Real Estate Blog

Winterizing Your Home This Year

Indoor Preparations

The most obvious items to address as the winter months approach center largely around ensuring that your home remains warm. Regardless of your heat source there are preventative measures that should be taken to ensure that you remain warm and safe inside your home. Some of the most important areas to assess include:

Furnaces: Regular annual furnace inspections will help keep your furnace in good repair. Cleaning or replacing furnace filters monthly during the operating months will also keep your furnace operating efficiently.

Oil Heaters: Like furnaces, oil heaters require annual inspections and maintenance. Annual inspections should include: inspecting the chimney, cleaning the pipes to remove soot build up, replacing the air…

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Home Shopping Online

The internet can be a wonderful tool to help find a new home, or it can be a frustrating time-waster. It all depends on how you use it. Let’s first take a look at the upside of using the Web when home shopping. Websites you should be visiting include some of the following:

• Pictures of homes available, including in some cases individual rooms and other property features.

• Property details, such as lot size, number of bedrooms, square footage, and other features.

• Information on the neighborhood and surrounding area, such as the location of schools, parks and public transit.

• “Virtual tours” (when available), which allow you to view a home on your computer almost as if you were walking through it in real life.

Previewing specific homes…

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The Advantages of Condo Living

If you are looking to enjoy the benefits of home ownership without the maintenance or purchase price associated with a single-family house, a condominium could be right for you.

Condominiums are popular with singles, young couples/families, downsizing empty nesters, retirees, and senior citizens because of the lifestyle they offer. The limited maintenance involved is ideal for both busy young professionals who lack the time to undertake gardening chores and older individuals who feel physically incapable of performing tasks such as mowing the lawn.

If price is your main motivation, condominiums will allow you to get into the market for significantly less than a single-family dwelling. Whether you’re in search of a bachelor or a spacious 2-bedroom,…

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4 Open House Mistakes To Not Make

When there is a showing at your home to a potential buyer, you obviously want to make the best impression possible. You don’t want to make a mistake, and miss out on an opportunity to sell. So here are some of the most common home viewing blunders and how to avoid them:

1. Being inflexible with scheduling: Don’t be too strict about when you’re willing to schedule a viewing. After all, if a buyer is unable to see your home in the times you’ve allotted, they’re not going to buy. Be as accommodating as possible. Sure, it can be inconvenient to okay a viewing on an hour’s notice, but if that buyer ultimately purchases your home, it’s worth it.

2. Hovering: It’s natural to want to guide buyers through your home and give them the tour. Regardless of your…

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Adjusting To The Market

Feeling nervous about what’s happening in real estate?

Team Ken Richter can guide you through today’s changing market. Whether you are a first-time buyer looking to take advantage of lower prices or a homeowner looking to sell in a time of high-inventory, we will help determine your best plan of action.

If you are buying: Falling prices mean that there are deals to be had if you are a first-time buyer. With high-inventory, you have more homes to choose from, and with homes staying on the market longer, you have more time to make a decision. You have more negotiating power now than in the frenzied, bidding-war market of the past. It’s a good time to buy if you are looking to move to a larger, more expensive house. You may have to sell your home for…

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Bathroom Timer Switch

Consider a timer switch for you bathroom exhaust fan to save your walls!

Bathroom exhaust fans are designed to remove the humidity created by running hot water. They help prevent an excessive build-up of moisture, which can damage furniture and walls, and cause mold and mildew to grow. However, some bathroom fans are hard-wired to their bathroom light switch, so they are often either turned off before they have done their job or left to run all day. Unless you have an expensive humidity sensor in your bathroom fan, the cost-effective solution is to install or attach a timer power switch specifically for the fan, so that it will turn itself off in the appropriate amount of time.

Save energy and save some cash!

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DIY: Stainless Steel Cleaner

Do you have a stain in your stainless steel kitchen sink that won’t come off no matter how diligently you wash and rinse? Try this remedy for getting the sparkle back. Shake some ordinary baking soda onto the stain; let it sit for two minutes, then wipe with a soaking wet, non-abrasive cloth. Ta-da! 

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Choosing a Home Inspector

Offers of purchase and sale on a home are often contingent on a satisfactory home inspection. That means the buyers have period of time to hire a qualified home inspector to do what his or her title suggests: inspect the property top to bottom and inside and out.Based on the results, the buyers can either confirm their intention to complete the purchase, or negotiate repairs or compensation for identified deficiencies.

How do you select a home inspector?

Team Ken Richter has a few home inspection companies that we use on a regular basis which we can definitely recommend.

Typically, you want someone who is certified with a recognized professional association, such as the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors. It’s also advisable to…

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Shopping For A Home

Shopping for a home doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. In fact, with a little planning, you can make the entire process fun for everyone – even if there are kids involved. 

• Get the whole family involved in deciding what kind of home you should consider. The more everyone, especially kids, feel a part of the process, the more likely they are to adjust well to the idea of moving.

• Bring healthy, light snacks and drinks with you when viewing more than a couple of homes in a row. It's difficult to have fun when your energy level is low.

• Easy does it. Don't see too many properties at one time. Feeling burnt out after viewing the tenth home on a Saturday afternoon will impact your judgement. Your fatigue might cause you to pass on a…

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