Thursday, August 26th, 2010 by Dan Cooper
Featured in the photo are President and CEO of Hush Homes Naheel Suleman with Dan Cooper.
Congratulations to HUSH on its nominations for Project of the Year and Most Outstanding Production Home (two-storey, 2,500 square feet and over) for two of its developments in South-West Oakville. The Ontario Home Builders’ Association’s Awards of Distinction are major awards in which builders all across Ontario compete. Simply becoming a finalist is a significant feat. I’ve written in the past about HUSH’s two special enclaves of new homes that recently went on sale that offer French and English inspired designs, and some very unique features and homeownership packages.
Being nominated in the OHBA’s Awards of Distinction is just proof that these developments are something special for Oakville and area. HUSH is nominated for Project of the Year for both the Avalon and The Gardens at Coronation locations. In the Most Outstanding Production Built Home category, this exceptional builder has two home designs nominated – the Aubergine Palais and Lily of the Valley. Avalon in South-West Oakville includes 12 French inspired homes that are conveniently located on Lakeshore Road West, close to downtown Oakville and Appleby College. At Avalon, you can experience the city living of shopping and dining without sacrificing a private home environment. This is where you will find the Aubergine Palais.
The Gardens of Coronation feature 14 English-style homes that are steps away from Coronation Park and Lake Ontario. Some lots here have been designed to allow for a third-storey loft where you can enjoy spectacular views of the park and lake. And this is where the award-nominated Lily of the Valley will be built. While these homes are nominated in the Most Outstanding Production Home, HUSH is not your typical production builder. For example, the bungalows in each location can be completely customized to your liking, right down to the floor plan. And like all HUSH projects, these homes are loaded with top quality products and materials – hardwood floors, 10-foot ceilings, Wolf and Sub-Zero gourmet appliances, granite countertops, marble, and high-end fixtures by Kohler just to name a few of the luxury appointments that are standard in all HUSH homes.
HUSH builds their homes to exceed Energy Star standards and provides an extensive “green” package that offers additional solutions such as solar power and geothermal heating and cooling so you can make your home as energy-efficient and eco-friendly as you want. With homes ranging from 1,800 to 4,000 square feet, loaded with high-end products, quality construction and high energy efficiency, HUSH is offering a carefree lifestyle and a superbly maintained residence for as long as you own the property. The quality of these homes and the attention they are receiving from qualified judges for the OHBA’s Awards of Distinction is a testament to the great real estate investment opportunities that exist in the Oakville and Burlington areas.
If you are in the market for a true dream home in a spectacular location, you must check out these new homes by HUSH. To see what makes HUSH an award-winning builder, I encourage you to visit the presentation centre at 417 Lakeshore Road West. Visitation is by appointment during the week and open houses from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, or register at HUSH.CA. Or give my office a call and we will be glad to help you make the ideal selection – to optimize your enjoyment and investment. And good luck HUSH on September 21 when the OHBA announces the winners.
Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.
Posted in Green Home, HUSH Homes, Oakville, Oakville Real Estate, Ontario Home Builders’ Association’s Awards of Distinction | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 by Dan Cooper
As predicted, the pace of home sales slowed in July as consumers adjusted to the new harmonized sales tax. Coupled with the fact that interest rates were rising, the rush to buy homes prior to the HST coming into effect on July 1 resulted in an overheated market in May and June. But this current slowdown in the market is expected to be short lived.
Earlier this month Jeff Mahannah, President of the Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board, said, “Sales transactions are down for July, but overall for the year-to-date we are on par or are observing a slight increase in transactions when compared to 2009. What I anticipate, once the public has time to adjust to the HST and realize that interest rates are still affordable, is an increase in activity in sales transactions in September.” This is what he is talking about. Last month residential sales for Oakville were down by 48 percent compared to July 2009 and the average sale price – $505,999 – decreased by 0.2 percent. However, year-to-date sales were still up by 5 percent and the average sale price was up by 13 percent.
In Burlington, the story is quite similar. “July was certainly a quiet month for sales,” said Joe Ferrante, President of the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington, “but it was not at all unexpected. Despite the slower sales in July, our year-to-date sales are still up 10.7 per cent over this time last year.” The average price of freehold residential properties sold in Hamilton-Burlington in July was $329,317, an increase of 5.5 per cent over July last year. In the condominium market the average price of condominiums in July was $237,304, an increase of 1.6 per cent over July 2009. “We have a good inventory of listings,” Ferrante explains, “which makes Hamilton, Burlington and our outlying areas such a great place to buy real estate right now.”
Whether it is a slow market or an overheated market, each brings particular challenges of their own and the key to making the best deal possible is to work with a broker who has a proven track record and is a consistent top performer – someone who you are confident will be able to sell your home quickly and for top dollar. Innovative marketing and investment, knowledge about the marketplace, commitment and exemplary service differentiate the Dan Cooper Real Estate Team. The result is that we are achieving accomplishments that illustrate the Dan Cooper difference. We are the Number 1 team in Canada for Royal LePage, which is a testament to our ability to sell homes fast in the Oakville and Burlington areas. In fact, we have been the Number 1 team for seven of the past ten years. We were also named Best Real Estate Agent and Best Real Estate Team in North Oakville Today’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards. The Readers’ Choice Awards are as grassroots as you can get, and being named Number 1 for both agent and team are proof that we are having a significant impact right here in our own community.
Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.
Posted in Burlington Real Estate, Finances, HST, Oakville Real Estate, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Taxes | No Comments »
Thursday, August 12th, 2010 by Dan Cooper
The mark of a good real estate agent is the lengths to which he or she will go to market your home. In today’s marketplace, it is not enough to merely place a few ads in the real estate section of the local newspaper. Advertising, of course, is important – and that is why I go big whenever I use traditional media. I consistently take out one and two page spreads in these sections. I also carefully select the most effective magazines – and again take the best strategic positioning within those publications to provide the maximum exposure for my clients.
But perhaps most important, I have been a leader in utilizing the Internet by developing a unique online marketing program. My DanCooperTV.com website was ahead of its time when I launched it a few years ago and it remains a dynamic element of my marketing strategy today. The video-based format brings properties to life, providing a much more striking impact than static images. Whether you are buying or selling a home, the opportunity to display a property through a live tour of the home accompanied by a voice-over description of the home’s unique features is a powerful tool. The seller is able to advertise their property in a whole new light and the buyer is able to take a comprehensive tour at their leisure and convenience. Professionally produced, this site offers an incredible venue like no other.
A good real estate website, however, should be more than just a vehicle for selling homes. At DanCooperTV.com, you will find a wealth of information about your area and some of the people in it – the retailers, businesses and charitable organizations that make Oakville and Burlington vibrant and engaging communities. See my entire educational series on home inspections with advice directly from the experts. You will also meet members of the Dan Cooper team, providing you with an opportunity to better learn who we are and our approach, to begin building that ever important open and honest relationship that needs to develop between broker and client. I want you to be comfortable with our team, to trust that everyone is working in your best interest.
If you haven’t visited DanCooperTV in awhile, take a look – and take a visual tour of some of the exciting properties we have posted on the site. We recently posted a tour of a spectacular mansion on two acres of country property on Trafalgar Road, just north of Highway 407. This is a home that many passersby have wondered about – and here it is on my website. It’s the new, cutting-edge approach to marketing homes and we’re leading this exciting trend. There are other developing technologies that we are looking into and I will talk more about those in the future.
In the meantime, for more information about how we can sell your home quickly and for top dollar, visit my website DanCooper.com or give the office a call and we would be more than happy to tell you more.
Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.
Posted in Burlington, Burlington Real Estate, Dan Cooper TV, Internet, Marketing, Oakville, Oakville Real Estate, Planning, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Technology, Video Tours | No Comments »
Friday, July 30th, 2010 by Dan Cooper
Canada’s residential real estate market will start to slow in the second half of 2010 after two quarters of strong price increases and sales activity, according to the most recent Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast. While sales activity was strong in the first half of the year, it is expected to cool off for the third and fourth quarters with prices flattening.
This is how Phil Soper, President and CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage, explains the situation: “We have seen an unusual pattern of activity in the housing market over the past 12 months, with the market experiencing a surge of activity and price increases that peaked in the fall of 2009 rather than spring. Early 2010 followed a more typical seasonal pattern with prices and activity peaking in the second quarter. An expected increase in the supply of homes on the market will now bring stabilization in prices and in some cities we will see both prices and unit sales decline towards the end of the year. This should not be interpreted as a severe correction but rather a natural reaction to the market having peaked quite early this year.”
The surge of activity in the first half of 2010 in Ontario was prompted by a number of factors, including an increase in interest rates in the spring, tightening of mortgage lending rules for first-time homebuyers and investors, and the lead up to the introduction of the HST. In June, residential resales in Oakville were down by 34 per cent compared with June 2009, but on a positive note for sellers, the average price showed a healthy increase of 19 per cent – $616,907 compared with $516,681 in 2009. And the luxury market continued to heat up recording 28 sales over $1 million, with six of those sales surpassing $2 million in June.
The Burlington area resale market reported a decrease of 15 percent from the same month last year, and a decrease of 6 percent from May of this year. The total unit sales for the first six months of 2010 are being reported at 18.7 percent higher than the same period last year, while new units listed are 20.7 percent higher than last year at this time, according to the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington. A slower market brings increased inventory levels and fewer bidding wars, which creates opportunities for buyers who may not have been able to find what they wanted in the spring.
The key, especially during a slow market, is to deal with a broker who has a proven track record and is a consistent top performer – someone who you are confident will be able to sell your home quickly and for top dollar. Innovative marketing initiatives and investment, knowledge about the marketplace, commitment and exemplary service differentiate the Dan Cooper Real Estate Team. The result is that we are achieving accomplishments that illustrate the Dan Cooper difference. We are the Number 1 team in Canada for Royal LePage, which is a testament to our ability to sell homes fast in the Oakville and Burlington areas. In fact, we have been the Number 1 team for seven of the past 10 years. This is an accomplishment that does not happen by accident, but rather by design. Our dedication and commitment to selling your home, along with superior marketing strategies, have time and time again helped our clients sell their homes quickly and for top dollar.
We were also named Best Real Estate Agent and Best Real Estate Team in North Oakville Today’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards. The Readers’ Choice Awards are as grassroots as you can get, and being named Number 1 for both agent and team are proof that we are having a significant impact right here in our own community.
Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.
Posted in Best Real Estate Agent in North Oakville, Best Real Estate Team in North Oakville, Burlington, Burlington Real Estate, Finances, Oakville, Oakville Real Estate, Reader's Choice Awards, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Statistics, Taxes | No Comments »
Monday, July 26th, 2010 by Dan Cooper
Two weeks ago I wrote about my intention to participate in the Joe’s Team Triathlon to raise money for the head and neck translational research program at The Princess Margaret. On July 10th, I joined about 550 other participants to swim, bike and run at Lake Joseph, Muskoka and together we raised more than $1 million to support critical cancer research funded by The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
The background of this event is that in 2004, Joe Finley began a difficult fight with cancer, a battle that he is very much fighting today. Despite the physical and emotional toll of an extremely aggressive cancer treatment, Joe fulfilled a life-long objective in August 2006 – he completed his first triathlon. Crossing the finish line was just the beginning for Joe. Teamed up with The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, Joe created “Joe’s Team,” an innovative cancer fundraising initiative that has in four short years raised well over $3 million.
Today, this physically challenging triathlon stands as the community event that is far surpassing the expectations of everyone involved, a claim that can only be made because of the generous support of sponsors, participants and donors. I want to thank all of you who made generous donations to this worthy cause through my website DanCooper.com. My team was able to raise several thousands of dollars thanks to your generosity.
I am passionate about giving back to organizations that have a major impact to the quality of life of people we know and love. While most of my philanthropy is geared towards Oakville and Burlington organizations, cancer is an insidious disease that touches all of us. We all have a family member, or relative or friend who has been stricken with this horrible illness. And so, I was proud to be a participant in a triathlon to raise money for one of the most prevalent diseases of our lifetime.
The Dan Cooper Team is dedicated to giving back to the community and we support numerous causes, from youth sports teams to major fundraising events such as the Dan Cooper Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament held last month at Glen Abbey for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Halton, Comic Vision, the most successful evening of stand-up comedy and fundraiser for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Oakville Hospital Foundation’s fundraising campaign for the New Oakville Hospital, and the Oakville Centre of the Performing Arts, just to name a few. Being able to do something that will change the lives of others for the better is the best gift of all. And so, I encourage everyone to get involved, give what you can to help make the Oakville and Burlington area a great place to live.
Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.
Posted in Big Brothers Big Sisters, Charity, Comic Vision, Joe's Team Fundraising Campaign, Oakville Hospital Foundation | No Comments »
