Claudine Bichette, who goes by her nickname Chloe, has been in real estate for many years, but just recently decided to go back to the field that she loves.
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A year ago, working from home she started her own real estate business, Claudine Bichette Real Estate Brokerage and has been working hard to establish her name and grow her business.
Bichette earned her realtor’s licence in 2007 just before moving to Espanola from North Bay. She went to work for Lee Peters Real Estate, and Bichette says Lee’s help and mentorship for a “newbie like me,” was invaluable.
“Lee gave me the best advice when I started, which was, ‘treat people how you would like to be treated.’”
“I have immense respect for Lee who built her business from the ground up, took a chance on herself by purchasing her own office on Mead Blvd. in the late 1980s and is still selling to this day,” said Bichette.
“I’ve always thought that real estate is a great career for moms with small children, or at least it was for me” said Bichette. “I used to pack my two boys in the mini-van, put a movie on their portable DVD player and run around the North Shore doing my deals. This was back before digital signatures were a thing.”
After a brief detour into the banking and mortgage field for several years, Bichette decided to come back to the field she loved, real estate.
“Learning about lending definitely added to my skill set in being able to assist my buyers and sellers.”
Her new office at 114 Centre Street in Espanola has partnered with the law firm, Brar Tamber Rigby and as Bichette explains, “if our clients choose, we can take care of all their real estate needs in-house with the addition of this firm.”
“The best praise I’ve ever received from a client was, ‘we love working with you because you are such a calming presence, and you consistently follow-up with us.’”
“Helping people to succeed in finding their perfect home makes me so proud and drives everything I do.”
Her website is RealNorthernLiving.ca .
Bichette can be reached at 705-918-2456.
Office hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday, Friday and weekends are by appointment.
A well-known Espanola woman, Claudine (Chloe) Bichette has just opened her brand-new Claudine Bichette Real Estate Brokerage office at 114 Centre Street this past week.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
