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Posted by StagingWorks on December 22nd, 2011
The article below by Marta Gold was published in The Victoria Times Colonist on December 10, 2011.
This colour calls for discretion
Colour is a great way to brighten your home and add a spark of interest without undertaking a major renovation. But what colour?
At first blush, decorating with purple seems a daring move, best made by those with wild, animal-print rugs or exotic tapestries hanging on their walls.
But purple, in its varying shades and mixed with other colours, can be in turn conservative, contemporary and, yes, bold.
Rest assured, in any and all of its forms from lavender to eggplant, purple is popping up everywhere.
“Definitely this fall, the colour purple is really strong,” says Alana Schilf, owner of Inspired Home Interiors, where purple is visible in the barest hint of a not-quite-clear acrylic ghost chair, or the bolder shade of a boxy, upholstered chair.
The store even has a plum-coloured sectional sofa on order for its showroom, but that’s about as daring as most people will go with bigger pieces of furniture, says Schilf.
“Mostly we see it in smaller pieces and accessories like toss cushions,” she says.
Som Sourachit, owner of Posh at Home, says purple accents are a great way to add colour to a room. “We love colour here. We push for the daring,” she adds.
“I’ve noticed that a lot more people are more daring with colours right now, which is great. We need a dash of colour in our life.”
True colour thrill-seekers are mixing purple and pink, she says. Another great combination is purple and yellow.
White, too, fits easily into the mix. Add it and light grey to purple for a more contemporary feel, Sourachit says.
Schilf likes the combination of purple with black, or, unexpectedly, with brownygold shades.
“If you look toward nature, mountains are grey, but there’s also gold and other colours in the stone,” she says.
Using more natural tones mixed with greyish purples is a good way to prevent purple from becoming too garish, she adds.
Sourachit also likes to soften purple with a neutral. “If you have a stronger purple or a brighter purple, definitely grey will tone it down,” she advises. Those with more conservative tastes could try a grey sofa, add a purple throw and use an area rug in shades of grey and purple. “That doesn’t yell out purple too much, and then when you change it, all you have to do is change the throw and possibly change the area rug, too.”
Brighter purples should be reserved for accents such as bits of a rug, drapes or cushions, she adds. For example, the lighter purple drapes shown above, from Posh, along with splashes of purple and yellow in the throw cushions, brighten an otherwise neutral decor and are easy to switch with changing tastes.
Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.
StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.
Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.
StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.
 
Please take 60 second to complete our poll on the left side of the screen.
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: condo stager, condo stagers, condo staging services, home decor toronto, home staging company, Home Staging Tips, selling toronto home, staging tips, toronto homes for sale, toronto homes for sales, toronto interior decorating, toronto interior styling, toronto staging blog
Posted in Home Staging, Interior Decorating
Posted by StagingWorks on December 22nd, 2011
The following article by Susan Pigg was published on Moneyville on November 29, 2011.
It could well become the cocktail-party question of the holiday season: Is Canada’s gravity-defying housing market headed for a fall?
Britain’s venerable magazine The Economist says Canada is one of nine countries in the world where housing is overvalued by 25 per cent or more right now — and among four where prices are in line with those in the U.S. “at the peak of its bubble.”
The others are France, Australia and Belgium, it says under a headline that claims “the bursting of the global economic bubble is only halfway through.”
It’s the B-word being heard halfway around the world and comes in the wake of a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch report that warned Toronto’s record-setting pace of condo construction could see a significant correction over the next two years.
Are the predictions alarmist, common sense or simply sour grapes from countries being crushed by the economic fallout of the subprime and euro zone crises?
“I think the (Canadian) housing boom is over,” says Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets Inc. who agrees that Canada’s housing sector is “overshooting.”
“The only question now is how do we correct? I think the most likely scenario is that the housing market will stagnate over the next three to four years” until prices fall back in line.
The Economist notes that much of the world’s economic woes can be traced back to years of unprecedented growth in house prices in countries such as the United States and Ireland, culminating with “the bursting of the biggest bubble in history.”
Home prices in the U.S. have dropped 34 per cent since 2006. In Ireland they’ve plummeted by almost half since the Celtic Tiger lost its roar.
In the last year alone, they’ve climbed 5.5 per cent across Canada according to October statistics.
“In some countries, such as Australia, Canada and Sweden, prices wobbled but then surged to new highs. As a result, many property markets are still looking uncomfortably overvalued,” the magazine claims.
Real estate watcher Ben Myers of Toronto’s Urbanation called The Economist’s methodology “flawed,” saying it’s too simplistic to properly assess the health of a market as regionally varied as Canada’s.
It also doesn’t take into account how the strength of our banking sector has made Canada a safe haven for investors looking to buy up hard assets like real estate. It’s estimated that some 45 to 60 per cent of the 43,000 condos now under construction across the GTA have been pre-purchased by investors, most of whom intend to hold and rent them out.
Given tough lending standards in Canada, there are very few homeowners — less than 5 per cent — at risk of being overextended on mortgages, statistics have shown. So it would take a “trigger” like escalating interest rates to send real estate prices crashing here, and they’re unlikely to start even edging up until 2013, says Tal.
That should give homeowners time to get their financial houses in order, and there are “encouraging signs” that’s happening.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Tuesday in its third-quarter report that the growth of mortgage loans has slowed to an average of $159,740 and the average equity level has climbed slightly to 45 per cent as homeowners focus on paying down mortgages.
Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.
StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.
Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.
StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.
Please take 60 second to complete our poll on the left side of the screen.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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Tags: condo staging, home stager, home stagers, home staging companies, home staging company, home staging toronto, selling toronto home, selling your home, toronto home staging, toronto homes for sale, vacant condo staging, Vacant Home Staging Services
Posted in Real Estate
Posted by StagingWorks on November 22nd, 2011
The article below by Rachel Naud was published in the Calgary Herald on November 10, 2011. It touches on a number of very practical points.
Selling your home can be one of the most personal transactions you’ll ever experience.
Think about it, your home is where you make your memories, mark your milestones, celebrate your achievements and learn from your failures.
It’s hard to put a price tag on the place where you built your life.
Yet when it comes to selling your home, homeowners are wise to leave their emotions at the door.
That’s probably the first thing a homeowner needs to know and do before putting up a for-sale sign.
If you want to sell your home for top dollar, home sellers need to have their home “move-in ready,” says Carmen Paradis, a realtor with Re/Max Real Estate Central.
“Buyers want a house they can just move into,” says Paradis.
“They don’t want to have to do anything. People do not want to do the work. They just like to move in and live.”
And although some home sellers may translate this to mean they have to completely renovate their bathrooms and kitchens before putting their home on the market, Maxwell Canyon Creek realtor Joe Samson says this isn’t the case. In fact, sometimes he even advises against it.
“If you’re trying to sell a home that’s below the average selling price, there’s no point in spending $15,000 on a kitchen renovation,” says Samson. “Renovate to what your surroundings are. Don’t get carried away and out-renovate your neighbours.”
He says if a buyer walks into your starter home and sees high-end appliances and granite countertops, they’ll also most likely see a higher price tag.
“If buyers are looking for a house in the $300,000-range and nine out of 10 houses are $300,000 but yours is $350,000 because you have all this beautiful stuff in there, it’s going to take longer to sell, if at all,” says Samson.
“Doing renovations like that will force you to sell higher than your direct competition. You’ll never get your money back.”
Instead, both Paradis and Samson say the biggest investment a homeowner can make to fix up their homes doesn’t cost much at all – paint.
“Paint is biggest thing you can do,” says Paradis. “Sometimes, even if you wash your walls, you can’t get smudges or fingerprints off. Paint fixes that.
“It can also fix odour in the home. Odour turns people off. Especially if the home sellers smoke.”
When it comes to choosing a paint colour, Paradis recommends going with a neutral colour that will appeal to a wide range of buyers. The same rule applies to carpets.
“Some people really like colour but it doesn’t appeal to everyone,” says Paradis. “So let’s say you put in a carpet two or three years ago but it’s purple. You may want to get rid of that.
“Replacing your carpet is one of the most inexpensive things to do but it will give you great bang for your buck. People walk in and it feels fresh and clean and gives you a lot of value because you have more people interested in your house.”
Paradis also recommends fixing all those little projects you have been meaning to get to for years, such as squeaky door handles and loose railings. “It’s the little things that turn people off,” she says. ” It just doesn’t look good.”
Curb appeal is also huge. So if you have chipped paint, an unkept yard and garbage on your lawn, you could scare away potential buyers before they even step in the door.
“If the house looks unkept, quite often people make the decision even before getting out of car,” says Samson.
“They’ll say forget it. I don’t need to see this house.”
Instead, Samson suggests homeowners make the outside of their home look engaging, welcoming and well maintained.
“You want to create an image so people think your house feels like home,” says Samson. “They want to envision themselves living there, not seeing themselves fixing up the outside for two months.”
Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.
StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.
Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.
StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.
Please take 60 second to complete our poll on the left side of the screen.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: Anne Bourne, home stager, home stagers, home staging toronto, homestaging toronto, selling toronto home, selling your home, stagingworks blog, Toronto Condo Stager, toronto condo staging, toronto home stager, toronto home staging, toronto home staging blog, toronto stager
Posted in Home Staging Tips, Real Estate
Posted by StagingWorks on November 22nd, 2011
The article below by Garry Marr was published in the Financial Post on November 16, 2011.
October sales highest since beginning of year.
The Canadian housing market continues to defy those who have long predicted its collapse.
It was just another set of numbers, but if anything the market seemed to pick up steam with October sales across the country the best they have been since January.
The upward push caused the Canadian Real Estate Association to slightly revise its predictions for 2011. The group now says sales will be up 1.4 per cent from a year ago, instead of 0.9 per cent.
“The continuing strength of home sales activity in the face of ongoing financial volatility speaks volumes about the confidence of Canadians in our housing market,” said Gary Morse, president of CREA.
Even going into 2012, CREA doesn’t see much changing in the marketplace with interest rates near record lows. It’s calling for a relatively minor 0.5 per cent reduction in sales next year.
The industry continues to have plenty to gloat about as annual sales have held steady in the $450,000 range for the past three years. Prices have also shown a steady upward trajectory and are now forecast to reached an average of $362,700 in 2011, which would be a seven per cent jump from the year before. Next year, prices are expected to remain flat – something most people in the real estate industry see as an accomplishment in the present economic environment.
“Home sales activity over the past couple of months suggests buyers are confident that the Canadian economy will remain relatively unscathed by global economic risks, since every home purchase is a homebuyer’s vote of confidence in the future,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist with CREA, adding there is strong feeling the government’s fiscal policy would be coordinated to give housing any support it should need in the event of a pullback.
So far, the industry seems to be getting all the support it needs from a low interest rate environment that has kept people in the market. Variablerate mortgages tied to prime are still available as low as 2.7 per cent while a five-year fixed rate closed mortgage is now being discounted down to 3.19 per cent.
Toronto continued to carry the national market in October with sales up 14.3 per cent from a year ago. The activity in Canada’s largest city helped boost overall sales activity, which rose 8.5 per cent from a year earlier. Prices across the country continue to be moderate with the 5.5 per cent year-over-year increase the smallest it has been since January.
The consensus among economists is that the housing industry might not have much more to give in terms of price increases or sales but they also are not predicting a massive decline either. “The fact that prices are overvalued today does not necessarily mean they will crash tomorrow,” said Benjamin Tal, deputy economist with CIBC World Markets.
He thinks a “violent market meltdown” would need a catalyst like the a sub-prime crisis or a jump in interest rates like the industry saw in 1991. “We do believe the housing market in Canada will stagnate in the coming year or two,” Tal said.
That housing market has become a key component of the country with a report from TD Economics saying the construction industry was second fastest growing industry in the country and accounts for 10 per cent of GDP. “While the industry’s performance over the last decade has been astonishing, some of the recent strength is likely to taper off in the coming years,” the bank said.
Independent of market conditions, home staging is a highly effective marketing tool used to maximize the selling price of Toronto area homes and condos.
StagingWorks is the premier Toronto home staging company. We provide a complete range of professional services which include vacant home staging, occupied home staging and condo staging. We have staging packages to accommodate most budgets and serve Toronto, GTA and surrounding areas.
Please visit our home staging portfolio for more samples of our staging projects. Give us some some details on your home and when you’re planning to sell, and get a free home staging estimate. Or, call us for a free estimate at (647) 409-2091 or anne@StagingWorks.ca.
StagingWorks has been voted Toronto’s top home stager by Toronto Life.
Please take 60 second to complete our poll on the left side of the screen.
Popularity: 12% [?]
No Comments »
Tags: condo stager, home staging toronto, selling toronto home, selling your home, Staging your home for sale, Toronto Condo Stager, toronto condo stagers, toronto home staging, toronto home staging company, toronto real estate, toronto staging, toronto staging company, vacant condo staging
Posted in Real Estate
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