Alex Melconian

Expand your knowledge of Toronto Real Estate Information - Urban Toronto

Alex Melconian — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:46:00 GMT

July 20th, 2010

Today I met with the owner/co-publisher of UrbanToronto.ca, Edward Skira. Urban Toronto is a information resource center for real estate in the GTA. On the website you will find information on new developments, existing buildings and upcoming projects.

The exciting thing about UrbanToronto is how the public can share their experience with the world! You can find posts in the forums of people telling you about the good and the bad of a builder, and/or the existing positive or negative things they have to say about a building they bought into. Thus, helping us make a decision wheather to buy or look somewhere else.

What a great idea! Let's help each other make educated purchases, and make these builders accountable for poor craftsmanship.

Alex Melconian
Sales Representative
RE/MAX Hallmark Realty LTD.
O: 416.494.7653 C: (647) 887-7995
W: www.TorontoRealEstateGTA.com E: Sold@TorontoRealEstateGTA.com

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In-house Realtor for Scotiabank

Alex Melconian — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:33:00 GMT

Scotiabank In-house Local Realtor

For the past 6 months I have been working with Scotiabank branch located at Yonge/Eglinton as their In-house Realtor. Scotiabank provided me with an office and station to offer real estate information to their clientele. Periodically, we would schedule a date/time where I would sit in the branch to consult customers who are interested to speak with a local real estate expert.

It has been an experience servicing Scotiabank clientele. I had many customers asking me general questions regarding the market, and prices of homes for sale and sold. The staff at the Yonge/Eglinton branch are great. They were very welcoming and treated me as a member of their family.

If you live in the Yonge/Eglinton location, I recommend doing your banking at Scotiabank branch.

Alex Melconian
Sales Representative
RE/MAX Hallmark Realty LTD.
O: 416.494.7653 C: (647) 887-7995
W: www.TorontoRealEstateGTA.com E: Sold@TorontoRealEstateGTA.com

Making Houses into Homes
Click here if you are Buying or Selling

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Inside Toronto Real Estate, Where? One Bloor??

Alex Melconian — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:27:00 GMT

Lovely Tuesday April 13, I am attending the One Bloor brokers open. As silly representatives did not register, I casual walk in while others are being turned away. Honestly, they didn't miss much. Aside from few nicely coloured beverages and not so tasteful orderves, One Bloor's brokers open was a tideous 1- some 2 hour wait inside the tent for the presentation.

I have been to many broker presentations and One Bloor's was the boringest. A speaker came out and spoke for about 10minutes. No slideshow, not much information, I guess the location does all the talking anyways. You can enjoy this lovely location for the price of $800 per square foot + parking & locker.

Good to see many familiar faces and after speaking with a few, I think One Bloor will be a success. Only time will tell for sure.

Just outside of the tent, I meet with Brian Persaud host of rogers tv Inside Toronto Real Estate. It was actually cause of this show I purchased the domain http://www.insidertorealestate.com/.

Inside Toronto Real Estate is a show answering questions about mortgages, property values, legal issues and everything you need to know before and after signing an agreement. Each week, host Brian Persaud talks with industry experts to help potential buyers fulfill their dream of owning a home or condo.

You can watch Brian's show on Wednesday's 8:30pm on RogersTV.

Alex Melconian
Sales Representative
RE/MAX Hallmark Realty LTD.
O: 416.494.7653
W: www.TorontoRealEstateGTA.com E: Sold@TorontoRealEstateGTA.com

Making Houses into Homes
Click here if you are Buying or Selling

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10 Top Extraordinary People in the World

Alex Melconian — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:50:00 GMT

10 Top Extraordinary People in the World

1. , Ph.D at age 15; world’s highest IQ
http://www.woosk.com/2007/08/kim-ung-yong-genius.html
http://www.hunter4u.com/2010/03/kim-ung-yong-worlds-highest-iq.html

This Korean super-genius was born in 1962 and might just be the smartest guy alive today (he’s recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as having the highest IQ of anyone on the planet). By the age of four he was already able to read in Japanese, Korean, German, and English. At his fifth birthday, he solved complicated differential and integral calculus problems.. Later, on Japanese television, he demonstrated his proficiency in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, German, English, Japanese, and Korean. Kim was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under “Highest IQ”; the book estimated the boy’s score at over 210.
Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University from the age of 3 until he was 6. At the age of 7 he was invited to America by NASA. He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University before he was 15. In 1974, during his university studies, he began his research work at NASA and continued this work until his return to Korea in 1978 where he decided to switch from physics to civil engineering and eventually received a doctorate in that field. Kim was offered the chance to study at the most prestigious universities in Korea, but instead chose to attend a provincial university. As of 2007 he also serves as adjunct faculty at Chungbuk National University ..

2. http://www.starwheels.com/infopage.php?pagename=gregorysmith

Born in 1990, Gregory Smith could read at age two and had enrolled in university at 10. But “genius” is only one half of the Greg Smith story. When not voraciously learning, this young man travels the globe as a peace and children’s rights activist.
He is the founder of International Youth Advocates, an organization that promotes principles of peace and understanding among young people throughout the world. He has met with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev and spoke in front of the UN. For these and other humanitarian and advocacy efforts, Smith has been nominated four times for a Nobel Peace Prize. His latest achievement? He just got his driver license.

3.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BrgT0s9eQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrit_Jaswal

Akrit Jaswal is a young Indian who has been called “the world’s smartest boy” and it’s easy to see why. His IQ is 146 and is considered the smartest person his age in India —a country of more than a billion people.
Akrit came to public attention when in 2000 he performed his first medical procedure at his family home. He was seven. His patient — a local girl who could not afford a doctor — was eight. Her hand had been burnt in a fire, causing her fingers to close into a tight fist that wouldn’t open. Akrit had no formal medical training and no experience of surgery, yet he managed to free her fingers and she was able to use her hand again.
Watch the video of the surgery here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQif24jIGWY
He focused his phenomenal intelligence on medicine and at the age of twelve he claimed to be on the verge of discovering a cure for cancer. He is now studying for a science degree at Chandigarh College and is the youngest student ever accepted by an Indian University .

4.Cleopatra Stratan: a 3 year old singer who earns 1000€ per song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrxK84IBRjU

Cleopatra was born October 6, 2002 in Chisinau , Moldova and is the daughter of Moldovan-Romanian singer, Pavel Stratan. She is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani (”At the age of 3″). She holds the record for being the youngest artist that performed live for two hours in front of a large audience, the highest paid young artist, the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist to score a #1 hit in a country (”Ghita” in Romanian Singles Chart).

5. Aelita Andre: The 2-year-old artist who showed her paintings in a famous Gallery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PjHDr8XEGA

The abstract paintings of emerging artist Aelita Andre have people in Australia ’s art world talking. Aelita is two (the works were painted when she was even younger).
Aelita got an opportunity to show her paintings when Mark Jamieson, the director of Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne ’s Fitzroy, was asked by a photographer whose work he represented to consider the work of another artist. Jamieson liked what he saw and agreed to include it in a group show.
Jamieson then started to promote the show, printing glossy invitations and placing ads in the magazines Art Almanac and Art Collector, featuring the abstract work. Only then did he discover a crucial fact about the new artist: Aelita Andre is Kalashnikova’s daughter, and was just 22 months old. Jamieson was shocked and embarrassed but decided to proceed with the exhibition anyways.

6. Saul Aaron Kripke: Invited to apply for a teaching post at Harvard while still in high school

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Kripke

A rabbi’s son, Saul Aaron Kripke was born in New York and grew up in Omaha in 1940. By all accounts he was a true prodigy. In the fourth grade he discovered algebra, and by the end of grammar school he had mastered geometry and calculus and taken up philosophy. While still a teenager he wrote a series of papers that eventually transformed the study of modal logic. One of them earned a letter from the math department at Harvard, which hoped he would apply for a job until he wrote back and declined, explaining, “My mother said that I should finish high school and go to college first”. After finishing high school, the college he eventually chose was Harvard.
Kripke was awarded the Schock Prize, philosophy’s equivalent of the Nobel. Nowadays, he is thought to be the world’s greatest living philosopher.

7. Michael Kevin Kearney: earned his first degree at age 10 and became a reality show Millionaire

24 year-old Michael Kearney became known as the world’s youngest college graduate at the age of 10. In 2008, Kearney earned $1,000,000 on the television game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Kearny was born in 1984 and is was known for setting several world records and teaching college at the age of 17.
He spoke his first words at four months. At the age of six months, he said to his pediatrician “I have a left ear infection” and learned to read at the age of ten months. When Michael was four, he was given diagnostic tests for the Johns Hopkins precocious math program and achieved a perfect score. He finished high school at age 6, enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College graduating at 10 with an Associate of Science in Geology. He is listed in the Guinness Book as the world’s youngest university graduate at the age of 10, receiving a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. For a while, he also held the record for the world’s youngest postgraduate.
But in 2006, he became worldwide famous after reaching the finals on the Mark Burnett/AOL quiz/puzzle game Gold Rush, and became the first $1 million winner in the online reality game.

8. Fabiano Luigi Caruana: a chess prodigy who became the youngest Grandmaster at age 14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEEz7g70vfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ydEl8htvbA&feature=related

Fabulous Fabiano is a 16-year-old chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy with dual citizenship of Italy and the United States .

On 2007 Caruana became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days – the youngest Grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States . In the April 2009 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2649, making him the world’s highest ranked player under the age of 18.

9. Willie Mosconi: played professional Billiards at age 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR_llVOJFaE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Mosconi

William Joseph Mosconi, nicknamed “Mr. Pocket Billiards” was a American professional pocket billiards (pool) player from Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Willie’s father owned a pool hall where he wasn’t allowed to play, but Willie improvised by practicing with small potatoes from his mother’s kitchen and an old broomstick. His father soon realized that his son was a child prodigy began advertising challenge matches, and though Willie had to stand on a box in order to reach the table, he beat experienced players many years his senior.
In 1919, an exhibition match was arranged between six-year old Willie and the reigning World Champion, Ralph Greenleaf. The hall was packed, and though Greenleaf won that match, Willie played very well launching his career in professional billiards. In 1924, at the tender age of eleven, Willie was the juvenile straight pool champion and was regularly holding trick shot exhibitions.
Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the BCA World Championship of pool an unmatched fifteen times. Mosconi pioneered and employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize the game of billiards. He still holds the officially recognized straight pool high run record of 526 consecutive balls.

10. Elaina Smith: youngest agony aunt aged 7

http://www.itv.com/Lifestyle/ThisMorning/features/Sevenyearoldagonyaunt123/default.html

Her local radio station gave her the job after she rang and offered advice to a woman caller who had been dumped. Elaina’s tip — go bowling with pals and drink a mug of milk — was so good she got a weekly slot and now advises thousands of adult listeners. The littler adviser tackles problems ranging from how to dump boyfriends and how to cope with relationship breakdown to dealing with smelly brothers.

When one listener wrote to Elaina asking how to get a man, she replied: “Shake your booty on the dance floor and listen to High School Musical”. Another caller asked how to get her man back, Elaina told her: “He’s not worth the heartache. Life’s too short to be upset with a boy.”

Meet your Neighbour Social Party Minto Quatum2

Alex Melconian — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:12:00 GMT

If you don't know, living in Minto Quatum buildings at Yonge and Eglinton is great. Specially if you are in the Quatum2 building. Reason being, not only cause i am on the social committee, but we have wonderful and successful events.

Our first being our 'Meet your Neighbour' event on March 11th, 2010. It is fantastic how many people in our building want to meet their neighbour, get to know one another, and network. Our building really moved forward to making our living a community.

We had food, drinks, music and tons of prizes for everyone who attended. Everyone got a prize. From gift cards to winery tours. We know how to have a party! If you are thinking to move to Yonge and Eglinton, i advise living at Minto Quantum. Become a part of our community.

The Social Committee

Swords Play

Alex Melconian — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:35:00 GMT

I am always open to new sports and activities. Recently, i joined the Toronto Business Casual group. A netorking social community where we gathering to mingul and participate in group activities.

Our latest gathering was at a Fencing club! Good European fencing. Incrediable sport using skill, body, stragety and determination.

The battles are challenging. There are five rounds per challenge. Each round is ended by a hit. By the 5th round you will be exhausted!!

I would definately recommend experiencing fencing if you have not. Join Toronto Business Casual to meet new groups of people. It's fun!

Investors park cash in Canada

Alex Melconian — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:17:00 GMT

Foreign investors looking for global real estate investments have ranked Canada among the top three countries to park their money.

The U.S. and Germany were in first and second place, but Canada ranked third in the survey for providing the most "stable and secure" investment by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) released Monday.

Last year Canada placed sixth. Canada also ranked sixth as the country best seen as providing the most opportunity for capital appreciation. Last year Canada ranked 13th.

"Canada is a core investment for many investors who see our market for its stability," said George Carras, president of commercial real estate consultancy RealNet Canada Inc. "This bodes well for the future, where we might see more interest from foreign investors this year."

Despite the promising signs, 2009 was a dismal year for commercial real estate, particularly in the key Greater Toronto Area market.

There was $5.4 billion worth of investment volume in commercial buildings last year, the lowest figure in more than a decade.

"It was definitely a tough year, where a lot of investors just sat on their hands waiting out the market," said Carras.

The market started to show signs of life in the fourth quarter, however, with an almost four-fold increase from the third quarter.

The biggest sale in the fourth quarter and for the year was 151 Front St. E. for $180 million to Allied REIT. Morguard Investments also purchased two office towers on Bloor St. for $164 million.

The international perception that Canada has withstood the economic downturn particularly well has been beneficial for the real estate markets here.

The perennial frontrunner, the United States, while still in No. 1 spot as being a stable market for investment at 44 per cent of the vote, is down from 53 per cent in 2008 and 57 per cent in 2010.

This is the first time that the United States, a place where investors have traditionally parked their money, has fallen below 50 per cent. Germany received 21 per cent of the vote and Canada was at 14 per cent.

The industry group predicts that 2010 will be a better time for the investment industry.

Reference: The Toronto Star

Toronto Monopoly Championship 2009

Alex Melconian — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:12:00 GMT

Monopoly, a game of strategy, skill, luck and negotiation.

MONOPOLY is the best-selling board game in the world, sold in 103 countries and produced in 37 languages. The 2009 MONOPOLY Canadian Championships took place at the Montréal Science Centre from May 28 to 30, 2009. The top player will earn the prestigious title of MONOPOLY Canadian Champion, $15,000, and the honor of representing the country at the 13th MONOPOLY World Championships in the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World,’ Las Vegas, in October 2009.

A few friend and I gave it our best to have the chance to represent Canada in the World Monopoly championship. We came extremely close to making the final table. Unfortunately, even with my real estate skills I was not able to make the final four. All in all, we had a great time and I will participate in the next championship.

Cause and effect of the global economic crisis

Alex Melconian — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:15:00 GMT

It's time to break up the banks!

This is a great video that explains how and why we got into this global economic crisis. The video focuses on the U.S. banking system. If you want to know how we got into this economic crisis, click the link below.

The explanation video is approximately 13min. The rest is discussion on the economy.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22778.htm

Check it out.

Alex Melconian
www.TorontoRealEstateGTA.com

23 Offers, 22 disappointed buyers

Alex Melconian — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:13:00 GMT

Date: June 1st, 2009

The market is cooking! East York/Leaside area is hot. We received 23 offers on our listing. Listed at $549,000 sold for $715,000. That's $166,000 over the asking price. Have a propety to sell in the area? Call us today.

See the full story here:
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip177030#clip177030

Alex Melconian
Re/Max Hallmark Realty
416.494.7653

Bloor 1 or blame someone - A Whole lot of bubkiss

Alex Melconian — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:13:00 GMT

Bloor 1 or blame someone

One of the biggiest developments to enter Toronto is now infamous Bloor 1 project. With a fenzy of buyers waiting in line for weeks to purchase a piece of the hottest selling property in downtown Toronto are now left in limbo waiting to see if the project will ever be developed. An eyesore empty lot sits at the coner of central downtown Bloor and Yonge. Empty since the old buildings were demolished a year ago.

Developer of the project, Bazis International, milked the anxious crowd by jacking up purchase prices by 10's of thousands, $100's thousands dollars per 2o minutes. At the time, the real estate market was hot. An anonymous Hong Kong businessman offered $25 million for a two-story penthouse suite.

Process of the development halted abruptly when the developers financing institution, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy. Construction has been delayed with the developer trying to remove Lehman Brothers off paper and finding a new financing institution. In todays economic crunch, banks are not as lenient to lend money and the developer may need to find a couple or few financing institutions.

On June 15th, Bazis will enter a 31 day period where it can notify the condo purchasers that it will be cancelling construction. In this case, the buyers will receive their deposits back in full. However, the weeks people waiting in line, the agonizing wait and excitement to puchase is all in vain.

Bowl for Kids Sake - Big Brothers & Sisters

Alex Melconian — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:37:00 GMT

On Sunday March 7th, 2009 people came together to help raise funding for the Bowl for Kids Sake - Big Brothers & Sisters foundation. From our Real Estate office John C. Kennedy took inititive (as he does annually) to encourage others to help raise money for this worthy cause. Our goal was to raise $10,000.

A few days ago, John was once again speaking about the Big Brothers and Sisters cause when introduced the RE/MAX Hallmark Angels Program. A program created by John which gave our clients and friends an opportunity to help Realtors out with this cause. Ken McLachlan (Broker of Re/Max Hallmark) put John in the hot seat by asking John if he would wear an Angel outfit if we reach our target. Now, John is a big guy and has a big heart, so he took the challenge. As you can see from the photo we hit our goal!

Re/Max Hallmark raised $10,310!! Including the other participates, we were able to raise over $56,000. For every $1000 raised, a child in need will be able to attend college/university.

With your help I was able to raise $210! Special thanks to:

Ani Chakmakian
Hayley Morrison
Sarah Ng
Robert Thrower
Danah Kassabian
Nevart Melconian
Rita Melconian and...
John C. kennedy

Hallmark Scavenger Hunt - Sign Up Now! **Clients only

Alex Melconian — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:08:00 GMT

WANNA GO HUNTING?

The RE/MAX Hallmark Social Committee is proud to present a

For Adults at the beautiful

ROM Museum

100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, ON

The “hunt” will last for 1 ½-2 hours, you work with a partner, and a buffet lunch is held afterward with prizes delegated to the winners.

Date: Monday March 30, 2009

Time: 10 a.m. Sharp (Subway stop the St. George stop on the Bloor-Danforth subway line-walk south).

Cost: $40.00 (includes taxes, prizes and lunch)

Clients are welcome!

Sign Up: Contact Alex now before: March 20, 2009

Alex Melconian
416.494.7653

Limited to the first 200 participants

Toronto is the best place in the World to invest in!

Alex Melconian — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:19:00 GMT

Who could argue that Toronto is the best place in the world to invest in Real Estate?

Simply - for the safety of capital, and future appreciation where else in the world could be better? The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) employs 3.1 million people (1.35 million in Toronto). Over the past 8 years, our residential real estate pricing has increased an average of 5% per year! Toronto has never seen a 5-star hotel until now with the likes of the Shangri-La, The Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Trump, and The Hazelton.

Several new commercial high-rises are being built - The Telus Tower, RBC Centre, and the Bay-Adelaide Centre along with a few more just completed and others in planning. New neighbourhoods and old have been dramatically altered.

Cityplace exploded creating 9500 new homes amonst 19 new buildings, changing the face of Toronto for the better and filled the downtown core with 20,000 new people to feed our economy. Toronto the good is now also Toronto the Big, Rich, Fun and Safe. We are a rich city but on a global scale, we are not expensive.

Canadian banks are the safest, most profitable, and least risky on the planet, and most head offices are in our downtown. We are the financial envy of most of the world. We have the second largest oil reserves on the planet. We have huge resources of water, gold, uranium, nickel, diamonds, potash, wood, grain, beef and virtually every other resource. Our beautiful, rich, clean, safe, fun, tolerant, racially diverse city will grow. Growing for the better, richer and yes, that does mean our real estate will appreciate over the medium and the long-term.

Where is the best place in the world to invest in real estate? I tell you without any doubt, Toronto.

Wine bottle Making! ******* Season's Greetings & Happy New Year!

Alex Melconian — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Season's Greetings to all & Happy New Year!

Wishing you a health, happiness and a prosperous 2009!

For the New Year, Harry and I wanted to give our clients more than a Holiday card. We decided to give a bottle of red wine this year to enjoy over the holidays.

We ordered our wine well in advanced and on the day ready for bottling, we bottled the wine! It was a lot of fun! We ordered our wine from Markham Heritage Wines. The owner is Craig Elliott (seen here with Harry and me). Located at 15 Heritage Road, unit2.

Wine bottling is a lot of fun. Steps to bottling wine.

First you need to give your bottles a rinse.
After they dry, you connect the bottle to a device which fills your bottle with wine. The wine is drained from a large container. Spillage is vacuumed into a little container.
Next, each bottle has to be corked. You load a cork into a machine which forces the cork into the bottle.
After the bottling, each bottle must be moved to a open area table where they will be capped and labeled.
Place a cap on the bottle and then place the bottle with the cap into this very hot cap heater for just a couple of seconds. The heat absorbed the air and seals the cap around the tip of the wine bottle.
Finally, place the label on your wine bottle and Voila!
Lastly, the funiest part comes when you get to open your bottle of wine after!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

from the Toronto Real Estate GTA team.