more read : World markets bleed -  David Pett Aug 4, 2011 –

If you want to know how this affects you please contact Trevor

I recently wrote about my kitchen renovation for Home Cents, detailing how I managed to keep my budget under $25,000 while still ending up with a functional and beautiful room.

There were a lot of comments (thanks for those, by the way) – some people thought I’d paid too much, some thought I’d paid too little. But there did seem to be a consensus that the post demanded some photographic evidence. So, due to popular demand, here are the before and after photos of my kitchen renovation. And please note: I took them myself, so excuse my not-quite-awesome camera skills.

Although I’m enormously pleased with how the renovation turned out, I certainly wouldn’t say the project was free of mistakes. In fact, there are some small things I might do differently if I had to do it all again (you may spot a couple of those in the photos, in fact).

So how can you avoid renovation missteps before they happen? HGTV has put together a useful collection of the 25 Biggest Renovating Mistakes. It’s quite a comprehensive list, but here’s a sampling of some of the factors I could relate to:

Gutting Everything
It can be tempting to want to just tear everything out – including the walls – and start from scratch. But that is where the additional costs can come creeping in. My contractor wisely elected to take a look inside the wall we were going to take down before totally ripping it out. Once we found out that tearing the wall would add challenges and money to the job, we changed the plan and kept the wall.

“I see this time and time again where people just start, and they think they’re going to pull a piece of wallpaper off, and by the time the process is over, they’ve completely gotten themselves into a deep, dark hole that’s very difficult to get out of,” says Mr. Eric Stromer, host of home reno show Over Your Head.

Inaccurate Measurements
I measured once, twice, three times and then again before ordering cabinets. My contractor was also meticulous with his measurements, but I could see how things could go quickly off the rails is someone was sloppy or rushed.

When dealing with countertops, always choose a company that will come and do the measuring for you, preferably using a cardboard template. That way, the onus is on them to ensure it fits correctly. That also allows you can take a look at the template and make sure you’re getting the shape you want. When you’re talking about a slab of stone worth thousands of dollars, you don’t want to take any chances.

Going Too Trendy
“People often make the mistake of wanting to be too hip and trendy in their new home by picking the latest, hottest, coolest things,” says Ms. Carmen De La Paz of HGTV show Hammer Heads. “What they don’t take into consideration is that trendy means that it’s short term.”

Five years ago I had my heart set on aqua-coloured glass tile for my kitchen backsplash. Sure, it would have looked good for a couple of years, but take it from someone who really loved her royal blue and bright yellow kitchen when she painted it 11 years ago – your taste will change. Unless you’ve got the extra cash to redo your kitchen, the best thing to do is keep it classic and simple. I think our choices will stand the test of time, but you can be the judge of that.

Ignoring Lighting
Hammer Heads carpenter Ms. De La Paz put it this way: “Another mistake that homeowners will often make is not taking into consideration the lighting in their home. The lighting in your home can completely change the colors, the feeling, the ambiance.”

In other words, ignore lighting at your peril. When I first planned our new kitchen, I completely forgot about lighting. Our old kitchen had one overhead lamp that cast a lot of shadows. Thanks to our contractor’s suggestions, we’ve got a number of pot lights on a dimmer plus under-cabinet lighting, and the difference is vast.

Failure to Anticipate Chaos

Now that it’s over, I can look back on our renovation experience and think, “It was a piece of cake.” But around week three, our kitchen was an utter mess. For readers that wondered why my family and I spent $2,200 to rent a condo instead of sticking it out at home – that place was a dust pit. Moving out was essential for our sanity and our health – drywall dust is not good for anyone.

Your reno might go smooth as molasses, but just in case, it’s a good idea to assume it will be dustier, messier and more annoyingly inconvenient than you ever could have imagined.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/home-cents/five-costly-reno-mistakes-to-avoid/article2093436/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=PersonalFinance&utm_content=2093436

Alyson Shontell, Social media marketers often complain that their efforts aren’t measurable.

Hitwise used internal data to determine the ROI of Facebook advertising. It found that each Facebook fan generates about 20 visits per year to a retailer’s site.

“The figure of 1 fan = 20 extra visits to a website uses a unique methodology that combines Hitwise data with data from social media experts Techlightenment,” it writes.

“We took the top 100 retailers ranked in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category and benchmarked visits to those websites against the number of fans those brands had on their Facebook page. We then also looked at the propensity for people to search for those retail brands after a visit to Facebook using our Search Sequence tool.”

From that stat alone, fans are clearly worth the social media effort. http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/Revealed-The-Actual-Worth-Of-siliconalley-1117658836.html?x=0

How To Dominate Twitter And Facebook And Get Millions Of Business Followers

Use targeted advertising on Facebook Sure it’s pretty basic, but that’s for a reason. It’s the most effective tactic for growing your Facebook followers. These adds are relatively inexpensive, highly targeted, and can be customized to appeal to different prospective demographics

Pay for fans Believe it or not, there are actual services out there that guarantee you a certain number of fans–if you’re willing to pay for them. FansAndInvites.com and SocioNiks are two such companies that offer these services. You can even target fans or followers by location.

Though the companies absolutely insist that the followers they bring are real, genuine people, beware: their interest in your company or intent to support your small business probably isn’t. Still, one Facebook “like” begets more, and this is one way to get the snowball rolling in hopes of an eventual avalanche.

Incentivize clicking “like” or following on Twitter

If you’re not willing to pay for followers directly, try offering free stuff, discounts, or other attractive items. But make them available only for people who “like” you on Facebook or follow your Twitter feed.

Piggyback off hot-button issues

How did one little-known author get more Facebook fans than George Clooney? Completely by accident. But it serves as a good lesson for those looking to up their fans.

Gregory Levey’s memoir recounting his experiences as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s speechwriter was titled “Shut Up, I’m Talking.” Facebook users became fans of the book’s page for the title’s implications rather than the content of the book.

Sure, many of those fans aren’t likely to buy the book, but once again, it’s crucial to get the ball rolling. And going from 700 fans to 700,000 in a matter of months does exactly that. Consider using catchy headlines, or reference hot-button issues to garner attention for your Facebook page. The more popular it becomes the more likely you are to turn heads among people that actually might contribute to sales.

Notice trending hashtags.  Maybe the popular #RIP2TheCompetition hashtag isn’t the best way to introduce the world to your business, but engaging in trending topics is an excellent way to get the word out.

For example, if you’re in the travel industry, be sure to chime in on the “Travel Tuesdays” hashtag and offer a discount to followers. Or, your company sells treats or luxury items, engage in the “TGIF” hashtag and tell all who are willing to “Like” your Facebook or follow your twitter that they’re eligible for weekend savings

Target popular tweeters

Say you’re opening a sandwich shop in your neighborhood. Seek out a popular local food blogger that tweets, and tell him about your business. Fatten him up with a free sandwich, and, if he likes it, he might fatten your social media following.

How? Be sure to tell him that any of his followers that follow your business on Twitter are welcome to a half-off sandwich. Remember, anyone interested in the blogger’s content is perfectly suited for your business. Or, for a quick gauge of your ROI, consider offering a discount to customers that mention the blogger’s name.

For a mere $8 sandwich, you could potentially gain dozens of interested followers

Create good content

If people who discover your page find it boring or useless, all that hard work you put into getting them there in the first place will go to waste. Create beautiful, compelling content that invites visitors to click around, read, and truly “like” or want to follow your page.

Update frequently

Several digital media PR experts told us the number one mistake businesses make with their Facebook and Twitter pages is they don’t update enough. Social media is not rotisserie chicken—you can’t “set it, and forget it.”

Take advantage of Facebook’s news feed, and applications like TweetDeck, by constantly updating your social media pages. It will keep you fresh in your follower’s minds and, with a little luck, can appear on news feeds–or be retweeted–to prospective customers.

Engage customers conversations

The beauty of social media is that customers truly believe they can have direct content with your company. Uphold this belief and create trust by responding to your customers who comment on your page or tweet to your account.

But don’t dare do so in PR-speak or corporatese. You’ll shatter their trust. Answer in an authentic voice that’s consistent with your values to keep existing followers happy and give reasons for new ones to hop on the bandwagon.

Respond to complaints

Remember Domino’s recent campaign that urged customers to post photos of pizza delivered to their homes? Well, here’s a shocker: some of those pictures showed some pretty sloppy, nasty pies. Worse, some pizzas depicted orders gone wrong.

Yet Dominos used social media savvy to turn a disaster into more Twitter followers. One store manager-turned-social media expert, Ramon DeLeon, took matters into his own hand. He tweeted a link to a video to one unhappy customer, and has since garnered nearly 7,000 followers.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-popular-10-tips-for-growing-your-fans-and-followers-on-facebook-and-twitter-2010-10#use-targeted-advertising-on-facebook-1#ixzz1QAPVfFTG

That’s because the pace of the economic recovery is expected to slow sharply in Canada, the United States and much of the world.

As such, the Bank of Canada will likely refrain from raising its key interest rates until 2012, TD says.

The central bank has had its policy rate set at one per cent since September. The rate was set at all-time low of 0.25 per cent through much of the recession, to stimulate borrowing and spending, until a series of rate hikes began last summer.

The still-low rates have been a double-edged sword for Canadians who are already piling up debt at record levels, according to the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada.

The association says Canadian household debt has reached a record $1.5 trillion, and calculates that more than half of indebted Canadians are borrowing just to afford day-to-day living expenses such as food, housing and transportation.

Low interest rates will make it easier for Canadians to keep borrowing, setting them up for a fall further down the road.

Debt is partly contributing to a slowdown in Canadian growth, says the TD Bank, because households are too tapped out to spend and stimulate the economy.

The bank says Canada’s economy is believed to have already slowed to 1.3 per cent growth during this current quarter that ends at the end of the month, one-third the pace of the first quarter’s 3.9 per cent gain.

The rest of the year will see growth crawl along between two and 2.5 per cent, the bank says.

As the recovery moderates, so will job growth. The bank says it expects the unemployment rate in Canada will remain above seven per cent throughout its forecast period to the end of 2013.

With little help from consumers, Canada will need to depend on exports and business investment to fuel growth.

The full story can be found at http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/547758–td-bank-forecasts-low-interest-rates-this-year

Please support Easter Seals and help kids with physical disabilities succeed!

Trevor  Tyson is participating in the in the 2011 Easter Seals Drop Zone London – presented by Libro Financial Group to become a Superhero in support of Easter Seals Ontario.

Secure online donations can be made with your credit card and an  electronic tax receipt will be sent to you by e-mail.  Click Here to make an online donation now.

For 88 years, Easter Seals Ontario has been assisting families of kids  with physical disabilities with the purchase of costly mobility equipment and communication devices. By providing financial  assistance, Easter Seals performs an essential service to families who might not otherwise have the resources to obtain this equipment.

Easter Seals also owns and operates two fully accessible camp properties and is recognized as an industry leader in providing specialized recreation programs for kids with physical disabilities at Easter Seals camps.

For more information about the 2011 Easter Seals Drop Zone London -  presented by Libro Financial Group, or to join us on Sep 29, 2011 8:00  AM

Please visit www.thedropzone.ca or see the video at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_-1vFPYzRc

Thank you for taking the time to sponsor Trevor and for helping kids with physical disabilities succeed.

But the improvement has been most marked in Canada and to a lesser extent the United States.

“The outlook for growth today looks significantly better than it looked a few months back,” OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan said in a statement.

“Growth perspectives are higher all across the OECD area, and the recovery is becoming self-sustained, which means there will be less need for fiscal or monetary policy support.”

Canada is now expected to grow by 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, and 3.8 per cent in the current second quarter.

Much of that growth has come from the resources sector in Western Canada and continued strength in the housing market in most parts of the country.

Germany is the next strongest economy, with growth rates of 3.7 and 2.3 per cent in the two quarters.

Overall, the Paris-based organization says the G7 economies excluding Japan are set to grow at an annual rate of about three per cent in the first half of 2011, well above the organization’s previous forecast.

The growth estimates given by the OECD are the middle of a range, meaning the rates could be slightly lower or higher.

The new forecasts exclude Japan because of the uncertainty over the full cost of damage from last month’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

The Canadian economy began the year with an impressive 0.5 per cent expansion in January that has set the stage for the strongest quarter in a year, according to Statistics Canada.

The performance was in line with market projections, but still was a mild surprise because many economists had worried of a possible payback after December’s equally robust 0.5 per cent gain in gross domestic product.

The strong back-to-back months put the economy on pace to grow by as much as 4.5 per cent in the first three months of the year, analysts have said. That’s two whole points more than the Bank of Canada’s now-dated estimate. At that growth rate, the pace of job creation should be high enough to continue pushing down the national unemployment rate, currently 7.8 per cent.

In the last year, the Canadian economy has created 322,000 jobs and has rebounded nicely from the 2008-2009 recession that battered the country’s manufacturing sector.

In some sectors of the economy, price pressures have been building, raising the prospect of higher interest rates down the road to fight inflationary pressures.

The next scheduled announcement on interest rates from the Bank of Canada is April 12, although the central bank isn’t expected to change its policy rate at that time from the current one per cent. Another announcement is scheduled for May 31, after the federal election.

Most economists believe Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney will leave a hike on the sidelines until July

By The Associated Press – http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/Canada-middle-growth-spurt-capress-340380811.html?x=0

On an annual basis, home sales totaled 8,389 units in 2010, up one per cent from 2009.

Single detached home sales numbered 1,090 units in the fourth quarter of 2010, down three per cent from year-ago levels.

The number of months of inventory climbed to six at the end of the year, up from 4.7 months at the end of 2009. Homebuyers took advantage of this, and extended their shopping time from the previous fourth quarter.

The median sale price for single detached homes rose six per cent from year-ago levels to $224,250 in the fourth quarter of 2010.