Owning a home is a fantastic thing, yet sometimes a great responsibility that gets over looked. To assist you, here are 10 things to try to keep in mind during your home ownership.
1. Take good care of your home
-as a rule try to budget 1 to 3% of your home’s value for maintenance and repairs each year.
2. Build your homes equity
- By Making an extra principal payment here and there when possible, one can decrease the interest paid over the life of the loan.
3. Your home should have a good first impression
- By Keeping your front entrance clear and welcoming you will increase the curb appeal of your home which improves your homes value.
4. Be properly insured
- In most cases you only need to insure the replacement value of your home and personal property, not the land.
5. Love your neighborhood--not just your home
- If you’re not happy with your current neighborhood, start thinking of where you would be happier and let's get planning to get you there.
6. Make improvements
- Statistics show that updated kitchens and baths are the number 1 key selling features in most homes, so spend your dollars there first.
7. Safety is a must
- Install not only smoke detectors but with most homes now having natural gas furnaces it is also important to install carbon monoxide detectors to ensure the security of your family.
8. Go green and improve your monthly costs.
- More and more these days, buyers are looking for more energy effecient homes. Improvements in the insulation of windows, doors, and storm doors can save energy costs and increase your home’s resale value.
9. Stick to Neutral Colours
- If you’re thinking of moving in a year or so, choose light, neutral paint colors, what looks great to you does not always look appealing to all.
10. Know when it's time to move
- Over time people often outgrow a house or neighborhood. If you’re thinking of making a change, please call or email to discuss the next steps.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thinking of Selling your home on your own?
Well if you were one of those people that have thought of selling your home on your own to save a few bucks, let me first give you 5 good reasons not too:
1. You WILL sell for less!
- 84 cents on the dollar compared to agent assisted sales.
- due to extremely limited exposure to the people who are actually buying homes and not just kicking tires.
- It won't be because of you, or your home, or your negotiating abilities, it's just a fact that for sale by owner properties attract those looking for deals, including investors and savy buyers.
2. Not knowing the Contract.
- Others are being trained everyday to write the contract in their favour and not yours.
- since most agents I work with don't know the contract either, how can you be sure what exactly it is that you are signing?
3. Physical Saftey and Security.
- working with an agent as myself, you can rest assured that everyone coming through your home will be accompanied by either myself of another fully licensed Realtor.
- there are professional theifs out there that can sneak their way into your home and without you knowing get a handle on some of your valuables.
4. Financial Safety and Security.
- You have no insurance if you happen to do something wrong with the sale of your home or the advertising in doing so, where as I have Errors and Ommissions Insurance to protect both sellers, and myself.
- Any mistake can put your entire financial future at risk.
5. No 3rd party Professional Negotiating for you.
- Most buyers out there will have an agent working for them and negotiating for them, thus you will have directly competiting interests with the buyers. Do you think that agent will be fighting to get you a top dollar amount, or their buyer the best deal they can?
If any of these were a bit of an eye opener to you, perhaps give me a call or an email so we can discuss how I can help you get top dollar for your home, and at the least amount of hassle to you. After all wouldn't you rather focus on the decision of what home to buy next instead of worrying about selling your current home?
1. You WILL sell for less!
- 84 cents on the dollar compared to agent assisted sales.
- due to extremely limited exposure to the people who are actually buying homes and not just kicking tires.
- It won't be because of you, or your home, or your negotiating abilities, it's just a fact that for sale by owner properties attract those looking for deals, including investors and savy buyers.
2. Not knowing the Contract.
- Others are being trained everyday to write the contract in their favour and not yours.
- since most agents I work with don't know the contract either, how can you be sure what exactly it is that you are signing?
3. Physical Saftey and Security.
- working with an agent as myself, you can rest assured that everyone coming through your home will be accompanied by either myself of another fully licensed Realtor.
- there are professional theifs out there that can sneak their way into your home and without you knowing get a handle on some of your valuables.
4. Financial Safety and Security.
- You have no insurance if you happen to do something wrong with the sale of your home or the advertising in doing so, where as I have Errors and Ommissions Insurance to protect both sellers, and myself.
- Any mistake can put your entire financial future at risk.
5. No 3rd party Professional Negotiating for you.
- Most buyers out there will have an agent working for them and negotiating for them, thus you will have directly competiting interests with the buyers. Do you think that agent will be fighting to get you a top dollar amount, or their buyer the best deal they can?
If any of these were a bit of an eye opener to you, perhaps give me a call or an email so we can discuss how I can help you get top dollar for your home, and at the least amount of hassle to you. After all wouldn't you rather focus on the decision of what home to buy next instead of worrying about selling your current home?
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