Salt Spring Island property taxes and turkeys? What do turkeys and taxes have to do with each other? It is simply a matter of having a hobby and saving taxes. If you are a hobby gardener or farmer you can get a break on your property tax if you sell your primary agricultural products. Here is the link to the gov site http://bcassessment.gov.bc.ca/process/agricultural_forestry/classify_farm.aspProperty taxes are paid with after tax money. Just figure out how much you would have to have saved up in a retirement plan to; earn enough to draw out, then pay income tax on it, so you could pay your property tax.If you can reduce your property tax and have fun doing that's what I call a good situation.See the video of our latest turkey poults.    06/09/2007

Salt Spring Island real estate land use  Bylaw #355 is the one to read over if you are thinking of moving here. The Bylaw has all the information on every aspect of land use such as seasonal cottages, dwellings on large farms, use of travel trailers, use of surface water, vehicle storage, height of buildings...I'm always amazed at seeing new houses on the market and finding out that they do not conform. They have no permits and the listing agent don't say anything about it. Once an offer goes in then the disclosure form would state that it is non-conforming but that seems rather late in the game to me.In Oak Bay, next to Victoria, the city actively cracked down on all illegal suites. They did this is by watching the real estate ads. On Salt Spring there is currently no active process to... 06/07/2007

Salt Spring Island real estate is it better to buy land and build or buy a home. June and I are contemplating selling our just finished house and buying land and building again. UGThe thing about it is that only 5% off the people in the market to buy a home want to do any work let alone build a house. That means there is a huge buying pool of customer for new finished houses. The house is the depreciating part of the equation and if we keep our place it will not be new in 5 or 10 years and will need to be spruced up to sell so why not sell when it is new and shinny.The thing about building is that if you have a simple design, which is the key to cost effective building, it is fairly easy. The most important thing is to find a level building lot and build slab on grade. I have built two ... 06/04/2007

Salt Spring Island Relocation Expert. This is my forte making sure your move goes as smooth as possible. You don't get ride of me when you buy your home. My job is finished when you and your belongings are tucked into your new Salt Spring Island home.I'm your person on the ground and will or can help you find or get things done at this end. Such as finding out about car insurance or home insurance. Getting you all the contact numbers so you can sign up for a phone or cablevision. Your Salt Spring Island Relocation Expert is Scott Simmons. I guess its called just plain old fashion customer service.CheersScott  05/31/2007

Salt Spring Island real estate will be affected by the new OCP (New 2007 official community plan). I have worked my way through some of it and it is quite interesting. Read all about the new rules here http://www.islandstrust.bc.ca/ltc/ss/projects.cfmThis is still in the planning stage but from what I have heard it will have one public meeting and then it will be adopted. Some of the big changes are the limits on house house sizes, 3000 sq ft maximum size. This is one of those rules that just does not seem fair. If someone bought 10 acres 10 years ago and planned on building their dream home on it now they may be limited.CheersScottThank-you, Alyssa hopefully this will help with your planning. 05/30/2007

Salt Spring island real estate home destroyers if you have an old shed or barn you want removed don't hesitate to call. I would rather have then working at anything that sitting around watching TV. When you live on Salt Spring life in an adventure and anything can happen in a regular day.The shed was not salvageable it had been eaten by Post Powder Beatles. The only thing to do with the wood is to burn it. It was about 50 years old and I had thought I could use the wood but there was just no way it could be used. It would crumble in your hands.CheersScotthttp://www.escapetosaltspring.com  05/29/2007

Salt Spring Island Real Estate speculation "tip" the big news is coming tomorrow from Catalyst paper. They have a press conference tomorrow in Port Alberni. They have lost $25,000,000 in the first quarter. The high Canadian dollar is really hurting them.You can read all about Crofton BC here on my Crofton page http://www.escapetosaltspring.com/Crofton_BC_homes/page_1838600.htmlIf feel bad for anyone getting laid off at the mills but as a real estate investor and annalist I see a huge up side in Crofton if the mill closes. Stay tuned.CheersScott  05/29/2007

Read about my trip to the dark side and back to heaven on earth Salt Spring Island BC. If you want to feel like you are alive again move here and join in on the fun. Read full story here http://escapetosaltspring.blogspot.com/It is just so nice to be back in my office booking in viewing of Salt Spring Real estate. I have two customers coming to the island this week and it is just so great to be here alive.There is nothing like being scared to death to reinvigorate your senses. This morning I went out into the backyard and kissed the ground. I must say I do luv Salt Spring.Cheers Scott   05/28/2007

Salt Spring Island Real Estate tax notice came in the mail yesterday. Taxes are low here. They really are after living in Calgary. Taxes are about 1/10 of what they pay in Calgary for a similar valued home.Mind you in Calgary there is no Home owners grant http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/rpt/home_owner_grants.htmand their is no Seniors grant http://www.cserv.gov.bc.ca/seniors/guide/Housing/grant.htm we don't claim this, not yet. In Calgary you would pay roughly $1000 property tax for every $100,000 in home value so if your house is worth $800,000 you are going to pay around $8000 in property taxes.On Salt Spring if a place is in the ALR (agriculture land reserve) http://www.alc.gov.bc.ca/ and if it had farm status. That means it would be an active farm. It would need to generate income of at le... 05/24/2007

Salt Spring Island Waterfront photo's are now up on my site. During the weekend I had the pleasure to sail as crew on the round salt spring race and took some cool photo's of Salt Spring waterfront. The best one was of the abandoned cabin and out house on the west side, a real fixer upper. The other pictures I liked where the ones of Cape Keppel who was named after the "father of the British Navy" Rear Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel K.C.B. that is according to Captain John T. Walbran the author of British Columbia Coast Names. Cape Keppel gets one of the biggest write up in his books because the Admiral was so famous in his time. To see the Salt Spring Island waterfront photo's go here.cheersScotthttp://www.escapetosaltspring.com/  05/22/2007

from the water. On the weekend I was invited to sail in the round Salt Spring Island sailing race. I managed to take 80 pictures of all the Salt Spring island waterfront homes I could see. I will be posting them on my site soon on a new page with a description of each area. It is really hard to get a feel for all the houses unless you can see them from the water. 80% of them are hidden from the road. For a complete race report visit my Salt Spring island sailing blog. cheersScotthttp://www.escapetosaltspring.com/   05/21/2007

Salt Spring Island BC Real Estate home buying tip "check the permits". How many homes on salt Spring Island don't have permits? Lots. It is a big issue here. There is no city hall on Salt Spring the Capitol Regional District is in charge of building permits and the inspectors do a great job. They really do, they are knowledgeable, assessable, easy to get along with. Why don't people get permits because they seem to slip through the loop hole. Unless someone complains there is no ongoing active compliance program.So some people just don't get them. Is the work done up to code if there is no permits?....hum... good question.Read more about Salt Spring Island permits here.CheersScott  http://www.escapetosaltspring.com/  05/17/2007

Salt Spring Island real estate farm or acreage buying tip. When you buy your place you will need some farm implements. Such as a tractor, my favorite is the mini Kubota. If I win the lotto, I would buy one the next day. It would be the deluxe version: 4 wheel drive, back hoe attachment, front bucket, lawnmower. New they are about $40,000 used one sell for $15,000- $20,000. Think how much you would save when backhoes charge out at $80 per hr. If you are going to be retiring from a high stress office job just think how much fun you could have. No dead lines, no paper to shuffle, just a field of dirt and 5 gallons of diesel. You could make a pond or a small lake, a seasonal river or a stream. Curtain drain are fun to put in. Can you say retaining wall, do you think you could make one that ... 05/16/2007

Salt Spring Real Estate in 1902 was: "The price of land varies with quality, situation, distance from a wharf, etc, Ranches of 100 to 160 acres are worth $1,000 to $5,000 (200 to 1000 pounds) according to amount of improvements, and a man should be able to make a living at once on a $5,000 farm."By F.M Philips to read his 1902 account of Salt Spring history visit http://www.escapetosaltspring.com/History_of_Salt_Spring/page_1831245.htmlSo as you can see the best time to buy on Salt Spring was in 1902.In any market it is hard or impossible to time a market and buy at the lows. My advise is to buy quality, buy what you like, buy what you can afford and live in it or on it and enjoy life.CheersScott  05/11/2007

Salt Spring Real Estate will be harder to find in the future and big homes (over 3000 sq ft) will not be aloud to be built. Yes you have read that right, if the new Official Community Plan (OCP) is approved it could result in no more large houses being built and less and less land developed.It is the draw bridge effect. Once here don't let anyone else move here and wreak paradise. One result from this draw bridge mentality is that when the supply is cut off and people are told they cant have it "they will want it". Its human nature just look at coin collecting the rare ones are worth more. How about rare vintage wines, paintings. Scarcity drives prices up and up. So in the name of protecting the island the OCP will drive up prices. Good news for those that helped write it and live here.... 05/10/2007

It is Wednesday and if you really want to keep up on Salt Spring Real Estate you need to get a subscription to the local newspaper the driftwood. It has all the local scuttlebutt, rumors and rants. It is a newspaper that is known for its letters to the editors and rants. I have to say I have never written a letter to the editor but do on a regular basis write articles and submit them to the paper. Once you get into the theme of the letters and the local news it is always informative. Some islanders seem to write in on a regular basis but other just write in when something happens. It's NIMBYism at its best.Lets just say it is worth getting a subscription and reading up on the island here is their site http://www.gulfislands.net/CheersScott 05/09/2007

If you have thought about owning some Salt Spring Real Estate you have come to the right spot. I can show you all homes and acreages for sale on the island. There are no bad places to live on Salt Spring but some are nicer than others. Some are better priced than others and some are priced too high for the current market. My job is to help you find the right home at the right price on Salt Spring. Why Salt Spring Island?  You have to come here and look for yourself. It is hard to put it into words. It's your life and your journey and if you are looking for that special magical place to call home this may be it.CheersScott  05/05/2007

The paper is full of ads for Salt Spring houses for sale or Salt Spring homes for sale. There is no shortage. It is a buyer's market in the middle to upper price range.If you lived in Saskatoon right now you do not have to advertise your home for sale. As soon as you think of selling it there are buyers lined up at the door. At this moment there are less than 200 houses for sale in the city of Saskatoon. That city is a seller's market.On Salt Spring there are 250-300 houses for sale right now. There are about 70 listings over $1,000,000. With the Canadian Dollar pushing higher in the last week things look weak for those selling the higher priced properties. However, it is the start of the tourist season on the island and the inventory may start disappearing quickly. Some serious sellers... 05/02/2007

Location, location and location. Forget it. No not even close. The number one thing that determines the price of a Salt Spring Island house is the motivation of the seller.I will say it again. The number one thing that determines the price of a Salt Spring Island house is the motivation of the seller.Some sellers on Salt Spring are just fishing for a high price and they have had their houses on the market for 2 years. If they want to sell it then get real and lower the price. If a store has lots of Christmas paper left over what do they do on Boxing day they have a SALE and lower the price. If there are no buyers and the house has not sold in two years "Huston we have a problem".If the agent cannot tell you the motivation of the seller because of a limited dual agency agreement you are ... 04/30/2007

Now I'm not just trying to get noticed on the search engines. Well maybe I'm trying to. I have written my web site so that it has lots of information on Salt Spring but it is not easy to be found on the www. It seem that there are millions of sites that just redirect you to more redirected sites. Sometime looking for actual information on the Internet is a act of futility. You start with good intentions but end up finding about 100 other things that are all so interesting that you forget what you stated to look for. So if you are looking for a Salt Spring Island BC home, homes, house, houses or land please go to my web site I don't think you will be disappointed.CheersScott  04/30/2007