Home Improvement

Home Staging

Is Home Staging Worth It?

Home Buying and Selling, Home Improvement / By /

Is Home Staging Worth It?

Is it worth it to have your home staged? This is a great question and I’m happy to answer it. In this blog we’ll discuss some of the reasons why you would want to use a stager. When you decide to sell your home that’s really the first step in the whole process, then comes the question of whether or not to stage it. Does it need to be? Your REALTOR should be able to help you answer this question.

If your home needs some improvements to help potential buyers imagine themselves living in your home, then I say why not do it! But what is home staging anyway? It’s a way to present your home, as I mentioned above, to prospective buyers in order to sell it. REMAX Canada recommends three steps that include; depersonalizing, decluttering and redecorating.

Depersonalize Your Home

Let’s start organizing and putting things away, less is more! Pack away your personal items from around your home. These items can be pictures, awards, etc. Most likely you’ll have a professional stager come and help you determine what to pack away and what to keep!

Decluttering Your Space 

When you’ve lived in the same home for a few decades things can pile up. That’s why we need to remember that less is more in this case. We want to make sure buyers can see themselves living there and loving it. You’ll want to pack away items that you don’t need and make space. Now your space is looking clean, organized and looking fresh. You might even want to paint a room or two, that’s where redecorating comes in.

Redecorate The Room

The time has come, time to redecorate and make your home shine. Literally, we want to make it shine and look like the perfect home for the prospective buyer. There’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint, it can change everything. Your stager might even want to rent some new furniture to help get things even more modern and stylish. According to REMAX Canada, hiring a professional stager is the right move and I agree!

Who’s Paying For This?

Typically the seller is going to pay for this service, but it’s understood that they’ll make the money back on the sale of the home. According to the National Association of REALTORs, homes that are staged sell up to 30 percent more than those that aren’t.

The cost of having your home staged is determined by a few different factors. These can be the overall state of the home and how much staging is actually required. The home might only really need some paint and cleaning, while another home might be more work.

Depending on the amount of staging needed will determine the cost, that’s something you’ll discuss with your REALTOR and stager. That’s the fun part, we want to make your home so beautiful that buyers are knocking down the door to buy it!

The VanDinther Team 

If you have any questions about home staging and how we can help you, let us know! The VanDinther Team is made up of experience real estate professionals that are ready to help you with all of your home buying and selling needs. 

Have you been wondering what your home might be worth? Give our “What’s My Home Worth” calculator a try and find out! Please feel free to contact me or my team at anytime either by phone at 905-330-2002 or by email at info@loriv.com. 

Greener Homes

Canadian’s are Adopting the Greener Homes Grant

Home Improvement, Maintaning Your Home / By /
The Federal Government’s Greener Homes Grant

Have you been thinking about making improvements to your home? Right now might be the best time to do it. The Greener Homes Grant has been introduced recently and is becoming very popular amongst Canadians and for a good reason. “The federal government’s Canada Greener Homes Grant is proving wildly popular after coming online less than a month ago.” The grant has $2.6 million to work with and is targeting 700,000 homes across the country over the next 7 years. 

It will provide Canadians with up to $5,000 in order to help make energy-efficient retrofits. The retrofits will need to follow the EnerGuide standards. Jordan MacDonald, who is the president of a building performance consulting company in Atlantic Canada, stated “We’ve had a huge uptake since the program started. We have a team of energy advisors in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We were providing a similar service before the Greener Homes program, but we’ve seen a tenfold increase since the government launched it and we’re in the midst of increasing our staffing.”

Upgrades That are Covered

When it comes to what’s covered in the upgrades, they are included in a building envelope. This building envelope includes; installation, air sealing, replacing windows and doors with energy-efficient units, and air or ground source hear pumps. This will not only reduce costs but also helps to contribute to combating climate change. 

The grant will also cover renewable energy such as photovoltaic panelling, which will regenerate electricity. In some cases this will even be feb back into the grid. These incentives are put in places to encourage us all to help make our planet a better place and why not start with your home. Making upgrades to your home also helps to add value when you’re ready to sell. 

The Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan said in a recent interview that “we worked with Statistics Canada on the model of the program—we think it’s about 110,000 direct and indirect local jobs in their communities. We’re also taking into account the recruitment, training and mentoring of up 2,000 EnerGuide energy advisors.”

Improve Your Home and Increase the Value 

It’s true that making improvements to your home can increase the value. You’re helping to improve the value and in this case also the environment. When we talk about what we can do to help the planet we sometimes wonder how we can do more, this is a great place to start. 

O’Regan also said that “any time you improve your home, one would think it increases the value, but you’re also going to see an increase in the literacy of this. People want to be able to do something to combat climate change, which seems so insurmountable that there is an appetite out there amongst Canadians to do their part. The only way this will work, aside from the fact that we’re talking about 1.5 megatons of greenhouse gas reductions beginning in 2027—that is sizeable—but in order for change to be expandable, I think people need to benefit from it and save money. This is not just about lowering emissions and creating good jobs, it’s also about lowering Canadians’ energy bills and that’s how it will be sustainable.”

There’s never been a better time than right now to make these improvements and then when you’re ready to list. I’m always here if you ever have questions about when it’s a good time to list and how we can work together to get the process started.  

Contact Lori and Team Today 

Have questions? You can contact Lori VanDinther and her team today if you’re interested in buying or selling your home. If you’re interested in learning what your home is worth, try our free home evaluation. 

Home Renovations

Home Renovations

Home Improvement, Maintaning Your Home / By /

Home renovations are a great first step when preparing for your home to be listed. Home renovations can include anything from simple and easy improvements to full on more expensive details. Today we want to talk about things you can do yourself and it’ll help improve your ROI.

If you have lived in your home for a long time, it might be hard to see what really needs to be done. There might be a wall colour that you’re so used to that you might not realize that it needs an refreshment, a fresh coat of paint. That’s really how simple these home improvements can be. Today we’ll talk about paint, doors and hardware and countertops.

Painting Your House

It’s time to pick out some paint colours and get creative. If you’re considering painting the outside of your home, it would be best to consult a professional, as it can be dangerous, leave that to the pros. For the inside of your home, you can use a professional or do it yourself. All you need to do is pick out some colours and choose the rooms that need to have a refresh.

Painting can really go a long way and it’s not the most complicated ways to improve a room. When you’re putting your home on the market, try hiring a professional to come and do the job for you. They can often help you select the palette and they can seal trim and repair minor damage. It might not be the most glamorous renovation but it will help the room feel like new again. Now let’s talk about door and hardware.

Doors and Hardware

When it comes to investing in new interior doors and hardware and replacing the front door, you will see an improvement. I mean, how could you not? The doors and hardware can be updated to something more modern if you’re living in an older home. The new hardware doesn’t have to just apply to door, it can also apply to kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets too.

If you have the budget for it, take an inventory of all the hardware around your home and see what can be updated. Also consider adding a nice quality lockset, baseboards, crown moulding and wainscoting. They’re all good examples of inexpensive improvements that can offer immediate appeal to your home, inside and out. Lastly, we’ll discuss countertops and see what can be done.

Countertops

Sometimes all it can take in a kitchen is some new countertops to give the room life again. Consider a quality stone such as granite or quartz. There are also less inexpensive countertop solutions that you can find at your local hardware store, such as Home Depot, and they have professionals that will make you have it installed the right way. There are so many choices and so many ways to add little improvements to your home and get it ready to be listed.

Contact Lori VanDinther

If you have any questions about what other tips there are about curb appeal, we will be happy to help! 

Make sure you contact Lori VanDinther and her team today if you’re interested in buying or selling your home. If you’re interested in learning what your home is worth, try our free home evaluation.