The Art Of Home

Staging and decorating is more than just painting.

A good stager will be able to walk into your home and present a guided tour for a prospective buyer. Anyone can tell you an orange living room with purple shag carpet is not an asset or that taupes and neutrals work best while using accessories for colour enhancement.

Warm inviting colours along with textures and materials like wood and suede will envelope you into the comfort of a room. As a juxtaposition steel and sharp angles are cold and modern and can work as a contrast.

I have been chatting with a client that is a few weeks away from listing a house they are flipping. They were not sure if they should furnish the home when they were ready. To me it was an obvious answer. Walking into an empty house is stark and takes thousands of your price, I've seen it first hand.

The home needs to tell a story. Who are you planning on selling to? What is their story? Paint their picture with the brush of luxury. Stainless steel appliances, wood floors, micro suede all speak to a higher level of living.

If you are not sure on what to do or you think that red walls and green carpet is sweet, call a professional stager.


M

Angry?

Your eyes begin to pulse as you read further into the statement. Like a scimitar, words cut through your heart as if paper. With unabashed anger you stand up and throw the paper on the floor and begin to stomp on it. It is not enough, you need more. Grabbing the plant seems insane but you can't help yourself. Still your anger is unabated. The chandelier?

Sound familiar? Have you seen the commercials?


You want to buy a house and you still have one to sell. Most people would put in a conditional offer. This condition would state that your offer is under the condition of selling your home with in a time frame (30-60 days) and should include a bump clause that states that if any other offers come in during this time frame you would have the right to either firm up or walk away from the deal (usually allowing 48 hours to make your decision). Seems pretty straight forward, right?

As a home buyer you want nothing more than to breeze through a purchase (including the sale of your home as part of your conditional offer). It would seem local realtors don't want you to do that. They are angry. They feel deserving of your hard earned money. They are even willing to use coercion to get it.

Think coercion is to strong a word? Here is the definition from Dictionary.com:

Main Entry: co·er·cion
Pronunciation: kO-'&r-zh&n, -sh&n
Function: noun
: the use of express or implied threats of violence or reprisal (as discharge from employment) or other intimidating behavior that puts a person in immediate fear of the consequences in order to compel that person to act against his or her will; also : the defense that one acted under coercion —see also DEFENSE, DURESS —compare UNDUE INFLUENCE.

As I wrote about in a previous post, local agents are using intimidation in the offer process. For you to get that house they are forcing you to have to list with an agent. Imagine the feeling of violation when you find out in order to buy your dream home you will be forced to spend thousands of dollars wastefully on a service you don't want or need.

I found another one of those helpful realtor commercials I have posted about.


M

THE Moving Day Decision

This time we got smart. This time we used a mover.

How many times in your life can you go to the well? How many times can you buy beer and pizza and expect your friends to brake their backs AND your dishes?

When Yvette and I decided on moving one of the "have to" items in the budget was a mover. Not only were we not interested in carrying everything we owned but we were also not interested in being indebted to our friends to help them when their turn comes up.

We opted to use AMJ Campbell. When I first met the guys from AMJ Campbell I heard the sales pitch. It was one that made sense to me. Their movers were not just guys picked up at the temp place in the morning. They were all employees and worked at moving people full time. They were experienced and professional.

Move day came and I was ready to see if these guys met up to the high standards I expected. They were a few minutes late, not that I minded. The 4 guys jumped out of the rig and each introduced themselves to me with a hand shake. First came the runners to protect the floors. Next was the walk through to get the "lay of the land". On our way up from the basement they did not want to waste a trip so they each lugged a box with them, not bad.

They went through the home quickly loading my life into the truck by just after noon. The one thing that stuck out from the morning was when my in-laws showed up. As my father-in-law says his customary "how ya doin" to the guys the response was always followed by a "sir". These guys were hardworking and polite in every instance.

All in all it was about 10 hours and ran us $1,900 for the move. Cheap if you ask me. I guess I could have hired guys like these to do it for less.


M

The Future On Video

A few weeks back I wrote about a blog post with a futuristic look at the real estate market.

When I saw this video on Youtube I could not help but be reminded.


It got me thinking. Today is yesterday's future. What shaped our today?

Where as once we relied on newspapers, letter writing, radio and television for our link to the world. Today our views come from Google, email, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

What will Real Estate look like 10 years down the road? Do you think anyone saw this coming in 1995?


M

Buyer's Are Asking

The most important question in real estate is how much?

Pricing your home correctly up front will save you more time, hassle and MONEY than you care to know about. I am going to enlighten you anyway.

When a house on your street hits the market what is the first thing you do? Hit the computer and get nosy, right? Do you judge it? Rooms, decorating, layout, PRICE? Imagine all the people that jump on to the website where you are listed and judge your home. Once they have looked and judged will they ever be back?

So how the hell will you get the right price, specifically in this market?



Using "old" data is a starting point. If we don't learn from our history than we are doomed to repeat. Looking at trends and future market is what will propel you to the front of the pack.

The most important thing that Stacy points out is right at the end. Did you catch it? "Price your house below others in the market and get it SOLD!"

M

Potecting Your Rights

How many annoying calls are you getting?

Our clients are telling us that real estate agents have stepped up the calling. It seems some of them are subscribing to a service that accumulates information from private sale websites and newspaper ads so they don't have to "hunt" for their "leads".

How do you, a Canadian citizen, stop these annoying calls from happening? Well to start, get yourself signed up on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). Your number appears on the list within 24 hours but realtors do have 31 days to "update their list". If you get a call from any agents (or other unwanted solicitors) in the first 31 days simply tell them you are registered on the do not call list and that if they call again you will file a complaint.

Make sure you write down their name, number, brokerage and time they called. If they call back the next step would be to file a complaint with their brokerage and the local real estate board (as well as the DNCL)regarding their lack of compliance with the the program.

Here is an example of the realtor mentality and getting your listing.


The one thing Steve said that makes sense is making sure you ask anyone that comes into your house if they are pre-approved for a mortgage. If their not, tell them to sign up for PropertyGuys.com Winners Circle and get Canada's best mortgage rate. Today the rate for a 5 year fixed mortgage is at 3.45%!

M

April Monthly Stats

The new growth of spring.

Numbers are in for both Kitchener Waterloo and Cambridge for April real estate sales. Congrats to the home sellers of Cambridge as the leak in the dam seems to have been plugged by the tulips of spring. Cambridge has shown 20-40% decreases over the last 6 months so to only be down by 1.8% over last year is quite an accomplishment. This is still a drop of nearly 20% over the 2007 numbers of 307 homes sold in Cambridge.

KW is improving as the gap between this year and last year is shrinking. This month a 14.9% gap from last year is an improvement over the preceding months.

Guelph on the other hand does not seem to be holding it's ground. Early numbers show a 26% decrease over last year and that was down nearly 6% from 2007.

Let's hope that the consumer confidence is back and can repair the levee damage so the spring/summer homes sales don't get washed away in the tidal wave of unsurity.


M

Hello There!

Does he come with the house?

A key point of an internet listing is to show your home at it's best all the time. Knowing that you may not keep it pristine 24/7 you can still have it shown 100% of the time in the best shape. Before you plan to have your photos taken make sure that your house is ready. Here are a few hints you will want to ensure you pay attention to for your photos:

• Demagnetize - Although the kids art work is dear to you a buyer wants to see the fridge! Take all magnets and associated artwork, pizza coupons, to-do lists, and extended family photos off the fridge and into a drawer.
• Zamboni the Counters - You are selling space, especially in the kitchen. Feel free to leave one, maybe two small appliances if you have more than three counter spaces (U shaped kitchen or L shaped with an island). Photos have a tendancy to make things look restricted. Clearing off the counter tops will assist in opening up the kitchen and giving the perception of having a larger kitchen. This goes for bathrooms as well.
  
• Reflect When Selling - As in the photo above you need to be very cautious of where mirrors are in relation to the camera. Sometimes it is darn near impossible to avoid having the camera in the shot, but that's why they have tripods and self timers on cameras. Don't get caught in the mirror!
• Tall and Skinny - No not a Starbucks order. Landscape (wide) versus portrait (tall) should be the standard shot. The only exceptions that I would use would be in a small powder room or the front shot of a townhouse where you pick up 3 units when trying it landscape.
• Sleeping In - Make sure you have made the bed! Don't laugh I've seen it more than you would think. The bedroom is a personal space but not so much when you are loading it onto the internet. Underwear, bras and "personal items" should be taken into consideration before the thought of a camera as well.
• Pee Wee's Playhouse - Toys everywhere worked for Pee Wee but not for selling your home. Even in the kids to room hide most of the toys in closets or out of the room to take the picture. Even the neatest, most organized room with 300 toys looks cluttered.
• The Dungeon - Call it a man cave or parlor or games room any way you slice it you need to appeal to both sides of the relationship. Not sure too many people will want to walk into the "Private Club of the Satan's Helpers!"

Now you have been hipped to that dude!

M