The Onsen Team
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OPEN HOUSE SATURDAY
JANUARY 28TH 2-4pm
#41-555 Chablis Drive,
Waterloo
1. Kitchener's Christkindl Market:
It's a perennial favourite. Experience the sights, sounds and smells of Canada's original German-style Christmas market, where the smells of bratwurst and roasted chestnuts fill the air. Take a twirl on the outdoor skating rink while Christmas choirs make beautiful music and vendors sell their wares.
2. Chicopee Ski Hill & Tube Park:
Get healthy, get active! Take a day trip to Chicopee, Waterloo Region's own ski resort, offering exciting winter activities like downhill skiing and snow tubing.
3. Elmira Maple Syrup Festival:
World's Largest One Day Maple Syrup Festival. Since 1965, this fun-filled family event has raised funds to support local charities and non-profit organizations.
4. The Wonders of Winter:
A Festival of Lights Take a stroll. Take a drive, through Waterloo Park, Over 100,000 lights and more than 80 displays. The festival runs from late November to early January in Waterloo Park.
5. Christmas Fantasy in Victoria Park:
Every year, Victoria Park- the jewel in the centre of our city – comes alive with thousands of twinkling lights. It’s a winter wonderland for friends and families to enjoy in the weeks leading up to the holidays – and right through New Year’s Day.
6. FREE Skating at Kitchener’s Civic Square:
Like skating outdoors? Like skating in downtown Kitchener? In front of Kitchener City Hall, there's lots of great skating for the whole family. Get all bundled up and skate round and round. The ice surface is 65 feet by 112 feet in size. This outdoor artificial rink operates November to March each year.
7. The City of Waterloo Museum at the Conestoga Mall:
Next time you’re at the Conestoga Mall, take a minute and check out a bit of Waterloo Region history. The City of Waterloo Museum is located in the mall, at the far end of the food court (towards the doors that lead outside to the theatre). It’s exhibitions always feature some aspect of our local history.
8. Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory:
Stroll among 1000’s of free-flying butterflies in the year 'round, lush tropical garden featuring over 85 species of tropical plants, waterfalls, streams and ever-expanding collection of exotic birds. Discover a honey bee observation hive, and incredible insect and butterfly collection, cafe and gift store. Free parking.
9. Woodside National Historic Site:
Bring the entire family for a day of outdoor and indoor fun at Woodside. Be invigorated while skating on a natural rink and borrow snowshoes to explore the many trails on the grounds. Warm up with a hot cup of cocoa and participate in Victorian indoor games, including a scavenger hunt.
10. Joseph Schneider Haus:
The Joseph Schneider Haus Museum and Gallery is a dynamic community museum in downtown Kitchener. The heart of the complex is the fine Georgian frame farmhouse built by one of the area’s first pioneers, Joseph Schneider, a Pennsylvania-German Mennonite. A local landmark and Kitchener’s oldest dwelling, the c. 1816 homestead was restored and furnished to period and opened as a living history museum in 1981.
2011 was a great year for home buying and selling. Waterloo region continues to be a desirable place to live with a strong local economy. Low interest rates certainly continued to support buyers while sellers benefited from steady gains in home prices.
Looking back at 2011, the president of the KWAR observed that the beginning of the year started with slower sales activity and that by June, sales started to gain momentum. The moderate demand in early 2011 was likely the result of the many buyers who purchased in the latter part of 2009 and early 2010 to avoid anticipated higher mortgage rates, and the HST. Then, when adjustments to the rules for government‐backed insured mortgages were implemented in March of 2011, this may have further impacted the ability for some to enter the housing market, particularly first‐time buyers.
Click HERE for: Residential Sale Price and Total Units Sold in December over the last 10 years.
If you are thinking of selling your home this winter, or if you have any questions regarding this winter’s Real Estate market, please give either Teresa or myself a call for a Market Evaluation of your home, and to meet to discuss the best course of action for you and your family.
Flav Onsen, Sales Representative
Royal LePage Wolle Realty, Brokerage
flav@onsenhomes.com
The City of Waterloo's Rental Housing licensing program begins April 1, 2012. Those wanting to apply for a licence on April 1, 2012 should contact the Electrical Safety Authority in advance to arrange for inspection and obtain their certificate.
Electrical Safety Authority can be contacted at www.esasafe.com or by calling 1 877-372 7233.
Applications for rental license can include passed ESA certificates completed within 6 months of submission.
If you have any further questions please contact the City of Waterloo 519-747-8587 or at rental@waterloo.ca.
Information on your local Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning contact will be available in the upcoming weeks.
The City of Waterloo is hosting 15 workshops to assist with those wishing to apply for a residential rental licence:
Lions Room 200, Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex
101 Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo
Tuesday February 14, 2012
Wednesday February 15, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sessions run each day from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Space is limited to 30 participants per session. Register for the session that you'd like to attend ASAP.
Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis. You must be registered to attend.
To register, email rental@waterloo.ca.
www.waterloo.ca/rhlr
Courtesy of Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors
The holiday season is one of the most stressful times of year. Not only do you have the stress of finding the right present for people, but you have the stress of paying for Christmas and the stress of Christmas parties, seeing family or even the stress of being alone at a time which is traditionally centred around family.
It is a time to be merry and not a time to be stressed! The following tips will help you to beat stress this Christmas and enjoy the holiday period even more:
Tip 1 - Establish a Christmas Budget At The Start Of The Holiday Season - Christmas is a time when you overspend and then spend the rest of the year worrying about it and how you are going to pay it off. At the start of the holiday season, make a list of everyone you need to buy presents for and set yourself an affordable budget. It's very easy to get caught up in present one up man ship, but avoid it and stick to your budget, you will thank yourself in a few months time. Set yourself a budget for food, travel and everything else over Christmas to ensure that you are not stressing about money.
Tip 2 - Get Yourself Organised - Christmas is a very hectic time so make sure you are organised. Make yourself lists of all the people you need to buy for, all the food you need and places to go. Start your Christmas shopping early, write your cards early and be organised. Being able to start December with most of your Christmas shopping done will really reduce your stress levels.
Tip 3 - Know Family Arrangements - Family is one of the biggest sources of stress during the festive season. Whether it is due to clashes within the family or the sheer logistics and travelling required to get together, it is a very serious source of stress. Make sure you know your family arrangements well in advance. Don't leave it to the last minute, start planning as early as you need to. This will reduce your stress because you will know what you are doing, where you are going and when it is all happening.
Tip 4 - Avoid People Who Create Stress - There are always people you feel you should visit over Christmas which cause you or your family stress. These are people who are best avoided as it is not worth getting stressed and spoiling Christmas. Visit people because you want to, not because you feel you ought to. Ought to and should basically means you are doing something out of a sense of guilt, not because you want to. Spend the holiday season with people you want to be with.
Tip 5 - Make Travel Arrangements In Advance - Travelling at Christmas is hectic and expensive. You need to make sure all travel arrangements are made as far in advance as possible in order to benefit from cheaper prices and to ensure you can get the tickets you need. Remember, a lot of people travel at Christmas, so make sure you are well prepared and plan to travel outside of peak times if you can.
Tip 6 - Make Up With People - Life is too short to hold grudges and the time comes when it is just too late to make up. Take some time out over Christmas to heal past grudges and arguments between you and some of the people around you. Often these arguments are a source of stress and by healing them you can reduce the stress.
Christmas is a time for merriment and enjoyment. Take some time out and reduce your stress levels so that you can really enjoy the festive season!
Courtesy of impactfactory.com
This year the 17th annual Royal LePage Wolle Christmas Classic Movie event was held on December 3rd, 2011. The price of admission to this event was a non-perishable food donation, to be donated to The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.
At this 17th annual event we weighed in with over 2,000 lbs of food donations, and raised over $10,000 for the Food Bank! Way to go!
60+ Sales Representatives from our office, and over 800 family and friends filled 5 theatres at Empire Theatres in Kitchener, to watch the family friendly movie "Happy Feet 2". Along with a great movie, kids were able to meet with Santa, get their face painted, laugh with clowns and enjoy balloon animals.
Thank you to everyone for coming and helping make this year the best year yet! Hope to see everyone next year!
Flav and Teresa
There were a total of 450 residential sales through the MLS® of the Kitchener Waterloo Association of REALTORS® in November. Although this represents a decrease of 1.7% relative to results in November 2010, November’s home sales were on par with expectations and previous year’s activities.
The residential real estate market continues to demonstrate its stability in Waterloo Region. Our housing market is on solid footing contrary to some recent international headlines suggesting a slump in the so called global housing market. This simply reinforces the importance for consumers to talk to a local REALTOR® to understand what’s really happening at the local level, as housing markets
often differ from national or even international trends.
Click HERE for: Residential Sale Price and Total Units Sold in November Over the last 10 years.
If you are thinking of selling your home this winter, or if you have any questions regarding this summer’s Real Estate market, please give either Teresa or myself a call for a Market Evaluation of your home, and to meet to discuss the best course of action for you and your family.
Flav Onsen, Sales Representative
As we all have heard by now, the Regional Municipality of Waterloo is proposing a rapid transit system that connects the Region’s three major urban centres of the Cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo.
Stage 1 of the rapid transit system consists of both Light Rail Transit (LRT) and adapted Bus Rapid Transit (aBRT) operating along the rapid transit corridor. LRT will operate between Conestoga Mall in the City of Waterloo and Fairview Park Mall in the City of Kitchener (19 km), and aBRT will operate between Fairview Park Mall and the Ainslie Street Terminal in the City of Cambridge (17 km). There will be a total of 21 stations along the 36 km corridor.
Click here to view the route map.
If you would like to be added to the project mailing list or have project-related questions, please contact:
Darshpreet Singh Bhatti, P.Eng.
Manager, Rapid Transit Engineering
Transportation and Environmental Services
Region of Waterloo
150 Frederick Street, 6th Floor
Kitchener, ON, N2G 4J3
Phone: 519-575-4757, ext. 3691
dbhatti@regionofwaterloo.ca
Under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Environmental Assessment Act, unless otherwise stated in the submission, any personal information such as name, address, telephone number and property location included in a submission will become part of the public record files for this matter and will be released, if requested, to any person.
Flav Onsen, Sales Representative
Drumroll...
and the winner is...
We would like to announce and congratulate this year's winners of The Onsen Team, All Inclusive Caribbean Vacation Client Referral Giveaway for 2011, Paul and Diana Shelton!!!
We wish Paul and Diana a fantastic time under the warm Caribbean sun at their all inclusive resort. Also, we would like to thank all of our clients for their repeat and referral business and their ongoing trust in our expert Real Estate service over the years!
If you aren't familiar with our trip giveaway, here's a breakdown:
~If you have bought or sold a home with either Flav or Teresa in the last 12 months, your name will be automatically entered!
~If you have referred a friend, family member or co-worker and they have bought or sold a home with Flav or Teresa in the last 12 months, you will be entered again for the same prize!
~If you buy or sell a home with either Flav or Teresa in the next 12 months, your name will be automatically entered!
Next year's Caribbean Trip for 2 will be awarded on November 30th, 2012. If you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling a home, let us know. We will be happy to help the same way we’ve helped our clients in the past.
Thanks again everyone! Flav and Teresa
None of us want to think about the possibility of bugs being in our homes! But if you have seen insects or evidence of them in your home, the sooner you deal with them the better, thus stopping them from settling in and multiplying. Here are some tips to help you win the battle against bugs:
Have any tried and true tips of your own? Please share!
Flav Onsen,
Sales Representative
Royal LePage Wolle Realty
Displaying blog entries 1-10 of 47
