Easy-to Miss Home Security Tips for Your Vacation

If you’re relaxing on a Caribbean beach, or enjoying a bus tour through historic Paris, the last thing you want to worry about is your home. Most people know the basics of keeping a home secure while away. Here are some additional tips that are easy to miss:

• Tell your kids not to boast about your fabulous vacation plans, especially on social media. The fewer who know that the house will be empty, the better.

• Ask a neighbour to pick up any mail and flyers dropped at your doorstep. But don’t rely on that alone. Also call the newspaper and post office to temporarily halt delivery.

• You can buy timers to automatically turn lights on and off. However, most will stop working if the power goes out and restart with the incorrect time when the power comes back on. That’s why you should keep at least a couple of lights turned on continuously, and not connected to timers. 

• If you’re leaving in the evening, or before dawn, don’t forget to open the blinds. Closed blinds during the day are a dead giveaway that the owners are away. 

Finally, experts recommend creating a home security checklist, so you don’t forget anything. That will give you peace-of-mind. Last but not least, have an amazing vacation!

Are you planning on listing your home soon? Then it's time to pack your memories away.

Items that remind us of special people, events, milestones and interests are an important part of what makes a home a home. Pictures on the fireplace mantle, for example, showcase family and friends that are important to us. You might also have trophies, certificates, greeting cards, and other mementoes on display in key places. Of course, all of those things add warmth and meaning to your home. However, if you're preparing your home for sale, it's a good idea to pack those memories away - at least until you've sold your property and moved to your new home. Why? Because those pleasant mementoes that mean so much to you may actually turn off potential buyers

You see, when buyers view your property, you want them to be able to clearly picture themselves and their families living there. That's difficult to do if everywhere they look they see reminders that this is your home!

So, to help sell your home quickly, make it look great, but not personalized. Think of the showroom displays you see set up in furniture stores. Those displays are most appealing when they enable you to easily picture yourself, with that furniture, in your home. You probably wouldn't feel that way if it looked like the furniture belonged to someone else.

Of course, buyers will know you currently live in your home. But helping them imagine themselves living there will help you sell your property faster – and possibly for a better price.
Need more tips on preparing your home for sale? Call Today!

4 Home Hazards You May Not Think About 

You have smoke detectors. Your doors have good locks. The bathtub has a slip-free pad. By all accounts, your home is a safe and secure place for your family to live. However, there are some hazards that many homeowners don't consider or even know about. For instance:

1. Blocked eavestroughs. Eavestroughs clogged with leaves and other debris can cause rainwater to overflow next to your foundation and create a basement leak.

2. Clogged dryer vents. High temperature air combined with lint is a near ideal condition for a fire. Check and clear the dryer vent at least once a year.

3. Dirty faucet heads. Kitchen and bath faucets often have built-in screens to spray the water evenly. Unfortunately, dirt and other contaminates can build up on these and, possibly, affect the quality
of the water. Clean faucet heads regularly.

4. Tripping hazards. You could step around a loose section of carpet or a paver stone at the front door for years and then one day, in a moment of distraction, trip over it and fall. When you see a potential tripping hazard in your home, don't ignore it. Fix it.

Being diligent about home safety takes a little more time. But, if it prevents one injury or illness, it's worth the effort.

Photos by MarketChoice, HomeSafe Professional Dryer Vent Cleaners, hilsenbeck

DIY - Spring Wreath

We have had a LONG winter!!  In our area it is too early to plant flowers, but this is a nice way to add a little “spring” to your front door.  

This idea came to me via my friend Ashley Grant.  She recently posted a wreath she made on Facebook and I loved it!  So off to the craft store I went.  You can customize your wreath with any flower, your house #, family initial etc. 

If you make a wreath, I’d love to see it.  Post a picture below!

Making sense of a crazy market

Unless you're a real estate expert, you probably look at the market and think things are pretty confusing. Even a bit crazy! You hear news about “bubbles bursting”, “higher or lower home sales in a particular month”, “new home starts” that are up or down, and on and on it goes.

It’s a lot of news and a lot of jargon.

If you're thinking of selling your home within the next year or two, you will want to understand what's happening in the market so you can make the right decisions and get a clear sense of what to expect. So, how do you make sense of it all?

That's where a good REALTOR® can help.

Even if you don't have any definite plans to move in the near future, a REALTOR® who is an expert in the local marketplace can help you understand what homes in a particular neighbourhood are selling for, and what you can expect to get should you decide to list your property.

Getting to know a REALTOR® also means you’ll have a trusted expert to talk to from time to time, when you have real estate-related questions.

You’ll have someone you can think of as "Your REALTOR®".

Plus, when the time comes to sell your property, you won't have to deal with a stranger. Instead, you'll be able to work with a REALTOR® that you know well -- and who knows YOU. Overall, that will make the buying and selling process go more smoothly and more successfully.

Looking for a good REALTOR® who wants to get to know you? Call today!

Create an inexpensive sofa table

We have an open floor plan in our home, as do many of the houses in our neighbourhood. I've found it challenging to find a way to display some mementos, lighting etc. in our living room.  Our future plan includes building some custom built in shelves around our fireplace.  However in the interim I wanted to find an easy and inexpensive way to display items that wouldn't get knocked over while the kids were playing.  Enter Pinterest!  I saw a post at about building a sofa table….perfect!  

Before

After

The project only took an afternoon to complete and cost us less than $20.  I chose white MDF as the table isn't visible.  I measured the height and width of the couch that the table would be placed behind.   If you don’t have a saw you can have the wood/MDF cut at Home Depot at no charge.  We used “L brackets” to attach the table to the legs.  Two coats of paint later…..Voila!  What do you think?

Should You Buy the "Less Than Perfect" Home?

When you’re shopping for a new home, you want to find a property that has all the features and characteristics you want. A large deck surrounded by picturesque landscaping ... a beautiful kitchen with gleaming marble countertops... a cozy finished basement with fireplace....

You should look for the ideal home. You deserve it! But some home buyers make the mistake of becoming fixated on finding the "perfect" property, and passing too quickly on those homes that don't quite measure up.

Why is that a mistake? Because some of those less-than-perfect properties have the potential of becoming your next dream home.

First of all, a home that is lacking some desirable features, such as a finished basement, will probably cost less. Those savings may be more than enough to cover any needed upgrade or renovation.

Secondly, if you look at a home in terms of its potential, rather than the features it happens to have now, there will be more properties available on the market for you to consider.

If you're determined to have a large wrap-around deck for entertaining, for example, don't cross homes that don't have this feature off your list. At least not yet. Instead, view these properties with an eye on potential. Is the backyard big enough to accommodate a large deck? How would a deck like that look if added to this particular property? How much would such a renovation cost?

There's no doubt about it. You want to find a home that has all the features and characteristics you want. If you work with a good REALTOR®, there is a good chance you'll find a property that has most of them.

But keep an open mind. Sometimes a "diamond in the rough" can – with an upgrade or renovation – become a home you'll treasure for years.

photo by oatsy40