JohnF

I can't disagree with everything you've said but in defence of our industry there really are a lot of safeguards built in for the public. The act that regulates our licensing includes language that essentially reiterates much of what the Competition Bureau expects of all business people dealing with Canadian consumers. One of the things that's directly addressed is misrepresentation in advertising. That makes it a double whammy for us when we do skate too close to the line. Many of us really try to honour the letter and spirit of the law. We know it reflects badly on all of us when a few try to skate. One way to get a good realtor is to talk to friends who had positive experiences. Trust me, if there was anything at all to criticise they probably will. The consumer really should be able to trust information offered in listings and ads as reliable and accurate to the best of the ability of the seller and the realtor to provide it. Anything else is misrepresentation and as I said not tolerated by the law. We are expected to not only pass along any material facts about the property that are provided but in the case of a client (buyer who signs an agreement to work exclusively with our brokerage to find a property) we are expected to go some extra distance to verify the provided information and to ferret out other relevant information about possible hidden problems including some stigmas and latent defects. This doubles your chances of catching mistakes before they bite you in the ass. It's surprising how much information is available to us in the industry when we know where to look. We pay for access to places to find it out as well as relying on our personal training and experience in the market. It's always a nice feeling to be able to fill folks in who've entrusted their home buying to me. Once I know what they want and don't want I have a lot of knowledge, experience and resources to use for their benefit. That doesn't make me smarter or better than the average realtor, just typical of conscientious realtors who make the extra effort to provide the best possible service to our clients. As long as I'm up on my soapbox here I might as well also say that what I've described is what should be expected by any consumers who entrust their home buying and selling to a good responsible realtor. Buying and selling for yourself may work out okay but are you ever sure the price was right (high enough as a seller, low enough as a buyer) and what about the latent defects or even the patent defects that should have been brought to your attention, or that you should have disclosed as a seller? A lawyer friend of mine called me the other day to share a laugh. He read me some language from a client's DIY offer on their property. Of course he didn't mention names or addresses. These sellers were pretty smug about all the money they thought they'd saved until he pointed out that they had agreed to include all their appliances, furniture, clothing and even cars in the agreement. Just one innocuous and legal sounding sentence used the wrong way did that. As it turned out the buyers weren't nasty types who could have insisted on all of it. They agreed that that was not the intent but I've seen a lot of buyers over the years who would have jumped all over an opportunity like that. Another common oversight is to agree to discharge your mortgage without checking to see what penalties are involved. Surprising how many folks aren't aware of that one. Penalties can be tens of thousands of dollars today. I just heard of a girl who was faced with a $20,000 penalty. Zoning issues are another big problem. That's why I keep a copy of the local zoning bylaw at my desk and it gets used regularly. To those of you who insist on dealing without the help of a good realtor at least refuse to sign anything until you've had your lawyer okay it. The lawyer probably won't be able to help you much with value etc but at least he can help you avoid some of the pitfalls. And do you know what constitutes a good survey and how to read a drawing if provided? Do you know if a survey will be required for mortgage purposes or if the one provided by the seller will be acceptable to the mortgagee? And so on and so on. And don't rely on advice from your friends unless they have some credible basis for it. "He said, she said" just doesn't work well in court. Take this thread for instance. There's a lot of good advice has been offered, and some that is close to correct but not quite and then some that just doesn't fly at all. How do you know what to believe? Even relying on a friend's experience with a situation several hundred miles away may lead to trouble. Zoning bylaws and enforcement vary from municipality to municipality. Each community must have it's own Official Plan and must keep it current and in keeping with the Planning Act but no two Plans are the same, nor is the enforcement process. Some communities may use Site Plan Agreements to create exceptions to the written bylaw for specific areas. And the zoning designations aren't necessarily consistent from bylaw to bylaw. My own municipality a few years ago redesignated the whole city. The result was essentially similar to what had existed before so you really have to read the bylaw carefully to catch the changes. Some of them are pretty subtle but nonetheless painful if you transgress. You need to know how all these regulations might impact your property. Since there aren't many members here from my market area I hope this won't be construed as spamming. It's just that it really bugs me when I hear people talk about "slimy" realtors not being worth their fees. Every industry has it's share of black sheep, including mine. Honestly, I'm the one cheering the loudest when those guys get bit by the law. And I'm not gonna touch the commission debate here. You might be really surprised at what I have to say in private though. Respectfully JF

Betcha anybody here will know a lot about their work after they've done it for 35 years. JF

Explain in very clear terms to your lawyer that you bought on the basis that it was for year round habitation and ask what the seller's recourse is against you. I'm sure he'll tell you the seller could sue for specific performance (close the deal as per agreement) and a court might support that. If you can't get the mortgage money in light of this new information then you could be held responsible for any losses incurred by the seller while the property is put back on the market and sold again. Questions - Did you make it clear to everyone involved you were buying it for a year round place? Did anyone advise you about the restricted use? Did you have a realtor working as your agent for the deal? Obviously the cleanest solution is for the municipality to allow year round occupation. The listing realtor might be helpful in getting that okayed at town hall. Surely his ad was based on solid info. Perhaps he can get some leverage. JF

I disagree with your comment about putting up sold signs before the closing. In fact it gets really complicated to put up a sold sign after the close. I've been putting up sold signs as soon as the conditions are all met for 35 years and so have all the realtors I know, and trust me, I know a lot of 'em all over the province. As for the second part you've touched on a few possible issues. JF

Does the zoning actually state no year round occupation? If the municipality realizes they may be dealing with litigation because of an arbitrary position they might relent unless it's a clear violation of the bylaw. Did your mortgage lender approve the loan on the basis of it being for year round occupation? If so they might pull the mortgage on you which would make it tough to close. Interesting situation. I'll be watching this thread with professional interest to see how it gets resolved. And no, I'm not a lawyer. JF

Way back when I had still had hair, at about age 10, I lived on the banks of a river. Since we'd grown up with the river right there it was of course our playground, stress on the our. My Mom still laughs at how she could have let us disappear up the river for a day at a time and never worry about us getting hurt, but she said the water was so much a part of our lives that worrying about it would have been like worrying about streets or playgrounds. I remember her saying once that she figured that at least if we fell in the water the landing was softer than on the ground. And she was right. We survived. Now at that time the conservation lakes were just starting to be created. Wildwood was far off in the future, Stratford didn't allow motor boats, and I'm not even sure if Fanshawe existed yet, so power boaters needed a place to play and our town was it. On a nice Saturday or Sunday there'd be at least half a dozen and often more boats dropped in for some weekend cruising down the creek past the dam and then way up the big river into the farmlands. Where I lived and played there were stone and concrete walls containing the muddy creek and these walls made for quite a maelstrom of wave action when all these boats started puttering up and down. Us kids figgered this was the best time to get our our little rafts and homemade boats out to play in the crazy water. We could all swim like fish and had no fear of the water at all. But not all the boaters felt quite so secure about us kids messing about in their wakes so on occasion tried to get us to stay off the water when they were busy being grownup power boaters. This is the story of one particularly obnoxious jerk who was really really insistent that we not hang around while he played. Like I said, he must have been particularly offensive about it all, or perhaps we were just feeling particularly possessive of our little stretch of river that day, because this guy really got to us. This was our river, dammit, and nobody told us when we could play on it. But he was pretty insistent so we took the raft and the little boats back to our dock and tied up, all the while expressing our indignation at being tossed out of our own backyard. I can't remember who came up with the idea first but it was a dandy so we jumped on our bikes and pedalled as fast as we could to a nearby area where we knew there were scads of garter and grass snakes. It took us only a few minutes to gather up a couple of grocery bags full of the wee beasties. Have you got the picture yet? This was in the days of paper grocery bags, right? So picture two large brown paper bags each containing about a dozen squirming writhing pee-ohed snakes. Those bags were a thing of beauty, at least to a gang of 10 year olds. So we peddled our nasty little arses right back to my house, scooted out onto the bridge and put our strategy into execution. I was the bombardier. That meant I was on the downstream side of the bridge with the snake bombs. One of my buddies was the targeter. He went to the other side of the bridge and marked exactly where & when the target (the mouthy guy in the boat) came under the bridge toward me. We had picked this spot for our ambush because it was where the boats came back up the Creek, turned and slowly approached the cement wall to tie up or get another load of passengers. Our plan worked like a charm. I waited with my head stuck thru the pillars of the bridge, a snake bomb in each hand, and as soon as the bow of the target appeared below I released the bombs. They fell true, smacking on the floor of the boat just in front of the middle seat. The paper ripped open and the snakes erupted like a brown flood, flowing in every direction in the boat. It was beautiful to behold. I admit to a little twinge of guilt when I realized that the mouthy guy's passengers for this trip were a couple of women. Now, most folks are a little hinky around snakes. Hinky doesn't begin to describe these two women. They flat out freaked. They were dancing around, screaming and hollering, waving their arms like that would chase the snakes away. The snakes were just as freaked as them though and were all of one mind, to get out of the boat and back to shore. The guy was a hoot, alternately screaming up at us (laughing on the bridge) and trying to calm the women who seemed determined to capsize his boat. Neither effort did him much good, although the boat never tipped. But then we realized he was drawing close to shore and was still more than a tad peeved so we hit the road. We were smart enough not to run to my house right there beside us. We instead took off to the other side of the creek and cut through a few backyards and shortcuts we knew about. The guy never stood a chance. He was outnumbered and outwitted and we had right on our side. The guy and his boat were gone when we finally slunk back home and we heard no more about the event so I assume he hadn't connected me with the attack. Good thing cuz my dad would have skinned me, and then probably got tons of mileage out of bragging to his buddies about it. I suppose I should be ashamed of what we did, but the guy was such a major jerk that it just felt really good, and still does. I felt a little bad for the snakes and the women, but not the guy. And that's my snake story. JF

Guilty is good with politicians as long as it's very very public. In private they seem to wear it quite comfortably. JF

How about someone with an understanding of the area etc and some skill with the language drafting a short explanation/complaint that can be sent by the rest of us to the people named above. There's no point in me trying to explain the problem when I have only the vaguest idea of where it is. I didn't used to think repetitive emails meant anything but I've found out that it's the numbers that matter to politicians. JF

I like it. JF

Sounds like it might be time to mention it to someone in the media, preferably someone who likes to stir the pot. A few before and after shots would look good on tv, along with a question like "Who does this property owner know that they can get away with this?" JF

D'ya suppose they hire the folks Bell & Rogers fire? JF

Funny how tastes vary. For years I thought I had to buy imported to get a decent beer. But then it finally sank in that most weren't all that great so I started experimenting with domestics again. Didn't much care for Blue, Ex or Canadian, or most other beers for that matter. Used to like Molson's Stock Ale back in the day. In Mexico I drank Modelo Negra and when I felt like getting a little spendy I preferred Grolsch. In the spring I have often experimented with some different Bocks with varying degrees of satisfaction. I didn't like Lakeport Pilsner at all but I kinda liked the Lakeport Ale. At the moment though I've kinda lost my taste for booze of any kind. Sux to be me. I'm hoping it comes back before the spring has passed me by completely. I'd hate to go the rest of my life without enjoying a drink at least once in a while. JF

Nice tale. JF

Bah! Youth is wasted on the young. JF

Actually it's not so much a shotgun as a firing mechanism on the end of a stick. The diver has to get right up next to the shark, pretty much place the powerhead against the shark and pull the trigger. Some of my spearfishing buddies use them in the Florida keys when hunting. The sharks come snooping around for the dead or wounded fish on the stringers and the guys use the bangsticks to scare 'em off - hopefully. Sometimes the sharks persist and the diver just lets him have the stringer. Discretion is sometimes the better part of valour. I don't like being close to thrashing sharks in their own element. A dive buddy of mine once grabbed a small (4-5') nurse shark by the tail as we passed it by on the reef and it set up a great hoorah. I told him later he was an idiot. I was backpaddling as soon as he started that nonsense so I was well away from the fury, and trust me, that shark set up a great hoorah, and it was only a baby. JF

Of the choices I vote Honda. We've had two of 'em, a Pilot and an Accord and both after 4 years were still tight and squeakless and running like tops. The only warranty issues we had were with the leather in the driver's seat on both cracking after 3 years and the finish on the Accord's rims oxidizing. All were replaced with no argument. I also had to replace the battery on the Pilot due to a faulty cell in the 4th year. JF

I second the vote for Hodgman. I bought a pair in the States 3 years ago and they've stood up like champions getting wet once or twice a week for bass season. They were $39.95 on sale. JF

Roll 'em on butter and spicy bread crumbs, then flash fry. Yummy! And save the eyeballs. When you have enough they make a great substitute for caviar. JF

Sorry. I agree. I thought someone had posted that Niagara Parks wasn't interested in getting involved because of the time that had passed since the damage was done. Glad to hear they're still in the game. JF

My sympathies. I cracked a few ribs in a bad car accident a few years ago. I have an idea how yer feeling. I couldn't tape mine. It was torture. I just tried every position I could think of like laying on a hard floor flat on my back. I think that was the one that worked best. If you can stay still you'll survive and start to feel human again very quickly, like a couple of days. Have patience, my son. JF

Did anyone suggest dropping a hint to the local news media? There's usually someone with the public ear/eye who's hot to stir the pot, especially if it can be used to embarrass the govt. JF

That third one is TJ's son with a beard. And Roy's the cute one in the yellow pfd under Lew, right? JF

Man. I am good. Got the apple first shot - seriously. Then I gutshot the guy. That was fun. JF

I got a different colour. I think it must be easier with a touchpad type mouse like I have on my laptop. JF

We used to see a few of them that size in Trout Creek back in the 50's. JF