No Pane No Gain

Posted on September 3, 2010 
Filed Under Buying Your New Home, The Ottawa House, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

One thing most home inspectors will verify is the age and condition of the windows in a home.  Of course some money was likely spent on making the house look good – a lick of paint, a good cleaning and some flowers inside and out.  However, the real money (thousands of dollars) may not have been spent on replacing old leaky windows. 

My house in the Glebe needed new windows as it was over 100 years old.  No one likes putting up the winter/storm windows every fall and taking them down in the spring.  They were single pane windows and highly inefficient.  It cost approximately $12,000 to do the windows.  Overall I used an average of $1,000 per window – some far less and some far more plus installation on a three storey house.

If you are buying a house get to know how to date windows and understand the cost of replacing windows if they are close to the end of their usefulness.

Photo credit:  Old Window @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/doc-adams/3857296378/

Zingers #113 – Red River Blues

Posted on September 1, 2010 
Filed Under Buying Your New Home, The Ottawa House, Zingers | Leave a Comment

Before buying your house along the river find out the history of flooding on that section of the river.  Most rivers, with residential property on the banks, have a conservation authority that established building rules (such as proximity to the bank, type of construction and plantings).  Go to the Authority and find out the flooding history.

Don’t get sandbagged into buying the wrong property. 

Civic Hospital Housing Market Today – MLS® Listings

Posted on August 30, 2010 
Filed Under Comparable Properties Sales Statistics, Ottawa Neighbourhoods, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

As of this morning,  7 residential units are for sale in the Civic Hospital Area ( MLS® area 4504).  One of these is a semi-detached.  The price range for these units is from $399,000 to $1,135,000.  The average price is $691,928.    

In the past 90 days, 11 homes (2 semi and 9 detached) sold at an average sold price of $586,045 with the DOM ranging from 1 – 58 with the average being 24 days.   

All of the homes that are currently for sale or sold in the past 90 days are 2 or 3 storey units.    

These statistics do not include condos, multiple family dwellings and private sales.

Selling and Decluttering – The Front Hall Closet

Posted on August 27, 2010 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Staging Your Home, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

Your front hall closet is going to be viewed when Buyers come to look at your house.  Most people have the front hall closet packed tight.  Before you put your house on the market,  de clutter the closet. 

Buy a box of wooden hangers (they look solid and substantial while costing less than a dollar each).  Take out all the coats and jackets and choose one or two for each person in the house – one if there is little space, two if there is more room.  Take out anything that is not coat, boot, scarf and glove related.  Find a different place in the house for these items.  If it summer, take out the winter coats and vice versa.  You can pack your seasonal coats and outerwear now, in anticipation of the move.  You might take this opportunity to have your coats cleaned and/or given to the Salvation Army.

When everything is out of the closet, sweep and wash it.  Toss the bent hangers and mismatched mittens.  Find a new home for your dozen purses, vacuum cleaner and the kitty litter bag. 

Hang on to your Buyers with a clean, organized and spacious closet.

Photo credit:  Coat Hanger Cintre @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/21025851@N00/2169219432/

Zingers #112 – Here kitty, kitty

Posted on August 25, 2010 
Filed Under Buying Your New Home, Zingers | Leave a Comment

If you have ailurophobe (the fear of cats), make sure that you let your real estate agent know.  Most listings indicate if there is a cat in the house.  If you cannot be in a house with a cat, then your agent will do everything possible to ensure that you don’t see those homes. 

Not only Andrew Lloyd Webber has Cats

Bells Corner Housing Market Today – MLS® Listings

Posted on August 22, 2010 
Filed Under Comparable Properties Sales Statistics, Ottawa Neighbourhoods, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

As of this morning,  6 residential units are for sale in Bells Corner/Lynwood Village/Arbeatha Park (MLS® areas 7803-7805).  Two of these units are trailers.  The prices for the four detached homes range from $314,900 to $450,000.  The average price is $355,425.    

In the past 90 days, 8 homes (1 semi and 7 detached bungelows) sold at an average sold price of $322,937 with an average DOM ranging from 2 – 106 with the average being 37 days.     

These statistics do not include condos, multiple family dwellings and private sales.

Five More Decorating Mistakes that Bug Ottawa Buyers

Posted on August 20, 2010 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Staging Your Home, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

There was a television special about the 25 biggest decorating mistakes people make in their homes.  Everyone has made a few of these and learned to live with them over time.  However, there are some more obvious to home Buyers than others.  Of the 25 here are 5 more of my favourites when it comes to selling / show casing your home:

  1. Outdated Accessories – For the Owner – the door handles work and over time they are just there.  For the Buyer, old door handles date the house and make the Buyer think that the whole kitchen / bathroom may have to be updated. 
  2. Furniture that Doesn’t Fit- For the Owner the big puffy couch with matching love seat and armchair are wedged into the room with just enough space to get by and why not?  It works for the Owner.  For the Buyer, a room that is stuffed with furniture looks small and may make the Buyer think that they too cannot get their furniture all in the room.
  3. Fear of Colour – everything is in builder’s white.  For the Owner white goes with everything.  There can be no colour mistakes when there is no colour.  For the Buyer, the house has no spark and not memorable.  White walls can look dirty over time so……
  4. Fake Flowers – For the Owner going fake is the answer to replace expensive and short lived fresh flowers.  For the Buyer fake flowers and plants are dust collectors, soon look dated and seldom fool anyone about their provenance.
  5. Ignoring windows – For the Owner, the tacked on blanket has served its purpose for the last three years and why spend money on window treatments now that you are moving?  For the Buyer, blankets, torn fabric, bent metal blinds, dirty drapes all mean that the Sellers are neglectful and cheap. If this is what is not done for the windows, then what is not done for the rest of the house.

Decorating is important when you are marketing your house.  It is not about how you live but how you want the Buyer to imagine themselves in your house.

Photo credit:  Fake Flowers in the Sun @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/orinrobertjohn/1795685457/

Zingers #111 – Behind door #1

Posted on August 18, 2010 
Filed Under Listing and Selling Your Home, Valerie Zinger, Zingers | Leave a Comment

You have some very valuable things and decide to put them in one room of your house and then lock the door when people come to see the house.  It might be that you have taken all of your mess, shoved it in a room and then locked the door.  Resist the temptation to do this.  If your house is for sale ensure that buyers can see everything.

Let’s make a deal on the whole house.

Look what I found – Art-Is-In Bread, the best in Ottawa

Posted on August 16, 2010 
Filed Under Ottawa Today / Interesting People, Places and Things, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

Art-Is-In Bread.  Who has not tried the garlic bread and found almost whole cloves baked into the bread or had the baquette and not eaten the whole loaf in one sitting?  While the bakers and ovens are located behind the Bagel Shop, the bread is sold mostly to restaurants and then some loaves and buns are available at locations such as Lansdown on Sundays, the Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli, The Red Apron and Epicuria.  Of course, the Loeb in the Glebe has it as well.

Things Ottawa Buyers May Notice #36 – Popcorn Ceilings

Posted on August 13, 2010 
Filed Under The Ottawa House, Things Buyers May Notice, Valerie Zinger | Leave a Comment

Stippled or popcorn ceilings have been popular to builders for decades.  The drywaller or painter would be hired to tape off the dry walled ceiling and then, rather than do the fine sanding and make the joins invisible, stippling was added.  This covered any and all imperfections.  Once up, this application is a real bugger to remove. 

Times change and Buyers and Owners seem to hate stippled ceilings.  Removing stippled ceilings is not for the faint of heart.  You need a shower cap and cape, you need a lot of water to loosen the stippling and you need plastic sheet to cover everything in the room including you.  Wet – scrape – wet – scrape – wet – scrape.  This is followed by:  drywall – tape – sand – mud – sand – mud – paint.  Now you know why those stippled ceilings are still around.  If you consider this process also consider hiring someone to come in and do the ceilings professionally.  An alternative is to drywall right over the stippling / popcorn and start fresh. Using ceiling tiles in fancy material and patterns is another way to hide the stippling.  Whatever your decision on your ceilings, minimize the odd and bizarre. 

Be proud of the house you are selling.

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