Happy Chinese New Year Everybuddy!  I tried as much as possible to follow the "DO's and DON'Ts that I sent out to my contacts - you have to practice what you preach of course, so hopefully I've kept all the good luck with me this year!  You can never have enough of that.

So 8 is a lucky number in the Chinese culture as it sounds like "phat" which means fortune.  On the contrary, 4 is a bad luck number as it sounds like "sei" which means death.  Given that a large chunk of Toronto's real estate is owned by the Chinese, you can imagine that these numbers have been stigmatized.

Honestly, I don't think it's that big of a deal anymore - especially with the new generations.  It was a big deal with my old school Chinese parents as I remember they didn't buy this really nice house way back when because the house number was "44."  I even had a client ask me before if the house number could be changed from "14" to "12B."  Some condo builders are even going so far to take off any floors or unit numbers that contain a "4" in it.  My condo has a 4 in it and I could care less, but it's become such a big deal that I think it's a bigger deal for everyone else who thinks it's a big deal for the Chinese when it's really not anymore.   Oh well, better be safe than sorry I guess.

Oh now back to the 8... Chinese New Year's eve was my lucky day and a good start to the new year indeed.  I successfully negotiated the offer for client JY and she couldn't be happier, which makes me happy too!  Of course I made sure to throw in a lot of '8's in there so how could the 6 foot basketball chick from China refuse?  It's been a great start to the New Year so just gotta keep on chugging along...