If you’ve been downsized, or perhaps looking to make a career change, you may want to consider being a Butler, or Household Manager, as they are also called. Although we tend to have a stereotypical vision of a butler from how they are portrayed in movies and television, butlers can actually be men or women and fall into 3 categories – Residential, Hotel, and Apartment.

Residential Butler: The Residential Butler acts as the CEO of the household and may manage a very large staff, multiple residences, a fleet of luxury vehicles, and budgets. An excellent butler in this type of environment can expect to earn up to $200,000 per year.

Hotel Butler: Many luxury hotel and spa properties employ butlers to act as the interface between the guest and the property. In the highly competitive luxury market it is imperative that the guests are treated like royalty in order to build a loyal client base. The butler will also sell or up-sell services to the guests.

Apartment Butler: Apartment Butlers are popular in Asia and provide the services or a concierge.

The demand for butlers is on the rise and as a result butler schools are springing up like mushrooms – 2 of them right here in Canada. The Charles MacPherson Academy is a school for Butlers and Household Managers with the first eight-week course beginning in May in Toronto. To view the Charles MacPherson Academy online brochure, follow the link below.
http://www.charlesmacpherson.com/CM_Brochure.pdf

In April, Butlers of Canada will begin its first six-week training course for butlers at the Galiano Oceanfront Inn and Spa on Galiano Island in British Columbia. To apply to the Butlers of Canada program follow the link below.
http://www.butlersofcanada.com/

For everything you ever wanted to know about butlers but were afraid to ask, follow the link below.
http://butlerbureau.com/

What a great way to get free advertising and publicity. The $1.00 house is now the most talked about property in Toronto. Omar Ibrahim, the owner of the 2-storey house located at 93 Badgerow Avenue, came up with this publicity stunt to get his house noticed. And that he did. The story has appeared everywhere. Obviously he has no intentions of selling the house for $1.00. In a market that is not as hot as it was (Toronto’s residential unit sales dropped 13.4 % and new listings dropped 7 %) Mr. Ibrahim felt that an extra edge was needed to create interest in his property – a semi in Riverdale with three bedrooms, new flooring, appliances, fresh paint, and a finished basement.

I was actually disappointed to hear that this marketing strategy is not new. According to real estate broker Tony Bassels, in 2004 a house in Willowdale was listed for $1.00. In 16 days it sold for approximately $960,000. The interest generated by the $1.00 listing was believed to have contributed to the high sale price. Mr. Ibrahim has done his homework well. He buys, renovates, and sells houses. In January 2008 he purchased the property at 93 Badgerow Ave. for $342,000. Clearly he will not be selling the house for bargain basement prices. Quite the contrary, he is hoping that the interest generated by the $1.00 listing will drive up the interest in the property and the selling price. It will be interesting to see if lightning strikes twice and if this marketing strategy works again.

A frightening 6-alarm blaze that was called in early Wednesday morning furiously tore through a strip of heritage buildings on Queen St. West between Bathurst Street and Ryerson Avenue. Four buildings were totally destroyed. The damage is estimated at $10 million dollars but to the residents and business that had inhabited those buildings, their losses are immeasurable. What price can anyone place on family heirlooms that no amount of money can ever replace?

It took more than 150 firefighters and 40 pumper and ladder trucks to subdue the fire. The cause of the blaze remains unknown and the investigation is expected to take 10 days to complete. Although there had been rumours that the fire was caused by a drug lab, there is no evidence to support that allegation. It is estimated that 60 people lost their homes and businesses, including landmark bike shop, Duke’s Cycle, but miraculously no lives were lost. In fact, no one was injured. A trust fund for those who lost their possessions has been established and some hotels have put up residents for free. Cash donations to the Queen Street Fire Fund can be made at Scotiabank locations throughout the city. Businesses in the area are pitching in and collecting new toiletries as well as used clothing and toys for the displaced residents. A fundraising concert is already in the works for one musician who lost all his equipment in the fire.

If anyone has any information regarding the fire, please contact the police at 416-808-1400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.

Many Torontonians are embracing the spirit of recycling gently used clothing, furniture, and household goods. But do you donate your used shoes or just throw them out? Would you donate your old shoes if you knew where to bring them? Nike used to have a program for recycling old sneakers that disappeared about a year ago. If you have been looking for a place to donate your old shoes in Toronto, your search is over.

Ron White, of Ron White Shoes wants you to donate the shoes that you would have otherwise tossed away with the trash. Many years ago he noticed a homeless man with his feet hanging out of his shoes. Instead of turning away and pretending that he didn’t see, Mr. White decided to take action. He began by asking his customers to donate the old shoes that were going to throw away. In the last 11 years Mr. White has collected and distributed over 14,000 pairs of shoes. All of the shoes and boots that are donated are cleaned, sorted, packaged and sent to charities so that they can be appropriately distributed. Your simple act of kindness can make a huge difference in the life of someone in need. Bravo Mr. Ron White! Let this be a call to action to all of the other shoe retailers in Toronto. And for all of you shoppers, the next time that you are buying a pair of shoes or boots, ask the store manager if they have a similar program. If they say no, ask why not.

The 12th Annual Shoe Drive for the Homeless is now taking place at all Ron White shoe stores. Mr. White’s goal is to collect 2,000 pairs of shoes this year. Let’s make sure that he meets or exceeds his goal this year.

Follow the link below for the location of all Ron White stores.
Ron White Stores

I don’t know about you, but I find it scary that pieces of our buildings are falling down. And, no nefarious forces are at work. The Toronto weather is being blamed. It is no comfort at all to know that the sign on the CIBC building passed the City of Toronto building standards when it was installed in 2002. In spite of the fact that the acrylic plastic sign received a passing grade, a 2-foot part of it fell 58 stories to the ground. The truly astonishing thing in all of this is that no one was injured. It seems that the worst effect was the gross inconvenience of having 3 major intersections and 2 stretches of road closed by the police for 12 hours while emergency technicians made sure the rest of the sign was secure.

Tests are now being conducted on the structural stability of the signs to determine whether or not they are safe. Why wasn’t this done prior to their installation? Everyone seems willing to blame this near disaster on the Toronto weather conditions. The extremely high winds were clocked as high as 107 kilometres per hour at Pearson International Airport. They could have been even stronger at the top of a tall building downtown. What no one is talking about is the degree of force that the building code allows for. And how many signs are there on other buildings that could be affected in similar conditions? We seem to be in a rush to reach the sky. But are we paying enough attention to safety issues when we build these skyscrapers?

Palace Pier, a condo at Toronto’s waterfront, has taken an aggressive and progressive step to conserving energy and saving money. As a result they are garnering high praise for becoming the first residential building in North America to adopt LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting as their primary lighting source.

Converting to LED lighting can make a significant difference:
•    LED bulbs and fixtures contain no mercury or other hazardous substances found in fluorescent and compact fluorescent products.
•    Green technology - no hazardous waste is created as it is approximately 90% recyclable.
•    Amazing durability - if used for 12 hours a day an LED bulb can last for 10 years.
•    Increased efficiency: Incandescent bulbs generate 10 to 15 lumens for every watt they burn. Compact fluorescents generate 40 lumens for every watt. LEDs generate 50 to 70 lumens for every watt.

Palace Pier will be using LEDs for interior lighting on all 44 residential floors, employing approximately 1,300 LED based MR16 lamps in the hallways. To demonstrate the savings energy, the previous lighting used 35 watts of electricity per light, while the new LEDs only require 4 watts per light. The lamps selected have a lumen maintenance rating of 70% at 40,000 hours and can operate continuously for 5 years. They use 87% less energy than halogen lights and should reduce electricity consumption by 349,226 kWh per year.

Bravo Palace Pier! A solution that saves money as well as energy should encourage others to ride the wave. Are you making an effort to conserve energy? Is it something that you feel governments should be offering significant incentives to encourage?

It seems that every week there is a new addition to Toronto’s convoluted and controversial tax system. The latest is the new Land Transfer Tax which will come into effect on February 1, 2008. It is expected that real estate activity will be heating up so that buyers will be able to close on their properties and avoid the new tax altogether.

You will have to pay the Land Transfer Tax if you have purchased a property with a closing date on or after February 1, 2008. However if the closing date is on or after February 1, 2008 and the Purchase & Sale agreement was executed on or before December 31, 2007 you are eligible for a full rebate. First time buyers qualify for a rebate of up to $3,725.00 for both new and existing homes. For complete details on the Land Transfer Tax Rebate Program, follow this link: Transfer Tax Rebate Program

I’ve read many descriptions about how to calculate the Land Transfer Tax and personally I find them all very confusing. I found this Land Transfer Tax Calculator that you may find helpful in that it does the work for you. Just follow the link below and plug in the numbers: Land Transfer Tax Calculator

Here’s a way to beat the Toronto tax system. The Bank of Montreal will pay the Toronto’s Land Transfer Tax for you if you arrange your mortgage with them by February 29, 2008. Bank of Montreal customers who take out a new fixed, closed mortgage with a minimum five year term will have their Land Transfer Tax covered for up to 1.5% of the mortgage amount. Is this a good deal?

Not when developers are trying to cause a feeding frenzy for a new condo at the corner of Bloor & Yonge Streets. Realtors were actually paying people thousands of dollars to stand in line at the Bloor & Yonge Streets location so that they would get first crack at a unit. The place holders were mostly students who were actively recruited on Internet sites like Craigslist and by word of mouth.

I suppose that the students were a natural fit for the “positions” given their vast experience lining up for concert tickets. I can’t imagine that Bloor & Yonge Streets have ever seen anything quite as insane as this before – supposedly civilized people fighting over who is going to have the opportunity to overpay for a condo. The condos went on sale on the night of Tuesday, November 13th. Prior to the 13th the condos were listed from $300,000 - $2,000,000. The demand created by the developers reached such a pitch that the day that the units were going on sale the prices were jacked up to from $500,000 - $8,000,000. You would think that sanity and good sense would prevail and that the smart people of Toronto would just laugh and walk away. But no! People in the line started pushing and shoving in an attempt to get closer to the front.

People in Toronto, are you insane? This condo, 1 Bloor Street, is not even scheduled to be built until 2011. The condo, at 80 stories, will be the tallest in Toronto. That is unless some other savvy developer decides to trump (excuse the pun) that. Yes, Bloor & Yonge Streets is a great location. But is it worth fighting for? Toronto, what are you thinking?

Are you a cross border shopper that is rejoicing at the beefed up loonie? Well, you are not alone. Canadians are traveling south of the border in droves to scoop up bargains on everything from clothing to cars. Every day there are news reports of record breaking lines at the border crossings. But even that is not a deterrent for motivated Canadians.

Our loonie is finally worth something and we’re going to do everything that we can to take advantage of its buying power. Unfortunately, the very thing that keeps you chanting, “Go Loonie Go”, is spelling disaster for Toronto hotels.

The strong loonie is creating terrible problems for the tourism industry. As a result Toronto hotels are seeing greater losses in American tourists than the SARS epidemic caused. The weak dollar impelled the Americans to come to Canada and get a great bang for their buck. The weaker the Canadian dollar the higher the occupancy was in Toronto hotels. Now the strong loonie coupled with a weak American economy, high gas prices, and long border line-ups has kept Americans at home instead of coming to Toronto to shop, see theatre, wine and dine, and stay in our hotels. The migration of tourists has shifted. Instead of traveling north, we are now traveling south.

Part of the problem is us. As Canadians we have always been very weak at promoting ourselves. With a very weak dollar we became complacent, because that alone was enough to drive tourism here. We never waxed poetic about our fabulous theatres, incomparable wine country, magnificent restaurants, and amazing attractions – everything that makes a great city great. Let’s start getting our message out there and let’s start filling up the Toronto hotels again.

Location, location, location has always dictated the real estate prices in Toronto. Competition is fierce and everyone is looking for a way to lure in the moneyed set. It seems that Toronto condo builders have found a hook, and that hook is culture.

High priced condominiums and culture are truly a match made in heaven and driving the cost of living in Toronto in a downtown condo higher and higher. Condo projects that are near museums, concert halls, or cultural events are selling like proverbial hotcakes in spite of price tags that can extend well into the millions of dollars.

There is a certain element of the population that wants a connection with culture even if all that they are going to do is look at it. It does offer a certain cache, doesn’t it? A new high-rise condo is being built directly across the street from the new ROM expansion and yet another is slated to go up next to the Sony Centre. However, the most prestigious and sought after of the new projects on the books may be the Festival Tower which will be going up alongside the new home of the Toronto International Film Festival, located at the corner of King St. and John St. Privileges of living in the Festival Tower will include being first in line for festival tickets.

Would you choose to buy a condominium because of its proximity to a museum or the film festival? Is this really any different that buying a place on a golf course?