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Property Tax Adjustments

by on 25. Apr, 2013 in Real Estate Law, Tips for Home Buyers, Tips for Home Owners

Property tax adjustments are one of the least understood aspects of the typical real estate closing. Clients ask questions such as: “What do you mean I have to pay property taxes? They are included as part of my mortgage payment.” or “How come I am paying any taxes as they are not due until June 30?” or  ”You [...]

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Quick Tips to Organize your Kitchen

Quick Tips to Organize your Kitchen

by on 17. Apr, 2013 in Home Renovations, Staging your Home, Tips for Home Owners

I’ve found a number of pretty neat ideas (pun intended) to better organize your kitchen. Hope you like these ideas as much as I do…

Magnetic primer – who knew? You can now paint your walls magnetic, and this great tip sticks magnetic spice jars from Bed Bath & Beyond onto just about any surface that you paint with magnetic primer. [...]

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Getting the Most Bang for your Reno Buck

Getting the Most Bang for your Reno Buck

by on 27. Mar, 2013 in Home Renovations, Investing in Alberta Real Estate, Tips for Home Owners

Jackson Real Estate Appraisals recently put out a renovation guide, that helps Alberta homeowners understand the return on investment for different types of home renovations. The premise is if you spend X dollars on a particular renovation, you will get Y value for it when you go to sell. 

The usual advice applies – spend money on kitchens, bathrooms and flooring, [...]

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A Sincere Blog Post

A Sincere Blog Post

by on 12. Mar, 2013 in Edmonton Real Estate Market, For Sale By Owner, Tips for Home Owners

I have a well qualified buyer seriously interested in purchasing a home in your area. Ever gotten one of these letters? We get one every few months at our house, and we see them in our clients’ homes all the time:

They are distributed all over the city by a few repeat offenders, and many home owners believe them. The letter [...]

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Top Home Design Trends for 2013

Top Home Design Trends for 2013

by on 27. Feb, 2013 in Home Renovations, New Homes, Staging your Home, Tips for Home Owners

I’ve scoured the design magazines and sites and have come up with this list of top design trends for 2013. In all honesty I look forward to seeing some of these trends in Edmonton showhomes, but there are others that I hope stay in the design magazines.
Informal/Natural landscaping – after centuries of taming the wild landscape with straight lines and [...]

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Oh won’t you stay… Just a little bit longer?

Oh won’t you stay… Just a little bit longer?

by on 30. Jan, 2013 in For Sale By Owner, Real Stories, Tips for Home Owners

Linger. It’s not very often you want strangers to linger longer in your home. In fact, most people who don’t understand the art of showing a home actually kill potential deals, because the buyer feels so uncomfortable they don’t want to spend another minute in the home, let alone live there.
Once upon a time, when I started in [...]

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Making sense of renovations

Making sense of renovations

by on 26. Nov, 2012 in Home Renovations, Tips for Home Owners

A client of mine recently asked the question of whether or not they should renovate their 40 year old bungalow. More specifically they were on different sides of the fence on one particular renovation. Their bungalow has only 1.5 bathrooms upstairs and they were considering removing their bathtub and putting in a very nice slate shower in the [...]

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Renovating? Donate your old stuff to the ReStore

Renovating? Donate your old stuff to the ReStore

by on 24. Oct, 2012 in Around Edmonton, Tips for Home Owners

Just because you don’t want those old kitchen cabinets anymore, doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t use them. Did you know the Edmonton Habitat for Humanity ReStore takes donations of used building materials? They will even come and pick them up! So, instead of throwing your old appliances, cabinets, moldings, doors and windows in the dumpster, call the Restore and have [...]

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Don’t Pin this one on REALTORS®

by on 14. Sep, 2012 in Canadian Real Estate, Tips for Home Buyers, Tips for Home Owners

I’ll just comment quickly on today’s Edmonton Journal article: “Realtors Association of Edmonton a house divided over sales disclosure.” The article discusses a new rule from the board of directors to withhold sales information until the title transfers. This it the biggest change I’ve seen in the last 25 years when it comes to deciding how much to pay for [...]

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Real Estate Sales Strong in Edmonton in July

Real Estate Sales Strong in Edmonton in July

by on 01. Aug, 2012 in Edmonton Real Estate Market, Investing in Alberta Real Estate, Monthly Stats, Tips for Home Buyers, Tips for Home Owners

CMHC reported strong migration and job numbers in their “Housing Now” publication today. Employment in Edmonton increased 4.3% in the second quarter – an addition of 28,900 jobs. The unemployment rate moved down to 4.4% in the second quarter compared to 5.7% in the first quarter. Net migration into Alberta jumped to 22,067 people in the first quarter compared to [...]

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