Asking Price: Comparative Market Analysis vs Municipal Assessments
Image by Corbis
The asking price of a home should reflect the current market price, which is calculated quite differently from the municipal assessment. The city evaluates properties every three years (meaning they are often behind the going market values), and they base their assessments on the property itself and its neighbourhood.
To determine optimal asking price, a homeowner should get a comparative market analysis (CMA). This is done by Continue reading: Asking Price: Comparative Market Analysis vs Municipal Assessments
Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/
Asking (Selling) Price Less Than Municipal Evaluation?
Sometimes you find properties that have a municipal evaluation higher than the asking price. In most cases, it’s the other way around. So as a potential buyer, you might wonder whether or not this is an error — how can it be that the person is selling for less than the municipal evaluation Continue reading: Asking (Selling) Price Less Than Municipal Evaluation?
Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/
Home Buying Process: Closing Costs
To first-time buyers, closing costs are a mystery; most people have a slight idea of what they are, but don’t know what’s specifically involved or how much the cost will be. Many think closing costs refer to the notary fee, end of story. In reality, though, there’s more to it than that.
In addition to a down-payment on your mortgage, you (the buyer) will need to put aside a little extra for costs related to a home purchase. Here is a list of the usual costs involved
Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/
Should your house be staged before you sell?
To Stage or Not to Stage – that is the question! by Sveta Melchuk Updated from the Home Staging archives. Originally published on Jun 18th 2007. Staging a Home for sale will cost you money. Is it worth spending time and effort on it? After all, once the decision to sell has been made, you [...][Click on the title link to view the entire article]
Would you like to rent your property for more money?
Posted by: Sveta Melchuk. Founder of Home Staging Montreal
Professional staging/decorating for rental of a condo or an apartment is becoming more and more in demand. If you are looking for executive rental income for your unit, the property has to be presented accordingly.
Some of the apartments are quite new and others require some cosmetic renovations before decorating for rental. Some clients need help with managing the total project from beginning to end and taking care of things such as:
- Make the list of what needs to be updated
- Purchase all the materials, tiles, light fixtures, etc.
- Provide renovation team to do the work
- Provide cleaning team
- Purchase all furniture
- Purchase all accessories
- Purchase linens, towels, even dishes if required
- Decorate the apartment for rental
Decorating for rental involves some clever and creative thinking. We want it to look nice but we don’t want to spend a lot. We have to keep in mind the necessities for someone renting the apartment but also be practical. The unit has to look inviting but remain neutral in look and color.
We need to take into consideration our market and potential clientele we want to reach and stage/decorate accordingly. But chances are that our tenants will be less careful with our furnishings, so we need to plan for that as well. For example, I recommend darker color furniture and carpets as they will stay cleaner for a longer time. We want to include the minimum amount of furniture but it has to be comfortable for living. In general, the objective of decorating for rental is the same as that of home staging; creating a great first impression and allowing our potential tenant to see himself/herself living in that space.
As an example, please view a recent “decorating for rental” project by Home Staging Montreal team, where we first started by fixing up and repainting the condo and had it cleaned. Then we went shopping for vertical blinds, new furniture and accessories and we put it all together for a simple but effective urban look.
Here are some before and after pictures, to give you an idea:
If you would like to discuss with us how we can help you decorate for rental, give us a call or email us.
Our contact info is displayed just below this message. Looking forward to your comments!
Posted By: Sveta Melchuk. Founder of Home Staging Montreal, a Montreal firm specializing in Home Staging and Interior Redesign. Simple and effective solutions, to help you sell your property faster and for more money. Call Sveta at: 514-482-9776 http://www.home-staging-montreal.com/
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- So, you think you don’t need Home Staging?
- Staging a vacant house
- How to Make a Small Room Appear Bigger
Review: Tools for Work – Epson WorkForce 845
An Epson rep sent me an email a few weeks back asking me if I would like to have a free printer in exchange of a review. Not a bad deal, I thought, I get to test drive (and keep) one of their latest model and write about it at the same time. Which it kinda takes care of two things at once, since:
- My other printer is about 3 years old. – Still good, just a little *on the slow side*, due to old age.
And - I need to create blog content.
So, it seems like a win-win situation
I just took it out of the box and thought it would take me a while to set it all up. Alas it did not. It took me merely 6 minutes to get the whole thing running. Yes, I timed it.
And here are my thoughts about it:
Perfect for my home office as it’s an ALL in One (you know: scanner, copy, fax, etc) AND…this is the best part…is has wifi. No need to attach it to my computer. I sent a test print from my iPad and it worked instantly. Sweet.
Compact minimalist design, no fancy buttons sticking out. Instead they have a very sleek touch screen that gives you every instruction you need to set it up properly.
The scanner is pretty fast. Surprisingly so. And it comes with 3 different settings – from simple to very professional. Lots of options on the last one.
Front paper loading trays. Which you can keep closed and maintain the clean look (no white and messy papers sticking out). Love it.
It says it lets you print directly from your memory card. Just stick the card on the printer slot and voila. Personally, I had to use my computer as a bridge for this one. The LCD screen didn’t display the images I wanted to print from the memory card. So is this feature not working properly? Or was it me? That remains a mystery.
Oh, and before I forget. It has a wicked two sided printing feature. Bonus.
The fax however, I wasn’t able to try it out since I don’t have a fax line at home. I will let you check that out on your own.
The printer is called Workforce 845 by Epson. I like it, I’m definitely replacing my old printer, and I think it’s worth the $200 bucks they’re asking for. Let’s hope the ink is not so expensive, because as you know, that’s where they get you. So, that’s all for now
End of review :)
Posted By: Deya Bautista - Real Estate Broker working as part of the McGill Immobilier team. Specializing in high end condos in downtown and Old Montreal. For buying or selling contact Deya at: 514.917.7889 http://montrealrealestateblog.com/
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