pzsnksh: Oct 21, 2007

Neighbourhoods:

Toronto has a multitude of ethnic neighbourhoods, including Greektown (where the action keeps going until way after midnight), Little Italy, Corso Italia, 3 Chinatowns, Korea Town, Little Poland, Little India, Portugal Village. Other ethnic communities also congregate in certain parts of town and you can explore Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, Somalian and many other restaurants and stores. There you can browse for ethnic food, fashion and art from far away places and check out delicacies from the entire world in Torontos more than 7000 restaurants.

In addition to the ethnic flavour that Toronto so plentifully offers, there are a variety of other unique neighbourhoods. Downtown has several interesting areas to visit:

- the Financial District with all its skyscrapers. It also houses the "underground city" - 11 km (6 miles) of interconnecting passageways under the streets that feature more than 1,200 retail stores and services.

- the Downtown Entertainment District bars and dance clubs galore

- Queen Street West a hip and eclectic shopping area

- the Gay Village: this is where Torontos large gay and lesbian community congregates. Here you can find bars, shops, restaurants and open-air patios

- the Fashion District with a myriad of fashion outlet stores and loft apartments that were converted from 19th century factories

- Harbourfront with its boat cruises and the ferry terminal, restaurants and art, theatre and music venues

- Rosedale and Forest Hill: two stately very upscale neighbourhoods in a park-like setting

- Cabbagetown: a former working class area, it now houses beautiful renovated Victorian homes

- the Distillery District: North Americas best preserved collection of Victorian industrial architecture, formerly the Gooderham & Worts Distillery founded in 1832. It now houses galleries, artist studios and workshops, boutiques, retail stores, restaurants, bars and cafs

- The Beaches, one of my favourite areas, with its shops, parks, sports facilities, bike trails and beach volleyball facilities are Torontos version of California on the waterfront.

Check out more information on Torontos neighbourhoods here.

Main Sights and Architecture

Being a relatively young city, Toronto has a rather eclectic mix of architecture which includes

- the CN Tower, at 553 m the worlds highest free-standing structure

- the Skydome, a modern multi-purpose stadium with a retractable roof

- the shiny downtown skyscrapers

- Historic Fort York, the site of the Battle of York during the War 1812 and the birthplace of modern Toronto

- Old City Hall, built in the Richardson Romanesque style

- the campus of the University of Toronto, Canadas largest university

- Casa Loma, built in the 1920s as a dream castle by Sir Henry Pellat, a wealthy famous Toronto industrialist

- Queens Park, the provincial government buildings, also built in Romanesque style

Culture: Theatre, Music, Museums

Toronto is the 3rd largest theatre centre in the world. Here you can enjoy Broadway-style musicals, homegrown productions, traveling road shows and classical concerts. Some of the great theatre and music venues include the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the Princess of Wales Theatre, the Elgin/Winter Garden Theatre, the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, Royal Thomson Hall and many others.

A more complete list of theatres and production companies can be found at this link:www.showmetoronto.com/toronto_theatres.htm

Toronto also boasts a great diversity of cultural institutions and museums:

- the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum)

- the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario)

- the Bata Shoe Museum

- the Hockey Hall of Fame

- the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

- the Bay of Spirits Gallery Torontos finest collection of native arts and crafts

- Black Creek Pioneer Village: a collection of 40 restored homes, tradeshops, public and farm buildings, with interpreters and artisans in period dress

- The Holocaust Centre of Toronto

- The Ontario Science Centre

Markets and Shopping:

- St. Lawrence Market: the citys original market, where farmers, artists and artisans ply their wares. Known for the freshness and high quality of its meat, fish and farm products.

- Kensington Market: known in the 1920s as the Jewish Market, Kensington Market today is a collection of merchants from around the world. Here you can find fishmongers, street musicians, impromptu speechmakers and shoppers all crowding the streets.

- The Eaton Centre, Torontos famous indoor shopping mall, built around an airy atrium, features 285 stores in the heart of downtown Toronto. It is one of Canada's great public spaces.

- The Bloor Street/Yorkville holds many upscale designer boutiques, antique shops, galleries, spas and restaurants.

www.torontotourism.com
www.city.toronto.on.ca
www.toronto.com
www.torinfo.com
www.showmetoronto.com

If you're dreaming of making money in real estate, it's time to stop dreaming and get to work, because making money in real estate isn't just a vague pipedream. It can be done, even by a young and inexperienced person, when you learn how to flip houses.

A friend of mine, we'll call her Tai, made a fortune in real estate, beginning at the age of twenty, with no help from anyone else. Here's how she did it:

Tai began by buying a HUD repo, which allowed her to get into the house for no money down. Then she fixed it up and sold it herself. At closing, she had made enough profit to by a second fixer-upper, but this time, she paid all cash. Tai went right to work fixing her second house, and when she sold that one, she collected profit of $44,000, which allowed her to pay cash for her third house!

By now, Tai was comfortable with her formula, and within a short time, she had flipped her third house, realizing enough profit to pay cash for yet another house, as well as being able to buy the custom pickup of her dreams. And all of this had happened in the span of just nine months!

Tais formula was simple. She located houses that needed only cosmetic work, avoiding those that required structural repairs. She did all the painting herself, inside and out, and updated the home's lighting, plumbing fixtures, and carpeting. Once renovations had been completed, all three houses sold quickly, and at a significant profit.

It's the most tried-and-true way to make a fortune in real estate, so don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you that it can't be done or that you need to have a great deal of start-up money. That's not true. You can buy houses with no money down through various loan programs, and sellers will often help you with the closing costs.

I know what I'm talking about! My husband and I bought our 27th house earlier this year, for no money down, and we expect to make a profit of at least $100,000 for just one month of hard work!

But we take the process a step further, making our houses outshine the competition by also using Design Psychology, although our buyers never know that. All they know is that they feel good when they're in our homes, which makes them want to buy them, even if they're more expensive than the house next door.

There's no other business that can make you as much money, with as little start-up cost, in as short a time, as investing in real estate. In fact, more millionaires made their fortunes in real estate than in any other business. And you can do it, too. You just have to stop dreaming and get started.

pzsnksh

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Toronto: Sights, Culture, Shopping

A Beginner's Guide to Flipping Houses

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