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The video explains why, and a few of my early reflections about it.


New thoughts continue to come to me.


Though I did not say this explicitly in the video, I suppose a key message is that we should be careful that things that are ultimately of little importance don’t become significantly important to us.


The importance of anything can also change over time. For instance, the week in review was instrumental in building my business over a decade. While that was happening, its overall significance grew in my own mind to a point that it was difficult to let go of. Everything that we hold onto tightly takes up space and prevents other things from finding a place within us.



My sincere thanks to all who gave me the honour of their attention, whether on one occasion, or many. I sincerely appreciate you.


Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to receive updates on the Saskatoon real estate market and insights I've gained managing thousands of real estate transactions.


TeamFisher.com hosted over 520,000 user sessions last year and displayed more than 4.4 million pages to our visitors. If you have a Saskatoon area home you'd like to sell, we know how to get people looking at your home. Reach out to me directly to engage our team and learn about our processes.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-900-4161 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra


Have a great week everyone.

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The best experiences in life, those that deliver valuable lessons always arise from challenge

Three years ago we wrapped up our Iceland Trek for Shelter. As I reflect on this memory today, I'm reminded that the best experiences in life, those that deliver the greatest lessons, always arise from the things that are most difficult. I can't think of a single hard spot I've ever been in, and there have been many, that didn't bring great reward.


"Saturday's 25 km trek from Thorsmork to Skogar brought the Iceland Challenge for Shelter to a close for group one of three.


Over five days that tested our physical, mental and emotional limits we traversed some of the world's most spectacular landscapes that included mountains, volcanos, forest, snow, ice, sand, and rock.


We laughed. We cried. We supported one another, some sick, some injured, all completely drained as we made our way to our final destination, more hopeful than ever for a world where all women and children can be free of the fear of violence.


That, after all, is what this was all about. Though the final numbers are not yet in, at last count some $660,000 had been raised for women's shelters across Canada.


Much love to our brothers and sisters in groups two and three who are right now facing what may be one of their life's biggest challenges.


Most importantly, heartfelt thanks to all who supported us by giving to our cause. We love you and appreciate you so much. Saskatoon's YWCA Crisis Shelter and Interval House will put that money to good use providing support to women and kids who need to find their way out of a violent home."

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I'm back in the field and loving it!

Have you ever moved away from something because you thought it was obviously the next thing to do? You’re at this place, and you perceive “progress” as being somewhere else?


When I opened my own real estate office I reduced my work in the field with home buyers and sellers. Almost completely.


For the past five years, I’ve often felt like the proverbial square peg trying to find its way into a round hole.


Last week, I found myself with a buyer who needed help finding a home. Everyone else on the team was busy.


I laced up the real estate shoes and headed out (loafers are a smarter choice for showings).


Over the next two days, I had a wonderful time with an amazing family who came to Saskatoon for the very first time. Telling them about the city, the real estate market, neighbourhoods that would work for them, and finally, helping them buy a home that they’re pumped to move into soon.


Over the following week, it happened two more times. 


Boom, boom, boom!


Great people, I mean seriously lovely people, experiencing the total thrill of buying a home, and me there with them, enjoying their experience.


The past week has been completely thrilling and I’ve decided that working with clients is my true jam.


Effective immediately, I’m back in the field.


Waking up.


________________________________


I’ve upped my Facebook and Instagram game. Follow me to receive updates on the Saskatoon real estate market and insights I've gained managing thousands of real estate transactions.


TeamFisher.com hosted nearly a quarter of a million user sessions and displayed more than 1.2 million pages to our visitors in 2019. If you have a Saskatoon area home you'd like to sell, we know how to get people looking at your home. Reach out to me directly to engage our team and learn about our processes.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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How we're helping our clients limit physical contact while buying of selling a home

We're all focused on reducing our exposure to Coronavirus. Businesses are busy figuring out ways to help customers through this challenge.


I've received statements from Royal LePage, my business landlord, my bank and others. All have suggested methods to interact with them to get our work done with less risk. I appreciate that.


Even my gym has adopted protocols to reduce the risk for those who chose to get fit there. It starts with the heavy use of hand sanitizers when entering the gym. A rigorous equipment clean up routine at the end of each workout follows. I'm impressed. If I'm going to be around other people it's nice to know that health and cleanliness are a priority.


Reducing unnecessary physical contact is also key. "Social distancing" is a proven method for slowing the spread of disease.


It occurs to me that our clients might want to know of services we provide that can help limit physical contact.


First, we are a virtual operation. You'll never need to come to our office. If we need to connect, we will come to you. Handshakes and hugs suspended for now. 


But, chances are we won't ever need to come to you. As Saskatoon's first and most experienced virtual brokerage we've mastered working without paper.


If we need face time, we can easily manage that virtually.


We're skilled at executing and moving documents electronically.


That means we can conduct an entire transaction without you being present.


 Write an offer
 Negotiate an agreement
Receive a deposit
 Deliver documents to your lender
 Manage your home inspection and get a report to your inbox
 Send documents and instructions to your lawyer


We even have a concierge service that allows you to arrange most aspects of your move online.


 Mover
 Utility connections
 Insurance
 Mail forwarding
 Identification updates
 Other moving services


This can all happen without your physical presence.


I'll also throw out the fact that we produce an impressive 3D tour for every residential listing we take. The tours give buyers an immersive viewing experience without a visit to the home. It's like Google Maps indoors. It's almost as good as being there.


If you're selling your home, this is an excellent tool for qualifying buyers. We can use it to reduce looky-loos and open houses.


Click the embedded tour below to experience a 3D tour.




I'm upping my Facebook and Instagram game. Follow me to receive updates on the Saskatoon real estate market and insights I've gained managing thousands of real estate transactions.


TeamFisher.com hosted nearly a quarter of a million user sessions and displayed more than 1.2 million pages to our visitors in 2019. If you have a Saskatoon area home you'd like to sell, we know how to get people looking at your home. Reach out to me directly to engage our team and learn about our processes.


I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.  Reach out by voice or text at 306-241-6676 or email me at norm at teamfisher.com


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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It's likely that women you know are affected by violence - the good news is you can help

For most of us, home is our safe place. It's a place we can go to escape the pressures of life and shelter ourselves from danger. Unfortunately, home is not a safe place for everyone. Each year, hundreds of Saskatoon women and children fall victim to domestic violence. Make no mistake, these are women that you know, because violence against women has no socioeconomic barriers. It can happen to anyone. It does happen to far too many.


There are many issues that we need to address to break this awful cycle but the first priority is to provide these women and kids with somewhere to turn. They need a safe place to stay while they rebuild their lives. They need people who understand the challenges they face. People who can help them start again and build a future that’s free of violence.

You can help them find that. You can make an immediate and profound difference in the lives of people who are suffering right now. The question is, will you?


Saskatoon’s YWCA Saskatoon Crisis Shelter and Saskatoon Interval House provide these services. Over the years, thousands of women and children have found refuge in one of these shelters.


On Friday, July 21, 2017, my wife Becky and I head for Iceland to participate in a 100 KM trek to raise funds for this great cause. 85% of the funds we raise will go to the two shelters noted above. The 15% balance will be directed towards violence prevention programs to teach young people how to deal with life's challenges without resorting to violence.


If you’d like to support us and these great shelters, you can do so by clicking the "Make a Donation" button at www.TeamFisherTrekForShelter.ca.


Many thanks to all who have contributed.


We will be without internet access while we trek next week but look forward to updating you when we return.


Norm Fisher P.S. The photo above was taken in 2015, on a similar trek that took us through the Peruvian Andes on a walk to Machu Picchu. This is our crew celebrating reaching our highest peak in a fundraiser that raised over half a million dollars for Canadian women's shelters.
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It's been ten years today since I wrote the first post on the TeamFisher real estate blog.


Since that time, we've published 1280 times and moderated 15,911 comments from readers. I've learned a lot from the experience. Here are a few of my takeaways.


1) Aaron Levenstein was quoted as saying, "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." While impossible to do on a weekly basis, I've done my best to provide as deep a look at the stats as I can from time to time.


2) It's difficult to call the market. As we came out of 2006, major Saskatoon brokerages were predicting price gains of three to five percent for 2007. Prices nearly doubled. Across the years, a couple of booms and more busts that I could count on two hands have been predicted. While we've had our ups and downs most of those bumps have been fairly unremarkable, at least when they're viewed over a few years time.


3) Hard work and consistency do pay off. Having written an average of 2.5 posts per week for ten years with no major failings I like to suggest that I am probably the most consistent real estate broker-blogger in the world. I'm sure you can appreciate that I don't always feel like contributing a portion of my weekend to the "week in review." It's hard work keeping it up. A local talk show host once suggested that a real estate blog on a REALTORS® site is "a bit of a mistake" and suggested I should take it down. I'm glad I didn't. It took hours and hours and hours of work with no payoff in sight but blogging turned out to be the best decision that I even made professionally. Exchanging thoughts and doing business with you over the years has been a great honour and a privilege.


Thank you so much for reading. Here's how the market has changed from our first post until now.


Norm

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I wrote to you last week about a special fundraiser that I was scheduled to participate in on Wednesday, September 19 and I wanted to let you know of the results.


A group of sixty agents, assembled in Vancouver for our company’s national sales conference joined forces to raise funds for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation by hiking the Grouse Grind. The event was organized by my colleague Sebastian Albrecht and his wife Bess. Sebastian happens to hold the world record for the most ascents of the mountain in a single day. He climbed Grouse Grind fourteen times over sixteen hours back in 2010. Having now climbed it just once, I have some appreciation for the magnitude of Sebastian’s accomplishment. I found a single climb to be a huge challenge, one which I will never forget and one which I hope to experience again. My thanks to Sebastian and Bess for organizing the grind and for bringing this wonderful experience to my life.


I had hoped to chronicle my climb in video snips. I didn’t get too far in before I realized I just couldn’t do that without dramatically affecting my climb time. It very quickly became difficult to operate the camera without stopping for a rest, something I really didn’t want to do. I came to give the grind my best effort. Here are the before and afters in a brief video.



My time was 1:01:13. Speaking of time, it’s not too late to donate to this great cause. You can do that here if you’d like to. My friends stepped up and contributed $2,400 to the event. Collectively, our group raised over $25,000 for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. Thanks to all who contributed.


While I am appreciative of every bit of support, financial and otherwise, I am especially touched by the generosity of those in the Saskatoon real estate community (my competitors, essentially) who helped with the cause.


Thank you all.


Pauline Perpick

Pat Tymchatyn

Patti Haubrich

Daryl Miller

Brenda and Calvin Taylor

Ed Wojcichowsky

Riel Syrenne

Lana Stark

Becky Laliberté

Regan MacNamee

Kim Newransky

Kevin Goyer

Chris Dagenais

Lyndon Neher

Kelly Kowalchuk

Lionel Betker

Maria Trakadas

Jacqueline Dolynny

Jerry Andreas

Grace Tuck

David and Julie Cortens

Heather Daverne

Dave Scharf

Brian J Taylor

Kevin Cross

Caroline Bickle

Darwin Dolgopol

Don McIvor

Barry Willick

Dean Hartley

Ron Thompson

Leo Morrison

Diane Crawford

Kerry Clarke

Joseph and Charmaine Taylor

John and Norene Penner

Sharon Cybulski

Derek Watson

Cec and Richard Willick

Don Garvie

John Stickel


Thanks again to all of you. I appreciate it so much and I promise that your contributions will be put to good use.


Norm Fisher

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Good morning! I'm doing something later today that has me kind of excited and I'm hoping that it may be of interest to you. If it is, great!. If not, no worries.


Later this afternoon I, with a group of friends, will take the grueling three-kilometer trek up Grouse Mountain in beautiful Vancouver, BC to raise money for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation, the largest charity of its kind, dedicated to supporting shelters for women who are suffering abuse, and violence prevention programs. They call this trail "the Grind" as it's well known for tearing legs apart. It should be fun! I feel prepared physically.


Did you know that violence against women is still a major problem, even in Canada? Every year, hundreds of women are victims of domestic violence. Some of them stay in that messy and very dangerous situation because they simply don't feel that they have a safe place to go to get away from it. Should you choose to support my effort today, every nickel of your donation will end up at a shelter that provides safe haven to women facing these challenges.


So whaddya say? If you have anything left in this year's charity budget I'd sure appreciate the consideration. If you want to give big, do it! If you want to throw ten bucks our way we'll be super proud to carry it to the top of Grouse Mountain on your behalf and put it to work changing lives.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Here's what I need you to do.


Click this link http://www.tinyurl.com/chv4j59

Click the "make a donation" link on the left side of the page

Fill out the form and click the "next" button at the bottom of the page

Confirm how you'd like your name to appear and write a really encouraging note to help me up the mountain, then click next.


I promise it doesn't take nearly as long as it might seem.


If you've already donated to my campaign, thank you so much for the support.


Thanks for your time and consideration.


Norm

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Last week, I asked you for a product donation to Royal LePage’s National Garage Sale for Shelter. Many of you came through and we ended up with piles of great stuff to resell on Saturday at the local Royal LePage office .


Thank you!



The wind presented the odd challenge and the odd bit of breakage, but the sun shone and people arrived to buy. Thanks to those who participated in that way as well.


Those of us who were working the sale had a great time meeting people who generously paid for the few items they wanted to take home. By the end of the five-hour event, we were about $3,700 in the black, not a bad haul when you’re dealing with revenue that comes in as quarters, loonies and toonies. That money will be donated to the YWCA Crisis Shelter and Interval House where it will go to work helping woman and kids who have experienced abuse at home make a fresh start in a safe place. Again, thank you so much.


Similar efforts were conducted at Royal LePage offices across the country. When we have a total tally of proceeds raised, we’ll let you know.


The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation is Canada’s largest public foundation dedicated exclusively to funding women’s shelters and violence prevention and education programs. Administrative costs of operation are underwritten by Royal LePage so 100% of proceeds raised through commission-based donations from agents, and community events like our garage sale and our fun spiel go directly to the shelters we support. Since its inception, Royal LePage agents and brokers have contributed or raised over $14 million to help end family violence for more than 30,000 women and children who take refuge in a shelter each year.


If you missed out on the sale and would like to make a financial contribution, however large or small, you can do so at the Shelter Foundation website.


Thanks again,


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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This is the last call to enter for our free Macbook giveaway on May 15.
Step 1 – Visit us at our facebook page.
Step 2 – Connect with TeamFisher using the “Like” button.
Step 3 – Check your facebook news feed around 12:30 tomorrow to see if you won.
 
We’ll pick the winner around noon on the 15th.
All of the details and weasel words are here.
 
Thanks so much for reading our blog, and thanks in advance for connecting with TeamFisher’s Saskatoon Real Estate Page on facebook.
 
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
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You’ve heard the old adage, “The three most important things in real estate are location, location, and location.” A location is of utmost importance because it’s essentially the only thing about real property that can’t be changed. You can buy new carpets, add a coat of paint and even improve a floor plan but you’re definitely limited when it comes to improving the location of your property. You can’t take a home which is in a poor location and move it closer to schools, or further away from negative influences. It is where it is, and it always will be.


Location is of equal importance in the world of “virtual real estate” and the criteria that we use to judge the quality of a “location” is very different. When purchasing residential real property, we tend to associate quiet, low traffic locations with quality. When you market real estate online, you look for locations that boast high levels of traffic. You want your home to be situated in a busy place to maximize the level of exposure to active home buyers and having your home marketed “on the internet” doesn’t necessarily mean that it is being seen.


Every real estate agent will market your home on the most predictable online real estate websites. The real value that an agent brings to the process is found in what they do differently. The real question is; what will you do to make my home stand apart from all others which are for sale.


Unfortunately, many real estate websites exist is a baron wasteland. They attract few visitors, and those that do come, never return. They are little more than an electronic brochure promoting the services of an agent. They can be boring and irrelevant at best; definitely not the kind of location that brings you much value as a home seller.


Anyone who knows me will tell you that my passion is online marketing. I’ve worked hard to build a website with quality content, which is well-positioned in the major search engines. Each month, thousands of people visit the Saskatoon Real Estate Resource Centre. We recently joined the Point2 Network, the largest real estate network in the world. For the fourth week in a row, our website has ranked in the top 100 of over 100,000 real estate websites in the network. Our association with Point2 also provides us with the opportunity to syndicate your listing and send it to some of the highest traffic locations available to web marketers.


If you’re looking for a quality location to market your Saskatoon home, our website is hard to beat. I’d love to show you how we can expose your home to thousands of potential buyers.


Norm Fisher

Royal LePage Vidorra

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