I would like to wish our clients, tenants and associates a happy Christmas, Hanukkah and the very best this holiday season. This time of year is one with hustle and bustle and we’ve certainly been busy. It’s also a good time to reflect on the year past and plan for the future. Here s a video that will help you with your goal setting.

Similiar to our orange staple free stapler

Here at Harrity Real Estate Services Inc we are often taking steps to reduce our impact on our environment.

In this industry, we are notorious for wasting paper. With email, online billing, and a good solid web based property management software we’ve done well to reduce our paper usage.

Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to go paper free, contracts still need to be signed on hard paper (although digital signatures are out there, most everyday business and individual clients don’t have one).

Since we’ve cut back our paper all we can, we’ve decided to cut back on the staples we use to hold our paper together.

During a recent business trip to Halifax I found myself in a store that sells

Staple Free Example

environmentally friendly produces (mostly recycled or reused goods). There is really a lot of neat stuff. I bought a notebook, the cover is made from and old book cover and the paper inside is recycled. On my way out I looked at my receipt to find that it was stapled…but no staple….amazing!

So I went back and asked the cashier how she did it. She pulled her trusty little stapler and showed me how it worked.

Naturally I bought one, and use it several times a day. The stapler can staple about 4 pages of paper, anything over that we use a paper clip.

How does it work?

The device punches a small hole (threes sided) in the paper, along with a small slit behind the hole. Then it takes the paper from the hole and slides it up through the slit in the paper. This all happens in one quick motion.

Since coming back to Saint John, I’ve seen them sold at Indigo and I would imagine they have them at Staples Business Depot.

Using a fire extinguisher seems like a pretty simple task right? Wrong, unless you’ve been trained to properly use one, you may not how to effectively use it or even when to use it.

My good friend Heath Thompson, a Volunteer FireFighter has developed a training course for individuals and employers to help ensure their employees know what to do in the event of a fire. For more information or to sign up for the next course, visit Heath’s website at www.extinguishit101.com.

Below is our online presentation. To navigate from slide to slide, just click anywhere on the slide. To view full screen, press the full screen button (located in the bottom right hand corner of the player).

If you have any questions about the services we offer, please contact us.

A Saint John Landlord was fined the minimum fine of $1000 after only 20 of his 50 work orders were completed after a second inspection 7 months after the city issued the work orders. The landlord now has until December 21 to complete the rest of his work orders.

Full Story @ CanadaEast.com

It’s important to take work orders by the city serious. If you keep up with your ongoing maintenance, then you wont be left with a large list of repairs to make at the last minute. Should the city issue you work orders on your property, be sure you promptly start the work and keep in touch with the city to make sure everyone is on the same page. Not everything can be done at once, but it’s important to have a reasonable time frame to complete the work.