The Agency, a new real estate firm in the Cowichan Valley, has opened its doors at its unique office at 725 Canada Ave. in Duncan.
The Agency has been in business since September, 2019, in Nanaimo, but the owners decided to switch operations to the Valley.
Co-owner Brian Danyliw said the new office isn’t the typical type of real estate office people are used to, with separate cubicles and a corporate ambience.
“We just finished major renovations here and created an open space that is as much about play as it is work,” he said.
“The real estate industry is known for being a cut-throat business, but we want to show that we can have fun and still do our jobs well. At The Agency, we’re all about collaboration and working together as a team.”
Danyliw said, as an essential service, The Agency is in operation during the COVID-19 crisis, but appointments are required and social distancing and other precautions are practised at the office.
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While the public faces empty grocery shelves and hears about farmers having to destroy their crops or dump their milk during the COVID-19 crisis, young agrarians like Derrick Pawlowski and Cammy Lockwood are finding solutions for distributing food in their community at the Cowichan Valley Co-operative Marketplace.
Having roots in farming themselves, and with their hearts in the fields and kitchens of the 80 active farmers and processors that make up the co-operative, they have turned to organizations like Community Evolution to help them navigate the challenges caused by the pandemic.
The Vancouver-based non-profit organization Community Evolution has an impressive five-year history of empowering co-operative, community-based enterprises to develop, grow and create positive change.
Lockwood, chairman of the CVCM, said Community Evolution’s technical support, facilitation and seed-funding are building capacity within the co-operative and helping it get to a point where it is not only able to fully sustain itself, but can truly emerge as a leader in the industry and share its knowledge with other communities.
“The demand has grown 10-fold since the start of the lockdown, and we’re just so grateful that we are able to use our platform to meet the needs of our producers and consumers,” Lockwood said.
“We are excited to do even more in the future.”
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During the COVID-19 crisis, dentists and health-care practitioners outside the hospital system play a pivotal role in supporting the health of our communities.
With dentists mandated by the College of Dental Surgeons of British Columbia to offer emergency services only during the pandemic, dentists are leveraging tele-dentistry to provide care whenever possible.
A press release from the Valley’s Warmland Dental is advising that it is open, answering calls, and providing in-person care when required.
“Anyone who is experiencing significant pain or other symptoms they think may be considered a dental emergency should call their own dentist as a first step,” the release said.
“It is a dentist’s obligation to ensure they are available for their patients. At our practice, the team will perform an assessment over the phone to screen patients against COVID-19 risk factors and determine if their symptoms constitute a true dental emergency.”
The release said that in cases where symptoms can be treated safely with medication, patients can be provided with a prescription over the phone, and patients needing immediate in-person care will be booked for an appointment.
It said that if a patient’s regular dentist is not available, they are welcome to contact Warmland Dental.
“Patients outside the Duncan area can connect with a dentist virtually through hellodent.com, where patients can have their urgent dental care needs addressed from the comfort and safety of their homes,” the release said.
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PropertyGuys.com, North America’s largest private home-sale network, has opened a new franchise in the Cowichan Valley.
Offering a private sale, flat-fee approach to real estate that puts the seller at the core of the transaction, PropertyGuys.com’s ever-expanding circle of franchises has helped more than 90,0000 homeowners from coast to coast take control of their real estate experience and save thousands of dollars.
New owners, Jim and Jocelyn Barnes, are excited about the opening of their first location and to help homeowners in the Cowichan Valley area discover the benefits of private sale.
“We’re in a unique position as franchisees,” said Jim.
“The reason we wanted to open this location is because we used PropertyGuys.com to sell our home in Cranbrook and we absolutely loved it. It was our dream to help others the same way we were helped.”
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.
