Here is a great list of fun things to do in the last half of the summer. Thanks Calgaryschild.com for this!
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What to do for a few hours in Calgary
Looking for a quick activity to burn away the summer time blues? Visit one of the following places to perk up a drooping day.
1. Rothney Astrophysical Observatory – Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, U of C
One of Canada’s largest telescopes and the only telescope in Canada patrolling for killer asteroids. Open house evenings held once a month ism.ucalgary.ca/ top/rao
2. Spruce Meadows - World-famous show jumping facility. sprucemeadows.com
3. Canada Olympic Park - Try the mountain bike park, with 25 km of open and single-track cross-country trails, including a beginner area, a stunt park, a free-ride stunts area and a dirt jumping area. canadaolympicpark.ca
4. Calgary’s Wading Pools - Riley Park Wading Pool – 800 12 St. NW; Prairie Winds Wading Pool – 223 Castleridge Blvd. NE; Barclay Mall Wading Pool – 1 Ave. & 3rd St. SW; Canmore Park Wading Pool – 19 St. & Chicoutimi Dr. NW; Rotary Park Wading Pool – 617 1 St. NE; Olympic Plaza Reflecting Pool – 228 8 Ave. SE Variety Park Spray Deck – 90 Ave. & 24 St. SW
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In a previous post, I discussed 10 tips for getting your home ready for sale . In this post, I’d like to talk in a little more detail about something called home staging. Viewing a home for the first time, is much like meeting a new person for the first time, first impressions matter. Staging aims to neutralize the personalization you may have done to make it your own while you lived in the home. The action of neutralization sets the “stage” to make it more appealing to a viewer. The potential buyer can more easily visualize living in the home. Some agents claim that staging can help sell a home faster, and can sometimes for more money. Staging can be thought of as an extra tool to help you out when the real estate market is unsteady. This action could also put your home ahead of other homes that you may be competing with.
If you decide to go with staging, remember to have your home’s pictures taken after the staging, as a large number of potential buyers will be viewing your home online. If the home looks more appealing in the online photos, you have a better shot of enticing them to view the home in person.
There a number of professional home stagers out there, who can do a great job for you. There is also a Canadian home staging professional association where you can look for a referral.
If you decide to take this task on for yourself, there are some great resources online. Check out this video series for tips on how to stage your Chestermere home for sale.
Alternatively, you can learn from other professionals, such as this Canadian site, where there is a newsletter you can subscribe to to learn about the subject.
As always, please give me a call to discuss whatever strategy you have in mind,
Corinne Watson
Chestermere Realtor
cwatson@cirrealty.ca
403.921.SOLD
It is always best to use a Chestermere Real Estate Agent to assist you in selling your home. A qualified realtor can help you get the maximum value for your property, and make sure you do not get caught up in any expensive legal loopholes.
When selling your home, here are some things to consider:
Think like a sales person
The best place to start is to know your product, and then figure out how to present it to its best advantage. Start by taking notes about the features of your home that a potential buyer might be interested in. Don’t just consider what’s in your house, but also what’s around your house. Are you close to schools, shopping or other amenities? What upgrades have you made to the home, and when were they done?
Once you’ve got a list, it’s time to start formulating your sales tactics. Not only will you need to write ads to sell your home, but you’ll also want to prepare a sales pitch to respond to phone calls or unannounced visitors.
Being ready to respond to unexpected questions is also important. And the more you know about your home, the better. For instance, prospective buyers might want to know how much it will cost to heat your home in the winter or how much property taxes will be. Utilities bills and tax statements can serve as proof. If you’ve got receipts showing when improvements were made, like a new furnace or new windows — keep them handy as well.
Develop a budget — and know how to spend it
Do you get to keep all of the savings in commission we mentioned before? No — you should expect to spend a portion of that on advertising and other services that would normally be covered by an agent. As with any home sale, expect to spend money to make money.
Doing a little number-crunching before you set out can help you see where money will be well-spent. Remember, you have to pay some expenses, like hiring a lawyer, paying a realtor, and doing some repairs. Some services like home-staging consulting can actually add value to your home by making it more attractive to buyers. A home inspection can give you a heads-up as to what needs to be done around your home — you might want to repair them first, or find out what their worth before you enter the bargaining process.
Research your home’s market value
Property listing service PropertySold.ca warns that one of main reasons that private sales fail is that owners overprice their home. How can you get a realistic idea of what your home is worth?
– Use a qualified Chestermere Realtor who knows the community and has helped other families buy and sell homes in the community.
– Talk to your neighbours, particularly anyone who has recently sold a home in your areas.
– Check the listings in the local newspaper or online (online classifieds, MLS.ca, etc) to see what homes in your neighbourhood are selling for. (Many cities now have a real estate advertising television channel such as REtv).
– Have a professional appraisal done.
Develop a marketing plan
Where and how will you get people’s attention? If you’re in a high traffic or well-travelled area, a for-sale sign might be enough to get people looking. However, you should consider a balanced approach that also includes listing your property online and taking out a print advertisement in a local publication. You may also want to consider hosting an open house as part of your plan.
Don’t underestimate the importance of networking. Let your friends and colleagues know that your home is for sale, or put up a poster at your church or community centre (if allowed). Take advantage of social networking sites like Facebook where you can advertise your home.
Get organized
Keeping track of advertising, phone numbers and appointments can be tricky, so it’s best to think about your strategy ahead of time. PropertyGuys.com recommends purchasing an appointment diary or calendar to help with this process.
For clarification and transparency in the process, be sure to keep track of the details such as names, dates and any next steps in the process such as where and when you take out advertising. You can also use your diary or file to keep track of your budget.
Set the stage
Most home experts agree: how your home looks will have a big impact. Potential buyers typically look for clean, spacious and bright homes. Tackling clutter is usually the first thing home stagers recommend, but some thorough cleaning and a fresh coat of paint will make your home more attractive. Stashing your personal items — whether it’s family photos, knick-knacks or every day items like your tooth brush and shampoo — will make buyers feel less like a guest in someone else’s home.
If you want some extra help, hiring a home-staging consult for an hour or two can be worth the investment. If you’re looking to keep costs down, bring in a friend instead, particularly someone who will give you an honest opinion. Give them a practice tour of your home and take note of the feedback. Online articles, TV home decorating shows and magazines are also inexpensive sources for good advice.
Prepare for negotiation
Now’s the time to dust off those bargaining skills. Are you ready to negotiate the price, or handle a potential bidding war? Also, don’t let the thought of deals and contracts scare you off if you’re not an experienced seller. Here’s where your real estate lawyer can help: They can evaluate the terms of any contract and help you evaluate any offers. They can also advise you on what you need to disclose about your home.
Think about safety
There’s going to be a lot of attention on your home and its contents, and there is some risk involved when inviting strangers into your home. So what can you do to stay safe?
- Enlist help. Two people can provide better supervision for touring groups or open houses.
- Hide it. Anything that can be broken or stolen shouldn’t be around. When it comes time to sell her own home, Elaine already has plans to find safe, temporary homes for the jewellery, electronics and other valuable items — whether it’s with a trusted friend or the safe deposit box at the bank.
- Go for the lived-in look. If you have to be away from your home for any length of time, use a timer for some lights and ask a neighbour to park their car in the driveway if necessary. Empty homes are the perfect target for thieves — some of who may have been by the home to preview its contents.
- Protect your privacy: Consider using a cell phone or setting up a new email address to handle communications instead of giving out your personal contact information.
Stay impartial
Having a thick skin is essential for the process as potential buyers won’t be shy when it comes to nit-picking the details of your home — especially when it comes to pointing down flaws that might help bring the price down. Try not to take it personally; a real estate agent wouldn’t get defensive or upset.
“You have to be ready to hear criticism about your home — whether it’s the decorating or layout, or things that need to be fixed,” Elaine warns. “Overall, you have to be impartial and divorce yourself from it.”
Get advice
There are many services such as, PropertySold.ca, Bytheowner.com and For Sale By Owner that offer listings and sales tools for a modest fee. Other companies like PropertyGuys.com include marketing support and listings as part of an overall consulting package — which is still the fraction of a cost of an agent’s fee.
For more information on getting your home ready for market, the Canadian Home and Mortgage Corporation has a guide about Getting Your House Ready to Sell, as well as current market trends and outlooks.
As previously mentioned, there’s a wealth of information available online, in magazines and even on TV — not to mention the many books written on the subject which you can find at your local library or bookstore.
This method of selling your home isn’t for everyone. Many buyers will negotiate a lower price on a home if the seller is not using an agent. In the end, many clients feel that the time and headache of selling a home their own, was not worth the savings that the service of a good realtor in chestermere would have provided.
If you have tried to sell your home on our own and would like to talk to a realtor about taking over that massive task, email me and I would love to talk to you about moving your home as quick as I can !
Corinne Watson
Chestermere Lake Realtor
403.921.SOLD
cwatson@cirrealty.ca
In today’s post, I’ll start to help walk first-timers and pros alike through a couple steps towards purchasing a new home in Chestermere.
Step one: Are you at the stage of your life where buying a home in Chestermere for the first time makes sense?
Let’s analyze where you sit in your life cycle – are you stationary in Chestermere for the foreseeable future? Will your career or lifestyle move you about? Have you recently changed jobs or been laid off from your current employer? Are you single but soon to be married? How far away is retirement? Can your monthly budget of income vs. expenses afford the monthly and annual costs of owning a home? When you compare the monthly costs of owning a home versus renting, which “makes more sense” to you at this point in time? There are plenty of questions that need to be digested before taking the leap into home ownership – the answers are different for everyone and change over time!
Step Two: Are you financially ready to purchase a home?
When we compare current income rates (and savings rates) against current property values in Canada, it is quite common for homebuyers to require financing to complete the first-time homebuyer transaction. This is most commonly in the form of a mortgage from a financial institution.
Three of the main cornerstones of a mortgage application involve analyzing your unique personal financial “big picture” are your credit score, your employment and income, and finally, your down payment funds. These main factors help lenders assess your stability and personal ‘risk quotient’ in the sense that you are vouching your overall stability and likelihood of repaying the mortgage loan to the lender in order to obtain the loan.
Credit: Have you ever seen your credit bureau?
If so, where does your beacon score sit? In general, this ‘historical track record’ of credit management will help lenders on these reports to gauge your personal track record of repaying your loans and credit accounts over time. Speaking of beacon scores, the general rule of thumb is: the higher, the better.
If you don’t have a long credit history, or if you’ve missed a few payments here and there (or more rather than less), you may require a family member to cosign with you. Cosigning is a process where your file is reinforced and vouched for by the stronger financial situation that your cosigner has. In many cases, lenders allow your cosigner to be ‘released’ from the file after a full year of consecutive payments and as your credit rating strengthens.
Downpayment: Where is yours coming from?
For the most part, the 0%-down mortgages of 2008 and earlier have disappeared; the programs that currently exist don’t really make a heck of a lot of financial sense to carry forward with (higher rates and fees make it a redundant option). Having said this, in today’s marketplace, there are several ways that you can source your downpayment for your mortgage:
- Your own resources: Savings, Mutual Funds, Stocks
- RRSP investments: you can withdraw your RRSP savings tax-free through the Government’s Home-Buyer’s Plan (HBP). To learn more about this, please click here. If you are making periodical deposits to your RRSP investment accounts, please note that the money has to be “in” the plan for at least 90 days to be eligible for the HBP withdrawal program.
- Loans: If you have a beacon score of at least 680 (that’s quite strong), you can actually borrow the funds from bank loans, credit cards, lines of credit or family loans. Please note that the payment relative to these borrowed funds would be included in the debt-servicing calculations as your “mortgage math” is computed (more on this here) .
- Family Gifts: Your direct family members (Husband/Wife, Parents, Children, Siblings, next-of-kin) can give you money for your down payments in the form of a non-repayable gift. Lenders will request a signed gift letter and proof of the funds having arrived in your account to prove this.
Employment and Income: Is your employment stable?
Lenders and mortgage insurers (CMHC, Genworth Financial) like to see that you have at least three months’ history of employment with your current employer; it’s no small wonder that this figure coincides with most companies’ probation policies with relation to new hires. This helps to provide confidence that you are full-time employed and that you have stable income flows.
Have you recently changed jobs or shifted to being self-employed from a previous work history of working as an employee? This isn’t necessarily a deal-killer! A main point of the mortgage underwriting process is consistency in your income and occupation. If you’ve been working for a solid amount of time (3-4 years) and you have now shifted to a similar role in the same or a related industry, this reinforces consistency and helps to instill an image of ‘growth’ as well as ‘specializing’. Although these are rough guidelines, everyone’s situation is unique.
Here is a great video on buying your first home
Benefits for a First-Time Home Buyer
Defining Search Parameters for a First-Time Home Buyer
How Long Should It Take to Buy Your First Home?
Good real estate agents will listen to your wants and needs and arrange to show only those homes that fit your particular parameters. Your agent should preview homes before showing them to you as well. After all, this has to be a great investment for you and your family.
Why Renovate?
Everyone has a different reason for wanting to renovate. Sometimes it’s the simple need for a change. Other times, the motivation is more practical. If you wake up one day with a puddle in the basement and a water-stained ceiling, you know you have to act fast.
From the planning stage to the final touches, this guide shares our experience and knowledge with you. And it tells you about some of the first-rate resources we’ve developed to deal with all kinds of renovation issues. In general, there are three types of renovation: lifestyle, retrofit, and maintenance and repair.
- Lifestyle renovations improve your home and your way of life. They might involve building a sun room for pleasure, or converting unused attic space into living quarters to meet your changing needs.
- Retrofit projects usually focus on your home’s shell or mechanical systems. Examples are upgrading your insulation, replacing your furnace, or putting on new siding.
- Maintenance and repair renovations protect the investment you have made in your house through activities such as caulking windows, reshingling your roof, or replacing your eavestroughs.
Read More Here
How To Hire A Contractor To Renovate Your Home
If you are going to renovate your home, hiring a great contractor is likely the most important decision you can make. The best thing to realize is that hiring the right contractor to renovate your home can be an enjoyable process and can lead to fantastic results which you can enjoy everyday in your “new” home.
Step 1.
Take the time to have clear idea of what scale and scope of renovation you want and what financial resources you can direct toward the project. There is no sense to lie to yourself or a contractor about what you can afford.
Step 2
Take photos of homes you admire, cut pictures of out magazines, and assemble other images which will help describe the type of results you hope see when your project is complete.
Step 3
Drive around your area looking for homes that you like. When you find a house you like, contact the owner (while it may seem a bit forward, if you couch the request like “I really love what you have done with your home. I’m considering a similar renovation on my home and wondered if you’d be willing to share with me the name of your contractor”…people love to hear that others admire their taste or their home).
Step 4
Once you have a list of contractors whose work you like, be sure to contact 3-5 different contractors. Let each know that you have heard good things about them and you hoped they could come to your house for a brief look at a potential project
Step 5
Outline for them your goals for the project, your budget, and show them the photo/image collection I mentioned in Step 2. A picture is worth a thousand words. Ask the contractor if this type of project would be interesting and appealing to him/her. If they don’t show immediate interest – move on.
Step 6
Ask the contractor “what makes a great client” for them. Now LISTEN to what they say. If they are describing someone like you — you may have a good fit.
Step 7
Get references from the contractors you are seriously considering — especially from projects they have completed in the last year. Call each reference and go see the results: It’s one thing to have someone say they loved their contractor on the phone, it is much more valuable to stand in their house and get a feel for the “finished product”
Step 8
If you have narrowed it down to 2-3 candidates, ask yourself with whom you would most enjoy having dinner. A renovation takes weeks/months of your time and the contractor will be in your home almost everyday so good communication and a good “fit” is key. Trust your instincts and wait for the right fit.
Step 9
Once you hire to contractor, treat them and their team as professionals. You can set the tone for the realtionship on the very first day by buying the crew pizza. If you treat them with respect they will likely return the favor….and your house will start to become a real home. And isn’t that what you hope to build anyway?!
Some Great Twitter Comments on Home Renovations
@mackeymedia Inexpensive Renovations That Increase a Home’s Value /thebahamasweekly.com – / – If you have had your home … http://tinyurl.com/ko7uy5 !
@ArticlesData Take advantage of Canadian government grants for home renovations.: If you think that only loans could hel.. http://bit.ly/4niO5
