If you’re thinking of listing your property, one thing that might be holding you back is concern about preparing your home for sale. You may be wondering how much work there will be. Is it going to take a couple of months? A couple of weeks? A few days? That, of course, depends on the state of your property.

However, regardless of how close your home is to “show time” ready, there is plenty you can do to reduce how long that preparation takes. Consider these ideas:

• Sell stuff online. The less cluttered your home seems to buyers, the better it will show. So, make a list of items you want to sell, and then list them on one of the many local online market websites. Price items fairly and, chances are, you’ll get rid of everything in a day or two.

• Have a repair day. Go through your home and make a list of everything that needs to be fixed. Then, schedule repair people to all come on the same day. Voila! In one day, all needed repairs (or, at least, most of them) are done.

• Get staging advice. Instead of guessing at what changes you need to make around your home to make it look its best, get expert staging advice. You’ll find out exactly what the experts suggest you do, and you’ll save a lot of time and money. (By the way, I can provide you with that advice too.)

• Ask before making big improvements. Are you planning to convert a wood
burning fireplace into a gas unit to help sell your home? Before doing any big improvements or renovations like that, talk to me. You don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on an unnecessary project.

• Hire help. You don’t have to do everything on your own. Get the help you
need. For example, hire a painter, a cleaner, and/or a junk removal service.
Those will significantly shorten the time it takes to prepare your home for
sale and save you a lot of work. Also, the costs of those professionals may
be off-set by the increase in the sale price of your home.

Bottomline: Preparing your home doesn’t need to be overwhelming and timeconsuming. Contact me for more ideas to help get your home ready for sale, quickly!

*Morris Marketing*

There’s a reason why there are “kitchen and bath” stores, and even design magazines devoted to these rooms. A well-staged kitchen and bathroom can
make the entire home look better. So, it’s no surprise that professional home stagers pay particular attention to these spaces.

What do these pros have to say about bathrooms?

Professional stagers advise that you start by taking a picture of the room. Looking at that picture will give you a better sense of how others see your bathroom and reveal what needs to be changed. Then, de-personalize it.

When you’re showing your home to buyers, you want the bathroom to resemble a guest bathroom. So, no shaving kits, toothbrushes, sticky notes to self on the mirror, etc.

Stagers also recommend that anything worn be replaced. This will likely include the shower curtain and mats, which tend to wear and stain quickly.
Hang fresh new towels on the rack. (If you’re buying new towels for this
purpose, choose white.) Put an unused bar of soap or hand cleaner next to the sink. Make it look like a freshly stocked hotel bathroom.

If required, paint the walls. Off-white colours, including beiges and light greys, work well. As you can see, it doesn’t take much to stage your bathroom and make it look its best for buyers.

Looking for more staging tips? Call today! (416) 779-8732

*Morris Marketing*

Lighting plays an important role in staging your home for sale. It impacts the look and feel of a room, and contributes to the impression buyers will form about that space. With that in mind, let’s look at lighting mistakes you’ll want to avoid.

The first is too much lighting. If the lighting is too bright, it can make the room seem sterile and harsh. You want the lighting to create a warm, comfortable atmosphere. Decorating experts recommend that all lights have shades or coverings, so there is no tiny sun shining in a buyer’s face.

Another mistake to avoid is too little light. Check areas of your home that look dim. Brighten them up by adding a new lamp. Pay particular attention to closets and hallways.

Finally, make sure all lights are working. Try all the switches. Check outside lighting, where a burned out bulb can often go unnoticed. If a light bulb is flickering, it may be dying, so replace it.

Improving lighting is one of the easiest ways to make your home look better to buyers.

*Morris Marketing*

Imagine you’re selling your home and an offer from a buyer comes in. You’re excited. Your home might soon be sold!

What happens next?

Typically, we will review the offer together. There will likely be several things about the offer that need to be carefully considered. The most common are:

• The offer price.
• Evidence the buyer is financially able to purchase the property.
• Conditions on the offer, if any.

If the offer price is far less than you anticipated, there might be an opportunity to counter-offer at a higher price. This is part of the art of negotiation, which is an important step in selling your home successfully. The buyer’s ability to afford your property is also important.

Ideally, you’ll want to see a Pre-Arranged Mortgage Certificate from the buyer’s lender, or some other evidence that there won’t be any financial problems closing the transaction. The amount of the deposit is also key.

Finally, you’ll want to look at conditions. The most popular condition requires that your property pass a home inspection, but there may be others. Obviously, an offer with no conditions is ideal.

*Morris Marketing*

With the availability of more and more powerful mobile technology, it’s reasonable to presume that there is less need to dedicate time and space to a permanent home office. However, we also know that, from time to time, we need the opportunity to isolate ourselves at home, in order to get certain tasks accomplished.

Getting “down to business” is a part of life, whether it’s for a student cramming for exams or a homeowner budgeting for a new mortgage. Getting these tasks done can require much less time if they’re easily accommodated.

Fortunately, thanks to new modern furnishings that are flexible and adaptable, it’s no longer necessary to create a space that is uniquely dedicated to work.

Nowadays, a homeowner can create a convertible workspace that allows a room to serve a dual role. By installing shelving that can fold out to a desktop, a worktable with an adjustable height, or a bed that folds up into the wall, any room can have the flexibility to serve as a quiet place to read, study or pay monthly bills, and convert into a cozy, welcoming guest room.

So, the truth is, we all need a home office – but we don’t necessarily need it to be a dedicated single-use space.

*Morris Marketing*

As you can probably guess, when you’re preparing to move, you’ll need boxes and tape — and, perhaps some bubble-wrap or old newspapers to use as protective wrapping for delicate items.

But that may not be all you need. Take a look at this list and see if you’ll want any of these on hand while you’re packing or on moving day.

• Colour markers for labelling boxes. (Tip: Colour coding boxes by room will make unpacking much easier.)
• Stretch wrap to protect larger items that can’t fit into a box.
• Small plastic bags to store dis-assembled parts, such as sofa legs, cabinet hardware, etc. (You don’t want to lose them!)
• Moving blankets to protect floors.
• A dolly or hand truck to move heavy items. (You can rent these.)
• Mattress moving bag. This helps prevent stains and tears during your move. You can also buy specialty bags for sofas and tables.
• Reusable foam furniture sliders, to protect floors when furniture needs to be pushed into place.
• Foam corner protectors. This prevents furniture with sharp corners
from banging and damaging other items during a move.

Planning ahead and having the right packing materials on hand will make your move less stressful and, hopefully, damage-free!

*Morris Marketing*

In just about every community, neighbours chat from time to time. It could be a simple “Hello. How are you today?” or it might be a more in-depth conversation on any number of topics.

Sometimes that conversation turns to real estate, especially if your neighbours are thinking of selling their home in the near future. They might say they’re looking for real estate help, or even ask if you could recommend a good agent.

When that situation comes up, I hope you’ll consider giving your neighbours my name. I’d be happy to help them with the answers, advice and other information they need. And, I promise to treat them like I do all my clients – as VIPs!

Of course, if you need real estate help, I’m always here for you too.

All The Best,

Ruth

Internet shoppers can find all sorts of products that might otherwise go unnoticed. Here are just a few:

• A barbecue thermometer probe with pager that helps you avoid burning dinner. If you get distracted when cooking outdoors (or just want better and more consistent results) use this thermometer to remind you when your food has reached the desired temperature.

• A pocket-sized microscope that is great for young explorers and budding scientists. They will be fascinated by the incredibly fine detail they can see of the wonders of nature, even in their own backyard.

• A chainsaw you can put in your pocket. It may sound impossible, but it’s really simple. Made from a length of a sharp-toothed cutting chain that has a handle on each end, this tool allows you to trim small yard growth spontaneously, without lugging a large handsaw or power tool.

• A telescopic magnet that helps retrieve dropped screws or other metallic objects from hard-to-reach places, like between decking boards and stair treads.

• A portable and leak-proof “washing bag” with its own mini washboard inside. Hand-wash clothes with machine quality results anywhere you can access clean water and hang your clothes to dry.

*Morris Marketing*

No matter what you think of snakes, you must agree that they have a unique way of dealing with worn-out skin. When the time comes, they simply shed it — like an old jacket — revealing a fresh new skin underneath.

Your home’s roof doesn’t have that advantage! So, when the shingles wear out or become damaged, you need to have them replaced. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to determine whether your shingles need replacement right away, or whether you can hold off for another year.

Assuming your home has the most common type of shingles — asphalt — here’s what to look for:

• Corners upturned on some shingles.
• Missing shingles.
• Shingles lifting during high winds and not settling back into place (flat) within a day or two.
• Heavy accumulation of shingle debris (particles) in the gutters.
• Shingle bits and pieces found on the ground around your home.
• Spots on your roof that still look wet a day or two after a rainfall.

Before investing in a new roof, be sure to check with the retailer or contractor who supplied the original materials. Your shingles might still be under warranty.

Bottomline: Don’t delay. You don’t want to wait until you hear drip drip drip before taking action!