The Edmonton Real Estate Blog

Please visit our new location for new posts.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Make Your Home Halloween Ready

Trick or treaters will soon be beating a path to your door, so its time to get your home ready for these Halloween visitors. While creating a fun atmosphere is a major goal, don’t forget that safety should always be your first priority. On the approach to your home, make sure your doorway is well lit and your front walk and porch are clear of toys, bikes or other obstructions. Remember that some of your visitors are wearing masks or hoods that can make seeing difficult.

When choosing the treats you’ll pass out at the door, it’s a good idea to read the labels and avoid any product that’s made with peanuts – the number one food allergy for children. If you’re making your own homemade treats, include a label with your family’s name and address and list the ingredients to reassure neighbourhood parents that your treats are safe for their children to eat. And remember to have a small dish of loose change beside the treats, so you’re ready for trick-or-treaters with UNICEF boxes.

One of the easiest ways to quickly add some Halloween atmosphere to your home’s interior or exterior is with lighting. Change your white light bulbs to gold or orange hued bulbs, or just use the amber “bug light” bulbs available from any hardware or lighting store. You can add to the effect by applying bat-shaped “cut-outs” to the outside of lampshades, and on glass doors, front windows and mirrors. If you have kids, you can even build the anticipation by having them cut out the shapes from black construction paper a week or two before October 31st. And if you don’t want the hassle and mess of cutting up a real pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern, you can still complete your lighting effects with a plastic or ceramic version that’s available from many retail stores that supply Halloween goodies.

Of course, sound can also play a part in setting your Halloween scene. Don’t forget to have a “boom box” close to the front door, ready to play a spooky sound effects tape (these can be found in most specialty record stores or party stores).

If you’re throwing a Halloween party, you can create a fast and easy centerpiece that conjures up thoughts of “bobbing for apples”. Start with a large but shallow bowl, fill it with water, add some apples, and finish with a few floating candles. Give your table some dazzle. Scatter small foil stars or glitter on the top of your tablecloth, add a couple of sequined or feathered masks and perhaps a few brightly wrapped Halloween candy kisses. You could also tie orange and black ribbon around the stem of your glassware or as napkin rings with a tied-on treat.

A special dessert can be a highlight of a party table or a gathering of friends at the end of the evening. You can create your own jack-o-lantern cake, by baking any recipe of yellow or orange cake in a round pan. Start with a batch of white icing and add yellow and red food colouring to make it orange. Use chocolate icing to add ‘triangle’ eyes and nose and a smiling mouth. Add kids and enjoy!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

A Room Without a View

What's a room without a view? Even the most attractive décor can rise or fall based on the view from the predominant windows in any given room.

Whether you're a seller who wants to show your home to its best advantage or a buyer considering the purchase of a home with a problem view, the outlook from your windows is a major consideration.

So, whether you're buying or selling, or even just want to enjoy your current home to the fullest extent, here are some tips for adapting windows that either overlook a poor view or have limited light.

  • If the view is unattractive throughout the entire window, try frosting the glass with an inexpensive window film available in most wallpaper or decorating stores. You simply cut it to size, and spray some soapy water on the window to allow you to slide the film around until it's positioned just right. Once you're in position, smooth out any excess water and air bubbles and you're done.
  • If the view is poor in just a part of a window, then shutters or blinds will offer the best solution. Roman blinds are made of a solid piece of fabric and are both modern and attractive. If you order them in a translucent material, they will still allow light to enter while you can adjust their height to obscure only the part of window with the unwanted view. Venetian or vertical blinds can be even more flexible, since in addition to height, they can also be adjusted to differing degrees of openness at various times of the day or year.
  • Is the view looking in to your house the problem? It's now an easy matter to keep the neighbours from watching your every move without having to resort to keeping the drapes drawn day. Tinted glass in your window panes, or a 2-way glass film could be the answer to your prayers. Talk to your local window supplier and see how to keep your privacy while you let the sun shine in.
  • Not enough light coming in through your windows? The solution may be as simple as a bit of landscaping, pruning or re-locating bushes and shrubbery. If you're still in the dark, so to speak, you can multiply the effect of the limited light coming in to your window by positioning a mirror on an opposing wall.
  • Want to introduce some additional light into your room, but the view is not desirable? Consider adding some small feature windows in positions other than traditional window openings. A small porthole effect high in a wall lets you enjoy the treetops, rather than staring into your neighbour's kitchen.
  • Stained glass or frosted glass panels can also be hung in front of your existing window panes to attract the eye and break up an undesirable view.

www.edmonton-homes.ca

Cost-effective Improvements for Home Sellers

By Dian Hymer
Inman News

New paint, floor coverings, light fixtures bring high returns for minimal costs.
It's no mystery that listings that are in great shape usually sell for more than those that are in sub-prime condition. But, is it really necessary to fix up your home for sale? Won't the buyers want to fix up the house the way they want it?

Boost your selling power
Sellers are often resistant to the notion of investing time and effort in a property that will soon no longer be theirs. Yet, time and again, sellers who properly prepare their homes for sale reap the benefits in terms of a faster sale and a higher sale price.

Before embarking on a fix-up-for-sale project, you need to mentally move beyond the idea that you're fixing your home up for someone else. The sole purpose of sprucing up your home before selling is to net more money for yourself from the sale. Can you sell your home without fixing it up for sale? Yes, but you'll be selling to a more limited market. Most buyers have a difficult time envisioning what a home might look like with an updated décor, or a relandscaped yard.

Continued on MSN...

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

The Model Home Effect

Whether you’re selling your home and want to appeal to prospective buyers, or you’ve just bought a new home and want to show it off to its best advantage when your first visitors arrive, you can learn a lot from how model homes are presented. The best way to make a viewer “feel at home” is to create an environment that appeals to the majority of people. That means avoiding highly personal styles of décor that, although they may make a bold statement about who you are, may not be welcoming to buyers and other visitors.

While you can’t recreate the feeling of a perfect display home without starting from scratch, there are some valuable techniques to be learned that can start you on your way. A feeling of spaciousness is one of the first impressions you get when visiting a model home. You can duplicate that same open and airy feeling in your home in a variety of ways. First, choose light and neutral colours as the basis of your décor. But what if you like bold and dramatic colours? No problem. You can introduce these colours as an accent in pillows, artwork, table or bed linens, and the occasional accessory such as a bowl or vase with bright flowers. Highlighting your favourite colour with accent pieces against a neutral background will give your décor that added punch, and a bright splash of colour will attract the eye rather than overwhelming visitors with wall-to-wall chaos. Introducing colour as an accent also gives you the option of making a major change in your décor quickly and inexpensively, simply by changing some key accessories.

Spaciousness can also be conveyed through opening up sight lines. Avoid furniture placement and drapery treatments that tend to block off your view of other areas of the house, or restrict the movements of your visitors. Remember, open and airy also means an easy flow from room to room.

‘Less is more’ is the standard when it comes to creating the model home effect. A common mistake that many homeowners make is having every collectible they own placed out in sight. While we all have personal treasures that we’d like to display, if you go overboard your prized possessions will simply get lost in what looks like a lot of clutter. Choose a select few pieces that complement each other and have a similar scale and just showcase these items. Professional decorators favour the ‘rule of three’, clustering pieces in groups of three for maximum effect. You can pack away your other fine pieces for the time being, and then have the pleasure of replacing some of your current display items every time you feel like a quick and easy change in your room’s look. You may even find that you enjoy changing your accessories with each change in season.

Search all Edmonton and area real estate listings.

Is your listing over-priced?

How does a seller know whether their house is listed too high? Here’s what to watch out for:The most obvious indication is when there’s no action on your house -- either website hits, calls, showings or offers. Or it may be that your listing is attracting attention in the form of calls and showings, but then no offers result. This can be a real indicator that there is demand for the type of housing you’re advertising, but when it is viewed, your property falls short. There may be other homes in the same listing price range that are perceived as offering greater value.

However, there’s another situation which may indicate that your house is overpriced. This happens when salespeople of other companies show your house to potential buyers on a frequent basis, yet no offers are ever received. They may have their own listings of similar houses that are priced below yours. After showing your house they may then take the buyers through their listing which is priced much more reasonably, thereby appearing to be a bargain! So watch for salespeople who regularly show your property without bringing you an offer. It just might be that you’re enabling them to sell their listing off your house.

If you think this may be happening, ask your salesperson to show you what other listings are currently for sale in a neighbourhood similar to yours. Then compare the list prices of these properties with your own. You, as a seller, are in competition with these listings for potential buyers. If your listing is not competitively priced, you and your salesperson can then decide on the next steps.

Your sales professional can also show you other valuable market data to help you evaluate the list price of your home. In addition to current listings, you can also review recent sales of comparable properties, to see what price is currently being commanded for similar homes in your area. Another helpful source of information is expired listings. These listings will show you what price the market will not bear. If your current list price is bordering on this range, you are risking the same unsatisfactory result if you keep your home priced at such a high level.

In a strong market, sometimes the best pricing strategy can be to offer a lower price to attract more activity and possibly even generate more than one interested buyer to compete for your listing.

Find out the value of your home.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Booming world economy leads to record year for Alberta exports

Edmonton...Alberta's exports of goods and services reached a record high of $73.2 billion in 2004. The banner year for exports reflects an increase of nearly 16 per cent over 2003.

The increase is largely due to a booming world economy, which saw its highest rate of growth in 28 years. The high rate of growth has spurred increases in both commodity prices and export volumes.

"Growth in exports means more jobs and more jobs mean a higher quality of life for Albertans," said Clint Dunford, Minister of Economic Development. "I'm especially pleased with the growth in Alberta's manufacturing exports which were up 22 per cent."

Out of 183 importing countries, the U.S. remained Alberta's largest trading partner in 2004 importing $59 billion worth of goods. China and Japan rounded out the list of Alberta's top three importers, importing $1.7 billion and $1.2 billion respectively. China surpassed Japan as Alberta's second largest market last year.

Click here to continue reading.

Search all Edmonton an area MLS listings.

Friday, October 07, 2005

7 Home Repairs You Can't Ignore

Homeowner procrastination can ruin a house. Don’t let water, pests, faulty wiring, dirty chimneys or old appliances get the upper hand.
By Liz Pulliam Weston

Owning a house is expensive, which is why so many homeowners procrastinate on repairs. Real-estate agents have a euphemism for this condition: It’s called “deferred maintenance.”

Some fixes, however, should never be delayed. Ignoring these problems can result in much more expensive repairs later on -- or even injury and death.
Here’s what home inspectors around the country say you should be on the lookout for:

http://realestate.msn.com/Improve/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=44603&GT1=7114



Search All Edmonton and area MLS Listings.

Is a For Sale sign enough?

They say there’s a perfect match out there for everyone – and that goes for home buyers and sellers too! The right buyer is out there, but it takes time, expertise and resources to put them together with the right seller to make the sale.

Real estate professionals know that there’s a lot more to selling a home than just putting a sign on the lawn and crossing your fingers that the phone will ring. There are many other sources of buyers, and a good real estate salesperson will utilize several different marketing approaches to find them. A customized marketing plan for your home might include such tactics as posting your home on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), holding Open Houses either for other real estate agents or potential buyers, direct mail, traditional media advertising, in-office promotion and most importantly, a strong online presence.

Statistics show that the majority of home buyers now start their property search online, so the ability to attract web surfers to view your listing is a critical factor in not only getting your house sold, but more importantly, getting it sold for the best price that the current market can bear. Simply placing a sign on the lawn or posting your property on a little-used website that no one views won’t expose your property to the extensive number of potential buyers you need in order to achieve optimum results.

The Internet is now one of the most effective sources for initially attracting potential buyers to a real estate company. But did you know that it’s an established fact that the vast majority of Internet searchers ultimately used a real estate agent for their home purchase? And despite the fact that most started their search on the internet, a large proportion of homebuyers first found out about the home they actually purchased through an agent. So what does all this mean to you? Simple! Although more and more people are using the internet in the early stages of their property search – particularly affluent, younger buyers -- buyers still need the help of an experienced and knowledgeable real estate professional to help them evaluate the wealth of information that’s available, and to guide them throughout the complex real estate transaction process.

Even if your sign on the lawn attracts a buyer, how do you know if what you’re being offered is really a fair price in today’s rapidly-changing market conditions? How do you qualify that buyer to ensure they’re not wasting your time looking at a property they really can’t afford? How do you ensure that you minimize your potential problems at closing? What create financing options can you offer to make it all happen? You see, there’s much more to buying or selling a home than just placing a sign on the lawn. You need a skilled Coldwell Banker real estate professional to help you interpret the vast amount of information that’s available today so you can make an informed decision.



Find the value of your home at www.edmonton-homes.ca