One of the most important things in my life is giving, especially to our community in which we live.  It's been my pleasure to host the Annual Easter Egg Hunt at Beaver Lake park for the past seventeen years.  This year's edition will no doubt provide many smiles for some happy children as they race to find treats, but more importantly, the event supports a cause that is dear to my heart and to the hearts of all the members of the Neal Estate Team in addition to the patients, families, staff and supporters of BC Children's Hospital.   This phenomenal facility has had a profound effect on the lives of countless children throughout the province - over 2,000 visits for specialized care from Vancouver Island every year.  We're proud to be partners…

 

 

 

 

On January 20, 2017 I had a life changing moment. I wrote about my accident on Whistler last month, my collision with an unmarked block of ice on a run in upper Whistler Bowl. I was carried off the mountain for the first time in 43 years of skiing, put into an ambulance, taken to hospital and ultimately underwent surgery to reattach my quadricep tendons which had separated from my kneecap.

Blog Post about accident

I was lucky! I was lucky to be alive and to have a repairable injury. I had no head injury or internal injuries and my spinal cord was intact.

Last week I had the good fortune to attend our international RE/MAX conference in Las Vegas. As a seasoned attendee having been to dozens of conferences over the years, I knew

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Last week I had the awesome privilege and pleasure of joining thousands RE/MAX Colleagues in Las Vegas, hundreds of them now long time great friends, for our annual international conference. As always it was a week of celebration, inspiration, learning and networking with the best of the best from the more than 100 countries with representation by RE/MAX globally. I also had the good fortune to bring several of our team down for a weekend of celebration and to join me on stage for recognition as a Top RE/MAX Team in our global network.

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the week for me listening to Erik Weihenmayer, one of our keynote speakers. Erik is an adventurer with a difference. He has climbed the highest seven peaks of the seven

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Ron Neal's Candid Victoria Real Estate Market Update for February 2017

The weather may be cold but our Victoria real estate market remains hot! Although the number of sales reported in January 2017 was down 11% from the previous year, it’s only due to the lack of available listings! Ready, willing and able buyers are plentiful, as are competing bids which continue to pressure prices upwards.

To put some perspective on this imbalance and undersupply, we have just over 1,300 licensed Realtors in Victoria. That exceeds the current number of residential listings which is currently less than 1,100 for sale in the entire Victoria Real Estate Board (total of 1,516 reported at end of January includes vacant lots and commercial including leases and

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Oops! Well my skiing and hockey seasons have been shortened this year and golf delayed until summer. 

After my bucket list epic heli-ski day last Friday, my son Cameron and I went up for a few turns on Blackcomb and Whistler with another friend Austin.

In the late afternoon we took the peak chair and dropped into beautiful Whistler Bowl mogul run in poor visibility with snow falling and in the clouds. Cameron went first and I followed in back as our friend was a bit unsure in the steep invisible bumps. Austin fell and I skied over to check on him, bounced off a couple unseen moguls (I've been skiing bumps by Braille for 43 years), hit one bump a bit awkwardly, turned, recovered then with significant speed hit a large, invisible and unmarked chunk of

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As the real estate market ebbs and flows, one aspect remains constant in these changing times, the increasing role of technology. We are constantly searching for opportunities to enhance your home selling or buying experience.

For 2017 we have launched our new and improved 3D virtual tour. Although we often embrace evolutions, we ensure that they are always adding value to the listings we market benefiting our clients, both buyers and sellers.

This technology is now ready to be introduced to our new listings as an upgrade to our listings and we are very excited to be incorporating it into our offerings, providing an opportunity to provide potential buyers a complete 3D virtual tour of your home online. Together with our professional produced home

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We shattered previous records ending the year with more than 10,622 properties sold in 2016. Without a significant increase in available listings we’re unlikely to see that repeated in 2017.

As expected with the recent trend, we ended 2016 in Victoria with the lowest available supply of listings we seen in decades. We were down to under 1,000 available residential listings at the year-end of a total 1,493 active listings which includes over 300 bare land listings and over a hundred commercial listings. In contrast, there were 2,517 total listings at the end of December 2015, which was already historically low!

There were just 471 sales in December, representing about half of the available inventory, or a two month supply. The lack of available

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Controlled by the BC Government Residential Tenancy office, rent increases allowable to take effect in 2017 are 3.7%, up from 2.9% in 2016. There is not a restriction when renting to new tenants. For assistance with determining current fair market rent, or market value, please contact us today.

Remember also that three calendar month written notice is required with the right form and that landlords can only increase the rent once a year by an amount permitted by law or an additional amount approved in advance by an arbitrator.

The BC Government announced a program to assist first time home buyers with their down payment and entering the marketplace. It is available for first time buyers on purchases up to $750,000 in BC.

Read on for full news release from BC Real Estate Association.

Please click to contact us or call 250.386.8181 now! The Neal Estate Team for further details and assistance with your real estate needs!

BCREA Applauds the New BC HOME Partnership Program 

Vancouver, BC – December 15, 2016.  REALTORS® and the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) welcome the announcement by Premier Clark and Minister Coleman of the new BC Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program.

“The introduction of this program will address the affordability

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