Is this you? This teenager was observed today trying to avoid a 5 minute walk by hopping the fence.

I came along towards the end of what was probably a pathetic example of laziness. She was trying to reach up into the tree to coax something down – I presumed it was a cat, but then saw a small black dog fall out of the tree onto the ground on the other side of the fence. If you look closely enough, right below her feet, you can see where she broke the fence board to get her dog back.

She then hopped back up into the tree to retrieve her purse and her bags of groceries from LaRose Bakery.

I opened the window and called out that she needs to pay for the fence.

I then thought better of it, as maybe someone who has so little regard for the property of others and is so stupid and lazy to go through this rather than walk a couple of minutes extra is likely to trash my car too.

So, if this is you, or you recognize this fool from the picture, perhpas you’d like to phone Kerr Realty Management (look them up in the phone book) and pay for the damage to the fence.

Go on, blow my socks off!

Are you enjoying this wonderful Summer time of the year? Certainly, the folks who are taking advantage of the strength of the housing market to sell their home are enjoying it! Just look at this first chart, the Weeks of Supply & the Absorption Rate. Weeks of Supply means how many weeks it would take for all the houses to sell if the current rate of sales continued and no new listings came on the market. Absorption Rate is the percentage of available listings that sold in the time period. So, from a seller’s perspective, the lower the Weeks of Supply number is (currently it is 3 weeks) and the higher the Absorption Rate is in the Milton Ontario real estate market (which is currently 34.9%), the better it is for selling a home. Click the image to view it full-size.

A pretty powerful way to view what is happening in the local real estate market. If you’d like a longer-term view of what has been happening, see this recent post. And here’s a view of what has happened on a quarterly basis in the area covered by the Oakville-Milton Real Estate Board: Click the image to view full-size.

Now let’s look at the breakdown of the milton ontario real estate market numbers for the week ending July 31st, 2009.

First, the weekly summary of listings, solds and expired listings, by price range. This chart reveals a number of things to the casual observer, such as the most active price range for the week being the $300,000 to $325,000 range. In this range, virtually all of the available properties sold, with just one remaining on the market. Is your home in this range? Let’s get it on the market now and get you a fantastic price!

This chart also shows an average days to sell of 19, however, removing the couple of anomalies, that number becomes 6 days, from the time the listing was signed, through when the house gets onto the MLS and when all conditions are removed. SIX DAYS! That is extremely fast, perhaps too fast? Look for a follow-up post on this thought in the next couple of days. Removing those same anomalies also causes the average list-to-sell ratio to rise to 99.9%! Are houses perhaps being listed at too low of a price? Just a thought.

The next chart shows the Annual Summary of Total Market Activity for the Milton Ontario real estate market. Compare the averages down each column for an historical perspective.

Seeing the number of sales in milton ontario for the week jump by 60% over the previous week could lead one to conclude that people are listening to the warnings of interest rates going up. It could lead to that conclusion, I’m not saying that is the cause.

The final chart is included so you have a graphical representation of the ongoing activity - it’s easier to see the trend in a line-graph than to just see the numbers. Click the image to view full-size.

There is a lot more information and background conclusions that can be drawn from this data – if you are thinking of selling your milton ontario home, you need the complete picture of the real estate market. Call me, Chris Newell, at 905-208-7002 and we can set a time to discuss it.

Tommy’s Bumper Sticker
Mark Victor Hansen
Chicken Soup for the Soul, Page 173

A little kid down at our church in Huntington Beach came up to me after he heard me talk about the Children’s Bank. He shook my hand and said, “My name is Tommy Tighe, I’m six years old and I want to borrow money from your Children’s Bank.” I said, “Tommy, that’s one of my goals, to loan money to kids. And so far all the kids have paid it back. What do you want to do?” He said, “Ever since I was four I had a vision that I could cause peace in the world. I want to make a bumper sticker that says, ‘PEACE, PLEASE! DO IT FOR US KIDS,’ signed ‘Tommy’.” “I can get behind that,” I said. He needed $454 to produce 1,000 bumper stickers.

Tommy’s dad whispered in my ear, “If he doesn’t pay the loan back, are you going to foreclose on his bicycle?” I said, “No, knock on wood, every kid is born with honesty, morality and ethics. They have to be taught something else. I believe he’ll pay us back.” If you have a child who is over nine, let them w-o-r-k for m-o-n-e-y for someone honest, moral and ethical so they learn the principle early.

We gave Tommy a copy of all of my tapes and he listened to them 21 times each and took ownership of the material.

It says, “Always start selling at the top.” Tommy convinced his dad to drive him up to Ronald Reagan’s home. Tommy rang the bell and the gatekeeper came out. Tommy gave a two-minute, irresistible sales presentation on his bumper sticker. The gatekeeper reached in his pocket, gave Tommy $1.50 and said, “Here, I want one of those. Hold on and I’ll get the former President.”

I asked, “Why did you ask him to buy?” He said, “You said in the tapes to ask everyone to buy.” I said, “I did. I did. I’m guilty.” He sent a bumper sticker to Mikhail Gorbachev with a bill for $1.50 in U.S. funds. Gorbachev sent him back $1.50 and a picture that said, “Go for peace, Tommy,” and signed it, “Mikhail Gorbachev, President.” Since I collect autographs, I told Tommy, “I’ll give you $500.00 for Gorbachev’s autograph.”

He said, “No thanks, Mark.” I said, “Tommy, I own several companies. When you get older, I’d like to hire you.” “Are you kidding?” he answered. “When I get older, I’m going to hire you.”

The Sunday edition of the Orange County Register did a feature section on Tommy’s story, the Children’s Free Enterprise Bank and me. Marty Shaw, the journalist, interviewed Tommy for six hours and wrote a phenomenal interview. Marty asked Tommy what he thought his impact would be on world peace. Tommy said, “I don’t think I am old enough yet; I think you have to be eight or nine to stop all the wars in the world.”

Marty asked, “Who are your heroes?” He said, “My dad, George Burns, Wally Joiner and Mark Victor Hansen.” Tommy has good taste in role models. Three days later, I got a call from the Hallmark Greeting Card Company. A Hallmark franchisee had faxed a copy of the Register article. They were having a convention in San Francisco and wanted Tommy to speak.

After all, they saw that Tommy had nine goals for himself:

1. Call about cost (baseball card collateral).
2. Have bumper sticker printed.
3. Make a plan for a loan.
4. Find out how to tell people.
5. Get address of leaders.
6. Write a letter to all of the presidents and leaders of other countries and send them all a free bumper sticker.
7. Talk to everyone about peace.
8. Call the newspaper stand and talk about my business.
9. Have a talk with school.

Hallmark wanted my company, Look Who’s Talking, to book Tommy to speak. While the talk did not happen because the two-week lead time was too short, the negotiation between Hallmark, myself and Tommy was fun, uplifting and powerful. Joan Rivers called Tommy Tighe to be on her syndicated television show. Someone had also faxed her a copy of the Register interview on Tommy.

“Tommy,” Joan said, “this is Joan Rivers and I want you on my TV show which is viewed by millions.” “Great!” said Tommy. He didn’t know her from a bottle of Vicks. “I’ll pay you $300,”said Joan. “Great!” said Tommy. Having listened repeatedly to and mastered my Sell Yourself Rich tapes, Tommy continued selling Joan by saying: “I am only eight years old, so I can’t come alone. You can afford to pay for my mom, too, can’t you, Joan?” “Yes!” Joan replied.

“By the way, I just watched a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous show and it said to stay at the Trump Plaza when you’re in New York. You can make that happen, can’t you, Joan?” “Yes,” she answered. “The show also said when in New York, you ought to visit the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. You can get us tickets, can’t you?” “Yes…” “Great. Did I tell you my mom doesn’t drive? So we can use your limo, can’t we?” “Sure,” said Joan.

Tommy went on The Joan Rivers Show and wowed Joan, the camera crew, the live and television audiences. He was so handsome, interesting, authentic and such a great self-starter. He told such captivating and persuasive stories that the audience was found pulling money out of their wallets to buy a bumper sticker on the spot.

At the end of the show, Joan leaned in and asked, “Tommy, do you really think your bumper sticker will cause peace in the world?” “Tommy, enthusiastically and with a radiant smile, said, “So far I’ve had it out two years and got the Berlin Wall down. I’m doing pretty good, don’t you think?”

BoC may have to break interest rate promise

Alia McMullen, Financial Post Published: Thursday, July 23, 2009