All Posts by Bruce Firestone

This silent angel in downtown Merida (aka Centro) offers you one slip of paper to guide your future. For 20 pesos, mine read (in Spanish), “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.” #Excellent message. This young woman dresses up every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in her angel costume, which she designed and fabbed herself. She […]

Are you familiar with the BBC series From Lark Rise to Candleford? It’s about life in two neighboring places in the late 19th century—one a poor rural village called Lark Rise where life is a struggle, and tother being a more prosperous town called Candleford. They are 8-miles apart with a muddy track the only […]

Most people know about the prisoner’s dilemma even if it’s just intuitively rather than explicitly— Two people are accused of a joint crime. Police detectives put both suspects in individual interrogation rooms. They offer each of them a deal—if you’re first to talk, you’ll get jail time of just two years. If the other party […]

Theming downtown Belleville Murals are a powerful catalyst in terms of reviving and improving urban areas. For example, Jane Golden started a program in Philadelphia to bring graffiti artists “in from the cold.” The Mural Arts Program (www.muralarts.org) in Philly employs over 300 artists each year and teaches more than 1,000 young people the art […]

The smaller the house you build, the more creative you need to be. One of my daughters is moving into her own home that is just 192 sq ft. She’ll live right next door to a small workshop (about 350 sq ft) where she will design and produce high fashion custom clothing for glamorous women […]

We helped one of my daughters (I have five children) buy a home four years ago for $345,000. We added a basement apartment for $80k so her total cost is about $425,000. We had it appraised last month—after insane pandemic-induced appreciation, it’s now worth $760,000 according to a local appraiser. First thing she said to […]

At the beginning of this pandemic, folks asked me what I thought would happen to real estate values. I believed office and shopping mall valuations would fall out of bed while industrial and residential would hold their own. The latter because people always need a place to live; the former because I thought nations (including […]

Since a number of my readers and coaching clients are realtors, I thought I’d lay something down here for them. They’ve all heard, “You have to list to last,” and since it is spring, well, here’re 22 tips—     Lawn signs work So, do free webinars And doorhangers or flyers[1] Develop a decent email list (legally, […]

I am optimistic that the global economy will recover but it will be vastly different. Overall, it may not only be a more localized economy but a more productive one too as weaker players get weeded out and some industries fade while others surge. It’s also likely that the surpluses produced by revamped economies will […]

By Bruce M Firestone, PhD, Royal LePAGE Performance broker, Ottawa Senators founder, real estate investment and business coach How to become an indispensable lifetime real estate investment client adviser course APPLY NOW! DOWNLOAD THIS FORM, COMPLETE IT AND RETURN IT TO BRUCE@BRUCEMFIRESTONE.COM, https://www.dropbox.com/s/09vj5nqn29jwea8/rlp-lifetime-adviser-course-signup-form-bruce-m-firestone-institute-2021.pdf?dl=0 Schedule 2021 RLP training session #1: Don’t sell this house! March 18th, […]

I can’t believe that other landowners/property owners haven’t figured out how to repurpose their retail space to live-work-play-make spaces, all at grade. There is demand for these types of spaces from gigpreneurs who, for example, want to work in a street-facing studio and live behind their store, all on one level (ie, the ground floor). […]

Over the Christmas holidays, I was rereading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I read it when I was a kid and enjoyed it, so I thought I’d see what I think of it now. It’s about five Union soldiers who escape Confederate captivity during the US Civil War in a balloon that is swept […]