Montreal Real Estate Blog » Sveta

Les rénovations les plus payantes

Sveta Melchuk — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:00:35 +0000

Comme vous pouvez constater, il est possible d’accomplir beaucoup avec des petits moyens! Une professionnelle de home staging saura vous conseiller dans les priorités et les démarches à faire pour bien préparer votre maison à la vente. Cette étape est cruciale avant de compléter le tout avec un home staging pour un effet irrésistible!

Tout le monde souhaite maximiser la vente de sa maison mais est-ce que vous savez par où débuter?

On doit bien se préparer afin de réussir et cela prend un peu de temps, un peu d’argent et, surtout, de l’effort!
Dans cette partie de mon article, je vais discuter de la première étape – les travaux de rénovations qui augmenteront la valeur marchande de votre maison. La deuxième partie de l’article portera sur les astuces au niveau de home staging (ou la valorisation résidentielle) – à ne pas manquer!

Il faut distinguer, bien évidemment, les travaux majeurs des réparations et améliorations cosmétiques. Si vous avez l’intention d’habiter votre chez soi encore pendant quelque temps avant de procéder à la vente de votre maison, allez-y pour des rénovations majeurs mais surtout celles qui sont rentables.

Selon l’Institut canadien des évaluateurs les rénovations les plus payantes sont:

Salle de bains: 75 à 100%
Cuisine: 75 à 100%
Peinture intérieure ou extérieure: 50 à 100%

Les rénos procurant un rendement moyen:

Réfection de la toiture: 50 à 80%
Remplacement du système de chauffage: 50 à 80%
Finition du sous-sol: 50 à 75%
Agrandissement pour ajouter une salle familiale: 50 à 75%
Ajout d’un foyer: 50 à 75%
Installation d’un plancher de bois franc: 50 à 75%
Ajout d’un garage: 50 à 75%
Remplacement des portes et fenêtres: 50 à 75%
Ajout d’une terrasse: 50 à 75%
Climatisation centrale: 25 à 75%

Par contre, si vous êtes prêts à mettre votre maison sur le marché immédiatement, la stratégie doit différer- il vaut mieux se concentrer sur les travaux d’ordre cosmétique, qui augmenteront la valeur marchande sans vous ruiner…
Selon www.homegain.com, un site américain qui fait des sondages auprès des agents immobiliers, voici quelques exemples des travaux à effectuer et leur rendement:

Désencombrement et grand ménage – 874%
Améliorer et rajeunir l’éclairage – 586%
Entretien paysager – 473%
Réparations plomberie et éléctriques – plus de 300%
Peinture intérieure – 250%

Posted By: Sveta Melchuk. Founder of Home Staging Montreal, a Montreal firm specializing in Home Staging and Interior Redesign. Simple and effective solutions, to help you sell your property faster and for more money. Call Sveta at: 514-482-9776 http://www.home-staging-montreal.com/

Renovations that generates the best return on investment

Sveta Melchuk — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:00:05 +0000

Everyone would like to maximize the sale of their house, but do you know where you should be starting?
It’s imperative to prepare well in order to succeed and that requires a bit of time, a bit of money and some effort.

In this article, I would like to cover the PRE home staging steps, namely the renovation work – which projects are more important, when and what will be your return on investment?

The first and foremost question is whether you are planning to live in your house for a while and enjoy the fruits of your labour or are you ready to move out.
If you will be living in the house for a few more years, go ahead and renovate, keeping in mind the projects which will increase the resale value of your home in the future. In 2008, all energy saving and GREEN home improvements were a big hit!

The Appraisal Institute of Canada released the following numbers:
Renovations which generate best return on investment

Bathroom renovation: 75 to 100%
Kitchen: 75 to 100%
Interior and exterior plastering and paint: 50 to 100%

Renovations which generate average return on investment

New roof: 50 to 80%
Replacing heating system : 50 to 80%
Finished basement: 50 to 75%
Adding of a family room: 50 to 75%
Adding fireplace: 50 to 75%
Installing hardwood flooring: 50 to 75%
Adding a garage: 50 to 75%
Replacing doors and windows (unless energy saving, then higher): 50 to 75%
Adding a deck: 50 to 75%
Central AC: 25 to 75%

But if you are ready to put your house on the market now, your strategy should be different: you should focus on some cosmetic improvements only which will increase the resale value of your property.

As per www.homegain.com survey of 2 000 real estate agents in the USA in 2009, here are some examples of recommended improvements as well as their return on investment:

Decluttering and a major clean up – 874%
Improving and updating lighting – 586%
Minor Landscaping – 473%
Electrical and plumbing repairs – over 300%
Interior paint – 250%

As you can tell, it’s possible to accomplish quite a bit on a reasonable budget. A home staging professional will help you decide on the priorities and the budget required to get your house sale ready. This is a crucial step before the home staging per say which is certain to give your house a WOW factor you are looking for!

Home Staging – 10 tips for better sale

Sveta Melchuk — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:22:34 +0000

Are you interested in selling your house fast and for top dollar?
If the answer is ‘YES’, then you need to get it ready to look and feel its best. The concept of Home Staging is not new and is used extensively in the USA and Western Canada to market real estate.

These Home Staging tips cover some of the things you can easily do yourself at a minimal cost.

Before you do anything, you have to stop thinking of your house as a HOME and start thinking about it as an investment, for which you want the largest return possible.
If you don’t have pictures that show your house at its best, you are probably missing out on dozens, if not hundreds of potential buyers.
Curb appeal (or, lack of thereof) can deter a visitor from wanting to pursue. The exterior of your house has to be clean and taken care of.
Buyers want to see space, above anything else. You have to declutter, so the visitors can focus on the house and not on your stuff.
Chipped paint, loose or missing tiles, broken door handle, a closet door that doesn’t quite close properly can become a BIG turnoff for a potential buyer. Fix!
Painting is the cheapest way to transform a room! Repaint main rooms in fresh, neutral colors.
Refresh and update. Simple things such as a new bed ensemble, a few decorative pillows and two nice table lamps will transform a bedroom.
Make the house as neutral as possible to please a variety of potential buyers and their lifestyle and taste.
Make sure there is sufficient light in every room– you can’t have too much light!
Space optimization and proper furniture and accessories placement is essential. It will give a home a warm and appealing look and feel and create the WOW factor.

So, a small effort will pay of at the sale time. Stage your house-sell your house WELL!

A Staged house that sold in 3 hours

Sveta Melchuk — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:44:01 +0000

I wanted to share this recent story with you – a Staged house sells in 3 hours! Of course it’s exceptional but it does happen inspite of a slower real estate market.

I was recently asked to help a lady prepare her home for sale. The house is small (2 bedrooms only and a very small office), but very well located and well maintained. The paint was recent and the color neutral enough on the main floor but needed to be refreshed in a couple of rooms on the upper floor.

The problem? Old and outdated furniture, outdated and darkish curtains, some clutter and several personal items, such as the owner’s artwork displayed everywhere in the house (pretty but not to everyone’s taste).

We worked on a very limited budget (approximately $700). I made a list of accessories to purchase and we split the tasks – I went off to IKEA and the owner shopped in smaller local stores to locate items such as decorative pillows, a vase, branches, a mirror and some fabric. She repainted her old dining room table a dark brown (instead of a previous blue color) and recovered the chairs with dark brown microsuede fabric. She also repainted a small office and a bathroom over a weekend. The seller also worked very hard to declutter and put some of her furniture in storage.

Last, but not least, we rented two small white chairs and we reorganized her furniture to optimize the spaces, changed the curtains on the living room and set up the accessories.

Before

After

As soon as the photographs appeared on the Internet, the phone started to ring. Three appointments were set up for the evening. The second visitors made and offer to purchase on the spot and it was accepted. The house sold the same day for %96 of the asking price. End of story!

Home Staging: an invaluable marketing tool

Sveta Melchuk — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:45:36 +0000

The concept of Home Staging is finally taking firm hold in the minds of Quebec consumers and Real Estate agents. Home Staging techniques originated in California over 30 years ago and are an accepted and widely used real estate service in the USA. I have had a couple of clients from California who wanted to sell their properties in Montreal and they told me that no self respecting home owner there would show their property without staging it first!

Especially valuable in a tough market, Home Staging helps sellers and Real Estate agents to sell properties faster and for better price.

The 2008 www.Homegain.com survey of 4000 real estate agents asked:

How much do you think staging increases the value of a home?

Over 78% of Real Estate agents believe that staging increases the value of a property by at least $2500!

But what is Home Staging?

It’s a set of simple yet efficient techniques which showcase the property’s assets in most attractive way to the largest number of visitors. It consists of decluttering, cleaning, repairing, depersonalizing, optimizing the living space and finally, creating ambiance and the WOW factor for the prospective buyers.

Some of the benefits to sellers are:

Better photographs will bring more visitors to the door
In the competitive market, your property will stand out from the competition
Buyers are looking for a turnkey solution, which you will provide
Properties which show well are easier to sell
The result: YOU will sell your property faster and for more money!

As you only get one chance to impress the visitors, Home Staging is an invaluable marketing tool in your work, which will help you sell your house well!

So, you think you don’t need Home Staging?

Sveta Melchuk — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:15:24 +0000

You have decided to sell your property. You love the home decorating shows on TV. You have good taste and you house is well decorated. You are ready to put the property on the market. But, are you really?

I often hear this kind of thinking from certain home sellers, especially women. It’s perfectly normal, as home decorating is becoming an established hobby and is well represented all over the media (on TV, magazines, books, Internet, etc). That’s great!

But, please remember that Home Staging is a set of specific and very efficient techniques. The goal of Staging a home is not at all the same either; we decorate our house for ourselves, in accordance with our personal taste whether the Home Staging is decorating for others, namely the potential buyers! The point of view is completely the opposite – instead of personalizing, we actually depersonalize the property for sale!

And, another important point: it’s very difficult to be objective about your own home. As long as you look at it as a “home” and not as a real estate investment, you won’t be able to present it at its best FOR SALE.

A professional and impartial Home Stager will execute an assessment of your property and will provide you with recommendations to make the property irresistible to buyers. The assessment may show more or less changes to be made to the property but, believe me, in three years, I have still to see a “PERFECT” house!

Written by Sveta Melchuk from www.Home-Staging-Montreal.com.
A Montreal firm specializing in Home Staging and Interior Re-design services.

Staging a vacant house

Sveta Melchuk — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:01:55 +0000

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?

Let’s start with the outside: don’t forget to take care of the lawn and the landscaping – keep cutting the grass, trim the hedge and bushes, and plants/flowers are a nice touch in the summer. Rake the leaves in the fall, continue removing the snow in the winter and make sure that there is a clear path to and around the house. Clean and paint the front door and the trim, if needed.

On the inside, the house has to be spotlessly clean – ceilings, walls, windows, floors and carpets. If needed, the house should be repainted in neutral, pleasant colors.

You don’t need to stage the full house but it’s essential to focus on a few key rooms – entrance, living room, dining room and a master bedroom.

Just a few pieces of furniture, art and accessories can suffice but they have to be well chosen and well positioned to make vignettes.

So, how do you stage a vacant house? First, can you leave any of your own furniture behind for a while? If you can’t leave anything, can you borrow from friends/family any quality items?

Another great alternative is renting furniture on a short-term basis. There are places in Montreal (and other cities) which provide brand new, beautiful furniture and accessories specifically for selling an empty house. The stager will set it up in the most advantageous way, add some accessories and a few pieces of art and voila! Some stagers have their own inventories as well and will rent you the items required. Some creativity and some simple but efficient staging techniques will turn your empty house into a «home».

And remember, first impressions can make or break a sale, so a bit of effort, time and money will go a long way to sell your house fast and for most money!

This article has been written by Sveta Melchuk, Founder of Home Staging Montreal, a Montreal area firm which specializes in Home Staging and Interior Redesign. For more information, please visit www.home-staging-montreal.com.