Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate

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This is one in a series of videos in which a home staging expert is given $250 and 2 hours to make a typical room look more attractive to prospective buyers.

In this video, staging expert Mark Jak is asked to do a Master Bedroom Makeover. The original bedroom is crowded and has no “flow”. Mark moves some pieces of furniture right out of the room, and rearranges the main items to divide the space and make it look much larger.

One of the main problems with the room is that the color selection features very bright colors – in particular a bright yellow on the walls, and contrasting reds in many of the other items in the room. The lamp shades, the bedding, the rug and the window treatments all have bright colors which serve to emphasize the overly-bright yellow in the walls.

Mark tones down the brightness of the colors by removing a number of the colorful accessories and replacing them with much more subdued, neutral colors.

The result is a room that looks much larger, more organized, and more open. The colors are also less jarring and less likely to give a negative impression to potential buyers.

Residential real estate sales in Canada rebounded in a significant way in 2009 after the downturn of 2008. In fact, according to the Canadian Real Estate Board, sales activity in December 2009 (in terms of units sold) was a whopping 72% above the same month in 2008.

Most of the 2009 gains came in the fourth quarter when 137,957 homes traded hands, making it the strongest Q4 ever. That record was previously set in the 1st quarter of 2007 – back in the boom days. The 2009 numbers were 2.6% better.

That’s pretty amazing when you consider the problems south of the border. Home prices in the US declined by an average of 5% from December 2008 and were down .5% from the previous quarter. That marks the 12th straight quarter in which average prices have declined.

Home prices in Canada rose by 5% year over year – to an average $320,333 across the country. This increase is largely due to the falling prices in late 2008. Much of that price increase came last spring (2009) and levelled off later in the year.

These improving selling conditions are bringing new listings to the market once again. Still, as of December 2009 the total number of homes available on the MLS system was down 22% from the previous year.

The Canadian Real Estate Association expects price increases to cool during the second half of 2010. More sellers will enter the market looking to take advantage of improved selling conditions. That will increase buyer opportunities and stabilize prices.

Copyright AgentMapIt Real Estate Trends

Professional stager Bobbi Williams takes a cluttered home office and “stages” it to be more inviting and to emphasize the most important features of the room.

When you’re thinking of selling your Waterloo Region home there are some fairly simple things you can do to make it more attractive to prospective buyers. Most people who list their homes are interested in selling quickly – which often translates into a higher price too. That means there are some important advantages to improving the impression your home makes.

Major renovation projects just for the sake of selling your Kitchener-Waterloo home are usually not the sort of thing you should get involved in. Typically you will spend more on the project than you will get back when you sell the home.

It is much smarter to focus on cosmetic changes that will have a big impact. It is more important to concentrate on decorating and cosmetic changes that make your home look better. These include such things as painting, floor refinishing, window cleaning and generally just making things look neater around the house. These things do not usually cost a lot of money.

Having a neat, well kept and attractive exterior is the best way to get prospective buyers inside your home. So pay special attention to your landscaping and flower beds. Check for broken windows, loose siding, eavestroughing that isn’t quite right, broken pavement, shed doors that don’t close properly.

You may even want to hire a painter to repaint your home’s exterior. It will probably be worth cleaning your vinyl siding or trim with a power washer too. The front of your house and its main entrance are the areas of your home that most prospective buyers will see, so it is especially important to make them look as neat, attractive and inviting as possible.

If you have more furniture than you need to show the inside of your home in its best light you should consider moving some of it out to storage. The important thing with the interior is to show off the spaciousness and tidiness of the rooms.

With excess clutter out of the way making things clean is the most important thing you can do. Be sure to clean the windows too. Make sure walls are painted in up-to-date colors. Relatively small things like this will give your home a new lease on life.

Pay special attention to your kitchen and bathrooms. Get rid of extra clutter and in these rooms and make sure they are not messy. The people coming through your house do not want to see your wet towels and dirty underwear.

If the colors in your bathroom are outdated consider changing the paint, shower curtains and towels. If your bathrooms are badly in need of remodeling ask your real estate agent if he thinks it would be a smart investment to make some more significant changes. Many times a half-hearted remodeling effort will be a waste of time and money because the new owners will not be happy with it anyway.

There’s no question that a little bit of time and money can go a long way to improving the overall impression your Kitchener-Waterloo home makes. But don’t get carried away with trying to fix all the things you see as limitations of the home because changing those will usually not be worth the effort and expenditure.

Copyright AgentMapIt Homeowner Tips

Freedom! Glorious freedom!

Many Waterloo Region families purchase their homes when their children are young and the family is growing. So it is not unusual to buy a home with extra bedrooms for additional children who might come along and recreational areas where the kids can play.

Many of our K-W homes also have large basements to store things, huge kitchens, multiple bathrooms, two and three car garages, and large yards with fenced in areas, swimming pools, and intricate landscaping.

The trend towards larger and more elaborate homes has accelerated in the last 20 years. The trend continues even though families are smaller now than they were one and two generations ago, there is much less cooking done at home, and there are far fewer families where older parents live with their mature children.

However, as we get older reality sets in. The kids move out, we do less entertaining and have less energy for cleaning and repairing. Most of us want to get rid of the excess and “downsize”.

New Beginnings

To a large degree, downsizing is about saving money. A larger home sits on a larger lot so you pay more in taxes and your utility bills are higher because you have more space to heat or cool or keep lit.

But downsizing is about new beginnings too. The kids are gone so your focus in life has to change. Seeing all those empty rooms just reminds you of the way it used to be – of younger days that are gone forever.

Downsizing to a smaller home, apartment or condo is an affirmation that you are ready to redefine a new life in a new place no longer dedicated to things and events from the past.

Your New Needs and Interests

You’re probably familiar with the TV ad where minutes after waving their last child off to college the mom and dad streak up to their child’s room and start transforming it into an entertainment center for themselves. They’ve obviously been thinking about their new “needs” for quite some time.

If you have a large house with too many rooms to clean, too much grass to cut and a furnace that burns way too much fuel you’ve probably already done quite a bit of thinking about your needs and interests.

Financial Considerations

First of all there’s the money you can save by living in a smaller place. If you don’t need 4 bedrooms, three garages and a large deck sitting on a half acre of grass, then you’ll save quite a bit of money by downsizing to a smaller home.

You’ll also pay less for maintenance, less for taxes, and less for utilities. Plus, you’ll be relieved of a lot of the responsibility for upkeep and maintenance of these things.

You should also be able to use the equity in your large home to purchase something smaller and end up with a fair chunk of money left over. Or if you are still paying down the mortgage, your payments should be quite a bit less per month.

Convenience and Security

For many people increased convenience and security are just as important reasons for downsizing as saving money. We become more vulnerable as we age, need more frequent access to medical services, and are less inclined to travel long distances for groceries or visit large busy malls to do our shopping.

So there is a strong tendency for “downsizers” to move to self-contained communities where shopping and medical facilities are close at hand. Some of these communities are gated and have their own security systems. Larger ones even have recreational facilities and offer social and cultural opportunities right within the community itself.

Most of the residents of communities like this are in the same stage in life. So the homes, condos or apartments are designed with just the right type of amenities. These homes also require as little maintenance as possible, and are located near the services they make regular use of.

It is also much easier to leave a home in this type of setting untended for weeks or months. There is no grass to cut or snow to shovel, and security is usually handled by the community. So that makes it much easier to vacation, travel or go south for five or six months at a stretch.

All things considered, downsizing makes a lot of sense for retired couples. A smaller, well-planned home is a good investment for now and for the future, costs less to operate, and frees up the couple to enjoy their retired life.

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This video discusses how much of your pre-retirement income you will need post-retirement. It is from the PBS series “Getting Your Finances Ready for Retirement”.

Calculating how much income you will need for retirement is a tricky business. It starts with the type of lifestyle you want in retirement. The number the experts usually use is a percentage of your pre-investment income.

Arriving at this percentage is important because it will predetermine how much you think you will need for retirement. Not all experts agree on how to calculate this number. Some say you should count on as much as 110% of your pre-retirement income. Others say 70% or even 65% (two-thirds) is much more realistic.

Obviously the ratio depends on what type of retirement lifestyle you want. If you want to do a lot of expensive traveling or buy a pricey boat, then obviously you will need more.

While financial advisors may disagree on the amount you should shoot for, they don’t disagree on the necessity to plan ahead and start early. Everybody agrees on that.

Do you wish you could pitch all those harsh commercial cleaning products and use something “greener”? Here is a video explaining how you can make your own cleaners out of ordinary things found in just about every Waterloo Region home.

Recent studies have compared the incidence of asthma in homes where commercial household cleaners are used on a regular basis to homes where such cleaners are not used. In one study the researchers found the product users were up to twice as likely to develop asthma.

In spite of what the television commercials say, household cleaners are not the pleasant things they are made out to be. Most contain harsh chemicals and ingredients that harm the environment in one way or another. They also contribute to things like asthma and allergies – especially among children.

If you’re like most Waterloo Region homeowners you want to save money wherever you can. And the cost of energy to run your home is a good place to start. So what about installing a few solar panels to generate some solar power.

Here’s an article that discusses the costs of building a solar system large enough to power your home. You might be surprised at the cost.

Have a look at the article right here: Powering a House With Solar Cells.

In most areas people are realizing that pesticides and herbicides poured on our lawns do not mix with a healthy environment.

The Waterloo Region area is no exception. Thankfully, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area many homeowners are becoming more environmentally sensitive.

In this article the author offers some suggestions for maintaining a beautiful lawn without using large amounts of harmful chemicals – Green Ideas for a Great Lawn.

Jim Balsillie’s bid to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton got new life on Thursday (Aug 5). The bankruptcy court judge ruled that Balsillie’s bid would be accepted for the Sept 10 bankruptcy auction.

The NHL board of governors had previously rejected the bid, and had basically said they don’t want Balsillie among their exclusive little club.

This is at least the second interesting twist in the Coyotes affair over the last week. On Monday Coyotes current owner Jerry Moyes released documents showing that the other main bid – the Jerry Reinsdorf bid – included special tax concessions from the city of Glendale, amounting to up to $23 million next year.

Another feature of the Reinsdorf bid had Glendale agreeing to let him move the team without penalty if it continued to lose money for the next five years – either that or pay him $15 million per year for every year of losses.

If this provision makes it to the final Reinsdorf offer it makes it pretty clear that Balsillie’s offer is not the only one that is ultimately going to result in a move. And Balsillie is offering $212 million compared to Reinsdorf’s $148 million.

The total value of building permits issued in June across Canada was up 1% over May to a total of $5.2 billion.

However the value of permits is still down 26.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Home-building sector permits increased in value by 0.5% representing the 4th consecutive month of increases.

Across Canada BC had the biggest jump in building permit issues – up 30.3%. Quebec was up 11%. Alberta, Saskatchewan and PEI had decreases. In Ontario decreases in single-family permit values was offset by gains in the commercial sector.

A report by GO Transit has raised the possibility of GO trains travelling between Waterloo Region and Toronto.

The report proposes that GO establish two stations in Waterloo Region, one in downtown Kitchener and the other at Breslau. No doubt there will be much discussion in the months ahead about the pros and cons of those options.

The new routes will not be cheap – at least to get up and running. GO Transit puts the initial start up cost to have the service running by 2011 at a minimum of $153 million. To turn it into a permanent service would cost about $549 million, according to the Go Transit report.

The report suggests that GO trains would initially carry between 2,300 and 5,000 passengers a day. It predicts that the number would rise to about 9,000 a day by 2031. Considering the growth potential of Waterloo Region this seems like a reasonable target.

Some things about this proposal seem obvious. First, the traffic on the 401 is increasing – especially the truck traffic – so anything that will take commuters off the 401 is worth considering. Second the potential for rail transport in SW Ontario is not being properly exploited. What we really need is a serious proposal for getting trucks off the highway and onto tracks.

The economy is beginning to respond to stimulus by the Bank of Canada, but Canadians can expect to see a very different economy when the smoke clears. That was one of the messages Senior Economist for CIBC World Markets, Benjamin Tal had for delegates at the recent Land and Development Conference held in Toronto.

The CIBC economists predict the economic landscape over the next decade will see a return to inflation in the U.S., a Canadian dollar above par, a solid run for stocks and resource prices, and the emergence of Asian consumer spending. The report dubs the next decade the “teenage years,” and like teenagers, it expects financial markets and the economy could be moody and unpredictable early on, but ultimately, grow and mature.

Tal says Canada’s real estate market has not experienced the free fall experienced in the U.S. because we don’t have the same subprime component. However, what happens in the U.S. has an impact on the Canadian economy he says.

His presentation examined the key trends in the North American economy with a specific view towards their future direction over the short and long term, including the outlook for GDP growth, interest rates, energy and commodity prices, the value of the Canadian dollar, and the rate of inflation. Tal gave his predictions for when the U.S. and Canadian economies will start to recover and how much deeper the recession is likely to be in Canada.

His presentation mirrored information found in CIBC World Markets Inc.’s latest economic report co-produced by Tal and CIBC Chief Economist Avery Shenfield. The report released at the end of May states the next decade will see a return to growth, but the economic landscape will be very different from the previous 10 years. “Although the banking crisis is over, the recession is not,” says Tal.

Here are some of the other findings in Tal and Shenfield’s report:

While U.S. consumers will be cutting back on spending and saving more to pay down debt, CIBC does not expect tax hikes to be the full solution to the growing weight of government debt. They believe inflation may be part of the answer to both the public and private debt excesses of our southern neighbours. “Letting inflation run at five per cent for a few years in the early part of the decade would go a long way to digging the U.S. out of its debt mountain. The debt/GDP ratio has nominal GDP in the denominator-so raising inflation lowers the debt burden. And higher inflation would help stabilize or even boost nominal house prices, key to allowing a return to positive home equity for those with mortgages that now threaten to exceed the house price.

Since Canada will not face nearly America’s debt burden, nor its underwater mortgages, letting inflation run above the central bank’s two per cent target will be much less tempting. A strong Canadian dollar will also dampen import price inflation. Expect an inflation gap to see Treasury yields well above those on Canadian bonds in the first half of the next decade as a result.

U.S. dollar devaluation and higher U.S. inflation will help boost commodity prices and Canada’s corporate bottom line, particularly given that economic development in the Far East tends to be more resource intensive than the more services-oriented economies of North America. For the U.S., a weaker dollar will be key to promoting both net exports and capital spending at home, by making “Made in America” less of a cost disadvantage.

For the Canadian economy, these shifts will mean a leaner decade for segments of the economy leveraged to American consumer spending (like automotive equipment, newsprint, lumber for U.S. housing). Reduced Canadian leveraging will also see housing starts average a tame 170,000 in the decade of the teens, after having averaged near 200,000 for the current decade to date. Instead, faster growth will be driven in sectors (technology, materials) linked to either North American capital spending or Asian consumption. Financial services will earn their keep by helping Canadians manage a newly growing pool of savings.

While the Canadian dollar will climb as the U.S. dollar weakens and hurt our manufacturing competitiveness, rising resource prices will reignite capital-intensive development of the oil sands, natural gas projects, and metal mines. That will allow private investment spending to increase its share of the economy as governments pull back on public infrastructure. The firmer Canadian dollar will also give Canadian households added import spending power.”

The University of Waterloo is getting set to unveil a new marketing logo and it has student groups in an uproar. Steve Sauve, a student at the U of W is using his Facebook group to rally students and alumni against the new design.

According to Sauve, those who are against the new design “do not believe it represents UW’s prestige and degree of professionalism properly.”

Now that chemical poisons are being outlawed in many parts of North America many homeowners have become involved in the quest for the ultimate “green” dandelion eliminator. Here are some tips…

1. Mow the plants before they go to seed – If you can cut off the dandelion heads before they go to seed you will have at least eliminated the source of most new dandelion plants. Part of the solution is to mow your grass frequently. Of if you have just a few dandelions showing, cut off those heads before they go to seed.

2. Root them out – If you are going to manually dig out existing plants, be sure to pull out as much of the root as possible. There are inexpensive tools that do a pretty good job. But it is really back-breaking work if you have lots of dandelions in a large lawn.

3. Pick the leaves – Cutting, picking or grinding off (see #4 below) the leaves will eventually starve the roots. But this takes persistence and is only practical in a small lawn.

4. Trample them – George Rotramel claims that trampling dandelions greatly impedes their growth. As he says, “Trampling this stem crushes it and exposes the plant to infection by plant pathogens. The result is a dead dandelion with no time-consuming digging, no pulling, and no herbicide application”. He drew this conclusion by noticing that dandelion growth was much more extensive around the outside of soccer fields than in the playing area.

5. Poach them – Pouring boiling water over dandelion plants will shrivel them up and render them impotent. Or at least that’s what we’ve been told.

6. Pickle them – Use a 5-percent solution of vinegar as a weed killer against perennial weeds such as dandelions, foxtail, velvetleaf, smooth pigweed and thistle. Heating the solution is said to work even better.

8. Burn them out – Some say you can torch dandelions and other perennial weeds with a weed burner torch, but others claim this is a pretty ineffective and inefficient way to get rid of them.

7. Corn Gluten Meal – If you don’t have time for any of this manual digging or spraying, then you may want to try corn gluten meal (CGM) applied to your entire lawn. This is called a “pre-emergent” solution that prevents roots from forming during seed germination. It will not kill already existing plants, but it will prevent additional germination from taking place during growing seasons – especially in the spring.

8. Replace grass with Dutch clover – You may want to try replacing at least some of your grass with Dutch clover. This has some advantages. Clover is nice and green and will grow almost anywhere. It requires less water, does not require fertilizer, needs less frequent mowing, chokes out weeds, and grubs and other common lawn pests do not like it.

KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON (July 6, 2009) –A total of 722 homes sold in Kitchener-Waterloo and area in June, a 1.3 percent increase over June 2008, and the second best month on record for residential property sales through the MLS® System of the Kitchener-Waterloo Real Estate Board (KWREB). In fact, overall June sales activity was up in all categories except multi-family and land sales.

“I think what we are seeing in Waterloo region, is the resale housing market returning to its prerecessionary pace,” says Karen Shartun, President of the KWREB. “June was also the third month in a row that sales exceed 600 units, so we have some strong momentum happening in the market.”

REALTORS® of the KWREB have traded 3,174 homes year-to-date for a total value of $820,966,284, including 2,109 detached homes and 541 condominium units. This represents a 9.9 percent decrease in the total number of units sold so far this year compared to last year, a 15 percent decrease compared to 2007 (a record breaking year), and a 3 percent decrease from the 3,275 units sold in the first half of 2006.

The most active price range during the first six months of the year was for homes selling between $225,000 to $250,000 with a total of 508 sales. For homes selling in the upper most tiers, things have been quite a bit slower–in the last 6 months only 13 homes have sold for over $750,000, compared to 28 during the same period last year.

The demand for more affordably priced homes has translated into a 2.5 percent decrease in the average price of all homes sold year-to-date to $258,654.

The supply of homes active on the KWREB’s MLS® System to the end of June edged up 3.3 percentage points to 2,089 units. The President of the KWREB says she expects that sales for the remainder of the year will continue to improve, as prospective home buyers continue to take advantage of low interest rates, and the economic horizon starts to look brighter.

Consumers uncertain about current market conditions should work with a REALTOR® to develop an effective selling strategy. If you are buying, a REALTOR® will negotiate on your behalf and guide you through every step. A REALTOR® understands the local market and must, by law, look after your best interests.

I am beginning to get a lot of questions on “do I lock my mortgage in or not”? While some of you may want to just stay in variable ALL THE TIME…we have reached a point with interest rates that at least makes it worth considering! The topic of breaking a mortgage early also continues to be strong!
I thought I would share two articles from today’s Globe that might help you with your thought process…or if you are asked by friends, family, colleagues, clients etc… what your thoughts are on mortgages these days, this might help you form an opinion!
Enjoy:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/personal-finance/have-you-missed-the-great-canadian-mortgage-sale/article1180187/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/personal-finance/is-it-time-to-lock-in-your-mortgage/article1182905/

Courtesy of Victor Zamin, mortgage specialist, RBC Royal Bank
T. 519-240-0645 | F. 519-880-8329 | E. victor.zamin@rbc.com

The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a “Boring Headline Contest” and decided that the winner was “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada’s virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it’s Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world. America’s ranked 40th, Britain’s 44th.

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn’t grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1

KITCHENER, ON (February 4, 2009)

As of October 15, 2008, home buyers will have fewer options when obtaining a mortgage. That’s because starting October 15, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) – the government-owned housing agency that provides mortgage insurance – will no longer accept mortgage insurance applications for mortgages amortized over 40 years, 100 per cent financing or interest-only mortgages.

These changes have been implemented as a result of the international credit crisis, and to avoid a potential U.S.-style meltdown in the Canadian real estate market. However, these changes to not affect all potential home buyers: it will primarily affect those who do not have a minimum of 20 per cent of the purchase price available for a down payment. In addition, for many home buyers, other mortgage products are available that will meet their needs.

Mortgage insurance is available through CMHC, AIG and Genworth. These companies make home ownership possible for individuals who do not have a minimum down payment of 20 per cent available. Since the announcement that CMHC will eliminate these mortgage products, both Genworth and AIG have also decided to follow suit. However, lenders may still decide to offer 40 year amortizations and interest only mortgages to individuals with down payments of 20 per cent or greater.