Montreal Real Estate Blog » Tips

Should your house be staged before you sell?

Sveta Melchuk — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:37 +0000

To Stage or Not to Stage – that is the question!
by Sveta Melchuk

Updated from the Home Staging archives. Originally published on Jun 18th 2007.

Staging a Home for sale will cost you money. Is it worth spending time and effort on it? After all, once the decision to sell has been made, you just want to get it over with as fast as possible, right?

First, did you determine the «right» price for your house? It should be based on certain objective criteria, such as the location of the property, sale price of comparable homes in your neighbourhood and today’s market conditions. But don’t forget the desirability factor…
While you can’t control some of the other criteria, you definitely have a say in the way your property looks, feels and is perceived by prospective buyers. Increase the visual/emotional value of your property and you will increase its desirability, therefore the price and the urgency to buy it from potential buyers. Why?

It’s the perception of the value that counts. The first impressions make a big difference in the way we perceive a person, an object or a service and, subconsciously, the decision is taken within the first 90 seconds on whether we’ll be «buying» and what value we assign to it.

Even before the prospective buyers set foot in your house, they are probably shopping on the Internet, checking the photos of the properties available in the selected neighbourhood and within their budget. They will make an opinion about your property based on what they see in the pictures and they will decide right there whether it’s worth their time to visit in person. If you have not managed to draw them in at this stage, you might have lost dozens, maybe hundreds of visitors to your house!

Your strategy should be to make the BEST first impression possible, in the Virtual world and for all the prospective buyers who will come to your door. Once they are visiting, make them focus on the property’s best features and show them the value of what they are getting. Choosing a particular house is a largely emotional decision, so make them choose yours. Statistics clearly demonstrate that a clean, spacious and well decorated home sells faster and for more money than other comparable properties.

Staging uses some simple but highly effective techniques to make your house look its best in preparation for sale. So, by spending a few hundred dollars on preparing your house properly, you will be gaining a lot more at the sale time. And staging services cost much less than a price «adjustment» on the house!

So should your house be staged before you sell?

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

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/

Would you like to rent your property for more money?

Sveta Melchuk — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:20:11 +0000

Posted by: Sveta Melchuk. Founder of Home Staging Montreal

Professional staging/decorating for rental of a condo or an apartment is becoming more and more in demand. If you are looking for executive rental income for your unit, the property has to be presented accordingly.

Some of the apartments are quite new and others require some cosmetic renovations before decorating for rental. Some clients need help with managing the total project from beginning to end and taking care of things such as:

Make the list of what needs to be updated
Purchase all the materials, tiles, light fixtures, etc.
Provide renovation team to do the work
Provide cleaning team
Purchase all furniture
Purchase all accessories
Purchase linens, towels, even dishes if required
Decorate the apartment for rental

Decorating for rental involves some clever and creative thinking. We want it to look nice but we don’t want to spend a lot. We have to keep in mind the necessities for someone renting the apartment but also be practical. The unit has to look inviting but remain neutral in look and color.

We need to take into consideration our market and potential clientele we want to reach and stage/decorate accordingly. But chances are that our tenants will be less careful with our furnishings, so we need to plan for that as well. For example, I recommend darker color furniture and carpets as they will stay cleaner for a longer time. We want to include the minimum amount of furniture but it has to be comfortable for living. In general, the objective of decorating for rental is the same as that of home staging; creating a great first impression and allowing our potential tenant to see himself/herself living in that space.

As an example, please view a recent “decorating for rental” project by Home Staging Montreal team, where we first started by fixing up and repainting the condo and had it cleaned. Then we went shopping for vertical blinds, new furniture and accessories and we put it all together for a simple but effective urban look.

Here are some before and after pictures, to give you an idea:

If you would like to discuss with us how we can help you decorate for rental, give us a call or email us.
Our contact info is displayed just below this message. Looking forward to your comments!

Review: Tools for Work – Epson WorkForce 845

Deya Bautista — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:30:16 +0000

An Epson rep sent me an email a few weeks back asking me if I would like to have a free printer in exchange of a review. Not a bad deal, I thought, I get to test drive (and keep) one of their latest model and write about it at the same time. Which it kinda takes care of two things at once, since:

My other printer is about 3 years old. – Still good, just a little *on the slow side*, due to old age.
And
I need to create blog content.

So, it seems like a win-win situation

I just took it out of the box and thought it would take me a while to set it all up. Alas it did not. It took me merely 6 minutes to get the whole thing running. Yes, I timed it.

And here are my thoughts about it:

Perfect for my home office as it’s an ALL in One (you know: scanner, copy, fax, etc) AND…this is the best part…is has wifi. No need to attach it to my computer. I sent a test print from my iPad and it worked instantly. Sweet.

Compact minimalist design, no fancy buttons sticking out. Instead they have a very sleek touch screen that gives you every instruction you need to set it up properly.

The scanner is pretty fast. Surprisingly so. And it comes with 3 different settings – from simple to very professional. Lots of options on the last one.

Front paper loading trays. Which you can keep closed and maintain the clean look (no white and messy papers sticking out). Love it.

It says it lets you print directly from your memory card. Just stick the card on the printer slot and voila. Personally, I had to use my computer as a bridge for this one. The LCD screen didn’t display the images I wanted to print from the memory card. So is this feature not working properly? Or was it me? That remains a mystery.

Oh, and before I forget. It has a wicked two sided printing feature. Bonus.

The fax however, I wasn’t able to try it out since I don’t have a fax line at home. I will let you check that out on your own.

The printer is called Workforce 845 by Epson. I like it, I’m definitely replacing my old printer, and I think it’s worth the $200 bucks they’re asking for. Let’s hope the ink is not so expensive, because as you know, that’s where they get you. So, that’s all for now

End of review :)

Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/

The MLS upgrades to Realtors.ca: website review

Property Hunting: Diligence is The Key to Your New Home

Deya Bautista — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:24:29 +0000

Even when the numbers from the last couple of months show otherwise, the sales in March are increasing. I’m not saying this because I have access to the stats (yet), but because I’ve been extremely busy working with buyers, visiting properties and trying to make offers. Yes, trying.
Let me explain: By the time the visit’s over and we’re deciding on the purchase price, I get a call from the listing agent saying: “Just to inform you, we have just received an offer on this property”.

Bummer. And then they say we’re in a slow market.

On many occasions, even before getting to see the place, we are notified that the property is already under negotiation, thus a visit isn’t possible until we know the outcome of the offer.

I have to admit, I am not the pushy type. All my clients receive their listings and a little walk-though the description sheet, with the advice to: “Look it over and let me know when you’re available to visit”
But because of the demand and the fact that a lot of properties are getting sold-pretty fast, my new motto is:

If the property meets your requirements, if you like the images, and if it has the WOW effect on you, don’t waste any time: Make yourself available to visit it ASAP.

If after the visit, you are still in love with the property, don’t hesitate to make a conditional offer. There have been times where a buyer takes a few (too many) days to think it over, and while they’re meditating on it, another more decisive buyer comes along with an offer that will leave everyone else out.

Get all your questions clarified before making an offer: Average sold price, conditions to include, etc. And after that: Be diligent. Be decisive.

It will be very sad to see your dream home going to another person.

A better way to get your daily news

Deya Bautista — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:30:19 +0000

I noticed a large amount of our new readers are subscribing by email. While this is the most common way to receive updates from websites, it has its disadvantages. Let me explain: If you subscribe to a blog or a news site that publishes several articles a day/week, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed with an inbox full of unread articles, and racing to keep up with the new content. (Too much information, too little time). Most likely you’ll end up deleting unread mail, and finally unsubscribing from the site.

The good news: There’s a better way to get yours latest articles delivered to you without having to fill up your inbox.

Here is a little video explaining RSS in Plain English.

You’ve probably seen the RSS sign on the top of the blog’s column (the orange button). You’ve seen the icon on mainstream sites, major newspaper’s online are now aware of this way of sharing information and have implemented it. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.Other feeds like this ones will be Atom, but let’s stick to the basics for now :)

Personally, I get all my news from different online journals plus all my favorite blogs using the RSS reader. It saves me tons of time, and it’s quite simple to do. The first time I used an RSS reader was through my Google account, they have a nifty little Blog reader you can add to your personalized Google homepage. Although there are a lot of feed readers out there, (and I’ve tried a few) my favorite one right now is NetNewsWire, which is the Mac version of NewsGator (windows). There is an online version or the desktop software (where you can go offline after you retrieve all news), they are both free. If you want, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Already using RSS reader? Let us know what’s your favorite one in the comments box.

Who pays the buyer’s agent?

Deya Bautista — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:06:26 +0000

If you are in the market to buy a home for the first time, and never have used the services of an agent who represents buyers, it’s important for you to know that this service is free.

One of the most common questions from first time buyers is:
How much does a buying agent (or agent representing the buyer) charge in commission?

The answer will be: Zero.

The buyer’s agent (representing the buyer) works in collaboration with the listing agent (who represents the seller). The Listing agent will share the commission with the buyer’s agent if a sale takes place between the two parties.

This is how it works:

Mr seller decides to list their property with agent X (Listing agent). They write up an agreement (brokerage contract) in which, the asking price, description of the immovable, length of the contract (etc, etc, etc) and the service fee (commission) is set.

If a successful sale was made from a buyer brought by a collaborating agent, the commission will be shared.

So, who pays the buyer’s agent? The seller does.
It’s the seller who signs the contract, agreeing to pay the commission to the listing broker/agent, and (when applicable) shares it with the collaborating agent when a sale is made.

The buyer himself, already has many expenses to cover: down-payment, welcome tax, notary fees, etc. One thing that you don’t have to worry about (as a buyer) is to pay for the extra expense of an agent representing you. It’s free

Buying a New Condo: The Pros and Cons

Deya Bautista — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:00:26 +0000

You can buy a new condo from the developer before or during its construction and also before the condo corporation is formed. A developer may have some unsold units available after the condominium has been completed and registered.

In some markets, the developer may wait to sell a large percentage of the units before registering the condo corporation or even starting construction, in the latter case it’s what we refers as: Pre-sale phase.

Keep in mind that a deposit is required to secure or reserve a condo unit in a new development.

Buying a new condo. The Good Side:

The purchase price could be lower than resale market (used) condos. Especially in pre-sale phase of the construction.
Your property will gain value; from the time you purchase the pre-sale unit to the time that it’s delivered. This, of course, it’s subject to the current market conditions.
New home warranty protection. (Up to five years)
You have more choice of locations within the building; floor level, different views, etc.
Customized design (in some cases); more options and upgrades to choose from, such as: material, color of the floors/ cupboards, etc.
Newer buildings have less risk of having to undergo costly repairs and renovations.

Buying a new condo. The Bad Side:

If the constructions have not started, you cannot physically see what you are buying and have to rely on floor plans and sketches that are subject to change.
Your initial deposit will be locked up for the duration of construction
The construction may not be completed by the expected date. The delivery date can be later than originally agreed.
It’s possible that you may move into your unit while construction continues in others: it could be noisy.
Taxes. New constructions have to pay GST and QST. (Not the same as the Welcome tax ) The good news for first time buyers: you might be eligible for a housing rebate.

Basically it comes down to this:

If you’re not in a rush to move in, then a new condo might be a good choice. New construction can be unpredictable when it comes to delivery dates, some do deliver in time, others can take a few months more than speculated. For buyers who don’t want to do renovations themselves; a new condo construction offers you a “key in hand”, no headaches type of solution. All you have to worry about is decorating to your own taste.
Apart from the above mentioned facts, there are also several government refunds for those who purchase in Eco-Friendly Projects.

So there you have it. The choice is yours.

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