Home Renovation Courses from Heritage Montreal

Did you know that Heritage Montreal offers Home renovation courses?

If you are a home owner- the handy type, or if you always wanted to get basic information on home maintenance, these courses are right up your alley.
You can learn about home maintenance, renovation and restoration from professionals in the field.

• How to plan your own renovation projects, find the proper resources.
• Home Inspection: How to look at a house and understand its problems.
• Understand foundation problems, their causes and solutions.
• Discover how heating, ventilation, plumbing and electrical systems work.
• How to look after the maintenance and renovation of exterior walls and roofs.
• Insulation, main dynamics and the solutions to common problems.

And we are not talking about contractors involved; the courses are actually taught by architects and engineers.

Interested? Keep on reading >>

Staging a vacant house

by Sveta Melchuk

Home staging is an important marketing technique for selling homes, whether they are furnished or vacant.

Important points to remember about vacant properties are:

• People buy «Homes» and not «Houses»: it’s therefore essential to give them the feeling of a «Home» and you certainly won’t be able to achieve that with an empty space!
• A vast majority of people (over 90%) can’t imagine what a house could look like with furniture in it and they have nothing to compare their own furnishings to in an empty space. Did you know that a room actually looks smaller empty than properly furnished?
• With nothing to focus on except the bare space, the negatives will become more apparent to prospective buyers.
• A vacant house gives an impression of a desperate situation and you can expect to get lower offers than otherwise.

So, to sell your property fast and for most money, what do you need to do?
[Read more]

10 expert tips to prepare your home for sale.

1. Detach your emotions
   Remember, you are about to sell this house and the goal is to create a space in which as many people as possible will be able to envision as their potential home. To properly prepare your home for sale you will have to pack away many of your personal items, including photos, souvenirs and other mementos.
2. Clean and reorganize
   Clean your home from top to bottom and make sure all appliances are spotless. Reorganize the closets and pack away some of your belongings. Storage room is a priority for buyers and a full closet does a poor job of showcasing the amount of storage room available. If you’re using a spare room for storage, pack away the clutter and ensure the space is properly furnished. .
3. Furnish empty properties and rooms
   People buy homes not houses. Empty rooms make it hard for buyers to get a good sense of the space. Large rooms look cavernous and small rooms look even smaller when empty. Oddly shaped rooms make it especially hard for buyers to visualize how to arrange the room. Staging your empty property with the right furniture is key to ensuring that buyers will be able to visualize living in the space.
4. Brighten and lighten
   Light-filled rooms are always appealing. Open blinds and make sure your windows are sparkling clean. If there are no windows in the room, make sure the lighting is adequate and keep all the lights on when showing the property, even during the day. A fresh coat of neutral coloured paint goes a long way to brighten up the space.
   
5. Spark your buyer’s imagination
   Set the dinner table for a formal dinner, light the fireplace on a cold day, and add some fresh flowers to your décor. Creating the proper atmosphere helps buyers envision themselves living in your home.
   
6. Fix minor repairs
   Buyers prefer to see a home in move-in condition, even small things such as a dripping faucet can detract from the value of your home.
   
7. Don’t be too unique
   Keep your décor simple and modern with neutral wall colours. Unusual accessories and strong wall colours will limit your pool of buyers. This is also true for renovations. The right renovations can often boost the price of a home but be careful not to do it with too much flair. Your unique style may set you apart but it will also shrink your potential pool of buyers. Remember to keep it simple and modern.
   
8. Keep your neighbourhood in mind when renovating
   Actual returns on renovations depend not only on the renovations itself but also on how your home compares to your neighbours’. If your home is already above market value for your neighbourhood, your renovation may not yield a higher return. Buyers looking at moderately priced homes won’t be able to pay a premium for luxury finishes. Ask your Realtor to give you an assessment of homes in your area before embarking on costly renovations.
   
9. Improve security
   Household security is a sought after feature in homes and simple measures such as adding window locks and motion sensor lights outside can boost the attractiveness of your property. In densely populated urban areas, simple additions such as blinds and shutters are good additions to provide privacy.
10. Contact your real estate agent for more home staging ideas! :)

How to Make a Small Room Appear Bigger

Small rooms are the bane of the home decorator. How do you achieve a pleasing look that doesn’t feel cramped and claustrophobic? Short of building an addition or knocking down walls, you are limited to a few, but effective, decorating tricks that create the illusion of space.

The strategic use of colour and light is the best way to achieve this. Choose light shades of paint or wallpaper for the walls. Lighter colours reflect light making for a brighter room. Use an even lighter shade of the same colour or white for ceilings and floors. A darker colour on the ceiling will make the ceiling look lower and tends to make the walls look as though they are closing in.

Avoid harshly contrasting colours. In fact, a monochromatic colour scheme that carries throughout the room into fabrics and accessories is very effective. Steer away from too many patterned items. The goal here is to blur perspective. [Read more]