SELL THAT HOUSE

In this installment of Sell That House, we're going to look at one of the importance but often-overlooked aspects of the home-selling process, the staging. For those who haven't heard of the practice, home staging is the art of making a home look... well... buyable, for lack of a better term to those you are showing it for. 

Some people will hire a professional stager to come in and take care of their home before having an open house, and many real estate agents recommend going this route. It especially makes sense to do this if you've already moved out and the house is empty; a stager can and does usually provide his or her own furniture to make the rooms look luxurious and comfortable. 

But if you don't have the budget to hire a pro, or just feel like tackling the challenge yourself, we're here to help. Here are our top 5 ways to start staging your home like a trained professional. Follow these guidelines, and you'll have your home off your hands in no time!

The Hit List:

1) Just Because It's Called a Fixture...

One of the biggest mistakes made by DIY home stagers is to skimp out on replacing outdated fixtures before showing the home. In the grand scheme of things, spending a few dollars to replace your door hardware, faucets and 70s-era light fixtures will be  well worth it.  Skipping this step altogether will leave prospective buyers thinking you and your place are dowdy and out of touch with current trends. 

2) Clean Means Cared For

When prospective buyers enter your home, you better believe that they are going to notice every dust bunny on the floor and scuff mark on the wall... and worse, they'll extrapolate from every imperfection and assume your home is in much worse condition than it is if it isn't spic-and-span.

Bottom line: When your home is on the market, it must be spotless at all times and ready for a showing. If you have to pay a cleaner for that period to keep it that way, do so - it will be worth it when your home sells that much faster!   

3) Less is More

A common mistake made by homeowners, when they are trying to make their home look good, is to clutter every room with oversized furniture, knickknacks and decorative pieces. When you're trying to sell, try to remember the popular adage: K.I.S.S, Keep It Simple Stupid!

The more things you stack into every room, the smaller and less homey the room, and the house as a whole, will look.

4) Fur Better or Worse

You might think that your little Muffy or Fido is God's gift to humanity, and that all prospective homebuyers will share your love of pets. They won't. 

If you have pets, make sure to vacuum up fur ardently and erase all evidence of pets living in the home before showing it, so as not to defer potential buyers who aren't fond of animals, have allergies, etc.

5) Taste is Personal

By far the most common and largest error made by homeowners when trying to ready their home to be shown is to allow themselves to be blinded by personal taste.

When it comes to staging your home, neutral is the word of the day. You may think that your 4-green motif in the dining room is the cat's meow. Others might not be so enthused. 

You might think that the faux Picasso prints on the hallway wall bring the space to life. Browsers with a realist penchant will be turned off. (Now if you've a genuine Picasso print, then you can probably leave that hanging...)

As much as it pains you, the less personal you make the space before showing it, the better. This allows each new visitor to better imagine how they could and would make each room their own. 

After all, the sooner you sell this house, the sooner you can buy a new home and start decorating the rooms in that one any way you like!

Many of our readers, both on and offline ask a lot of questions about how to go about doing eco-friendly renovations. When we looked at online resources for do-it-yourself renovations a few weeks back, we highlighted The Green Home Guide, which is a great site for planning out ecologically-conscious home projects. But since this is a topic of such interest among our readers, we'd like to start our own on-going series here as well offering tips and tricks for making your renovations as green as possible. Today's topic? Paint.

Every renovation involves painting at some point. Whether you're doing a freshening coat, or building an addition to your home, at some point the walls are going to need some colour! That's why we want to start today with a look at how you can make this part of the reno earth-friendly.

Just to Clear the Air

When it comes to paint and the environment, the main consideration is the level of VOC's in the product. Volatile Organic Compounds are toxic fumes that leech out of the paint when you're working with it and afterwards. Many of these are thought to be carcinogens when exposure is prolonged. Obviously, the lower the level of VOC's in a paint, the better it is for both the earth... and your lungs. 

Paint companies have been making low and no-VOC paints for some time, but independent testers have found that each brand varies in the amount of smell they emit, regardless of labeling. 

One brand that has come up several times in our review of many comparative studies, however, is called Aura by Benjamin Moore.  So keep your eyes peeled for that one, available at any Benjamin Moore retailer. 

Other brands that have received top marks from independent testers are True Value Easy Care and Glidden Evermore. True Value is a US-only hardware store, but Glidden's should be available at any Color Your World location or ICI affiliate in North America.

What Goes Around...

While VOC's are the most common measure of a paint's ecological standing, another issue to consider is the life-cycle of the paint production process: the very system of creating paint (and disposing of it later) can be harmful to the environment in and of itself. 

One innovative company I have come across that tackles this issue is called Boomerang Recycled Paint.

Based out of Quebec, this company uses patented technologies to take unused, unwanted paint and mix it together to form completely recycled product for commercial or residential use. 

The color selection is more limited than most paint lines because of the challenges of combining multiple paint varieties into one can, but other than that, the paint is largely the same in finish and durability as any of the paints that go into it. And of course, you can rest easy in the knowledge that by using Boomerang, you're keeping toxic paints out of landfills, and that virtually no pollution was created to produce the product. Oh, and a a bonus, because of the savings of reusing discarded product, their prices are very competitive too!

You can visit their web site, linked above, to see if Boomerang serves your area.

Now the floor is yours: Are there any other Green-Painting tips that you'd like to share? If so, let us know in the comments, and we'll update the post with any additional tricks!

This year, Ottawa builder Richcraft is celebrating its 25th anniversary and as with all anniversaries, this one is a great time to reflect on the journey that has brought them to this point. So today, let's take a look at what the last quarter century has meant for one of Ottawa's most successful home construction companies.

Kris Singhal, the millionnaire CEO and owner, says the ride hasn't always been an easy one. 

Singhal grew up in New Delhi, India one of eight children of a lawyer. He and his wife Manju studied and prepared for a better life in Canada, and arrived in 1974. He was the only one of the siblings to emigrate.

He worked hard and continued formal studies, and in less than 10 years in his new country, he was established as a Canadian.

The Singhals had an upper-middle-class income, a secure job in government service at a management level, and could look forward to an indexed pension. They could make annual trips to New Delhi to visit family, and replace the family compact car every six years. Their two daughters could attend university.

What more could he want?

Fateful Decision

It was then that they decided to build their own home... without really knowing how. 

"At that time, if you sent me to the store to get a two-by-four, I wouldn't have known where to look, or what one looked like," says Singhal. 

But he never lacked confidence, and always believed that if somebody else could do something, he could too. (It just might take him a little longer.)

To save money, he decided not to buy from an established builder, but instead to buy a lot and build his own home on it.

Campeau Corporation was selling lots around the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, so they bought one. To build the house, they hired a contractor, and Singhal was there every day, watching and learning. The land was swampy and they had the unexpected and costly problem of building on a slab.

But finally, the day came when they could stand in front of their finished dream home.

Sadly, however they had to sell it almost immediately. They had built a home that, with all the cost overruns, was just out of their reach. Luckily, though, it sold quickly.

A Eureka! Moment

When it was all said and done, they looked at their bank account and had an epiphany...  They had just made a pile of money.

With that realization, Singhal asked for, and was granted, a one year leave-of-absence from his government job. They bought two more Hunt Club lots and got permission from Campeau to build two copies of the popular Bennington Ultra with 3,000 square feet of luxury living. He invested in a white hardhat and went to work as supervisor. The hours were long, but the new job gave him a feeling of freedom that no 9-5 would allow. 

A year later the houses were sold for handsome profits, and their bank account said they were on the right track. It was 1983, and they decided to give up job security and pension plan, and ride the rocket instead.

Sleepless in South Ottawa

When asked to give an example of the sleepless nights of an entrepreneur, Singhal admits: "I still have them. I look around me and I can't believe I've done this. I can't believe I've got so many people dependent on me to keep making decisions. Right decisions." 

He goes on to point out that there are 75 people employed at their 2280 St. Laurent Blvd. headquarters, and estimated there must be about 3,000 subtrades working with them.

Early on, he first placed a small ad in the Ottawa Citizen to sell his homes. He soon had as much work as he could handle, building custom homes for people who already owned the lots. That way, no large outlay of cash was needed.

Then came some sleepless nights after he sat down over a lunch with Campeau vice-president Vic Whittaker, and watched him scribble out a deal on a paper napkin. Singhal went to the meeting hoping to get some building lots. He left with a huge tract of land that is now the heart of the Hunt Club subdivision. The deal on the napkin was worth $14 million. For a man who didn't have that kind of money, it was terrifying.

Whittaker remembers that day, and says that's the way deals were done. His orders were to sell the land. Hardest part of the sale was convincing Singhal that the napkin, presented to the right bank manager, would close the deal.

Kris Singhal now found himself steering a corporation that had just blasted into hyperdrive. He talks about being frightened then, but there's no sign of fear now as the confident CEO sits in his polished headquarters, routinely making multi-million dollar deals. Often there isn't even a napkin. He can close a deal by telephone.

Richcraft homes are in singles, rows and highrises. It's getting difficult to maintain a count. Richcraft is one of the city's major players in the world of land banking, owning the majority of land in the city available for new construction.

Singhal is determined to never again let himself be caught thinking inside the box, as he had been accustomed to doing in his government job.

Aiming to Be Part of The Family

His mind is still reaching over the walls of Richcraft to the living rooms of those who buy his homes.

He thinks back to his year as a start-up contractor and says he doesn't want to ever forget what he learned from a happy customer who was impressed by his battered Chevy Malibu. It was to her a selling point that made her accept him as her builder. In her mind, home builders were a flashy lot. She wanted somebody she could trust, afford and work with.

"Building a home for somebody makes you almost a member of the family. There's a trust factor."

And here at New Home News, that's what we like to hear: builders aiming to create consumer trust, and that's what we're trying to help do with our free New Home Association builder-finding service, too.

(This story originally appeared in the Homes section of one of our partner publications, the Ottawa Citizen - interview and writing by Dave Brown. It has been edited for this blog's audience, but the original article can be accessed online here.)

In the last installment of our helpful series on foolproof ways to find a reliable contractor, we suggested looking up online directories published by relevant trade associations to get the names of contractors who are running legitimate businesses. 

Today, we'll look at a secondary source of reputable companies: Online Paid Directories.

Paid directories, as you would probably have guessed by the name, are services that can provide information about vetted contractors in your area who specialize in the type of work you require done. 

The downside to these types of services in comparison to Association Directories, for example, is that the contractors are not necessarily good simply because they appear in a paid directory (they did pay to appear there, after all.) However, I have found that most contractors who run a tight enough ship to pay for inclusion in these types of services are usually the kinds of contractors you will feel most comfortable dealing with (ie: the type who will finish your project without going bankrupt!)

So, without further ado, here are the top three Paid Directory Services tat I have come across on the web:

-Handy Canadian / Handy American

This site, which has a Canadian service at handycanadian.com and an American one at, you guessed it, handyamerican.com, lets your search by project type and region, and returns a healthy list of companies for most sections.

-Service Magic

This is probably the best known of the paid directory listings online. It also has both Canadian and American regions grouped together on the same site, and offers a great number of types of contractors for most regions.

-eRenovate.com

This site is a great one because it offers a great collection of listings, as well as articles and advice pieces from experts on many different renovation types. eRenovate also administers a verification program that aims to ensure all its contractors are legitimate and trustworthy. (One caveat: This site is Canada-only at this time.)

Local Variations

There are certainly others, but these are three of the biggest (and so tend to offer the most contractors in their respective directories.) Of course, these types of services also vary in effectiveness by country and region, so you should definitely supplement my suggestions here with a Google search that goes something like "Find a Contractor in MY CITY AND PROVINCE / STATE." 

You'll almost surely get a few local-focused directories as well, which can be just as useful as the bigger ones I've listed here. 

For example, a search like that for here in Ottawa uncovers a great locally run paid directory called HomeFocus.com, which has a veritable wealth of information about Ottawa contractors in any field you can imagine. (They are also expanding to other Canadian markets, but their strength is still clearly in Ottawa, where they started.)

A question we get a lot here from readers who are planning renovations on their home is how they can find reliable contractors to help get their project done. So in this on-going series, we'll look at different ways to do just that, online and offline. Today, let's dive in and discuss one great way to find trustworthy tradesmen using the vast resource that is the internet: Online Association Directories.

1) Leverage the Power of Governing Bodies

While the main purpose of most trade associations is to provide networking and partnership opportunities to their members, and provide their members with support relevant to their industry, etc., another role that these institutions often play is one of legitimization. 

That is to say that for many contractors, belonging to the flagship organization of their given industry can often be viewed as a sign that they run an above-board, legitimate enterprise and one that can be trusted implicitly.

This is not to say, of course, that all contractors who aren't members of their relevant associations are not running viable, reliable businesses. In fact, when I used to run my own painting company, I actually abstained from joining any industry associations, so I would by quite hypocritical to suggest as much!

But if you are wary of getting tangled up with one of those few bad egg contractors who make the lot of us look badly sometimes, then going the Association route can be a great first step towards greater peace of mind. 

Of course, I can't very well list every association for every trade and every region in this small space, but they do exist in plentiful abundance and should be fairly easy to find: Just go to Google (or your search engine of choice) and type in "TRADE TYPE, REGION, Association" and that should point you in the right direction. 

For example, if we were to search "Ottawa Builder Association", the first few results all point to one of our proud association partners, the Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association, which features a comprehensive directory of all its members (comprised of local builders as well as contractors who do a lot of new construction, and some renovators too. The reno-only section of the directory can be accessed here.)

Or say you were looking for an electrician in Ottawa for your renovation. A quick Google search for "Ottawa Electrician Association" brings us the Electrical Contractors Association of Ottawa as the topmost result. They too have a comprehensive directory of all their members. 

You get the idea. Now why not give it a try and see if you can find an Association for the type of contractor you need! As always, let us know in the comments how it goes. You can also suggest other ways to find contractors in the comments below and we'll feature as many as possible in future parts of this series.