Please enjoy my Spring 2010 Newsletter

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Sharon

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Home Staging: An absolute MUST for Modern day Real Estate

This article has been written for me by Lynda Schmidt, of LB Schmidt, Creative services.

I asked Lynda, to create a Blog Post for me to explain from her perspective what Home Staging is, How does it work and what is the benefit to my clients?

Take it away Lynda......

Definition: The act of preparing a private residence prior to going up for sale in the real estate selling market. Staging focus on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest number of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale.

Regardless of size, location condition or price of your home, creating an unforgettable first visual presentation is what home staging is all about - it may mean the difference between a quick sale or your property lingering on the market.

A professional Home Stager will follow the principles and elements of design as well as the proven staging strategies that incorporate furniture placement, accessorizing , colour harmonization, de-personalizing, repairs and updates, lighting, organizing space and highlighting the focal points and selling features that a home has to offer.

When selling a property it isn't good enough to just plant the FOR SALE sign in the front yard. Savvy buyers expect and look for more when purchasing a property. Thanks to the endless staging and decorating shows standards have been raised. If properties do not look their best, if the selling features and focal points are not polished and shining , if there are blatant repairs, needed, updates or cleaning left undone, you can be sure the asking price will be attacked.
Unstaged properties help to sell staged properties. In a hot market staged properties are the ones that get the multitude of potential buyers looking and quite often receive multiple offers with in just a few days of listing - as we are currently experiencing. In a slower market, Staged properties stand out as the better value.

Sharon Nunes is a Realtor who knows what is important when listing properties. She goes the extra mile for her clients - she knows what home staging before listing and taking the all important MLS pictures can do - she understands that great presentation, along with accurate pricing is what it is all about . Realtors like Sharon Nunes are set apart from the rest who still just plant the FOR SALE sign in the front yard.

Before:

After:

Chat Soon!!

Sharon Nunes

xoxoxo

Many Thanks to Lynda Schmidt for writing this article for my Blog, she is a highly regarded expert in the Home Staging Industry and has the personality to compliment her talent. Keep rockin it Lynda!

Lynda B. Schmidt of L.B. SCHMIDT - CREATIVE SERVICES specializes in Home Staging and styling properties for the real estate selling market. Lynda has two designations as a professional Home Stager - ASP (accredited staging professional) and CCSP ( Certified Canadian Staging Professional) as well as having 25+ years of professional, creative visual presentation and interiors experience.

Are your bad habits driving down the Price of your Home?

We all have quirks and habits, but did you know that some of the things we do without a second thought can cost tens of thousands of dollars when it comes time to sell your house? Here are five habits you might want to break if you're concerned about your bottom line.

Butt out
Hands down, smoking is the habit that will have the most dramatic effect on your ability to make the most of the sale of your house. Richard Buchanan runs a cleaning service in Ottawa and lists many Realtors, as well as the Ottawa Police Service, among his clients.

Buchanan is often called upon to clean homes that have suffered fire or water damage or have been the scenes of accidents. He says there is nothing more expensive to eliminate than the traces of cigarette smoke.

"To be honest, a heavy accumulation of cigarette smoke is like having a fire," he says. "While you're washing the walls you can see the yellow tar just running down the walls."

Any amount of smoking will do some damage, but the amount varies. "If you're trying to sell a house and you're a pack-a-day smoker, all your surfaces will be stained with nicotine, so you'll have to wash it, then seal it and repaint," he says. "You'll also have to clean the carpets and the air ducts. Sometimes you have to replace the flooring, and sometimes, if the cabinets are white, you'll have to replace the kitchen cabinets."

Hiring a professional to wash everything in an average-sized home costs around $1,500 and to seal and paint will cost another $6,000.

"If you were to revamp a house to put on the market for a really heavy smoker, it could cost you around $25,000," says Buchanan. "It happens a lot. Some people are willing to swallow the loss, but either way, it's a lot of money."

Catherine Swift, a Realtor in Ottawa, agrees with Buchanan's assessment. "It is a difficult odor to get rid of - it often requires painting and sometimes replacing carpets. Pet odor is a little easier to get rid of, unless animals have been urinating on the carpet."

The smell of money
Any strong smell will present a challenge to potential buyers, but as often as not, the smell of cigarette smoke in a house will mean many buyers won't even consider putting in an offer, however low.

Using chemical cleaners and air fresheners might make the problem worse. "When a home smells like air freshener, it makes me wonder what are they trying to mask," says Swift. She's not alone - ask anyone who works in real estate, and they will tell you to clean like you've never cleaned before and then open your windows.

Pet odor runs a distant second to the damage done by smoking. The smell of cat urine is particularly difficult to remove and often requires replacing carpeting and sometimes even parts of the subfloor. Getting rid of the traces of poor pet hygiene can cost up to $15,000.

It's a jungle in there
Even plants can pose a problem for potential buyers.

Keeping a jungle of houseplants or a room full of orchids may seem like a way to bring the comforts of nature and summer into your home during long Canadian winters, but be careful not to overload your home with humidity. Humidity causes mould, and mould is a health hazard that will often kill a sale. Mould remediation can cost as much as $10,000. Often, insulation will have to be replaced to eradicate the problem completely.

Mould is high on the list of problems home inspectors watch out for, so it might be worth your while to hire one before you sell. "They are there looking for problems, and it's their job to tell you. You can get an inspection for $500, and it's well worth it," says Buchanan.

Clutter costs
Pick up your shoes, because your house looks smaller when it's cluttered.

"I think what's really important for people is to bear in mind that first impressions are really important, and you only get once chance to make a first impression," says Swift.

She says you should clean up clutter around the front door, in particular, but you should try to make the rest of the home as clutter-free as possible, so that it looks open and spacious.

Think green
People are beginning to think about the cost of living in more than one sense. More Canadians looking for new homes are factoring the environment into their plans. If you thought you were being frugal by making do with your old furnace or hanging on to your old washing machine, you might want to give that a second look.

"A lot of young folks, when they're buying a home, the first thing they ask is about the energy efficiency of a home," says Rod Vermunt, a Realtor in Calgary, Alberta. "People have made choices of a house based on the water use."

He says the interest in eco-friendly housing is growing every day, so it's a good idea to take that into account if you want to be at the top of a buyer's list. Think about upgrading your furnace and your kitchen appliances, as well as your windows and your front door.

It's all about balance
In order to get the best possible offer for your home, you need to think about how most people will feel when they walk over the threshold. Your pack-a-day habit may seem like nobody's business, but that changes as soon as you put your house on the market.

If you consider your pets to be members of the family, as most people do, then you will have to help them stick to the family rules. No peeing on the rug is a good rule for all family members to follow, not just the two-legged ones.

Of course, your house is your home, but sometimes breaking a bad habit can have added benefits you never considered. Is $25,000 enough to get you to quit smoking? Only you can decide. Like anything else, it all comes down to weighing the pleasure and comfort you get from a habit against the long-term value of your investment.


Chat Soon!!
Sharon

*Article written by
Stephanie Farrington, Bankrate.com

If you would like to write a post for Sharon's Real Estate Blog, please send an email to sharon-nunes@coldwellbanker.ca with your contact information.

The 411 on Home Inspections

When you’re buying a new home, you’ll want to scrutinize every last detail. Home inspections rarely cost more than a few hundred dollars, and can save you from unpleasant surprises. Your REALTOR^® can help recommend several home inspection companies to choose from.

• Make a conditional offer based upon a satisfactory home inspection

This is an increasingly standard condition on any resale home. If the seller doesn’t want you closely examining the home before you take possession, you have to wonder why.

• Go with a qualified professional

Make sure your inspector is a member of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors (CAHPI). It’s your guarantee they have the training and experience for the job.

• What will they check during the inspection?

Lots of stuff. Plumbing and electrical systems, the roof, visible insulation, walls, ceilings, floors, windows and the integrity of the foundation. They also check for lead paint, asbestos, mould, outdated and dangerous wiring, and evidence of pests like mice or termites.

• Join the inspection

Get up close and familiar with your new home with this three-hour checkup. If any problems are detected, you’ll see them firsthand, and learn some maintenance tips from a pro.

• You’ll get it in writing

Their report will summarize the condition of your home. If there’s anything that needs work, the home inspector will provide an estimated cost for the repairs.

• Home inspection for a new home?

New does not equal perfect, and construction quality can vary greatly from builder to builder. In some provinces, repairs and corrections in new homes may be covered by a government or industry-sponsored warranty program. Bad news doesn’t necessarily mean it will have to cost you


Chat Soon!!

Sharon
xoxox


*Article Courtesy: Howrealtorshelp.ca

How to Solve The Wet Basement Dilema

Solving wet-basement problems is one of the most important things you can do to protect the value of your home and health of your family.

Image: Michael Blann/Getty Images

Nothing poses a greater long-term risk to your home’s value than a wet basement. If left unchecked, basement moisture can ruin floors and walls, encourage mold, even damage roofing. Some wet basements are easy to cure, simply by making sure gutters stay clear and by diverting gutter water well away from the foundation. But if the problem comes from other sources—water flowing toward the house on the surface, seeping in from underground, or backing up through municipal storm drains—you’ve got to take more aggressive action. Here’s help with figuring out what may be causing your water trouble, and eight basement waterproofing strategies to try, from the simplest and least expensive to the most challenging and costly.

1. Add underground piping

If downspouts are dumping too close to the house, you can get water the recommended five feet or more away from the foundation by adding roll-out plastic or metal gutter extenders. But they aren’t the neatest or most effective long-term solution, especially if you’re likely to trip on them or run over them with a lawnmower. Permanent underground piping is invisible and capable of moving large quantities of runoff much farther from your house. For about $10 a foot, a landscaper or waterproofing contractor will dig a trench and install piping to carry the water safely away.

2. Plug gaps

If you see water dribbling into the basement through cracks or gaps around plumbing pipes, you can plug the openings yourself with hydraulic cement or polyurethane caulk for less than $20. Plugs work when the problem is simply a hole that water oozes through, either from surface runoff or from wet soil. But if the water is coming up through the floor, or at the joint where floor and walls meet, the problem is ground water, and plugs won’t do the trick. For that, see Solutions #5 though #7 below.

3. Restore the crown

If the gutters are working and you’ve plugged obvious holes, but you still see water dribbling into your basement or crawl space from high on the foundation walls, then surface water isn’t draining away from the house as it should. Your house should sit on a “crown” of soil that slopes at least six inches over the first 10 feet in all directions. Over time, the soil around the foundation may have settled. All you need to do to build it back up is shovel in more dirt. One cubic yard of a water-shedding clay-loam mix from a landscape supply house costs around $30 (plus delivery) and is enough for a two-foot-wide, three-inch-deep layer along 57 feet of foundation.

4. Reshape the landscape

If you can’t add soil without bringing it too close to the siding—six inches is the minimum safe distance to protect against rot and termites—then you may be able to redirect surface water before it reaches the house by creating a berm (a mound of dirt) or a swale (a wide, shallow ditch). In small areas, berms are easy; a landscape contractor can build one for a few hundred dollars. On bigger projects, berms make less sense because you’ll have to truck in too much soil. In that case, dig a swale (about $1,000). Once landscaping grows in, berms and swales can be attractive features in your yard.

5. Repair footing drains

If water is leaking into your basement low on the walls or at the seams where walls meet the floor, your issue isn’t surface water, it’s hydrostatic pressure pushing out water within the ground. The first thing to do is check whether you have footing drains, underground pipes installed when the house was built to carry water away from the foundation. (Look for a manhole or drain in the basement floor or a cleanout pipe capped a few inches above the floor.) The drains may be clogged, in which case you can try opening the cleanout and flushing the pipes with a garden hose. If that doesn’t work, a plumber with an augur can often do the job for about $600.

6. Install a curtain drain around the house

If you don’t have footing drains or can’t get the existing ones to function, there’s one more thing you can try before you invest in a costly interior or exterior basement waterproofing system: Install a curtain drain to divert water that’s traveling underground toward your house. A type of French drain, a curtain drain is a shallow trench filled with gravel and piping that intercepts water uphill of your house and carries it down the slope a safe distance away.

7. Pump the water out from the inside

If you can’t keep subsurface water out, then you have to address it on the inside. To create an interior drain system, crews saw a channel around the perimeter of the floor, chip out the concrete, and lay perforated pipe in the hole. The pipe drains to collection tank at the basement’s low spot, where a sump pump sends it away. Starting at about $3,000, an interior system may be the least expensive and disruptive option if you have an unfinished basement with easy access, or a lot of mature landscaping that digging for an exterior system would destroy.

8. Waterproof from the outside

Installing an interior drainage system gets the water out but doesn’t actually waterproof the walls. For that, you need an exterior system: a French drain to relieve hydrostatic pressure and exterior waterproofing to protect the foundation. It’s a big job that requires excavating around the house, but it may be the best solution if you have a foundation with numerous gaps where water is getting through. It also keeps the mess and water outside, which may be your choice if you don’t want to tear up a finished basement. The downside, besides a price tag that can reach $20,000, is that your yard takes a beating, and you may need to remove decks or walkways.

Jeanne Huber is the author of 10 books about home improvement and writes a weekly column about home care for The Washington Post. She solved her first drainage mystery when her family’s frequent sneezing attacks led her to discover mildew coating the underside of their house’s roof. Turns out basement flooding (see Sign #6) was to blame.

Hope that you find this information as helpful as I did!

Chat Soon!!

Sharon

xoxoxo

Courtesy of HouseLogic.com