The Relocation Coach

Real estate news

Frank — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:42:01 +0000

Metro Vancouver

Is it all doom and gloom in the real estate market?

According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver “conditions in the Greater Vancouver housing market continued to favour buyers in August. Since April, prices have edged down slightly as the number of sales and the number of properties coming on to the [...]

Do British Columbians love fishing?

Frank — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:21:17 +0000

Gwen shows off her sockeye catch of the day

In B.C. we are celebrating a huge sockeye salmon run – the largest in the last 100 years they say. Commercial and amateur fishermen are out there making the most of this.

Salmon fishing in BC is one of those activities that seems to be part of [...]

Getting out on the water

Frank — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:31:55 +0000

Making waves in Howe Sound

This week two of our kids took us out for a boating trip on the Howe Sound. This was supposed to mark Sue’s birthday and Father’s Day (both of which were back in June). It was a lovely sunny day and they hired a boat from Sewells Marina in Horseshoe [...]

Getting good advice on the real estate market

Frank — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:48:40 +0000

One of the many things that we wished we could control when we are moving countries is the price of real estate. The perfect situation would be to sell your home at the top of your local market (in the first week ideally), transfer your money with a great exchange rate [...]

Summer and school

Frank — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:50:51 +0000

Our local beach

I popped into Staples yesterday for some paper and noticed the Back to School signs were up. They had all the local elementary school stationery lists there too, so that you can buy everything that your child needs.

It was a not very welcome, and rather premature, reminder that summer is going [...]

How to stay positive when relocating

Frank — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:35:30 +0000

Skiing on Cypress Mountain

Relocating often seems to be more about waiting than moving doesn’t it? For us that was true. We waited for visas. We waited to sell our house. We waited for the removal men. We waited at the airport. We waited at immigration and we waited at customs.

It can be pretty frustrating [...]

How can you avoid the freshman 15?

Frank — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:30:13 +0000

You have probably not heard of the freshman 15. It is the name given to the way first year students away at college gain 15 pounds in their first semester. So what has that got to do with you as a new arrival in Canada?

It may have a lot, depending on how you adjust your [...]

What do Canadians do over a long weekend

Frank — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 12:33:07 +0000

Vancouver beaches

We just enjoyed our Canada Day celebration, so I thought I would paint a picture of how Canadians make the most of these extra days off. Most of us who come to Canada have a vision of our lives in Canada that includes enjoying the great outdoors, and you’ll be glad to know [...]

What will you give me for my old UK driving license?

Frank — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:53:19 +0000

Now you can drive

There is some good news for all those people from the UK who have been worrying about taking the road test to get your BC license. Now you can exchange your UK license for a BC one.

The ICBC web site has now been updated to confirm this (rumours were spreading for [...]

World cup soccer

Frank — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:50:26 +0000

I probably don’t need to tell you that the soccer world cup is underway at the moment in South Africa. Here in Canada we are following it too. I have to say that it is pretty low key compared to 1. Hockey and 2. the Olympics. Of course Canada is not in the competition so [...]