Tradewinds Realty is celebrating another important milestone in international marketing. The Nova Scotia real estate experts have just notched up several pieces of valuable editorial space in key European newspapers and magazines since the turn of the year.

“Achieving this sort of profile is incredibly important to our sellers,” says Tim Harris, broker/owner. “It clearly shows that we are attracting more overseas buyers through the international press than any of our competitors and are achieving an unprecedented level of market exposure for our clients.

“This forms an important part of our effort to gain a significant awareness throughout the UK and Europe. Overseas buyers, especially from the UK have become an important ingredient in our local real estate market over the last few years. These buyers provide us with a rich seem of market opportunity.”

To achieve this consistently high level of media penetration means that Tradewinds Realty agents, Chester based press department and the firms’ highly experienced marketing team located in London work exceptionally closely together.

Nick Churton who heads the UK marketing team comments, “All these elements have to link perfectly. Tradewinds Realty agents have all been trained in international marketing through the company’s training schemes, and the two press offices on both sides of the Atlantic work superbly well together to ensure that the international press feature as many homes being offered through Tradewinds Realty as possible.

“I can’t think of one other Canadian real estate firm that is achieving the level of editorial exposure in the European press as Tradewinds Realty at the moment. It is this extra marketing ingredient that sets the firm apart from others. It is the effort, creativity, experience and results that sets a truly great real estate firm from an ordinary one – and nothing about Tradewinds Realty is ever ordinary.”

In the same month that a helium balloon in Colorado made its famous flight – without its supposed young passenger – the balloon also went up in the UK regarding mortgage lending, not that this generated quite so much global publicity. The news that the UK’s financial regulatory authority, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), was to hold banks and other mortgage lenders more responsible for their conduct in providing funds for house buyers was, however, met at the same time with both partial agreement and sharp criticism.

Some were pleased that no one would now be able to borrow beyond their means. Others were anxious that this would be yet another factor to help stall the real estate market – along with Value Added Tax going up, and the Stamp Duty (UK property purchase tax) – holiday coming to an end, the general election next year and a new taste for austerity that might deter buyers from moving up market.

Some commentators predicted that the market would go into the dreaded double dip and there were even those that predicted Armageddon – especially, like the builders of the Colorado balloon, those that wanted to seek some extra publicity for themselves.

The reality will probably be less headline-making. All the above factors may have a slowing effect on the market. There may be less choice and this could keep prices artificially high. But even the most pessimistic headline grabber must agree that the market shouldn’t return to its position of last year. The factor that the doomsayers always seem to neglect is human nature. We are an ambitious species and those in our islands are an ambitious people. We like to better ourselves. We like to invest for the future and, if possible, for our children’s future.

As for the FSA, not to agree that some sort of onus should be put on the banks to lend in a responsible manner rather suggests that they should act irresponsibly. It was irresponsible banks with irresponsible lending policies that partly got us into all this financial mess in the first place. As so many banks seem to have forgotten how to demonstrate fiscal responsibility it must surely then be up to others to ensure they do.

Banks and other mortgage lenders telling us what we could and couldn’t borrow served us well for hundreds of years before the customers’ financial wellbeing was overtaken by greed when they started to lend to anyone. That we return to those days of responsible banks and lending should be a comforting frustration for most home buyers, even if it does mean some may have to save a little longer and the steam will be taken out of the market for a while.

But the problem with this new regulation is that it may well go too far. It will make it harder for the self-employed to obtain a mortgage without established proof of earnings. This is unhelpful at a time when we should surely be encouraging brave new initiatives and entrepreneurs. Those with self-certification mortgages – which made up 10% of all mortgages agreed in 2007 – will find it harder to re-mortgage when their fixed terms come to an end. Perhaps just as importantly first time buyers will certainly have to jump through a great many more hoops to buy a property than those who bought over the past twenty years. Cold comfort that their parents may well have experienced the same difficulties, but they at least have had the advantage of seeing their bricks and mortar assets accumulate at an extraordinary rate – albeit with a couple of glitches on the way.

We are entering a new era of mortgage lending. It will take a while for things to settle down but one thing does seem certain: for those with the funds and the ambition investing in property is still one of the soundest investments we will make for ourselves and our families, and that is worth getting the balloons out for.

Some Sellers find it helpful to take a photo of the front of their house and enlarge it to at least 8” X 10”. Study it carefully and ask other family members to do so as well. What are the likely first impressions it creates. Plain, bland, tired, perky, handsome, etc. may come to mind. Write them down and study them until you can settle on a minimum of three adjectives that capture the likely first impressions. Then you should focus on what would most likely improve its appearance and elicit more favourable first impressions.

First, you should address the basics. Does it appear to need repainting? If so, visit your local home centre or building products store and examine the wide variety of exterior colours available these days. Seek the advice of the paint department manager. Ask for the location of homes with some of the exciting new colours/combinations that you think might be just what your house needs, and be sure to visit them and take a few photos for later study. Above all, we recommend that you avoid white as the basic colour; it’s far too common, boring, and suggests that you have little or no imagination.

Next, check the front doors. Do they add or detract from the house appearance? Aluminum storm doors and windows should be removed altogether. (They date your house exterior to the 1950s and 1960s.) Be sure to shop for energy efficient replacement doors and windows – Buyers are going “green” these days.

How about shutters – there are lots of attractive new products at your building centre. Awnings? Half rounds above the front entrance and simple tent style awnings for the windows can spruce up an exterior in a hurry. Landscaping is next on the list. Concentrate on trees and shrubs – they’re visible all year; flowers are not. If foundation shrubbery is overgrown, some judicious pruning is called for. How is the walkway to the front door? Check out interlocking brick pavers (also at your building centre) for a weekend project that will display your good taste. Is there an asphalt driveway? If it has wheel ruts or is badly cracked, get a quote from a paving contractor to have it repaired (if possible) or replaced. Otherwise, put a coat of shiny black sealer on it. If it’s in really bad shape, consider removing it and replacing it with crushed stone.

Consider a new brass mailbox, along with matching door hardware and civic numbers to add a final bit of polish. Finally, check your roof for missing or cracked shingles, and other signs that it’s nearing the end of its useful life. If it needs replacement, you might as well have it done now. A good house inspector will spot it right away and you might end up having to pay for its replacement in any case. A new roof could well help make your house look well cared for. Many Buyers like to see a list of annoying repairs/upgrades that have been completed by the Seller. They mostly prefer the idea of a house being in move-in condition, without their having to get busy themselves in their spare time.

Home selling mistake #1 – Overpricing

Many people have difficulty assessing the true market value of their home. (“Market value” is the price range within which prudent, informed and motivated buyers will consider the pricing to be reasonable.) Sellers may associate the home with many fond memories. Or, they think that their improvements and decorating efforts make it worth “top dollar”, and that’s what they want for it. While most have no accurate idea as to what their home is worth, some do have a fairly accurate idea of its true value, but decide to go with a higher asking price in hopes that someone comes along who falls in love with it. The sellers also believe that they can always lower their asking price later if there are no acceptable offers. They overprice their home, committing costly mistake number one.

The sad reality is that overpricing a home seldom results in a quick sale. People will inquire, some will actually visit it, but rarely does anyone make an offer. Buyers seem to be ignoring it. What’s happening?

First of all, Realtors can quickly spot overpriced houses merely by doing a quick drive-by and studying the listing information. They know what comparable houses in their area are selling for – it’s their business to know. More importantly, over 90% of home buyers research listings on the Internet before ever contacting a Realtor. So, most Realtors and buyers quickly cross the overpriced property off their lists, and move on. By the time the sellers decide it’s time to lower the price into its true market value range, many once prospective buyers have already purchased another comparable property that was reasonably priced. Of those who are still searching, many have already decided that your property is overpriced and they have stopped visiting your listing. The result – few even notice the price reduction.

What happens now? Usually, not much. Realtors and buyers consider the property to be “stale”. It often takes several price reductions before new buyers are attracted. Others, of course, will be attracted as well – the bargain hunters. They almost never pay the asking price, even if it is now reasonable. Rather, they “low ball” their offers – by as much as 15% or 20% below the new asking price. The end result is that the seller either cancels the listing to “try again next year”, or sells significantly below market value – often a year or more after the For Sale sign was first erected.

When this happens, the sellers often accept less for the property than its true market value when it was first listed. The true cost of overpricing also includes the monthly interest payments on the mortgage, as well as accrued municipal property taxes. Plus, all the inconvenience, aggravation and disappointment such sellers usually experience. To avoid this discouraging outcome, sellers should ask their Realtor to prepare a written Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) for their property. It will contain accurate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) information on recent actual sale prices for three or more comparable properties in the same area. It will also contain information on comparable properties currently for sale – i.e. the competition. Your Realtor will be able to give you sound advice on pricing that is backed up by these facts and figures. If your expectations are reasonable, your results should be as well.

Tim Harris

mailto:tim.harris@tradewindsrealty.com

I know what he was really asking “Why hasn’t my home sold?”

To answer his question I responded with this comment on the market.

Dear Tom,

I wrote more than intended to answer your question, but here it is all the samel…..

The real estate market is odd this year. I had prepared my agents for hard times this year, but everyone seems to be selling. Luckily we have a very, very broad range of product and spread across the province (700+ listings), so on a company level I have something selling somewhere, which insures cash flow. Having said that, January & February were scary, as the cash was freely flowing out the door, just on heat, lights and salary and no income for those 2 months. I can see where big companies get in trouble quickly when they can’t stem the cash burn during no-sale or slow-sale months.

On a local scale, our under $500,000 sales are good. New listings are selling quickly, back-logged properties are a bit stuck as they have been passed over by the market. Very hard to kick these back in gear. You almost have to paint the house another color and move it over a block on new foundations to get people to look at the property in a new light. Something like the Monty Python’s sketch “That parrot is dead” and switching it to a conversation with a Buyer.  Buyer:”That’s not a new listing, that was for sale last year, that property is dead!”, Agent: “No it wasn’t, it is not dead, it is just sleeping, it was a different  colour last year, so it is a different listing, have a look. I can hear it breathing.” Buyer: “But is the same house, and it is dead, expired, no longer of this earth!” Agent: “No, it is not, it is a different colour, it’s not expired, it is a new listing, so it is a different house, have a look.” etc…

On the serious side, what we are lacking, are Buyers! The US Buyer is close to non-existent and the UK Buyers went real quiet in the past 6 months. However, this is light at the end of the tunnel. There is some turn around, as we have had a few UK buyers in the shop in the past few weeks. But all under $500,000 in interest. Over $1,000,000 sales have not happened this season as yet. Having said that, we have a few, very few, potential Buyers coming in this late spring, but they are holding their cash tight and expecting the best of product for their dollar.

House prices are not depressing, but they are not growing either (some MLS figures indicate a 10% drop in selling prices, year over year, but that is data prepared against the total NS market). If the property is priced well and value is evident on first blush, Buyers respect the price and aren’t cutting back their offers. But if they suspect it to be over-priced for the market, they either dismiss it or make an offer to low to work with.

What has been evident for the past few months is that pricing is key. Some new Sellers entering the market are pricing at a net loss, after they take in all house costs and upgrades over the years. But in all our sales thus far this year, the ones that sold, the market asking price was set by the Realtor. The days are gone that owners can dictate their own asking price and expect to beat the market and sell above the line.

Tom, the above is just a very general comment on the market and not specifically targeted to the Chester market, your house or any house particularity, these are just my observations of the market in general.

cheers.

Tim

The article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/greathomesanddestinations/06gh-sale.html?ref=realestate

A PDF version is available here: novascotia_nytimes_2009

I hope you enjoy it.

Tim Harris  mailto:tim.harris@tradewindsrealty.com

twitter:  http://twitter.com/twharris

@twharris

A chat with a U.K. family who are delighted with their purchase of Nova Scotia real estate

A few days after Christmas, 2008, I met Robert & Nicki D. at the modern Chester area bungalow that they purchased one year ago. Robert is a retired London (England) “Bobby” and Nicki is employed as an Accounts Department Manager for a large independent travel company in central London. They were in the Chester area for a one week vacation (their third visit this year) and they’ve invited me to their home for coffee

An aerial view of the area around the Village of Chester, NS

and a chat about their recent Nova Scotia real estate experience. Avid world travellers for many years, I asked them what had initially attracted them to Nova Scotia.

Nicki replied that “My grandfather was born here in 1898. His father was a Sergeant in the Royal Artillery based at the Halifax Citadel. They obviously traveled all over the world, so he was here only for a very short time. So, we’ve always had a connection with Nova Scotia, if you like. I’ve always wanted to come here.” Robert added, “We also were fairly frequent visitors to Maine and New England where we had friends, and fell in love with that sort of area … the coastline and the environment. We always liked New England, but we had friends move here and when we saw their photographs, it looked exactly like New England. So, we thought that we’d give Nova Scotia’s South Shore a look.”

They came, and were conquered. “It was the coastline that attracted us to the South Shore more than anything else. The reason we ended up in the Chester area was we have friends who have retired nearby. Equally important though, is that the Chester area for us is accessible year round. It’s only a forty-five minute drive from the Halifax airport. Plus, there seems to be a lot going on here out of season. It’s a short drive to Martock ski resort. There’s more happening, if you like. Theatre, restaurants. It’s got all the facilities that you’d want. We like coming here at all times of the year. Nicki is coming back in April with some girlfriends for a long weekend.”

Asked how long they spent on the ground in the Chester area before buying a property, they agreed that, “First, we spent a lot of time on Internet research prior to coming – property values, property types and information about the South Shore generally. Then, another English friend of ours who had bought a house in the Chester Village area told us about Tradewinds Realty. She’d worked with (Tradewinds Realtor) Bill Hadskis to purchase her residence, and she recommended him highly. We made two trips here for a combined total of ten days.”

“We offered on a beautifully renovated heritage house in Riverport, and then the inspection report was done on it and there were problems. We loved the house but, at the end of the day, it was difficult. We learned that the heritage property needed a lot more work, and constant attention. Not being here permanently, we felt that it was too much to take on, though we did love the house. We’ve always lived in “period” properties. We’d have had no trouble doing the work if we were here full time. By this time we were looking closer to Chester. We also fell in love with this bungalow as soon as we viewed it. It ticked all our boxes, so to speak, of things we wanted.”

Asked to compare the experience of buying real estate in Nova Scotia with that in the U.K., they both agreed that “It’s one thousand percent better here. Agents are so much more professional. They worked for us instead of themselves. Everything was explained very well to us.

Also, when you make an offer on a property here and it’s accepted, it’s binding. In England, it’s not binding, and you go through months worrying that something’s going to change, you know? You sit on a knife’s edge and you sit there until almost the last month, before you find out if the sale is going to go through (i.e. close). The whole transaction here was handled very professionally by all involved. The system here is ten times better than in England. We were lucky; we sold our house in the UK before we bought here. We were so lucky. The timing was perfect. We couldn’t have wished for better.”

Next, I asked, “Is there anything you’d do differently if you were doing it again?” Robert quickly chuckled and noted that, “I would have exchanged my money when we first made the decision to buy a house here, because I’d be about £10,000 up now. Paul, I think that we were

very well guided by Bill Hadskis.” Nicki added, “When we arrived, we had a meeting at the Tradewinds Realty office in Chester and reviewed the properties we had found on the Internet. Bill and (assisting Realtor) Lynn Stewart had previewed the properties before our arrival, and we eliminated several of them because the research done by the agents turned up information that was not obvious to Robert and I from the internet listings. Their research was extremely helpful, and exactly what we needed.” Robert summed up by saying, “If people do the same research we did and get a good agent, then their work’s done. I’m convinced of it, and it’s an enjoyable experience finding a place. Quite exciting, actually. Most pleasing was to find the best property for us in the best location and to be blessed with really good neighbours as well. Our neighbours have been excellent. We found them very understanding – that we’re not living here all the time at the moment. They keep an eye on the house for us. They also have been very good for local advice, and they’ve become friends. That’s a bonus to finding the right property.”

As for their young children, “They love it here. It’s the outdoor life that they like – being able to play outside. Also, the wildlife – humming birds, deer, the biggest red fox I’ve ever seen, squirrels and chipmunks. They also like to play with the neighbours’ dogs. Their favourite thing though, is jumping around on the huge rocks at Peggy’s Cove.”

Now that they have had some time to explore the area, one of their most pleasant surprises has been the ocean beaches and the national parks. “They are even better than we were expecting. They are unspoiled. We’ve been to Hirtles Beach (near Kingsburg), Bayswater Beach (near Blandford) a couple of times and Crescent Beach (at the mouth of the LaHave River). We often go to the Tradewinds web cams at home when we’re missing the South Shore just to see what’s happening in Chester and down at Lunenburg.”

Finally, I asked if they had any advice for other residents of the U.K. who are thinking of investing in Nova Scotia real estate, and I was not disappointed. “The equivalent to the Chester area in England would be Cornwall, but here it’s a lot quieter and not as touristy. To get this property (with over one-half an acre of land and a distant ocean view) in a comparable location in Cornwall would be around £600,000. We paid one-quarter of that here. The coastline is the major similarity. We feel the climate here is also much better overall than in the U.K. People at home say, ‘Nova Scotia – it must be really cold there.’ I look at the temperatures day by day on the Internet (Weather Network), and it’s generally nicer here than it is in the U.K. Sure, you can get some extremes of weather, but that makes life more interesting than living under almost constant grey skies at home.”

One of the major attractions for Robert and Nicki when they travel abroad are beaches. “We’ve traveled around the world many, may times, and I would say that the beaches here are better. Apart from the ocean here being cold, the beaches are unspoiled, quiet and the backdrop to the beaches is just stunning, isn’t it? I think that there are very few good beaches that you can go to in the world that are as unoccupied, as vacant as they are here. If you find a good beach anywhere else in the world, including the Caribbean, there are only a certain number of beaches on those islands that are any good. I wouldn’t say those are as accessible as our beaches here are. The beaches on the South Shore are great for children. They’re not plagued with shops and amusements and people charging you to rent deck chairs; everywhere else you go in the world, you have to pay just to go on the beach. The beaches are free here. No vendors. A very big point for us is that people here seem to take their rubbish away.”

“Another thing”, Robert added, “It’s very much a safe environment here. Road safety and personal safety here compared to the U.K. is a big plus for us as well. Our children would never play outside on the street at home. People here drive closer to the speed limit. They respect children’s school zones. There’s a lot more respect for the rules here. The general feeling of well-being here – the fresh air, the fresh food, the personal safety, lack of pressure when you’re driving – all those things make for a really relaxing place to live. It almost sounds too idyllic, but we can’t speak highly enough of the place. Those are the simple facts of it.”

”Any further advice?”, I asked. Robert: “Maybe, follow our lead, do all your initial research on the Internet through the various sites available, work within your budget, and come over and have a look, identify the areas you’d consider living in. Bear in mind, above all, their accessibility. We’ve done long weekend trips to Lake Placid (N.Y.), Boston, and lots of places in Europe, so we want it very accessible to the airport for a weekend. A 45 minute drive here for the weekend is no effort, but a 2 ½ or 3 hour drive to Cape Breton, you’d be looking at putting in a lot of extra driving time, and making extra work for yourself. It’s also only a six hour flight here from Heathrow – less than New York, less than Boston, and not a lot further from the U.K. than the Canary Islands. It’s not a massive journey.”

Other miscellaneous observations by Nicki and Robert … Nicki: “There’s very good shopping here and the staff are very helpful. The shop prices for groceries are pretty much the same as in the U.K. and here there is better quality, fresher seafood/vegetables and more variety. Also, the restaurants here are far better value, especially if you love seafood as we do. For example, you will not better our favourites – the Mediterranean fish soup at the Innlet Café in Mahone Bay, or the lobster and shrimp pizza at the Rope Loft in Chester.”

Robert: “The pace of life here is laid back. Even if you were working here, it would be a far easier pace of life. Great for children, too.”

Nicki: “The stunning scenery and coastlines are the big attractions. The ocean views are everywhere. It’s gorgeous, and so quiet, silent. It feels so natural.” Robert: “We’re both born and bred Londoners. We came home last night, got out of the car and looked at the stars filling the entire sky. You can never do that in London. The children saw their first shooting stars.”

While they are currently using their Chester area home for vacations and long weekend visits, they are seriously considering becoming more permanent residents. Robert is even thinking of a second storey addition for a master bedroom suite with a balcony for future enjoyment of their cherished ocean and offshore island views.

editor: Tim Harris

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/budgettravel/4448865/Guide-to-house-swap-holidays-in-Nova-Scotia.html

Guide to house swap holidays: Scotia free

If the economy has done for your regular family holiday, a house swap may be just the ticket. Sara Wheeler traded Camden for Canada. - By Sara Wheeler – 10 Feb 2009

'We needed little to entertain two small boys beyond the kayaks and bikes' Photo: Bojan Fürst

My Canadian husband grew up in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic seaboard; his people had emigrated from Scotland after the Clearances. He had always spoken fondly of the pastoral landscapes of the 1950s where he and his brothers skinny-dipped in cool lakes, and of the drive-in cinema where he claims half the population was conceived. He wanted to take our children, to see if it still existed. So last August we fixed up a house swap in Nova Scotia.

As a veteran of three tremendous family home exchanges, I can reveal that these are the only holiday options on the planet with absolutely no hidden costs. The home we picked was on Black Point in Pictou County (pronounced Picto), near New Glasgow and 105 miles from Halifax, the provincial capital. Set in characteristic North Shore dunes overlooking the Northumberland Strait, the back garden decanted on to a two-mile sandy beach.

Inside, the house, home like ours to a family of four, was abnormally clean, and typically North American in that everything in it was outsize, from the frightening Maytag washing-machine to the four-berth fridge. But it would be hard to conceive of a lovelier setting. I never saw more than a dozen people on our beach; most of the time it was just us and the bald eagles. There was a bank of reeds where piping plovers nested. The water was warm. Nova Scotians boast that their North Shore is the warmest on the whole east coast because its shallow, sandy bottom stretches to Prince Edward Island rather than toppling off the continental shelf.

Our neighbours were few, their houses clapboard or faux-clapboard, some handsome and some not, but all called cottages by my husband (reverting to type the minute he stepped on to the Tarmac) even if ‘mansion’ would have been more appropriate. Our children, inordinately proud of their half-Canadian status, rejoiced at the maple leaf flags hoisted in the front yards. The unsavoury practice of flying the national flag outside one’s home is much less common in Canada than in the US; its popularity in the backwoods of Black Point exemplifies the curiously unreconstructed nature of Nova Scotian society. Off the quiet roads, blue spruce and other softwoods rolled inland, trailing a heady scent of gummy resin.

It turns out that North Shore Nova Scotians are equally proud of their Scottish heritage. The region has attracted so little immigration that the original settlement patterns remain, as does the ethnic mix; our area, dotted with cavernous Presbyterian churches, was even called the Scottish Coast, and a shop near Alma advertised kilt rentals. When we visited the Hector replica in Pictou harbour, we were gripped to find a Graham (my husband’s surname) on the ship’s list. In 1773, when the Hector set sail from Loch Broom in Ross-shire carrying 33 families, a piper and 25 single men wearing the forbidden tartans, it inaugurated the great Highland migrations. The 11-week voyage was so crowded, the ship so unsanitary and the passengers so seasick that 18 died of smallpox and dysentery before making landfall.

Other Canadians perceive the Maritimes – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (add Newfoundland and you get Atlantic Canada) – as rustic, attractive and inhabited by seriously weird people. Appearances of the provinces in the national papers are restricted to charming photographs of the red cliffs of PEI and reportage of the ‘Cape Breton Man Claims to be Martian’ variety, the latter illustrated with pictures of a spaceship built from lobster claws. Perhaps this will change when Newfoundland brings in its oil from the Grand Banks in seven years.

Yet Canadian townies still crowd the fashionable yachty developments of Chester and Lunenburg on the east coast of Nova Scotia (Canada’s ocean­front playground! yell the province’s number­plates). Those parts have been the Hamptons of the north (sort of) since the 1900s, when city folk flocked in to sample the placid water and tie up at Chester’s deep, fogless moorings.

The North Shore, on the other hand, is devoid of tourists: we were the only people on our beach, ever, not connected in some way or other to Pictou County. It was ‘down home’ with a retro Nova Scotian tang: the ancient schoolbus converted into an ice-cream van in the Wentworth Valley; the annual Chedabucto Mackerel Derby; the local newspaper called the Antigonish Casket. Even at the Atlantic Super­store in New Glasgow, staff at the fruit and veg section wore dungarees and plaid shirts. The 21st century has yet to make an appearance, as have decent restaurants. But who needs what local brochures still quaintly refer to as ‘fine dining’ when you can buy scallop and lobster by the bucketload? The difficulty was deciding between one lobster or two.

We were lucky with the weather, and needed little to entertain two small boys beyond the kayaks and bikes – four of each – that came with the house. At sunset we drifted with the current in Back Bay, watching ospreys come home, and at night huddled round a beach fire or let off fireworks purchased from the petrol station. We had planned a three-day trip to the south-west, but abandoned it: it was too good where we were. Instead, to break the idyllic monotony, we drove west along the Northumberland Shore to Oak Island and Fox Harbour, where we found vast sand flats (unoccupied even in mid-August), as well as more eagles and a dazzling mare’s-tail sky. When the boys spotted a porcupine on the way home, we tailed it (porcupines never run – they don’t need to. Nothing could survive an encounter with its erect needles). Last thing, we called at the Harbour Store to pick up lobsters for a late supper. The live ones go for Can$10.99 (£6.25) per kilogram.

The south coast east of Halifax is the least populated region of the 21,345 square mile province. ‘Where are all the people?’ asked 11-year-old Wilf as we headed through luxuriant forest and wide rivers (wide by European standards, at any rate). At Sherbrooke in the logging heartlands of the St Mary’s River watershed, a recreated 19th-century settlement occupied half the village. Normally I hate that kind of thing. But the rest of Sherbrooke was so old-fashioned one barely noticed the difference. The foggy, granite-cliffed shore south of Sherbrooke spooled east towards Cape Breton, fretted with saltwater inlets and wooden piers. We cooked corn over a fire at Lonely Rock near Larry’s River, originally a French settlement named La Rivière – those Scots knew how to put the Frogs in their place.

The first Wheeler-Graham house swap unfolded on the Greek island of Lesbos, the northernmost of the Eastern Sporades. For three weeks we exchanged our home with a villa in Thermi, a village surrounded by olive groves 15 minutes’ drive from the capital, Mytilene. It was a traditional stone house with overhanging upper storeys, and the master bedroom and roof terrace overlooked the Aegean and the Turkish coast; at owl light we watched fishing boats bringing home the catch before hurrying down to the harbour taverna to gobble it up. Unlike our Nova Scotian hosts, the owner and his wife, both academics at the university of the Eastern Sporades, had taken a refreshingly casual approach to preparing the house for its new residents. Half the food in the fridge was mouldy. One learnt not to open a cupboard, as one risked being flattened by the lava of junk that foamed forth. All the appliances had quirky features, or didn’t work at all. But who cared, when the beach was a five-minute walk away?

By saving so much cash on a house swap, I always reckon that we can afford one good add-on excursion. In Lesbos we took the ferry to Ayvalik in Turkey (a five-mile hop), trawled the waterfront and hired Captain Hussein and his boat for three days. We slept on board, ate fresh sardines cooked on a brazier, bathed in the sea – as Gertrude Stein said, ‘Paradise, if you can stand it.’

At Christmas 2007 we took our chances in Morocco. We found a house at Agadir on the Atlantic coast. This one was a different kettle of couscous – urban, smart and serviced daily by a charming maid inevitably called Fatima who spoke not a word of English or French. But we co-opted a neighbour to interpret, and Fatima whipped up excellent tagines to sustain us after a hard day in the souk.

All three of our swaps included a car, and this is where one really saves money. In Morocco we had use of a four-wheel-drive. It was swappee Taoufique who recommended a first-class excursion itinerary. We headed south through the dizzying gorges of the Anti-Atlas, finding excellent roads and no traffic, and breaking the journey at Les Amandiers, a kasbah-style hilltop hotel in Tafraoute overlooking the date groves and pink-walled Berber villages nestled in the Ameln valley. The hotel, all high-ceilings and drowsy waiters, was straight out of The Sheltering Sky. Onward to Tata, where we took refuge at Dar Infiane in the heart of the palmeraie, its six glorious rock-hewn rooms looking out on to the Sahara quietly steaming beyond 20,000 date palms. On the third night we fetched up at a tented encampment among the rocky desert excrescences at Akka Naît Sidi gorge, and after the sun went down behind Jbel Banni, the chill fell like a curtain.

Part of the fun of a house swap is getting inside someone else’s life; it’s voyeurism, but in a good way. Does she ever wear those furry handcuffs at the bottom of the wardrobe? Why do they keep bin-bags of old newspapers in the basement? Could anyone possibly like that painting? The London-based writer Miranda Seymour was so intrigued to notice that her swappee, a single man from New York, had the same CDs and books as her, that they met up – and later married.

Practically, a swap offers opportunities that would not be possible without incurring considerable expense in regular holiday accommodation. Our house, and the three with which we swapped, had more bedrooms than were needed. In Lesbos we had five friends to stay for a week. Our Moroccan swappees hosted Christmas for their Paris-based son in our idiosyncratic terrace house in London (it’s a former butcher’s), and the Nova Scotians took Granny along to show her Bucking­ham Palace. All this happened after consent had been requested and given, by email, in advance.

Animals are a trickier issue, but it is surprising how many people post their places on the house-swap website with pets attached. One, predictably in California, came equipped with a cage of snakes. Our Lesbos place advertised two dogs that lived in the large yard. This, I reasoned in advance, would be fun for my two small urban guerrillas (and I had a pair of guinea pigs of my own that needed feeding). Somehow or other, by the time we got there the two dogs had become eight.

On our last night in Nova Scotia, we found the Empire Drive-In on the outskirts of New Glasgow. It was the size of several football pitches, with only two other cars. It was showing a double bill of Star Wars and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. You had to tune the car radio to FM 91.5 for the soundtrack. It had a satisfactorily dingy 1950s feel. Yes, my husband concluded, it was just as he remembered. Now our boys had memories too.

    * The family flew with Canadian Affair. London Gatwick to Halifax from £139pp one way (020-7616 9933; canadian-affair.co.uk). For information on Nova Scotia, visit novascotia.com

Home from home

I arranged my three house swaps through homeexchange.com. A US$50 joining fee is payable, and after that no money changes hands. You need to upload photographs of your property on to the site, with details about when the house will be available, whether a car is included, and so on.

You can either specify where you want to go, or wait and see what pops up when potential swappees respond to your posting. Once contact is made, the site has no further involvement in the transaction.

Swappees don’t only want London or other tourist hotspots. They are open to ideas. Like estate agencies, house-swap sites have something for everyone.

You will see from the site that facilities are listed – almost all the houses have washing-machines, broadband, and so on. Many have staff. Some owners suggest excursion options. Some even throw in second properties.

It is important to specify any restrictions you may have, such as no children, or no smoking. You will get the hang of this as you browse the site, and pick up ideas from other people. I found it useful to have a good look around the site.

Once dates are agreed, you and your swappee exchange emails to sort out details such as use of landline phone (we usually say use it as much as you want for local calls), availability of Skype, etc. It’s friendly to leave as much as you can in the way of maps and local information, and food for the first day or so. There are no contracts to exchange, and no formalities.

I informed my home contents insurance company and my car insurance company in writing about the incoming swappees. No extra charges were payable, though the contents insurer did not cover the swappees’ personal possessions.

I was worried that I would return to a pile of parking tickets: how could any foreigner grasp the Byzantine regulations of Camden council’s parking department, or the Congestion Charge? So I left detailed instructions – and returned to no parking tickets.

In each case, I returned to find my own house as I had left it.

Not something you see everyday in London

Nick Churton assesses the first few weeks of real estate market activity in 2009 and suggests that while the economic picture may still be grave in both the US and Europe, local market activity in the housing sector seems to be far from moribund.

The shiny chrome pinball of bank failures on both sides of the Atlantic still crashes around the machine, ringing up eye-watering losses as it goes.

Newspaper headlines sensationally remind us of the effect this is having.  But some media can often be out of step with breaking real estate market news.  Experts as they may be, news reporters are not working day-by-day in real estate offices and they are often the innocent mouthpieces of received wisdom.  Real estate statistics and trends do not have the immediacy of the stock market, they take longer to filter through and then distort the up-to-date truth.

Fortunately each piece of negative media news makes one fewer bad headline in the future.  This downturn will end, just as certainly as the Great Depression of the 1920s ended.  Already, in 2009, there are signs of increased activity in the real estate market.  These are not ‘green shoots’ – heaven forbid one should announce that just yet!  But there are signs that people who have to move are getting on with it.  These signs also show that many sellers have brought their hot price expectations more into line with cold reality.

It is never easy to come to terms with a loss of some equity in one’s home – especially for those who have never had to come to terms with this in the past.  But before long the desire to move on in life overcomes even the most steadfast seller when faced with the proposition that getting on may be better than holding on – especially when what they are holding on to might still be sinking.  It’s rather like asking comfortable passengers on the Titanic, before it hit the iceberg, if they would like to freeze in an over-laden lifeboat and then asking them again after the collision.  Same question.  Different answer.

We are living through a dramatic piece of economic history that will be mentioned as much in the future as the Great Depression has been in the past.  Indeed it is probable that the two events will be forever linked as classic examples of modern cataclysmic economic and commercial breakdown.

But those of us living through such shattering events are being forced to make decisions that few of our grandparents and great grandparents ever had to make.   Mass home ownership, we have all learnt, can wear two masks – one of comedy and the other of tragedy.

Much depends now on how quickly that shiny pinball comes to rest.  But meanwhile there are sure signs that the real estate buying and selling public are fed up with this recession, they are not prepared to put their lives on hold while the governments across the world get their policies sorted out, or until the banks get their houses in order or even until price correction ends and property regains its upward momentum.

Buyers are visiting real estate offices in greater numbers, checking online and inspecting homes.  And why shouldn’t they be?  There is great choice, prices have come down dramatically and those with the finance can enjoy some of the lowest interest rates ever.