When you are a homeowner, energy costs can be one of the biggest wallet draining expenses. Using these tips, save on those bills and most importantly save energy.
Drafty windows and doors are a big source of heating and air leaks. Use a candle flame to see if a window or door has a draft. For exterior doors, use a bead of paintable caulk around the edge of the door to form an air tight seal. Use a caulk finishing tool to smooth out the caulk. Insert a door sweep on the bottom of exterior doors to keep the air in! Electric outlets are another source of air leaks. Install an outlet sealer to close the gaps.
When it comes to light bulbs, use compact florescent lights or CFL’s. They not only last 10x longer than a normal bulb, but they save energy at the same time.
To conserve water, use a slow flow shower head. Finally, insulate the pipes in your home. The insulation will keep the water in the pipes warm.
About the Publisher
Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market. He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
He can be reached easily By E-Mail or call/text him Call/Text Here Our Latest Web-Stories
Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast.
Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android.
For your Apple Devices, click here to install our iOS App.
For your Android Devices, click here to install our Android App.
Check my videos on Youtube
Home Staging Tip: Depersonalize your home before putting it up for sale
.
In part 3 of the series on Home Staging by Remax, we take a look at the need to depersonalize the home. Since the owner has likely lived in the home for a number of years, it has taken on his personality, displaying his photographs, trophies and furniture, along with his personal choices in colors and accents.
A buyer, coming to view the home, needs to be able to ‘visualize’ themselves in the home, and this become difficult if the buyer is overwhelmed with a multitude of personal items exhibiting the sellers personal life and tastes.
In order to help the potential buyer in their decision, home sellers are well advised to:
Home Staging Tip #1 – Winnipeg’s Real Estate Blog. How a successful home stager can help sell your home blog.winnipeghomefinder.com9/23/12. Staging your home or condo before sale may be advisable. Video tips on …
Many people have a “bucket list” of events and locations they’d like to experience in life; I have a bucket list of architectural elements I hope to have in future homes throughout my life. At the top of my list is a porte cochere (pronounced “port-co-SHARE”), a portico-like structure attached…
About the Publisher
Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market. He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
He can be reached easily By E-Mail or call/text him Call/Text Here Our Latest Web-Stories
Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast.
Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android.
For your Apple Devices, click here to install our iOS App.
For your Android Devices, click here to install our Android App.
Check my videos on Youtube
The old saying “You never get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression” is especially true in real estate. Whether you’re selling a house or a condo, in a hot or a slow market, as the seller you want to make a great first impression. Home Staging can help with this, and improving curb appeal is a vital part. Quite often, buyers will do a ‘drive-by’ of your property, to gauge whether they want to call their own agent and invest their time in viewing your house or condo further. If during this drive-by they see things they don’t like, the buyers may just decide to keep drivin’.
Home Staging your Curb Appeal
At the very least, home sellers should make sure that the exterior of the home is well repaired. Shingles are in good shape, no damaged siding and no flaking paint. And home staging should not stop with the house itself. Shrubs should be manicured, lawns cut, fertilized and weeded and sidewalks cleaned.
Winter Staging
In the winter, sidewalks should be shoveled to the front and around the side of the house. If you have a deck or patio, it should also be cleared of snow, so that buyers can see what they’re getting. Take down any decorations (Christmas, Halloween, New Years etc) as soon as that particular festivity is over.
The owners of this kitchen in San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood found themselves torn between two looks clean and contemporary, and warm and rustic. But why choose? Jim Groen and his team at Jackson Design and Remodeling…
About the Publisher
Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market. He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
He can be reached easily By E-Mail or call/text him Call/Text Here Our Latest Web-Stories
Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast.
Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android.
For your Apple Devices, click here to install our iOS App.
For your Android Devices, click here to install our Android App.
Check my videos on Youtube
Which home improvements give the best return on investment?
.
Home Owners often ask: ‘Which home renovations increase the value of my house, and assure that I get ‘top-dollar’ when selling?’ While there is no hard-and-fast rule, here is a sobering statistic from the Appraisal Institute of Canada:
The Appraisal Institute of Canada compared typical costs for renovations versus the impact on a home’s selling price to come up with a “payback range” for common projects.
Bathroom reno: 75% to 100% Kitchen reno: 75% to 100%
Installing a deck: 25% to 75%
Exterior siding: 50% to 75%
Flooring upgrade: 50% to 75%
Basement reno: 50% to 75%
Why do I say “sobering”? If you look closely, you will see that none of the estimates exceed 100%. In other words, they are suggesting that if you spend $5,000 on siding, your home’s value would only increase by between $2,500 and $3750 (50% to 75%). On the surface, it would not seem a worthwhile investment to improve your home for the purpose of increasing it’s resale value. So does it make sense to improve before selling? Maybe…. depending on your answers to two major questions!
Those two major questions are 1) What is the current condition of the item which you are thinking of improving, and 2) Can you do some of the labor yourself, thereby saving money. Lets take a look at what I mean:
1) Current Condition
On this topic my advice is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Lets use the example of a furnace. If your home has a 10 yrs old, mid-efficient furnace, it should be working fine. Replacing THAT with a brand new, $3500 H.E. unit will in most cases, not increase the value of the house by an equal or greater amount.
On the other hand, if your furnace hums and howls and is the size of a sub-compact car, buyers might be turned off from making an offer. Installing a new, energy efficient unit would probably we a worthwhile home renovations project. Much the same applies for most other home renovations projects: Is the current item in good condition, or will it detract from the home? Is the kitchen falling apart, or merely ‘dated’ in appearance. Are carpets just a little worn, or can you see the sub-floor and notice every spot where “whiskers blew chunks”?
2) Home Renovations D.I.Y.
I am going to assume that the Appraisal Institute used, for its calculations, prices that included professional labor. So the question is: how much (if anything) can you do yourself. If you’re fairly handy, painting the interior of your home is probably one of the best home renovations projects you can tackle. Another high-value/low-cost improvement is modernizing the lights. Go with bright, modern lighting, such as halogen, and keep the twisty florescent bulbs for your next home. They might save money in electricity, but their slow start-up and dim lighting don’t help sell a house. In any case, completing home renovations by yourself will drastically improve the return-on-investment numbers, provided the renos are done well. Buyers and their agents can spot poorly done D.I.Y. home renovations, and the result is lower offers and a slower selling home.
Latest Posts,Podcast,Seller Info Real estate, real estate agents, selling 8 things Home Stagers know . Have you noticed that home stagers are becoming more popular? More people are hiring them when they want to get a really good price for their house or condo. The reason is because home stagers know what buyers want and […]
Recent Comment@Ben_HeinrichSelling your house or condo? 8 truths home stagers know https://t.co/aPiqA3Ul via @bokauffmannReply this commentRead more comments…
From beautiful oils to light-reflecting mirrors and everything in between, art is often what immediately draws the eye the element that makes an impact at first glance. Even in a traditional and more formal living room, thinking outside the box and buying what you’re drawn to is crucial when choosing…
About the Publisher
Bo Kauffmann is a residential real estate agent with over 18 yrs experience in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. Inducted into the REMAX Hall of Fame in 2010 and receiving the REMAX Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Bo has sold over 500 houses and condos in the Greater Winnipeg market. He is an accredited buyer representative (A.B.R.) and a Luxury Home Marketing Specialist.
Bo provides exceptional service to First-Time Home-Buyers, Seniors looking to downsize and Home Sellers of all ages.
He can be reached easily By E-Mail or call/text him Call/Text Here Our Latest Web-Stories
Never miss an episode of our real estate podcast.
Install our FREE Podcast App available on iOS and Android.
For your Apple Devices, click here to install our iOS App.
For your Android Devices, click here to install our Android App.
Check my videos on Youtube
To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site and show (non-) personalized ads. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
