If you are considering painting, updating the kitchen, landscaping, or making any other improvements that will increase your home’s re-sale value, think about making those improvements while you are still there to enjoy them! Create your own dream kitchen, master suite or spa, build an outdoor living room or restore your wood floors now. Improving your property will make your home more enjoyable, help maintain the property values in your neighborhood, and expedite the sale of your home when you are ready for a move!

1. Curb Appeal: Buyers make snap judgments about each home they view. These judgments are drawn largely from first impressions. Be sure your home has impressive curb appeal. Fresh flowers and mulched beds, along with trimmed hedges and grass are a must. If your home needs a fresh coat of paint, now is the time. And even if your paint or siding is in good repair, consider painting your front door an eye-catching color, such as red or blue.

2. Inspection: An inspection can make or break a deal. Even after they’ve fallen in love with your house, a buyer may decide foundation issues or faulty electrical are too much of a headache. The benefits of having an inspection done prior to listing can be two-fold. First, your buyers will be aware of what repairs are needed before they make an offer. Second, you can choose to address these repairs and therefore have them removed from the scenario altogether.

3. Repairs: Buyers are turned off by long lists of needed repairs. This goes double for time-consuming and costly repairs, such as roof work or foundation issues. By identifying and addressing the issues, you may be able to yourself save time and money in the long run.

4. Organize Paperwork: There may be contracts or warranties you have on your home that will transfer to a new buyer. These can include appliances, builder warranties, and even contracts with lawn and pool companies that were paid up-front.

5. Talk to your lender: How much new home can you afford? Are you able to sell your home for enough to cover the remaining balance of the loan? These are important questions to get answered prior to listing!

6. Prepare for showings: Staging a home for sale has multiple different layers. First, you should clean and organize. Have carpets cleaned and repaint dirty or loudly colored walls. Next, remove large and bulky furniture, as these make rooms appear smaller. And finally, take down personal pictures, trophies, and memorabilia that could distract the buyer from what they are actually interested in … your house!

Every seller needs a competitive edge in today’s market. By being prepared for selling prior to listing, you can gain an advantage. Talk to your real estate agent for more tips!

First, and perhaps most importantly, be ready to buy. Readiness is not impulsiveness, however. Before you begin your home search, be clear on your objectives. This means knowing your budget (and how much wiggle room you really have), what amenities are must-haves, and what things you can do without. By having a clear plan of action, you’ll know a good deal when you see it and won’t hesitate to act. Many would-be buyers miss out on their dream home because of hesitation. They need “the night to think about it” or “to see a few more” before they make a decision. If the home is a good price and in a desirable location, one night could mean missing out on the house altogether.

To take the preparation stage one step further, be absolutely sure you are pre-qualified and pre-approved for a loan. Do this before you even set foot in seller’s house. Why? You wouldn’t be the first buyer who puts in an offer on their dream home, only to find out financing has fallen through. Lending is tight right now. You may not qualify for as low of an interest rate as you would think. And for others, you may not qualify at all!

And if you were pre-qualified or approved months ago, be sure to stay in contact with your lender, so that there are no surprises when it comes time to make an offer.

Communication doesn’t end there. Keep in contact with your agent about new listings and showings. Homes come on the market all the time and in hot neighborhoods they don’t last long. If you wait even a few days, a home could be scooped up by another eager buyer.

Next, bid competitively. This is where your agent can be invaluable. They have access to your market’s stats, which show for how much comparable homes have been selling. This means you may be able to come in a little under list price and still be competitive, or it may mean that the property is already underpriced, and to beat out any other offers, you need to offer more than the asking price.

Competitive doesn’t mean handing everything to the seller on a sliver platter, though. Sellers may ask for certain concessions, such closing costs terms, as-is purchases (without an inspection contingency in the offer), and requests regarding closing dates. Some of these requests may seem reasonable to you, but don’t be afraid to stand your ground if others are too far-fetched.

And finally, stick to your guns. It can be easy to lose sight of your true end goal, which should be the home you love at a reasonable price. This means that your predetermined budget, well, it must remain your budget. Don’t overpay for a house simply because you’ve gotten caught up in the excitement of a bidding war.

Use these simple tips to help you navigate a tough market. Before you know it, you’ll be signing on the dotted line for your new dream home.

1. Neighborhood: Deciding on what neighborhood you desire is tricky. You must consider your wants and needs. They vary by person. Do you have children and need to live within the boundaries of a specific school district? You might want a short commute, a neighborhood with historic homes, or homes that are near night life and restaurants.

2. Square footage: What size of home fits your needs? The trend has been for larger and larger homes, with special purpose spaces, such as exercise rooms, offices, studies, and media rooms. This trend is now receding.

3. Floorplan: Architectural styles offer a wide range of choices! Open floor plans might appeal to you, with their great flow for entertaining. Or you may have a more traditional aesthetic, preferring cozy rooms. Think about how you live your life and what style best fits your needs.

4. Finishes: There are different grades of homes. Take your kitchen, for example. You can find a wide range of beautiful laminate counters, just as you can find a wide range of beautiful granite ones. These choices dramatically affect price. Think carefully about what you want in your dream home. Do you want stone floors or will ceramic suffice? Are you looking for green building materials, such as zero-voc paint, bamboo floors, and recycled counters?

5. Amenities: Our homes extend past the borders of our property. We live in the parks, shopping, and restaurants that surround us. Be sure to think outside the “box” of your house when you buy.

6. Landscaping: A large yard can mean lots of entertaining potential, but it can also mean a lot of work. Be sure to consider your needs now and down the road when it comes to yard maintenance. Many buyers prefer a townhouse or condo as their “dream home”. These options afford buyers with much less responsibility when it comes to upkeep!

Be sure to discuss all of these topics with your real estate agent. They can help you decide on a happy compromise among the long list of choices. They’ll also help you know what items on your wish list you can get in your price range. Good luck on your dream home search!

The ideal listing has a modern kitchen and bath, fresh paint, beautiful lighting fixtures and elegant hardwood floors or high-end wall-to-wall carpet. Your real estate agent can offer suggestions about what your house needs, what colors or cabinet styles are popular with buyers, and tips on cost-effective improvements. The contractor can work with you to put your plan into action.

If you feel that the costs or disruption of a major remodeling project would be overwhelming, you have the option of marketing your home as a “fixer-upper.” If you decide to sell your home “as is”, your agent can prepare a market analysis to give you an idea of what you can expect to net from the sale of your home.

Even though saving energy also means saving money for anyone who owns or rents a home, a report by Statistics Canada shows that there are significant differences between those who use energy-saving devices and those who don’t.

“Households who owned their homes had more than twice the odds of using a programmable thermostat or buying an appliance to save energy or water than households that lived in a rented dwelling,” say researchers Avani Babooram and Matt Hurst. “Renters may have less freedom than owners to change appliances and fixtures like toilets and showerheads, and water and electricity costs may be included in their rent, removing the monetary incentive to save. This may partly explain the differences in their adoption of conservation technologies.”

The researchers say people with more money are more likely to buy the devices because they can afford them, while those with higher levels of education “have had more opportunity to gain knowledge about environmental issues.”

The report also says that the longer you live in a house, the more likely you are to have low-flow showerheads and toilets.

If you live in a house with a water meter, you’re also more likely to have water conservation devices, the report says. When you can see what you’re paying for, there’s more incentive to save.

“Overall, residential water-use rates for Canada reflect this relationship,” says the report. “In 2001, residential households who did not pay for their water by volume used 474 litres per person per day, which was 74 per cent more than those who paid by volume (and thus had meters),” says the report.

Environment Canada says that 65 per cent of water used in a home is in the bathroom. Showers and baths use 35 per cent of that total, and toilets another 30 per cent. By installing low-flow showerheads and low-flush toilets, you could save around $150 a year. Environment Canada has a chart where you can calculate water savings here.

Aside from installing low-flow devices, simple maintenance can save water and energy. A running toilet can waste up to 200,000 litres of water a year. Environment Canada says to find out if the toilet is leaking put two or three drops of food colouring in the toilet tank and wait a few minutes. If the colour shows up in the bowl, there’s a leak.

There are other ways to save money besides installing a low-flush model, such as buying an inexpensive toilet dam, or placing a plastic bag or bottle filled with water in the toilet tank to displace the water. Don’t use a brick, however – it can disintegrate in the tank and cause problems with the flapper valve, and it may be heavy enough to crack the tank.

Many municipalities across Canada offer rebate programs as an incentive to buy low-flow devices. To see if a rebate is available in your area, check out the interactive map at the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) site. Some other ways to save water:

Take shorter showers – five minutes or less

Keep a bottle of drinking water in the fridge rather than letting the tap run to get cold water when you want a drink

Don’t overwater lawns and gardens – more than 50 per cent of the water applied is lost due to overwatering or evaporation

Water lawns early in the morning after the dew has dried
According to NRCan, heating accounts for 63 per cent of residential energy use, followed by major appliances at nine per cent and lighting at four per cent. Using a programmable thermostat can lower heating bills by up to 15 per cent, but only 34 per cent of households have one, according to Statistics Canada.

You can cut your electricity costs by purchasing Energy Star appliances, which have been certified as the most energy efficient in their class. There’s also the EnerGuide program, which labels each major appliance with a kWh number so you can compare how much energy it uses compared to other models you may be considering. NRCan says 100 kWh of saved energy could run your clothes washer 50 times – almost a free load of laundry every week for a year.

The good news from the Statistics Canada report is that most households (70 per cent) are using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and 64 per cent have low-flow showerheads – this includes both homeowners and renters. It shows that when the water or energy-saving devices are inexpensive to buy and easy to install, people will happily embrace them – if not to save money, then to help out the environment.

But household debt is also rising at a pace faster than disposable incomes, and that is causing some concern. While low interest rates have been great for the housing market, and the government’s stimulus program to encourage renovation had its desired effect and kept contractors very busy, now Canadians have to pay their debts.

Recently the Vanier Institute of the Family, an Ottawa-based research and educational organization, warned that Canadian’s debt-to-income ratio has been steadily climbing for the last 20 years, and that the number of households that have fallen behind in their mortgage payments by three or more months is up nearly 50 per cent since the beginning of the 2008 recession.

The federal government has reacted to rising debt levels by tightening mortgage lending requirements, including the elimination of amortization periods longer than 30 years. The renovation subsidy program has also expired.

While critics suggest that Canada’s banks are guilty of promoting over-spending in the first place, a report from TD Economics says that “despite rising indebtedness, the falling cost of borrowing has been pulling down the share of income households have been shelling out to service obligations. Low interest rates have also helped to keep a lid on the share of vulnerable households in recent years.”

The TD report says, “We do not believe that there is a household financial crisis in the making in any region. It particular, the stage appears to be set for a moderation in the pace of household debt growth. A combination of higher interest rates and recently announced changes to borrowing rules…should act to keep housing market conditions in check going forward.”

The report says interest rate increases are expected to be gradual, “affording households some time to adjust” and that household incomes are expected to grow “at a decent 3.5 to four per cent on average over the next few years.”

An earlier report from Scotiabank Group says that the “relative increase in Canada’s debt-to-asset ratio over the last decade has been much more modest than in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia in large part because the increase in debt has been backed by rising assets, including real estate.”

CMHC says home equity accounted for 61 per cent of the increase in net worth of Canadians from the first quarter of 2000 through the third quarter of 2009.

The federal housing agency says that “even with large numbers of households opting to buy homes in recent years, mortgages accounted for a smaller share of total household debt in 2009 than though much of the 1990s, and the share rose only modestly in the past decade. The aging of Canada’s population helped curb the rate of increase in mortgage debt. While many households were taking on mortgages in order to buy homes, others were paying down and even discharging their mortgages. In 2001, 71 per cent of baby boomers who owned homes had mortgages, a fraction that had declined to 66 per cent by 2006.”

It says that from 1999 to 2005, the median net worth of homeowners rose 27.4 per cent after inflation, “in sharp contrast to the 5.1 per cent drop experienced by the median renter…The gap between the wealth of owners and renters has been widening for at least two decades.” One of the reasons for the large gap has to do with age. Older households have had time to pay down debt and see the value of their homes appreciate, and homeowners on average are older than renters.

Another bank economist, Robert Hogue of RBC, says that housing affordability will erode during 2011 and 2012 as interest rates climb slowly. Like most other economists, he doesn’t expect a crash in house prices. “Overall, the era of rapid home price appreciation of the past 10 years has likely run its course and we believe that Canada has entered a period of very modest increases.”

A BMO mortgage survey found that two in three homeowners say they will be able to handle it if interest rates rise, but 18 per cent said they might have trouble. If you are considering buying a house, BMO says total housing expenses should not consume more than one-third of total household income. Anyone thinking of buying a house should “stress-test” the payments they might have to make at a higher interest rate to make sure they can afford it.

For those who are having problems with budgeting and just can’t figure out where all the money is going, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has a new interactive budget calculator that will help you with the math. The calculator is divided into categories that prompt users to consider every possible source of income, savings and expenses, says the FCAC.

Some argue that the best design is invisible. Bad design calls attention to itself and may frustrate or injure users. When you walk through your house, condominium, or cottage, can you tell the difference between good and bad design?

Unconsciously, you do make a distinction. Aren’t there aspects of your home that you love because they make you feel good, or because they make it easy for you to do things in your home? Well-designed room layout and accessibility on every level from light switches to storage allow users to concentrate on what they want to do instead of struggling to get things done.

For many property owners, the unasked and unanswered question is: How much exists by design, and how much is just there for a number of random reasons?

A renovated home can be as well designed as a brand-new home—and it can be just as badly designed, too. Price does not always dictate design success, but it can. However, some very expensive homes and condominiums, with equally-expensive furniture and fixtures, are very poorly designed. What looks good does not automatically work well for the users, or last as long as it should. I often hear about great first-impression renovations that continually disappoint when put to daily user tests.

Television, magazines, and the internet have turned design into entertainment. If there wasn’t so much poor or out-dated design, most programs, publications and blogs would not have much to talk about. Trashing the existing and starting again can be a solution, but a more practical approach may be isolating design weaknesses, and transforming them into design success.

Where do you start? Before you hire a designer or architect to translate your desired final uses and outcomes into reality, improve your powers of observation. Develop your depth of curiosity at why something is the way it is by immersing yourself in at least one area that appeals to you. Design principles are transferrable, so your newly-acquired understanding will help you appreciate other applications. It will also provide improve empathy with an interior designer or other professional who is determined to contribute to the successful transformation of your environment. You don’t have to become a designer, just understand how good design will help you enjoy your real estate, and how bad design may defeat you.

Resources abound! Visit libraries and magazine retailers to discover the full range of interior design and home style publications. Search online for parallel resources. Look beyond your region, and beyond Canada and North America for ideas. There is so much terrific content out there, you’ll find a lot of great inspiration fairly easily.

Attend home shows and trade shows to sample the range of new products and systems. Follow up online to expand into new areas of development. Toronto-based Interior Design Show [ Interior Design Show ] and the accompanying week-long Toronto International Design Festival are terrific resources. What’s happening in your area?

Think beyond conventional and tradition limitations on any element of your home. Must look like restrictions should be left behind. Visit design events like the Interior Design Show to see how the traditional is being reworked. Even outrageous ideas and seemingly small observations can trigger practical reactions for you. For example,

Objects with transparency or translucency, but of any shape or dimension can replace window glass or curtains. At Gregor Herman Glass, enlarged glass shapes hung from vertical taut wires form a stunning art piece that functions as a window covering which protects privacy while letting light in.

Felt has many functional uses as a cushion to soften the impact of one object on another, but have you thought of this durable organic as a high-style design element? The Ontario Craft Council displayed the works of the late master artist Lily Yung in a retrospective that celebrated ingenuity and started visitors thinking. A cushion covered with close-set flaps of abstract felt shapes sewn together á la shag rug style resulted in a comfortable, natural covering that became a continually moulded shape as it was sat on. What crafts that you or neighbours have perfected could become functional art?
Everything is art and can be improved on. For instance, faucets and taps are no longer merely hardware. Smooth curves and angular shapes have turned these important elements into design elements available at all price points. Delta, Brizo and Hansgrohe are a few of many that have transformed water delivery.

You know that colour is magic, but do you use its often-inexpensive transformational power to upgrade your spaces? A splash or refocus here and there, and last year’s drab couch or tired bedroom takes on new energy. Paint manufacturers offer fresh new colour pallets each year to inspire designers and consumers alike. For instance, Pittsburgh Paints’ VoiceofColor.com provides many ideas on matching, mixing and exploiting colour with their help. Check out the bold, bright colours of optimism and invigoration that lead Colour Trends for 2011/2012.

Don’t wait to improve your living space by hiring stagers when it’s time to sell. Investigate your options for better living now, and convert negatives into exciting positives, by design.

“Just shut the door and go – even for extended periods,” “welcome to worry-free living,” and “leave everything to the property management firm” are three of the most common statements made to entice potential buyers to condominiums. These three statements are not automatically true. An owner should get involved in the running of the condominium to guarantee peace of mind and security of investment.

The term “condominium” does not apply to the physical structure of the building, but rather to a type of property ownership that differs from province to province. Townhouses, high-rise apartments, detached homes, commercial units and industrial properties may all be set up as condominiums. In each case, owners have agreed to share ownership of the common property called the common element which includes everything from swimming pools, stair wells and lobbies to the roof, plumbing and elevators. Owners pay monthly fees, based on the unit factor, to cover the expense of maintaining the common element. The unit factor will generally be calculated in proportion to the value that the unit has in relation to the total value of all units in the condominium.

Each owner has individual ownership rights to his or her unit. Condominium documents outline the exact extent of the common element, the boundaries of individual units, and rights and obligations of all parties. Each condominium is different. What is common element in one may be part of the unit in another. For example, the exterior wall of the unit may be part of the common element in one condominium and included in the unit in another.

Armed with information about how the condominium is set up, the property administered and the residents’ actions regulated, buyers and owners will be able to protect their rights and their investment. For instance, condominium owners are legally bound to pay monthly maintenance fees whether they agree with management’s spending decisions or not. Owners must not assume all management decisions are financially sound – they must make sure they are. Are lavish amounts spent on redecorating the lobby instead of upgrading to replacing energy-efficient windows?

The first step as a potential condominium buyer? Learn your rights as an owner. Our federal housing agency, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) offers a free comprehensive guide–online and in print–to get you started.

Aimed at the Canadian housing market, the no-charge Condominium Buyer’s Guide clearly and concisely provides information on many aspects of condominium ownership.

First-time buyers, as well as experienced homeowners considering a condominium for the first time, will find useful information on types of condominiums, conversions, buying research checklists and various information sources and contacts. The glossary will equip buyers with the language of condominiums. The Guide suggests many things for buyers to ask about while it answers wide-ranging questions, including:

Affordability – How much will it cost?
Are condominium regulations the same across Canada?
What insurance will I need?
How can I tell if a condominium is in good physical condition?
How can I find out if a condominium is in good financial condition?
Print copies of Condominium Buyer’s Guide are available from CMHC at 1-800-668-2642 or via the CMHC (http://www.cmhc.ca) Web Site.

CMHC created the publication to “ensure that Canadians across the country have an unbiased, comprehensive guide to the most current information dealing with condominiums in this country.” Your tax dollars created it, so why not take advantage of this opportunity to invest your home-buying dollars wisely.

Sure, there are new annuals and perennials introduced every year (everyone seems to be looking at black petunias this year), and new plant colours get some publicity (black and white schemes are big, as is purple) but the overall trends have been unfolding for some time.

Gardening author Mark Cullen says preservation of the environment is No. 1. “This is no longer considered a trend but a part of gardening life in Canada,” he says. “We are looking for gardening techniques that save water, minimize insect and disease problems, enhance the environment and improve our soil. The sale of the following products over the last 10 years has growth dramatically: rain barrels, seeping/weeping garden hoses, state-of-the-art lawn sprinklers, natural mulches (especially softwood bark mulch), native plants, grass seed (hardy seed used to eliminate weeds by squeezing them out of existence), compost, composting bins” and natural soil additives.

The use of chemicals on lawns and gardens is frowned upon and now is illegal in many municipalities. Lawns are being replaced by natural plants and ground covers that require little maintenance. Ornamental grasses and succulents (water-retaining plants) look great and don’t need much attention.

Lawns are also being replaced by vegetable gardens, part of another major trend that the Philadelphia-based Garden Media Group calls “gardening with a purpose”. In the U.S., the number of vegetable gardens being planted is up by 20 per cent and urban community gardens are also on the rise. Cullen sees the same trends in Canada.

“Canadians are not only growing more of their own vegetables and fruit but they are asking many questions that members of the farming community can answer,” he says. Farmers markets have become increasingly popular in Canadian cities and farmers are being asked to share their growing tips with urban gardeners.

At the recent Canada Blooms garden show in Toronto, the Backyard Urban Farm Company introduced its Raised-Raised Bed, which “features hip-high gardening.” The pedestal units are made from eastern white cedar logs and come in two standard sizes – the largest is 4 X 4 feet. The growing area holds up to 10 inches of soil, which the company says is “perfect for a huge variety of vegetables.” There’s a storage area in the bottom of the pedestal for gardening tools.

“At three feet tall, the Raised-Raised Bed is kitchen counter height for the lowest impact gardening you could possibly experience,” the company says. It’s designed for use on balconies, decks and patios and is “a saviour for people in wheelchairs,” BUFCO says.

Container gardening also remains popular, not only for condos and apartments but for use on decks and indoors. Herbs like basil, rosemary and thyme are being grown in or near the kitchen so they can be picked fresh and used for cooking. People are also growing vegetables in containers or mixing vegetables and perennials. “There have been great improvements made in container soils (otherwise called ‘soilless mix’) and water retaining soil additives that have contributed to the growing demand for containers and the plants that go into them,” says Cullen.

Although gardening has long been associated with older people and retirees, the Gardening Writers Association, which has a chapter in Canada, recently released a survey that says younger generations are gardening in numbers similar to other age groups.

“No longer should we assume that Generation Y or Z are bypassing gardening until they reach middle age or older,” says the association. “The survey shows that those in the 25-40 age group is just as engaged in gardening as older folks. Those 18-24, while fewer are gardening, are showing an impressive number as well.”

Other garden and landscaping trends to watch:

Green roofs have been used mostly in commercial installations and are mandatory on new commercial and industrial buildings in Toronto. Homeowners are starting to experiment with the green roof concept for flat garage and shed roofs. If you’re thinking of expanding your garden space to a roof, think safety first. Make sure the roof can handle the increased weight of the garden and the extra moisture from watering it. The roof also needs to be easily accessible.

Green or “living” walls are also beginning to appear. Climbing plants look great and can be used to provide privacy and to hide an ugly wall or fence.

Gardens designed to attract bees, which pollinate the plants, as well as butterflies and hummingbirds are popular.

More outdoor living rooms that combine lighting, seating, a barbecue area and usually a water feature are being installed.
If you live in Southern Ontario, each year Landscape Ontario and the University of Guelph host a public open house at the annual and perennial trial gardens, where new bedding plants are introduced and tested every year. The event usually takes place in August and provides a sneak preview of what you’ll see in the garden centres next year.