It takes some companies awhile to get it right. A lot of companies still think it is all about them, it’s not, its about their customer. Tradewinds Realty , A Nova Scotia real Estate Company, gets it right most of the time and now Home Loans Canada is getting it right too!
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In Nova Scotia, we have our own home stagers in Metro Halifax. Amie Walton recently obtained her ASP (Accredited Staging Professionals ) designation.
There seems to be the right time for everything and it nows seems to be the right time for Home Staging. A brief description. Unlike decorating, Staging is a series of researched, proven techniques that increase the sales potential of a property by making it appeal not to the current owner-but to the potential buyer. Staging works by minimizing items that can distract a buyer and creating an environment where buyers can easily imagine themselves living in the home.
No longer do you have to rely on your Realtor to help you get your home ready for the market. Realtors have expertise, but it is usually in the marketing of your home, not expert interior reorganization. Sure a Realtor can show you the obvious, like get rid of the clutter, replace the worn-out kitchen vinyl floor, or get the kids toys picked up. But really, there is more to preparing a home for sale than that.
In my experience as a Realtor, I had many people ask me my opinion on what they should do to “spruce up” their home for a sale. I would give them my take on things and in many circumstances my suggestions were ignored or just not doable within their budget or abilities. Home Stagers have been trained to access the whole package your home presents to the buying public and tailors a makeover to suit you and your budget.
What I like about the presence of Home Stagers is the fact if my client is going to pay for the expertise of a Home Stager, they are showing motivation in selling their home and most certainly take the advise of a professional Home Stager, rather than my rag tag ideas.
Home Staging seems to have originated out of California in the 70’s and has gathered a lot of momentum, with Accredited Staging® Professional™ designations affiliated with what seems to be a very organized North American association called StagedHomes® with web sites in the US and Canada.
The StagedHomes® web site offers pages of tips and Lori Matzke of Centerstagehome.com offers up some printable tips page .
Also there are a number of articles written lately on Home Staging. A US article “Home Staging Equals Quick Sale” by Jerry Fowler, gives a good review of the US market and Sharon Dunn has written a very recent article (Jan 15, 2004) “‘Stage’ home for quick sale “. In the article Sharon states “Christine Rae ,[Ontario] Canada’s regional director for stagedhomes.com , and owner of decoratingsolutions.ca , puts it this way: “Decorating is personalizing a home, usually you have a budget to work with, and you add things to the home. Staging is just the opposite — you’re taking things away, depersonalizing, so a buyer can see the space. It’s about selling the space, not decorating it.” As for costs Christine, who is located in St. Catherines, Ontario, says “Staging a 2,400-square-foot home would take, on average, five hours, and at a rate of about $75 an hour, would cost the homeowner some $375. But prices vary in areas and services requested. Best to check with your local home stager, they are happy to quote there rates, by the hour or flat fee, depending on the work required.
An American web site offer advise also on Home Staging, RealEstateABC.com ” “Home staging” is not a new term, but for many homeowners and real estate agents the concept of “professional home staging” is shedding new light on how to promote a home in the real estate marketplace. In past years, homeowners were left to their own discretion as far as preparing for home showings. Though they could occasionally rely on an agent for instructions, more often than not real estate agents were just as perplexed at working out the details as the homeowner. While agents are experts in the field of selling and closing, many are not design savvy. Agents usually know exactly what factors can help sell a home. It’s just not always easy to get a home into selling condition in a timely manner without some sort of experienced assistance.
Professional home stagers are practiced in the art of preparing a home for resale. They work with the “flow” of a home, eliminate clutter, edit and arrange furniture, and even assist in enhancing curb-appeal. With the aid of a professional home stager, your house can make a notable first impression on potential homebuyers.“
In Nova Scotia, we have our own home stager in Metro Halifax. Amie Walton recently obtained her ASP (Accredited Staging Professionals ) designation. I have met Amie professionally several times and I am always very impressed with her energy and ideas. Amie already has a web site called Xstreamstaging and burgeoning career as a home stager. Amie offers up her own staging TIPS page “Top ten reasons why staging is important to selling your property! ” and the balance of her web site explains in detail all her services. Amie’s consultation price is based on square footage of the home plus the surrounding property, starting at a minimum of $200. Well worth the investment in selling your home.
ANd for you “do-it-yourselfers” there is a downloadable book out there “The Art of Home Staging (e-book)”
If you are not convinced that Home Staging is right for your home, have a look at these before and after pictures I lifted off Stagedhomes.com.
BEFORE
AFTER
STAGING TIPS from the Staged Homes web site
Try looking at your house “THROUGH THE BUYER’S EYES” as though you’ve never seen it or been there before. Any time or money invested on the following will bring back more money in return, and hopefully a faster sale.
INSIDE:
1. Clear all unnecessary objects from furniture throughout the house. Keep decorative objects on the furniture restricted to groups of 1, 3, or 5 items.
2. Clear all unnecessary objects from the kitchen countertops. If it hasn’t been used for three months… put it away! Clear refrigerator fronts of messages, pictures, etc. (A sparse kitchen helps the buyer mentally move their own things into your kitchen.)
3. In the bathroom, remove any unnecessary items from countertops, tubs, shower stalls and commode tops. Keep only your most needed cosmetics, brushes, perfumes etc., in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels to one or two colors only.
4. Rearrange or remove some of the furniture if necessary. As owners, many times we have too much furniture in a room. This is wonderful for our own personal enjoyment, but when it comes to selling we need to thin out as much as possible to make rooms appear larger.
5. Take down or rearrange certain pictures or objects on walls. Patch and paint if necessary.
6. Review the inside of the house room by room, and
1. Paint any room needing paint.
2. Clean carpets or drapes that need it.
3. Clean windows.
7. If you need room to store extra possessions use the garage or rent a storage unit.
8. Leave on certain lights during the day. During “showings” turn on all lights and lamps.
9. Have stereo FM on during the day for all viewings.
OUTSIDE:
1. Go around the perimeter of the house and move all garbage cans, discarded wood scraps, extra building materials, etc., into the garage.
2. Check gutters for roof moss and dry rot. Make sure they are swept and cleaned.
3. Look at all plants… prune bushes and trees. Keep plants from blocking windows. “YOU CAN’T SELL A HOUSE IF YOU CAN’T SEE IT.” Plants are like children — they grow so fast!!
4. Weed and then mulch all planting areas. Keep lawn freshly cut and fertilized. Remove and dead plants or shrubs.
5. Clear patios or decks of all small items. such as small planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbecues, toys. etc. (Put them in the garage or a storage unit.)
6. Check paint condition of the house — especially the front door and trim. “CURB APPEAL REALLY WORKS!”
That’s it
T.H.
EMAIL Tim Harris with a comment
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A reader comments, corrects and adds the Golden Rules of Asbestos.
A reader (name withheld by request) comments on my asbestos posting “Asbestos and Your House ” of Jan 10.
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A Reader Comments
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Tim,
Having some authority with your customer group and amongst your realtor colleagues it is very important that you emphasis that there are a number of golden rules about asbestos.
1) DON’T DISTURB IT.
2) DON’T REMOVE IT YOURSELF.
3) Have a licensed professional TEST the substance.
4) Have a licensed professional remove the asbestos under controlled conditions.
5) Asbestos cannot be analysed just by looking at it. If a contractor/realtor or anyone else says they can tell you if a substance is asbestos by sight alone, fire them immediately. Find a professional who knows what they are talking about.
6) If asbestos is even a slight possibility - GET A PROFESSIONAL TEST.
As far as recommendations go this is a difficult area. There is widespread misunderstanding regarding the nature of asbestos risks and how the presence of asbestos should be handled even amonst those who say they are qualified to give advise in this area. One company who I would recommended is Pinchin LeBlanc in Halifax. They do an excellent job in analysis and advice in my experience. I have examples of incidents locally where serious mistakes have been made concerning asbestos. This is a very difficult area for the average homeowner to find knowledgable and responsible professionals. The advise always has to be if asbestos is even suspected, get the substance tested by professionals.
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end of comment
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Post Script
I have done some further research and found a few web sites that may expand this topic even further. The first site is called “Asbestos Trouble ” it has a number of pages, some on how to identify asbestos, where to find a DIY tester. Another site is “Ineed2Know.org ” and lastly “Bambooweb “. All of these sites seem to be quite informative on the topic of asbestos.
As for asbestos removers in Nova Scotia: here is a web site of contractor in Yarmouth Co. -WoodCock Construction and to save space and time here is a Yellow Pages directory of asbestos removers in the province.
T.H.
EMAIL Tim Harris with a comment
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Toronto looks to be well served by a Fraser Beach, the Broker for Select Plan Real Estate Inc. through his web log.
Like it or not, web logs are catching on. In a recent survey I conducted (actually, still running till Jan 23) one of the first comments was “the weblog is worthless”. I’m not sure why they left that comment. I have received several nice comments and encouragement from others. In any event we will soldier on.
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The real news the setting up of U.S. customs preclearance in Halifax. Then we will see the US carriers coming our way. That will be good news for Tourism and our real estate market! Cross your fingers an airtpot spokeperson says it should be available by the summer of 2006.
In another article in the Halifax Herald published on Tuesday January 11, Roger Taylor (full article not available) reports news from the Halifax International Airport Authority that they are making a big push “to encourage European carries to offer non-stop flights to Halifax from various centres”.
Some of the players may be Canadian Affair, a travel agency in England utilizing Thomas Cook Airlines . Some of the peak summer carriers already coming into Halifax are Zoom and out of Frankfurt, Condor also flies the summer peak season. Rumor has it that Air Transat will open a couple of routes to two German destinations this season.
The think the above news on more European flights is nice, but I figure the bloom is off the rose for Atlantic Canada and the Europeans, However I believe the emerging market is the U.K. I expect to see a lot of action from that part of the world soon.
The real news is the setting up of U.S. customs pre-clearance in Halifax. Then we will see the US carriers coming our way. That will be good news for Tourism and our real estate market! Cross your fingers, an airport spokesperson says it should be available by the summer of 2006.
We already have a few carries making US destinations from Halifax. American Eagle does Halifax to New York’s JFK, Delta offers up flights to Boston, Continental flies from Halifax into Newark, N.J, and a Canadian carrier Jazz
does Boston too.
Hopefully with customs pre-clearance Delta will reopen its Washington-Halifax flight cancelled after 911. I believe that flight is sorely missed by a number of people, many of my clients included.
Hey here is something I didn’t know existed. Halifax International Airport flight arrivals and departures online . Pretty slick!
And something I knew but forgot all about is the actual live virtual flight maps of arriving aircraft into Halifax. Super slick!!
T.H.
EMAIL Tim Harris with a comment
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“As property tax is the product of assessment and tax rate, the higher assessments mean higher tax bills unless municipalities drop tax rates.”
I’m sure everyone in Nova Scotia is anxiously awaiting the new tax assessments for 2005. Apparently the South West Region slips are in the mail and if you care to go on-line you can check your new assessment at the Nova Scotia Government web site “Assessments Online ” NOTE: Disregard the the SIGN-IN, click on the PROPERTY SEARCH button.
Just have your AAN (Assessment Account Number) number ready, which you can find at the top right of your last assessment or tax bill.
The Chester assessments are going to be interesting. Many people thought their assessments jumped last year, well I have news for you, expect some surprises this year too. The Assessment Office says the assessments are up overall by 6.6% and the South SHore is up 8.7%. But the worst hit is Halifax with a 10% increase in assessments.
I have did some quick searches and found a few waterfront homes in the village up by 20%.
In an article written by David Jackson in todays Chronicle Herald, a Halifax Publication. “Rising Property Assessments May Hike Tax Bill” [It is a subscription only web site, so I will quote some of the article here.
“Total assessment in the province is up 6.6 per cent to $53 billion this year. On Monday, the Municipal Relations Department mailed more than 560,000 assessment notices to Nova Scotia property owners. The 32,000 people who applied for the new assessment cap on residential property will get their notices next month. That’s only half the number of people who were eligible for the cap. The increased provincial assessment is a combination of growth and the market, said assessment services spokeswoman Debi Karrel, the acting director of operations. “It is provincewide and it’s no surprise,” she said. “It’s not just metro and it’s not just the South Shore.”
“Halifax Regional Municipality experienced a 10 per cent increase in residential assessment, to $18.6 billion. The commercial side increased 4.8 per cent to $6.9 billion.”
“The southern region - Lunenburg, Queens, Shelburne and Yarmouth counties and the District of Clare - underwent an 8.7 per cent jump in residential assessment to $5.3 billion. Commercial assessment increased 5.9 per cent to $1.5 billion.”
“As property tax is the product of assessment and tax rate, the higher assessments mean higher tax bills unless municipalities drop tax rates.”
“In the area from West Hants to Digby, residential was up 4.2 per cent to $4.4 billion, and commercial increased 2.6 per cent to $1.47 billion.”
“The northern region - East Hants to Amherst and Pictou County - got a 3.9 per cent bump in residential assessment to $5.3 billion, and commercial rose 2.9 per cent to $2 billion.”
“The eastern region - Antigonish and Guysborough counties, and all of Cape Breton - saw a 4.2 per cent increase in residential assessment to $5.1 billion and a 3.3 per cent increase in commercial to $2.5 billion.”
“In Cape Breton Regional Municipality, there was about a two per cent increase in both residential and commercial assessments, up slightly from recent years, Ms. Karrel said.”
A PDF of the Chronicle article is available here.
Rising property assessments may hike tax bills.pdf
EMAIL Tim Harris with a comment
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AmeriSpec home inspection service has a nice report prepared on their web page adddressing the asbestos situation found in our homes.
While not a common insulator anymore, Asbestos does have its legacy. Particularly in our older homes found throughout Nova Scotia.
Luckily it is not the problem you may perceive it to be. AmeriSpec home inspection service has a nice report prepared on their web page addressing the asbestos situation found in our homes.
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All our salespeople have an iMac and utilize only three software products, (1) a web browser:IE, Netscape or Safari, (2) email: either browser based, Eudora or Outlook and (3) usually some sort of camera/image software to manage their digital camera.
I was taking stock of the technology I use or Tradewinds uses in the run of a week. Considering 5 years ago the internet was still a bit of a curiosity, the fax machine was the most important piece of equipment in our office and we still sent letters in the mail. Now technology has turned office procedures on it’s head.
We are now a “TTI company”. ( total technology integration). One Thurdsays at noon we publish a weekly update of all our new listings we have been process in the past 7 days. With a keystroke we send our electronic newsletter to over 2,000 clients that receive it almost instantly. For the whole process we utilize only 3 peices of software, our proprietary database, an image processor (Photoshop) and a bulk mail list server. Behind that all our images come from our agents as digital pictures emailed into our data processing department with many of the property data sheets submitted in PDF format. We are now virtually paperless. All sales and listing files are scanned into PDF documents and placed on our corporate intranet site iTradewindsrealty.com.
All our salespeople have an iMac and utilize only three software products, (1) a web browser:IE, Netscape or Safari, (2) email: either browser based, Eudora or Outlook and (3) usually some sort of camera/image software to manage their digital camera. Its quite simple. Oh, maybe Microsoft WORD processing, but usually email suffices for written communication.
On a Broker level I utilize the 3 applications above but I am a power user and usually have 2 - 3 web browsers open. I use Safari for my Gmail (GoogleMail), Firefox for news display and Opera for searching. For blogging I use iBlog . Along with iBlog I use iTunes , iPhoto and iMovie. I read a lot of PDF documents, so Acrobat Pro is usually open. For special eye-catching presentations I use InDesign . WORD is always open as I use it a lot. I have used Entourage for the past 3 years but since I have switched to Gmail I only use Entourage for a client base and scheduling, I am switching to Now Up To Date/Contact to be able to open a shared calendar and client base with my partner. That will cut down a lot of time we spend syncing our busy schedules, between, basketball games, skiing, my MBA program schedule (Class of 2005) and of all silly things, our actual work and appointment schedule.
That is about all the technology I can handle at the moment and still make a living!!
T.H.
EMAIL Tim Harris with a comment
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The advent of the Internet has taken most of the seasonality out the real estate market. For example, it is now January and I have as many clients this month looking for Nova Scotia homes as I did in August.
Good question. Is there seasonality in real estate sales?
If this was 10 years ago I would have said, “Hang on, your homehasn’t a chance to sell this winter. Wait until spring when the buyers are around.”
Not anymore. The advent of the Internet has taken most of the seasonality out the real estate market. For example, it is now January and I have as many clients this month looking for Nova Scotia homes as I did in August. In addition, they are all from outside of the Province. For example; An American gentleman flying in from England this Saturday, (just for the day), A couple from Georgia coming at the end of the month to find land to build and a local couple looking at million dollar homes for a sister-in-law retiring to Nova Scotia from Upper Canada. They are all piling in airplanes to come to Nova Scotia in the middle of winter. On Saturday I will be in a helicopter winging my way around the province guiding an American buyer, that want a birds eye view of potential homes to purchase, even with a foot of snow on the ground! Seasonality, what seasonality? What gives here?
On doityourself.com web site, in a recent article they discuss seasonality. “Some sellers take their homes off the market for a while because their agents recommend that they do so. Many agents believe that summer and winter are not the best times to sell a home. Spring is typically thought to be the best season for home sales. A recent study by the National Association of Realtors contradicts this notion by reporting that people buy homes all year long. The study found that there is some seasonality to home buying, but not as much as might be expected. Summer accounts for 30.2 percent of home buying activity. Spring takes second place with 25.9 percent. Autumn is third with 24.8 percent, and the slowest season is Winter with 19 percent. Surprisingly, the differences between Spring, Summer and Fall aren’t that big. And Winter is far from dead.”
Not everyone agrees. An US Realtor has posted this on his web site with some advise by way of a question and answer format.
Is there any seasonality to the market? Peak selling seasons vary in different areas of the country, and weather has a lot to do with it. For example, late spring and early fall are the prime listing seasons in many areas because houses tend to “show” better in those months than they do in the heat of summer or the cold of winter. And of course, people like to do their house shopping when the weather is pleasant.
But keep in mind that there are also more houses on the market during the prime seasons, so you’ll have more competition. So, while there is seasonality in the real estate market, it’s not something that should dominate your decision on when to sell.
When is the best time to list a house for sale? As soon as you decide to sell it. If you want to get the best price for your house, the key is to give yourself as much time as possible to sell it. More time means more potential buyers will probably see the house. This should result in more offers; it also gives you time to consider more options if the market is slow or initial interest is low. Both are key points. Come to the market early and don’t wait for everyone else to think the spring is the only time to sell. There is nothing wrong with being an early bird tot he market place, considering there are millions of people on-line looking for a home everyday.
My Explanation. Time! Buyers are busy people, (At least mine are) even in retirement, family obligations, volunteer commitments all commands time for my buyers. Usually the disposable time comes in the winter and that is when they pounce on Nova Scotia real estate. OK, it is not a land office business, but it is still business, and it knocks the heck out of waiting for spring to arrive to get busy again. To underline my tale, Holden Lewis in article written for bankrate.com , “Web Eases Vacation Home Buying ” Lewis says ” They don’t want to disrupt their vacations with days of house hunting. So they turn to technology. The Web and e-mail make it easier for people to shop for vacation homes long-distance.”
To further underline the phenomenon, My partner and I probably handle 20 clients at any one time (this is year round), many are very active clients, some are still considering their options and others are still trying to figure out how to get here. An example is a client I had this past summer that was dying to have a Chester summer home . He selected a home on-line and I bent over backwards supplying floor plans, new photographs (all angles) and inspection reports. The last stage for him was to physically come up, view the property, and sign the deal. Suddenly, he fell of the face of the earth. After a week of silence, I contacted him and he was embarrassed to say, even though he is retired, there wasn’t an open window to make even a quick trip to NS. So he easily surmised that, if he couldn’t find a few days for he and his wife, to get from Colorado to NS to buy a house, how was he ever going to find time to use it. He said that had to rethink their whole retirement plan. Oh well. At least I now have more pictures than I will ever need for this home and a set of new floor plans too! I am in good from for the next buyer.
Home-buyers are cruising the Internet like never before. All year long, not just the day before they buy. An article posted on realtor.org “Use of the Internet in searching for a home has risen along with the level of Internet penetration, rising from only 2 percent of buyers in 1995 to 71 percent in 2003 and 74 percent currently,“ and in another article they go on to say “nearly two-thirds of home buyers with Internet access use the Web to shop for their next home, and buyers who use the Internet are more likely to use a real estate professional to handle their transaction than traditional home buyers, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors®.”
A Canadian Realtor backs this above in an article on myrealpage.com about a survey they conducted in 2001. “According to the Royal LePage Home Attitude Poll released in February of 2001, more than 7 out of 10 Canadians (72.4%) will use the Internet in their next real estate transaction.” That was 2001, so imagine what the stats would be today, 90%, 95% or 99%!
In 2004 the Tradewinds Realty web site seanovascotia.com had a record month in October 2004 of over 2,000,000 hits. Yes 2 million+. Our monthly hit average is 1.7 million and we have a running daily average of between 800 - 1,000 unique visitors a day. Month in month out!
There used to be an old commercial on TV that promoted winter work efforts and it seems very appropriate to repeat it now. “Why wait for spring do it now!”
EMAIL Tim Harris with a comment
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Every new listing we bring in during the week is placed in our “Weekly Email Update “, including any price changes and other significant changes to the property.
