Cottage Life Show

Well - this year's Toronto Cottage Life Show was a huge success! Best attendance ever! Marilyn and I were at the RE/MAX booth on Sunday. The booth had a new look this year with more space for browsing and lots of people were checking out what Haliburton has to offer. It should be a great season! For the first time ever, Marilyn and I are going to have a booth at the Haliburton Home Show, the first weekend in June. It will be great to see people in this setting - past and current clients, and friends! Look us up if you come to show and say Hi!

First Ramble of the Year

Spring has sprung! Tomorrow (Sunday) is the first Sunday Ramble on the Rail Trail of the season. We ramble every Sunday throughout April and May, while ATV's are not able to use the trail. We vary in size from 10 to 35 people each Sunday that show up, free of charge, to take a stroll. Each week we start from a different point in the trail, so we can see all the trail has to offer. It is a lot of fun for sauntering, walking or speed walking - whatever the pace! Tomorrow we leave from the Rails End Gallery on York Street in Haliburton, at 11am. For those that work up an appetite, several plan to return to McKeck's Restaurant after the walk for lunch. For a schedule of events you can email me at terry@remaxhaliburton.com or check the organization's website - www.friendsoftherailtrail.com . I will post some photos this week of tomorrow's walk!

Office Re-Opening/Commercial Seminar

We are getting excited! Our office is set to re-open on April 13 if everything stays on time! It will be great to be back. In this age of cell phones and email, real estate agents don't really need a central office - it is business as usual, but I miss seeing the public and chatting with people who wander in, curious about the area. On Wednesday I attended a commercial seminar in Huntsville. I got to learn about services the Bank of Montreal offers to people purchasing commercial businesses and to hear from OREA (Ont. Real Estate Assoc.) and what tools they have for commercial realtors. The number of commercial businesses available in the County of Haliburton has been slowly increasing over the years as the County grows and it is important for Realtors to be up on the latest tools and services to help them sell! I attended a commercial seminar last Fall that was sponsored by TD Canada Trust and it was fabulous!! I learned so much.....never stop learning!

Company Name Change

If you are a frequent visitor to my website or this blog, you may have noticed that the company name on my website has changed from RE/MAX Haliburton Highlands Realty Ltd., to RE/MAX North Country Realty Inc. - a small change, and yet a very big change! Our offices have new owners and we are all very excited about the changes. Even though we are already the largest, busiest real estate brokerage in the County, we are looking forward to even more dynamic services. Our Haliburton office keeps it's location on the main street across from Foodland, but we have temporarily moved out for about 3 weeks for renovations. In the meantime, business is as usual. Our admin staff have a temporary office for processing listings, sales, and providing customer service, and as agents, well, we are working from home for the 3 weeks, but you can still reach me through our office phone numbers and emails - no changes! We are looking forward to the Toronto Cottage Life Show, preparing our listings and advertising for the upcoming season, and ready to help our clients buy and sell!

Rail Trail Events

Friends of the Rail Trail has big plans this year! We are continuing with our Sunday Rambles along the trail through April and May. Last year we held a luncheon at Camp Wanakita after one of the rambles and at the luncheon we provided a history of the community of Donald - it was it's 101st anniversary. This year we are going to do the same thing but provide a history of the ghost town of Gelert! The date is in April - I will post a complete list of event dates within the next few days! Another VERY exciting event is our first ever End-to-End. In October we shall host an event where people can, over a two-day period, challenge themselves to walk from one end of the trail (Haliburton), to the other end (Kinmount). Now remember, this is a completely level walking trail - ready for participants of all ages and abilities! Take a full two days and do it in stages, or do it one and challenge yourself. Bring the kids, the dogs, make it an annual event! For those travelling to the area to participate, we are in the midst of working with two local providers to provide inexpensive accommodation packages. Another HUGHE project by FoRt is a new trail map for Haliburton County - the first of it's kind. The map will cover trails of all kinds, from short walking trails to major hikes and will cover all corners of the County! It will be a must-have for anyone visiting our beautiful area. It will also cover items such as the locations of museums, parks, mountain biking, the Wolf Centre......the list goes on!

Real Estate Update

It has been a long time since I posted on my blog! Alot has been happening and it is tricky some days to keep up - but busy is good! The Toronto Cottage Life Show is happening the last weekend of March, which means realtors are busy pricing properties and getting listings ready to kick off the season - for those who keep a close eye on what is available - expect to see a lot of new listings from March 1 forward! RE/MAX has a huge presence at the Cottage Life Show - come see us and get a colour brochure of what is currently on the market! The market has started off with a bang this year. One week into January and we saw buyers back - no more distractions by the holiday season, and they were serious! Who says that cottage country has few sales in winter? Our office has been bustling! If you are thinking about spring or summer listing, now is the time to phone our office and book an evaluation on your property - time flies.

Community Halls

I am on a roll! Two blogs in one night! For those wondering how the efforts to save our community halls is going - a presentation has been officially forwarded for the new municipal council to review. A couple of the new council members that have been elected are compassionate of our cause and hopefully, supporters, and one who was definitely against keeping our Halls open, was not re-elected. So we are cautiously optimistic. Irondale, Lochlin and Gelert all have active community Halls worth saving and as a collective group we are going to do what we can to accomplish this. Many people have stopped me on the street, in the grocery store, and I have even had a couple of phone calls. People care and want updates and if anyone wishes a copy of the proposal that went to council, please feel free to contact me by phone or by email - carr2211@gmail.com and I would be happy to send a pdf of the report.