About Waterloo County, ON

Ontario Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, George Smitherman introduced the Green Energy Act as Bill 150 in the Provincial Legislature this past Monday.

I am not in favour of this act at this time. At best, this is a good idea at the wrong time.

Under the heading, "Mandatory conservation and energy efficiency practices," the act reads as follows:

“2. (1) No person shall offer to sell or to lease, for a term in excess of the prescribed period, an interest in real property unless the person provides, at a cost as determined in the prescribed manner, such information, reports or ratings as are prescribed, (a) relating to energy consumption and efficiency with respect to a prescribed residence or other building on the property or a class of prescribed residences or other buildings on the property;”

In simple terms, home sellers will be required to have a home energy audit conducted at a cost of $300.00 and produce the audit report to a buyer in order to sell their home. This reminds me a bit of the "Clean Air" inspections required to keep our older cars on the road. It's not just the cost of the inspections, but the added costs of required repairs to our "beaters" following a failed inspection.

It's hard to argue with the importance of wise energy consumption, just as it is hard to argue in favour of pollutant belching automobiles, but introducing additional frictional costs into an already sluggish real estate market, may be a good idea at the wrong time.

Energy and resource efficiency is a good thing. Anything that moves us towards increasing energy efficiency is morally and ethically positive. A positive home energy audit may indeed increase a property's marketability and value.

However, a home energy audit will no doubt reveal energy inefficiencies that will require remediation at significant expense to the home owner. This is particularly true of older homes. The cost of the inspection and resulting retrofits and remedies could cause significant financial stress on many home owners. A negative home energy audit could in fact decrease your home's marketability and lower its market value. Again this would be particularly unfair and possibly prejudicial towards lower income owners of older homes.

I believe a better direction to go is with education campaigns like David Suzuki's PowerWise Ontario ads and incentive programs like the Ontario Home Energy Audit and Retrofit Program. The Ontario Government has created an incentive program that awards homeowners with rebates of up to $5,000 for home energy improvements. This program matches up to $5,000 available from the federal government — for a total of up to $10,000.

Continued education on energy conservation through ad campaigns and increased promotion of sensible incentive programs both benefits energy conservation efforts and facilitates economic activity. Win win!

What is HRTC? It's the Home Renovation Tax Credit that was proposed in the January 27th Federal Budget, that will provide for a 15% income tax credit on eligible home renovation expenditures, and is family based. Good between January 27th 2009 and February 1st 2010, it can be claimed for the 2009 taxation year on expenditures greater than $1,000, but no more than $10,000 and can provide up to $1,350 in tax relief.

Examples of eligible improvements are kitchen, bathroom and basement renovations, new deck, new hardwood floors or carpet, painting of interior or exterior of house and others. Excluded are purchase of tools and furniture, carpet cleaning and maintenance contracts, among others.

Here's an example: Sally and Ed are a couple who purchased a home. They decide to replace windows and insulate their home in 2009, incurring expenses of $10,000. After the minimum threshold of $1,000, the 15% tax credit is available on $9,000 in eligible expenditures, providing tax relief of $1,350.

This tax credit complements the support from the Government for energy-saving improvements that are already available.

Are you Ready2Move?

Did you know ... one of the emerging trends in Europe, is to offer your house in a raffle giveaway? There are a lot of web-sites dedicated to property raffles, and it's a creative approach to a situation, where your property has become stagnant in a difficult market. Although usually done in Europe, and with multi-million dollar properties, for the rest of us, the best way to sell our home is still to price the house correctly according to today's market, and not yesterday's...

My partner and I were called this week to do a consultation on a listing, by a realtor who had never used our services before. This realtor had never used a home stager but after viewing our website and viewing some of our brochures left at his office, had decided to call us.

We arrived at the property - well drove right past it because the sign was buried in the snow and what was showing, was plastered with more snow. One of the first things we did was use our car brushes and clear off the sign so it was at least obvious the home was for sale.

The realtor was charming - my partner would say "yummy" with a great voice and lots of enthusiasm for staging. We found out during the course of conversation that the realtor felt he had been too lenient on the sellers - not really putting his foot down about getting repairs done, about insisting that cleaning and de-cluttering be done.

Our first impressions were that it was a good sized house on a great lot. The area was prime and the house had certainly been shown enough to get at least one offer - it had had 40 showings in just under two months. Not one offer however and we quickly discerned why that was.

First - the overwhelming amount of personal items - from an amazing amount of personal phots on almost every wall in every room. Cut outs of cats, fake ivy draped everywhere, furniture awkwardly arranged throughout the house and a complete mix of decorating styles. It was very overwhelming to look at. In addition, the carpeting in the living room and up the stairs throughout the upper level was dusty rose. The paint colour, which was quite neutral, had pink undertones so the overall effect was of pink - everywhere.

Feedback on the home indicated that most buyers felt the home was too dated and too small for the price point - and too much work. This is something we address with so many sellers - making sure rooms have "just enough" furniture and that the overall decor is neutral without overwhelming tones of any color. Buyers will pay more for a home which doesn't require that they rip out all the carpets and have to paint every room. We know eventually they *will* paint, however most don't want to have the pressure of doing so right when they move in.

The final sticking point was the basement. With walls crowded with personal photos, and an open area with furniture spread around the edges and no discernable purpose to the room - buyers would end up being totally confused and overwhelmed by the space. Its never good to leave it up to the buyers to figure out the purpose of a room. Always, always define it for them. That way they will be able to envision their own items in the space - otherwise they will just shake their heads and move on. Also - personal photos are important to keep and use when you are living in a home - but not when selling it.

We told the realtor that with some de-cluttering, different furniture arrangement, neutral artwork & decor, and a neutral carpet - this home would appear much larger, much more functional and be incredibly appealing. He wanted to start right away! The hard sell will be the sellers who don't want to put an ounce of effort or money into the house - however they want to sell desperately. Realistically, without these changes, this house doesn't stand a chance of selling anytime soon and for even close to the asking price. We fully anticipate having to do a "tough sell" for these home owners however, as we tell other sellers, you need to be prepared to do what it takes when it comes to selling their homes.

One thing we know for certain however, is that the realtor is now sold on our services and is now convinced how important it is to use professional home stagers to help get every listing prepared properly for sale.

These items can determine whether or not a buyer will make an offer on your home. Most people don't think about these but they are an important part of preparing your home for sale. Buyers want to envision themselves living in the house, and if the home is not presented in a manner that will allow them to do that easily, most buyers will move on. Click here to see video.