What Is MLS?

Multiple Listing Services or MLS

First Published Date: Apr 18, 2010

If you are planning on buying a home in Canada, then you will most likely be finding that home through MLS, unless you go through a private sale. MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is a one-stop shop for all the homes that are listed through the major real estate agencies within Canada.

MLS has actually been around for quite a long time, finding its origins in the late 1800s when real estate brokers would gather in offices of their local associations to share the information about the properties that they were attempting to sell. They would do this under the agreement of compensating other brokers who helped them sell properties, and this created the basic principle of MLS.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver claims to be the pioneer of MLS in Canada, and currently the MLS service in Canada has 98,000 members of the Canadian Real Estate Association, who work through the 101 real estate boards and 11 provincial/territorial associations.

MLS is extremely beneficial to you as a homebuyer for the following reasons:

1.    It allows you to search through properties based on location, price, services and more.

2.    It allows you to see pictures of a home anywhere in the country without ever having to travel to that area of the country.

3.    You can comparison shop homes in a wide area to find the home that is right for you.

Some people criticize MLS because it allows the realtors who use it to have a monopoly on listings. Roughly 80 percent of homeowners in Canada use MLS to find their home, so for realtors who are not listed on it, they lose out on a lot of potential business. Lawsuits have been launched to allow other realtors to list homes outside of MLS, but these have mostly been thrown down.

If you are doing a home search, you can either look on MLS yourself (www.mls.ca) or you can have an agent do it for you. When you do a search, you can search in a number of ways for the right home for you and your family.

·      Postal Code

·      Radius Search

·      Street/Subdivision

·      Price Range

·      Number of Bedrooms/Baths

·      Garages

·      Pools/Spas

·      Square Footage

Once you find your home, you can look through the pictures, find out where it is on a map and even e-mail the realtor questions about the place. This puts a lot of the control in your hands and in fact all you need the realtor for is to buy the house and inspect it when you are in the area.

MLS is a great service that really makes the entire process of finding a home much easier. You are able to find a great number of homes anywhere within the country through the easy map function. You can see exactly where the home is, what it looks like, the things it has and anything else you may need. Without MLS, it would actually be more complicated to find a home for average homeowners.

One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower)

1 World Trade Center

First Published Date: Sep 11, 2010

Everyone knows about the destruction of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, but quietly on that piece of land, a new tower is being built that will be taller and much more modern than the destroyed towers. It is One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower and upon its completion in 2013, it will be one of the most famous skyscrapers in the United States.

Construction of the tower began on April 27, 2006 under the name of Freedom Tower, however, on March 30, 2009, the name was officially changed to One World Trade Center since it covers the northwest corner of the World Trade Center Site. The building will feature several high rise buildings around it, a National September 11 Memorial and Museum and park area. When completed, it will stand at 1,776 feet, representing the Independence Year of the United States. It will also be the tallest building in the United States, and will stand 100 feet above the Empire State Building.

The building will include 2.6 million sq. ft. of office space, an observation deck, a restaurant, parking, broadcast facilities, and several public spaces. There will be 69 tenant floors rising up to 1,120 feet, followed by the restaurants and observation decks. There will be a glass parapet at 1,362 and 1,368 feet, which marks the height of the original towers that stood on the site.

The tower will feature several safety features including three foot thick reinforced concrete walls on every stairwell, elevator shaft, sprinkler system and risers. The emergency stairs will be very wide and there will be stairwells that are for the exclusive use of firefighters. Windows will be equipped with blast-resistant plastic. The glass will also improve daylight within the building, and the tower will use rainwater collection and a recycling scheme that will give it a Gold Certification through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The rooftop level of the tower was expected to be finished between October and December of 2011, with the spire going in by 2012. However, the completion was pushed back to 2013. Overall, the building of the tower will cost $3.1 billion, and it will use 50,000 tons of steel.

An interesting note for the construction happened on July 14, 2010, when an 18th century sailing ship was found at the site as workers were excavating the site of an underground vehicle security center for the building. A 32-foot hull and 100 pound anchor were found, and archaeologists believe that the ship was used as landfill material during the 19th century as a way to expand the land of Manhattan.

One World Trade Center will probably become the most recognizable building in New York upon its completion and there will be many who will be happy to set up shop on one of its 105 floors. From a tragedy, a new building rises from the ashes, with safety systems in place that show designers have learned from the past.

TD Improves Aeroplan Visa Infinite Travel Insurance Coverage

TD Travel Credit Card Insurance Changes

First Published Date: February 11, 2016

TD recently announced some improvements to its travel credit cards. These improvements will kick in starting March 30, 2016.

The most striking change will happen to the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite. Its Trip Cancellation Insurance will go up from $1,000 to $1,500 per insured person up to $5,000 per trip. TD’s other travel credit card, TD First Class Visa Infinite, will not get this upgrade.

Even after the increase, $1,500 is still low per person coverage compared to other travel credit cards like the BMO World Elite MasterCard and the ScotiaBank Gold American Express card, as these offer $2,500 Trip Cancellation Insurance per person.

The other important change TD is making that applies to both TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite and TD First Class Visa Infinite is the Pre-Existing Condition Period for Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption Insurance. For those under 65 years old, it will go down to 90 days from 180 days.

There are other changes being made. Contact TD to find out more. It’s worth mentioning that due to its recent devaluation, TD First Class Visa Infinite is no longer favoured by credit card users as one of the top travel credit cards in Canada. Read my other article about this devaluation here.

Also, the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card does not provide any anniversary bonus. And when you read its features on the TD website, it sounds like it provides many perks such as lounge access, priority boarding, free checked baggage, etc., but these perks are designed in such a way that you will not be able to use it because the catch is you have to fly Air Canada on Aeroplan miles; your objective should be to not fly Air Canada, as it charges hefty fuel surcharges that can be easily avoided by flying other Star Alliance flights that do not charge fuel surcharges. I wrote more on this here.

Should You Use a Credit Card or Debit Card?

Credit or Debit?

First Published Date: February 15, 2016

Common question we hear these days is which is a better option to pay for your purchases, a credit or debit card? You will even see ads running on TV warning consumers not to use credit cards and stick to debit cards when you shop.

Strikingly enough, the answer depends on what type of person you are when it comes to managing debts. Debit transactions come out of your own bank account based on your available balances, so you are not piling up debts. On the other hand, credit transactions are a short-term interest free loan or long-term high interest loan from your credit card companies.

If you have difficulty managing finances and are unable to pay off credit card balances in full each month, a debit card is definitely your answer when shopping because you can’t buy more than you can afford. If you are excellent in managing money and always pay off balances in full, definitely stay away from debit cards and always use credit cards.

Credit cards offer unsurpassed security, protection, guarantee, warranty, rewards, and much more that debit cards will not be able to offer. However, at the end of the day, all these features offered by credit cards will not make sense if you keep balances on them and pay skyrocketing interest month after month.

From my own personal experience, I will not put a single dollar purchase on my debit card, as it translates into me losing the opportunity to earn free miles or points towards my next travel. Used diligently, credit cards can be your friends towards earning free or partial travel that debit cards can never offer.

In my next book “Credit Card Hacks: What Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You to Know” I will discuss that and many other tips in detail. I am expecting to get this book out in 2016.

Old Age Security pension or OAS

Understanding Old Age Security Pensions

First Published Date: May 29, 2010

Retirement can be a stressful time for many individuals when they realize that they will no longer have a steady income, and instead will be hoping that the savings they put together will be enough for them to live on. While company pensions are great, they do not always cover everything and that means many retired individuals rely on old age pensions. In Canada, the old age pension is the Old Age Security Pension, which is a taxable-monthly social security payment that is available to Canadians who are 65 years and over. Currently, the basic amount for the old age pension is $502.31 per month. During tax season, if you have an income that is greater than $64,718, you must pay back a portion of your Old Age Security to the tune of 15 percent of your total net income.

It is important to note that not everyone will qualify for the old age pension. Depending on your circumstances, you may or may not qualify. If you want to collect a full pension, then you must meet the following requirements:

1.    For Category 1, you will have had to live in Canada for at least 40 years after you turned 18.

2.    For Category 2, you must have been born on or before July 1, 1952 and you must have lived in Canada for some period of time between that point and July 1, 1977.

If you want to collect only a partial pension, which usually happens if you are not approved for a full pension, then you need to meet the following conditions.

1.    You must be over 64 years of age.

2.    You must be a Canadian Citizen or a Permanent Resident of Canada.

3.    You must have lived in Canada for the last 10 years at least.

Just because you lived in another country though, that does not mean that you cannot collect payments. Canada has agreements with many countries that can allow you to count years spent in another country so that you qualify for your Old Age Security pension. It is important to determine what countries they are but generally the United States, the United Kingdom and much of Europe allow you to qualify.

If you do not have much income, then your Old Age Security can be supplemented by a Guaranteed Income Supplement, which is non-taxable. That means that you are not taxed on that income, which gives you more money to use. The amount of money you receive with this Guaranteed Income Supplement will depend on how much you make your marital status and the age of your spouse if you are married.

Currently, the maximum supplement that you can receive as one individual with no other source of income is $597.23 and $392.01 for each spouse if you are married to someone.

It is also very important that you do not confuse the Old Age Security pension with the Canada Pension Plan, which is something that you contribute to, and which is earnings-related, which is paid in addition to the Old Age Security pension.