Archive for the ‘general’ Category

Happy Thanksgiving Canada 2009

Monday, October 12th, 2009

It came around again so fast! It seems like each year, the holidays come around even faster than the last! It's been a good year for me, and for Canada Rentals. Our traffic has grown, which was really the only main goal and accomplishment ...

More Free Property Managment Tools From Pickrent!

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Well, my friend Dave has done it again - He's come up with another round of great property management tools and widgets for property managers and landlords.   The one I really like is the Pickmap Widget.  The PickRent Mapping Widget shows rental listings from you, the property manager in an ...

Happy Halloween, but lower traffic today

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Happy Halloween to all of the ghosts and goblins out there today.    I am taking my 3 year old out today, dressed as "James" from the Thomas trains...If you have a small child, especially a boy, you know all about these. Definitely seeing a little lower traffic today - probably because ...

Canadian Real Estate Market Cooling

Monday, June 16th, 2008

I have been reading that the Canadian real estate market is starting to cool, and that the boom is over.  A lot of new inventory on the market is causing home prices to fall, which is creating a lot of opportunity for the buyer. What I want to know is how ...

Advertise Short Term Housing

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

I have had a few different people who manage or own corporate housing or short-term rentals in Canada place a photo ad with me, and have incredible success.   These folks paid for a full year, so they don't have to worry about renewing every few months, and then I send ...

Detecting Renter Fraud

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

The most powerful thing at your disposal to help detect if a potential "renter" is a fraudster is their IP address. The IP address is basically the user's online "signature" that can tell you where a user is from geographically. Of course, if the user is from ...

Advertise Summer Rentals In Canada

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

I had a really nice lady advertise her summer rental in Toronto with me recently.   I asked her how she found my site, and she said she typed in "Best place to find a summer rental in Canada."   My site came up. I think a lot of people don't know that ...

Kanata Ontario Rentals

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I finally added a page for Kanata, Ontario.   I have been receiving enough listings for this area that I thought that it now deserves it's own page.  Until now, I just put them under Ottawa, since it is a close by major city.  However, Kanata has almost 100,000 people, and ...

The Rental Season Is Upon Us

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I am sitting here writing this in a pair of shorts, and a t-shirt.   It is March 24, and it is just downright balmy from where I sit.  I imagine most folks across Canada are getting Spring Fever, and I know that many are planning on making a move to ...

Blocking spammers and scammers

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

I take fraud and spam very seriously, and I spend time every day blocking spammers and scammers from the website. I am able to catch spammers frequently, since every ad that comes in has an IP address with it. I am able to look at an IP address and usually ...

Liberals fleeing to Canada

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

From The Manitoba Herald The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The actions of President Bush are prompting the exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, ...

Vacancy rate in Edmonton on the rise

Friday, December 14th, 2007

For the first time since 2002 apartment vacancies are seeing a slight increase - this according to  The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.  Rates are at 1.5 percent, up from 1.2 percent at this same time last year.  This is good news that is clouded by the expectation that rents ...

Spammers and the holidays

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

Boy, the spammers are really at it hard this year.  Seems like every December, the number of spam listings and emails more than doubles.   Bottomfeeders these people are! I have to say that we are getting pretty good at blocking spammers from the site.   We still human-edit each and every ...

Furnished Suites and Extended Stay

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

I received an e-mail from someone today requesting that I put a section on the site for Furnished Suites and Extended Stay.   I already have a section for Corporate Housing on the site, and I thought that Extended stay fell under the same umbrella as corporate housing.  I did a ...

How do you find a place to live in Edmonton?

Monday, November 12th, 2007

I was reading today in the Edmonton Sun that the vacancy rate is forecasted to fall below the current 1% level in 2008.  It isn't uncommon for people to look for upwards of 6 months to find a place to live.  Naturally, this has driven rents up, forcing many people ...

Really Bad Canadian Jokes

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Seems like there are no shortage of really bad Canadian jokes out there.   "Groaners" as they may be referred to.  At any rate, let's take a break from apartment hunting for some forced chuckles.   Please feel free to add a clean Canadian joke in the comments section if you have ...

Toronto Local School Info

Monday, October 1st, 2007

I had the unique opportunity last month to move my family into a new home in a new city. It is an amazingly grueling and emotional process, especially ...

How To Immigrate To Canada: Immigration Questions Answered

Friday, September 21st, 2007

Canada is becoming a pretty popular place. I know, because the number of housing wanted ads posted on the site by people immigrating to Canada is steadily increasing. ...

Corporate Housing in Red Deer?

Monday, September 10th, 2007

The following question was posed via e-mail today.  I am wondering if anyone might have any insight? Hi,  We own a rural estate home at Red Deer, Alberta (half-way between Edmonton and Calgary).  Is there a need for short term or corporate housing in our area?  1.5 hour drive from Calgary ...

The Betty Crocker Of Blogging

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

Part of what makes a successful blogger is the ability to “stir the pot” in a unique and interesting way…to give a totally different or innovative perspective to what’s happening in their sector or market. My friend Dave Dugdale over at Rentvine.com has shown his ability to create a blog ...