When you drive up to your home in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or the Edmonton area, do you feel proud of the way it looks?  Or is your home looking a little shop-worn and tired compared to other homes in your neighborhood? 

If you are thinking of putting your home on the market, it’s time to do something about the state of its curb appeal.  In today’s market your home is in competition with every other home for sale and it needs to stand out from the rest with a good first impression.

Maybe you’ve got a long list of face-lift and landscaping projects you’ve been putting off because you don’t want to spend 1000s of dollars.  Is it possible to do a few fairly simple and inexpensive things to make your home look attractive to would-be buyers so they will at least slow down for a second look? 

One of the most noticeable and least expensive fix-ups, especially if you do it yourself, is new paint.  If your home has paintable siding, consider freshening up the look with a new fashionable color.  It’s possible to be trendy while still coordinating with other homes in your neighborhood.  If your home has vinyl or metal siding, give it a good cleaning and paint all the trim with a color that complements the color of your roof.   

As with the interior of your home, clean and tidy goes a long way to impressing potential buyers and luckily doesn’t cost much.  Here are a few things to consider:

• Clean and shine everything.  Windows should sparkle, metal trim such as house numbers and door hardware should be tarnish-free, front porch should be clear of dirt and debris, driveway oil spots need to be banished, brickwork should be freshened, and so on.
• Get rid of the clutter.  Kids’ bicycles tossed down next to the driveway, leftover building supplies at the side of the house, bundled up newspapers and bottles waiting to be recycled – all of this needs to go.
• Manicure your yard.  Trim your lawn neatly, dig up any stray weeds, use an edging tool and string trimmer (“weed whacker”) for tidy borders.  Give your shrubs a haircut and tidy up the flowerbeds.  Consider some colorful flowering plants in pots or planters to add a few spots of brightness and cheer to the yard.  In the fall, rake up fallen leaves, and in the winter, keep your sidewalks and driveway clear of snow and ice.
• Repair any visible shortcomings, such as broken light fixtures or windows, loose shingles, crooked downspouts, falling-down fences, driveway cracks, uneven sidewalk blocks, and the like. 

How welcoming is your front entryway?  Staging your front porch with a few accessories, just as you would your living room, is going to make homebuyers want to look inside.  Paint or replace your front door, or even just the door hardware, mailbox, light fixtures, etc., with something more modern (another fairly inexpensive change).  It may seem a little cliché but a welcome mat on the porch and a wreath or basket of flowers on the door really do click with many homebuyers.  If there is room on your porch, items such as a flower-filled planter or rocking chair can add a great deal of charm to an otherwise nondescript area.  Other things to consider:  attractive new railing, striped retractable awning, ivy-covered trellis, hanging floral baskets… 

While it may cost you a little money and time to improve the curb appeal of your home, it’s definitely worth it.  It’s been shown time and again that a home that looks well-maintained and cared for sells faster and for a higher price. 

For more ideas, take a look at my Curb Appeal Pinterest board. 

Comments or questions about this article?  Call or text me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.

How do we go about changing the “For Sale” sign on your home in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or the Edmonton area into “Sold”? 

Once you’ve signed the Listing Contract and your house is officially “on the market”, lots of things take place in my office to make sure that as many realtors and potential buyers as possible are aware of it. 

First of all, I post your listing (detailed description of your property, pictures and measurements I took during my visit, other particulars such as asking price, annual property taxes, neighborhood features and so on) to the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS®.  This powerful online service immediately makes your property’s information available to the thousands of realtors working in the Edmonton region.  They, in turn, can make this information available to their clients who might be looking for a property like yours.  Clients who create a customized search profile listing their desired property features can opt to receive automated “highlight sheets” showing properties available for sale that match what they are looking for.  Potential buyers can also search MLS listings directly by using their realtor’s website or by going to MLS.ca or Realtor.ca.

Back at the Realty Executives Leading office, a full-color printed “window ad” showing a picture of your home and a verbal description is posted in the front window of our building so that passers-by and visitors to the office can see the properties listed for sale by the realtors from our office.  Using a graphic designer, I may also create a glossy color highlight sheet featuring several photos of your home’s best features for potential buyers to pick up when they are viewing your home with a realtor. 

I advertise most of my listings every week in the local newspapers, the Grove Examiner in Spruce Grove and the Stony Plain Reporter in Stony Plain.  I also place ads in the Real Estate Weekly (circulation 60,000) published by the Realtors Association of Edmonton.  Printed copies of the Real Estate Weekly are inserted in home-delivered newspapers and sent out to newsstands selling the Edmonton Sun, as well as high traffic food stores, banks and real estate offices all around the Edmonton area.   Websites for all three of these publications mean an even greater possible audience for this advertising. 

I make extensive use of technology in marketing your property, featuring my listings on my website, my Facebook Business Page, my Activerain blog, and my Pinterest board of listings.  I also post ads on Kijiji and create special in-house virtual tours, using software called VisualTour, that are attached to my MLS listings.  

Special mention needs to be made of my website, www.barryt.ca.  Buyers searching for “Spruce Grove real estate”, “Stony Plain real estate” or “Parkland County real estate” will find my website consistently showing up in the top organic search results on Google.  The potential exists for your home to be viewed online by thousands of visitors every day. 

While we still put a For Sale sign on your front lawn and maybe stage an open house, you can see that today’s real estate marketing goes well beyond traditional sales methods! 

Looking to sell your home?  I can help!  Call me today at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here. 

Your Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or Edmonton area home is now on the market.  You’ve listened to all the advice and done everything you reasonably can to make sure it shows well.  You’ve thoroughly cleaned and de-cluttered, you’ve made all the minor repairs, and maybe you’ve even undertaken a few renovations that give a fairly good return on investment, such as repainting inside and out where needed.  As your REALTOR®, I’ll do everything I can to market your home [see my blog article on this:  So, You Signed the Listing Contract…]  But, is there anything else you can do to help your house sell fast and for a good price? 

Here’s an idea for something that’s a little unusual, and beyond what most people do.  Work with me to prepare a Question and Answer sheet about your home and neighborhood to leave in your home for visitors. 

Potential buyers are going to have questions about your property and its location so why not anticipate those questions and provide the answers as a unique way of showcasing your home and its value.  Some possibilities:

• Your utility suppliers and the cost of utilities, together with your “utility site number”
• Renovations and repairs you’ve undertaken – maybe include things such as contractors you used, dates, cost and details of renos (such as kitchen and bathroom re-dos, basement finishing, replacement of such things as shingles, flooring, windows), paint brands and color names or numbers, etc.
• The appliances in your home – age, brand, warranties, etc.  (Remember to leave the manuals when you move!)
• Shrubs and plants around your yard
• What do you love about your home? 

What would potential buyers want to know about the location of your home?  Think about what drew you to the neighborhood and your community.  How about:

• Nearby amenities, such as schools, parks, walking trails, convenience stores, gas stations, shopping centres, medical clinics and the like, plus distance to each
• Appealing characteristics of your neighborhood, such as low crime, helpful neighbors, wide boulevard, quiet and privacy, or maybe close access to essential services, and so on
• The community at large – for example, the website where a potential resident could learn about the makeup of your town, special features that make your community unique, such as its history, tourist attractions, famous citizens and so on. 

With so many homes on the market, it pays to highlight yours in a unique way, and have it stand out from the rest.  Together, we can get your home sold! 

Comments or questions about this article?  Call or text me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.

Your Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or Edmonton area home is now up for sale, and you’ve made it look as good as you possibly can.  You’ve moved out a ton of stuff so that the rooms look more spacious.  You’ve tidied up every storage space from the black hole of your teenage son’s closet to that great little cubbyhole under the stairs that has held all kinds of things you couldn’t bear to part with till now.  You’ve touched up all the paint chips, washed all the windows till they sparkle, and arranged the furniture just so.  Your house looks great. 

Your home’s appearance is very important in the home selling process.  But have you considered the other senses that prospective buyers will use when they visit your home? 

• Smell.  It’s said that someone considering buying your home will make a decision, especially a negative one, in the first few seconds through the door.  And that negative choice could be because of a powerful reaction to the odors in your home.  You may love cooking with exotic flavors but last night’s garlic or fish or curry could massively turn off a prospective buyer.  Seek out and destroy other odors as well:  ashtrays (and other evidence of smoking in the home), laundry hampers, garbage cans and recycling bins, toilets, diaper pails, pet paraphernalia such as cat litter box, bird cage, dog bed, and so on.  Do NOT attempt to cover up the odors with artificial air freshener products!  Instead, clean your home thoroughly and allow fresh air in.  Fresh fragrant flowers help too.
• Hearing.  Squeaky hinges, creaky floor boards, rattles and squeals in appliances, tree branches that rub against the building in the wind, all suggest minor maintenance issues and possibly a lack of care that should have been attended to before the home went on the market.  Even wind chimes can turn off some buyers.  Noise is a no-no!
• Touch.  If a potential buyer runs her finger across a window sill or the top of a door and it comes away black, well… that’s not going to leave a very good impression.  Likewise with sticky counter tops and door handles, or crunchy floors.  Clean, especially spotless, immaculate, mother-in-law clean, not only sells houses faster but can even make up for some other minor deficiencies. 

Today’s buyers are looking for a home they can move into without having to do anything to erase traces of the previous owners.  Appealing to all the senses is a good strategy to ensure your home shows to its very best advantage, sells quickly and for the best price.   

For more tips and hints to make your home market-ready, check out some of my other blog articles:

Be Your Own Home Stager

Thinking of Selling Your Home in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain or Parkland County?

Home Staging Starts With De-cluttering 

10 Things I Hate About Your House!

Comments or questions about this article or real estate in general?  Call or text me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.  

A guest blog article from one of my clients who refers to herself as Ms. Cranky Pants:

So, Barry took me to see your house in the region of Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County, and Edmonton, and I just wanted to mention the things that made me go Ewww.

Odors

I know you think all those little room deodorizer thingies will hide the fact that you’re a smoker, but you can’t fool me.  I wish I didn’t know that you had fried fish with onions and garlic for dinner.  And seriously people, do you ever clean that stinky litter box?  Open a window, for crying out loud!

Dirt

Disgusting grime in the tub, sticky spots on the kitchen counter, dirty dishes in the sink, mystery stains on the carpet, something brown and nasty in the corners…  Yuck!  I’d hate to have the CSI folks go through here with their ultra-violet lights.  I’m not a clean freak but no way do I want to wallow in anybody else’s crud, thank you.  Soap and water and elbow grease are cheap – get busy!

Stuff everywhere

When I view homes, I try to imagine living in the rooms with all my belongings in place.  Kind of hard to do when your junk is clogging up the space, making the place feel smaller than it really is.  Plus, it’s a real turn-off to see personal things like your toothbrush, razor and soggy towels cluttering up the bathroom, for example.  You need to get rid of at least half the stuff in your house — and I don’t mean hide it in the closets or the garage because I’m looking in there!  Here’s a tip:  Visualize a nice hotel room before you move in and unpack – sparkly clean, neat and tidy, room to move around.  That’s what your home should look like for showings.

Damp basement and water stains

Oh boy, is this one a red flag.  If I can see the results of water leakage, I just know I’d be buying a boatload of trouble to take on this baby.  Maybe you’ve got a bad foundation, but it’s more likely that water from spring runoff or summer rains is getting in because 1) your landscaping and grading isn’t sloped adequately away from the house; 2) your eavestroughing needs some work, with rain gutters cleaned out and downspouts aimed well away from the house; 3) your underground drains are clogged; or 4) your sump pump, if you have one, isn’t working properly.

Evident lack of maintenance or upgrading, or unfinished or poorly done reno projects

Yeah, I know your house isn’t brand new so you don’t have all the latest fixtures and decorative doo-dads.  I don’t mind a house that’s used.  What I object to is a house that’s used up.  If you’ve lived in your house for longer than 10 years, then it’s time to fix it up.  That could mean repairing broken windows, tightening loose hinges, or replacing cabinet handles, switches and plug-ins, faucets and shower heads.  It might also mean fresh paint inside and outside (neutral colors, please!).  Maybe what’s needed is a new roof, new furnace and hot water heater, new flooring or new appliances.  It could even mean a professional renovation of kitchen and bathrooms.  Notice I said professional renovation.  Do it yourself only if you have the skills and tools to do it right.  Oh, and don’t wait till just before it’s time to sell to do those things.  Maintain and renovate on a yearly basis so you get to enjoy your investment.

Weird decorating

I counted 5 different wallpaper patterns and 4 different types of carpet and lino just on the main level, but the real clincher was the purple living room, black bedroom and the mustard yellow dining room with its psychedelic wall mural!  This may be what you like to live with, but I want my house to be a frame for my life, not a Halloween horror show.

Lack of light

Hard to see if there are great features in this house because it’s like a cave in here.  I respect people trying to save money and energy, but up the wattage on the light bulbs so prospective buyers can actually see what you’re selling.  Open those drapes and blinds.  Trim the shrubbery from in front of the windows.  Clean those dirty, foggy windows.

Poor curb appeal and unattractive yard

I don’t know about you but I make a little effort when I show my face in public.  Same thing applies to houses.  Like it or not, first impressions count.  If your front door is askew and the paint’s peeling, if your driveway and sidewalks are cracked, plants overgrown, lawn brown and patchy, and there’s trash everywhere, this tells me you don’t care.  So why should I even bother to enter the front door if what I’ll see on the inside is more of the same?  Show a little pride, folks!

Pets on the loose

Hey, I love animals but your big snarly pooch scared the whatsits out of me.  I came to see your house, not get mauled by Cujo.

Price too high

Of course I’d like a bargain, but I’m willing to pay what’s fair for a decent house.  If your house needs a little work… well, I can forgive quite a lot if the price is right.  But there’s plenty I won’t pay for.  I don’t care that you spent $20,000 on a fancy new hot tub and deck, or that you owe too much on your mortgage to reduce the price to what’s reasonable, or that you have to have a certain amount so you can move into a bigger and more expensive house.  Price your house right based on factors such as its location, age, condition, size and what similar homes in your area have sold for, and I just might make you an offer.

Barry has some great articles in this blog on home staging and getting your house ready to sell.  Take a look at these:

Be Your Own Home Stager

Thinking of Selling Your Home in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain or Parkland County? 

Home Staging Starts With De-cluttering

Barry can help you find a great house, or sell your current one.  Call or text him at 780-910-9669, email him at barry@barryt.ca, or contact him here. 

“Keep Calm and Carry On” was a motto used by the British government in 1939, intended to strengthen the morale of the British public in the face of World War II.  It could just as easily be used to punch up the spirits of home sellers, especially in the current market in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County and the Edmonton area where perfectly good homes can languish on the market for months.

An article in the December 10, 2011 Edmonton Journal, entitled “Park your emotions when selling your home”, is one of those “couldn’t have said it better myself” articles that I’d like to share with my clients.

Author Marnie Bennett starts by stating that “feelings and emotions muddy home-sale waters.  I can’t stress enough to keep them as far away from your business decisions as possible.”  She goes on to outline five “rules” to help sellers detach emotionally from the sale of their home.

Number one on her list is “Choose your agent wisely”, opting for a business-like approach that will maximize profits and minimize hassle.  Setting the proper price for your home, negotiating from a position of strength, staging your home to show off its best features, and above all, keeping one’s emotions out of the deal round out Ms. Bennett’s list of rules.  We’ve heard this good solid advice many times before, but it’s the kind of advice that deserves to be repeated and heeded by anyone trying to sell a home.  Why is this such good advice?  I encourage you to read the full article!

If it’s time to sell your home, I would be happy to guide you through as stress-free a process as possible.  Please call me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.

No matter how short or long a time you spend in your Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or Edmonton area home, there will come a time when you leave it.  If you live in it long enough, it will need to be refreshed, updated, and renovated.  The question is:   Do you renovate it just for yourself, or do you renovate with a sales target in mind?

 The best answer to this question is to think about both goals.  Renovate it for your own taste, pleasure and functional use, but don’t forget that your home will eventually go back on the market and may need to appeal to tastes broader than your own. If you’re looking to maximize the value in your home, both for your own use now and for future resale, what sorts of renovations are the best ones to undertake?

 Ergil & Jackson Appraisals Ltd. in their excellent Home Renovation Guide, 2010 edition, give this advice:

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR RENOVATIONS

According to the Appraisal Institute of Canada  and various professionals we’ve consulted, the following are a few things to keep in mind before you get started:

Invest in your kitchen!

About 10‐15% of the overall value of the home should be spent on the kitchen. If you don’t plan on selling for another 5 years, spending 15‐25% more on it today will give you about a 44% higher recapture depending on the quality of the renovations. For example, buyers need afunctionally designed, spacious, low maintenance kitchen. Scratch‐resistant, durable materials such as granite countertops and high‐quality appliances add tremendous value and have timeless appeal.

The bathroom is next!

You can expect up to a 60‐80% (and in some cases up to 100%) contribution to value on a well designed bathroom even if that requires a complete relocation of fixtures or walls. From floorto ceiling, new tiles, light fixtures and cabinetry to create one’s own personal spa is especiallyappealing. Luxury fixtures to enhance pampering may include water jets, soaker tubs and double sinks in the ensuite bathroom.

Don’t forget the floors and walls!

The buyer wants a home that’s ready to move into.  Smooth walls with quality, neutral paints will make spaces seem larger and will give you an 80‐110% recapture. Carpeting should be limited to bedrooms, if at all. Hardwood and tiles not only benefit in allergen reduction but add elegance as well.  Good flooring that flows from room to room and ties in with baseboards, cabinetry, walls and so on, can provide a 50‐75% better contribution to value than low‐cost, mediocre flooring.

Spend the money!

As the saying goes “You get what you pay for”.  Over the past year the cost of materials may not have increased dramatically but the cost of labour is certainly rising. Quality craftsmanship and insuring a job well done is key.  Nothing is more costly than having to do it twice or replace it early.  The importance of using the highest quality materials cannot be stressed enough.

Remember: High‐quality, easy maintenance, environmentally conscious products and timeless designs are all essential to ensuring value‐added appreciation with the best contribution to value possible.

Thanks to Ergil & Jackson for allowing me to quote portions of their document.  Please check out their full Home Renovation Guide for plenty of good information and advice.

Wondering what your home is worth in today’s market?  I’d be happy to do a free Home Evaluation for you.  Call me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.

Is it a good idea to tackle major renovations just before you put your home on the market to make your Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or Edmonton area home more attractive to buyers? 

Some time ago, I posted a blog entry on this topic (Should You Renovate Before You Sell?  Learn Which Home Renovations Give You the Best Return), giving some details about the costs of various renovations and how much, if anything, those renovations might add to the value of your home when it came time to sell.  This information came from Henderson & Butt’s excellent 2009 Home Renovation Guide.  Well, Henderson & Butt are now Ergil & Jackson Appraisals Ltd., and the 2010 edition of the Home Renovation Guide offers even more great information to help you keep or increase the value of your home.  Many thanks to Ergil and Jackson for allowing me to use information from their guide in my blog posts.

I’ve revised my original blog post to include more current information courtesy of Ergil and Jackson.  To view my revised article, please visit my new blog on Active Rain.   

Are there topics you’d like me to discuss in these blog posts?  I’d love to hear from you.  Call me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.

How do we go about changing the “For Sale” sign on your home in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County or the Edmonton area into “Sold”?

Once your house is officially “on the market”, lots of things take place in my office to make sure that as many realtors and potential buyers as possible are aware of it.

First of all, I post your listing, consisting of a detailed description of your property, the pictures and measurements I took during my visit, and various other particulars such as the asking price, annual property taxes, neighborhood features and so on, to the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS®.  This powerful online service almost instantly makes your property’s information available to the thousands of realtors working in the Edmonton region.  They, in turn, can make this information available to their clients who might be looking for a property like yours.  Clients who create a customized search profile listing their desired property features can opt to receive automated “highlight sheets” showing properties available for sale that match what they are looking for.  These days, most realtors, or their offices, have websites with a direct link to MLS, making it possible for their clients to see all the pictures and other information posted on MLS.  Potential buyers can also search MLS listings directly by going to MLS.ca or Realtor.ca. 

Back at the Realty Executives Leading office, a full-color printed “window ad” showing a picture of your home and a verbal description is posted in the front window of our building so that passers-by and visitors to the office can see the properties listed for sale by the realtors from our office.  I may also create a glossy color highlight sheet featuring photos of your home’s best features for potential buyers to pick up when they are viewing your home with a realtor.

I advertise some or all of my listings every week in the local newspapers, the Grove Examiner in Spruce Grove and the Stony Plain Reporter in Stony Plain.  I also place ads in the Real Estate Weekly (circulation 60,000) published by the Realtors Association of Edmonton.  Printed copies of the Real Estate Weekly are inserted in home-delivered newspapers and sent out to newsstands selling the Edmonton Sun, as well as high traffic food stores, banks and real estate offices all around the Edmonton area.   Websites for all three of these publications have meant an even greater possible audience for this advertising.

I make as much use of technology in marketing your property as I can, featuring my listings on my website and on my Facebook Business Page, as well as posting ads on Kijiji and creating special in-house virtual tours, using software called VisualTour, that are attached to my MLS listings. 

While we still put a For Sale sign on your front lawn and maybe stage an open house, you can see that today’s real estate marketing goes well beyond traditional sales methods!

Looking to sell your home?  I can help!  Call me today at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.   

Most Canadians look forward to owning their own home, whether that’s a house, a condo, or an acreage in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County, the Edmonton area or elsewhere.  In the excitement of taking possession of a new home, moving in and settling down in a new neighborhood, sometimes people forget they’ve taken on a long-term commitment to look after the property and protect the biggest investment most of us will ever make.  Owning a home is a lot of work!

With proper planning and good routines, maintaining a home need not be overwhelming.  The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, CMHC, publishes numerous guides for homeowners.  Check out “Home Maintenance Schedule” for an extended season-by-season checklist of home maintenance tasks.  If you’re like me, you’re bound to find a few things on this list you might not have thought about.  For example, one suggestion is to remove the interior window screens in the fall to allow the circulation of air to keep condensation off the windows and to allow in more free solar heat.

Maintaining your home will make it safer, more attractive and more pleasant to live in.  But there’s another very good reason not to neglect these routines.   Time and again in the real estate business, the houses that sell the fastest and for the best price are those houses that have been looked after the best.  When it comes time to sell your most valuable possession, you’ll be glad you kept up the maintenance!

Thinking of selling your home?  I’d be happy to help you get it ready to put on the market.  Call me at 780-910-9669, email me at barry@barryt.ca, or contact me here.