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What exactly is a paycheck worth? Taking too much time to get going on a new week today Monday? Then put this on and crank the volume: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2AC41dglnM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=540&h=405] First listen to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, then go out into the world and do your JOB! That’s the one thing that Hollywood screenwriters and television scriptwriters seem to miss […]

When I do sales training, I use some stock phrases like: -selling is telling -tell a (short) story -the title can’t be as long as the book (from my PhD supervisor at the Australian National University in Canberra, Dr Max Neutze, may he rest in peace) -keep it as simple as possible but no simpler […]

What price should you offer on investment property? Some of my clients are trying to fool themselves into overpaying. #BadIdea You make money in real estate when you buy not when you sell, so buy smart. Here’s how it should work: A client of mine does a spreadsheet before he firms up his offer. It […]

I like coming up with real estate business models, some of which are pure fantasy. I spent a few weeks living in the mountains of Crete while I wrote the final book in my Quantum Entity trilogy (The Successors) and I dreamed of owning a place there. What fabulous weather! What great scenery! What an […]

A client of ours wrote to us complaining about the complexity of arranging a mortgage for his new home.  It’s true–mortgage financing today is a disappointingly complicated minefield. His situation was made more complex because he was unable to sell his home in a small eastern Ontario town so he kept it as a rental […]

What the hell is wrong with men? https://digg.com/2017/harvey-weinstein-allegations https://time.com/4968559/tim-murphy-pennsylvania-congressman-girlfriend-abortion/ https://nypost.com/2017/10/08/vegas-gunman-liked-violent-rape-fantasies-prostitute-says/ Didn’t their dads teach them anything? Like— “No” means no. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not kill. Prof Bruce

A client of mine got a negative report from a county where she is planning a new 65-lot residential development.  In particular, a spreadsheet was submitted by a neighbor that purported to show that the fiscal impact of (any) new subdivision on the county’s balance sheet and operating statement would be negative.  Here was my […]

A friend of mine recently wrote me saying that he was about to give up on the idea of creating affordable housing units in a mixed use place he is developing (with others) in east end Ottawa.  Here’s what I wrote back: Hmm. I would not give up on that yet, Sebastian (not his real […]

You don’t have to go overseas to find poverty; you just need to look outside your front door. Here is an elder who (with my permission) comes to our place every week to look through our recyclables and collect bottles that she’ll later trade for cash. She arrives a day before garbage day. Now why […]

When the Ottawa Senators next win the Stanley Cup (their last and 9th cup victory coming in 1927), hometown fans ought to practice the Icelandic Viking Clap to greet the winning squad on Elgin street. This is how the Iceland national football team was welcomed by fans in Reykjavik after being eliminated from the Euro […]