Hey there Sellers! Are you ready to sell your home and move on to your next adventure?
Great! But before you do, there are a few things you need to take care of. And by “a few things,” I mean cleaning everything. Yes, everything.
Clean Everything.
Let’s start with the baseboards. You know those things that nobody ever looks at? Well, I hate to break it to you, but people are going to be looking at them now. So, get down on your hands and knees and scrub those suckers until they shine. Trust me, buyers will notice the difference.
Deep clean the baseboards.
Replace burned-out bulbs.
Next up, light bulbs. you ever walked into a room and noticed a burned-out light bulb? It’s not a good look. So, go through your entire house and make sure every single light bulb is working. And while you’re at it, replace any old or dim bulbs with brighter ones. Buyers love a well-lit home.
Replace any non functioning light bulbs and make sure all the bulbs are the same colour.
Wash your cold air return vents.
Now, let’s talk about cold air return vents. know, those things on the wall that suck in all the dust and dirt in your home? Yeah, those. Take them off and give them a good wash. Not only will it make your home look cleaner, but it will also improve your air quality. Win-win!
Clean the vent covers. (And for bonus points, have the vents professionally cleaned)
Dust everything.
Finally, dust everything. I mean everything. Shelves, tables, picture frames, you name it. Nothing turns off a buyer faster than a layer of dust on everything. So, grab a duster and get to work.
Dust everything.
It’s worth it.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But Leah, this sounds like a lot of work.” And you’re right, it is. But it’s also worth it. A clean, well-maintained home will sell faster and for more money than a dirty one. So, put on your cleaning gloves and get to work. And if all else fails, hire a professional cleaner.
Good luck, sellers! May your baseboards be shiny, and your light bulbs be bright.
If you’re thinking of selling your home, curb appeal is something you should be considering.
When you list your home, potential buyers will often decide whether to view it or not based on what your photos look like, and the most popular anchor photo (the first photo that pops up on the listing) is the exterior of your home.
You really want to make a good first impression which is why curb appeal, proper listing preparation, presentation, and professional photography are so important.
Once the potential buyers get to your home, they’re going to see the exterior first, and over the years I have had several sets of buyers decide to not view a home at all, once they see the exterior of the home in person.
Curb appeal involves more than adding pots of pretty flowers.
Sunken driveways, (common problem in YEG and surrounding areas) peeling paint on window frames, a yard full of weeds or dog waste, (or both) crumbling concrete steps, rotten wooden steps, broken or missing downspouts, curling shingles, and leaking gutters are just some of things that put buyers off.
When a buyer is shopping for their dream home, unless the buyer is looking for a renovation project, they usually want a home that they can move straight in to, without having to spend a lot of money on costly repairs immediately.
We’ve been in this home for 12 years now and whilst we are not considering moving, the exteriors of our homes need care and attention just like the interiors do, so over the last couple of summers I’ve been fixing up some of the exterior issues.
This year we decided to focus on the drive which had dropped quite a lot, on one side in particular.
Driveway before the lift.
Why should you care about a sunken driveway?
It’s very common to see sunken driveways. I am no expert on driveway construction but after getting several quotes, one of the common causes seems to be that the ground beneath them wasn’t properly prepared before the concrete was poured. When that ground settles, your driveway sinks as there is no longer anything to support it.
You may wonder why a buyer would be put off by a sunken driveway when it is a common issue here in Edmonton and the most obvious reason of course is the cost to repair. Depending on the size of your driveway and the amount that it has dropped, it may well end up costing several thousand dollars to lift, and lots more if you decide to replace it entirely.
In addition to not having thousands of extra dollars to devote to a driveway when they are just about to make what may be the biggest financial purchase of their lives, buyers are often concerned about how much damage to car tires a significant bump up from the drive to the garage will do as well. Attending to a sunken driveway may be one of the jobs to put on your to do list, particularly if the drop is very noticeable.
A home inspection will point out exterior flaws.
Another thing to note is that even if the buyers don’t really notice the driveway drop that much on that first viewing of your home, if they decide to proceed with an offer, it’s highly likely they will have a home inspection condition and their home inspector is going to point it out to them, which may lead some buyers to ask for a price reduction.
Once we decided this would be the year of the drive, we started asking friends, colleagues, and some of my clients, for recommendations for companies that specialise in concrete lifting and leveling and then after reading reviews, asked three to provide us with quotes.
All three of the companies came out to see us quickly, all three provided us with good information on the process and their quotes were very similar.
It was a difficult choice just because all three companies were so professional and answered the questions we had, but we did make a decision, and it worked out great.
Do you need to do anything to prepare?
Each company mentioned in their quotes that we were responsible for making sure any underground utilities were marked, so we made sure to contact Click Before you Dig, to have those lines marked. You do need to contact them at least 3 business days before the work is done, and their markings are valid for 30 days. You can see the little flags in this photo –
Red and yellow flags mark the underground utilities.
You can’t see it very well in the above photo, but in addition to showing the location of the underground utilities, the company we chose to lift our driveway had run a line across from the top of our driveway to a spot just beyond the big dip (secured by the brick in the photo)to show how much the drive had sunk in that area and therefore, how much it would need to be lifted.
In order to lift the drive, small holes were drilled in the concrete to inject the product (this will differ depending on whether you opt for mudjacking or polyurethane) under the concrete.
Little holes are drilled in the concrete to inject the product under the concrete.
Funnily enough, after the work was completed, our neighbours who came over to take a look were surprised because they couldn’t see any holes!
Driveway after it’s been lifted.
One of the concerns we had was the tripping hazard that had been caused by one part of our drive lifting as it met the sidewalk to our front door, and thankfully once the driveway was lifted, it leveled out again.
The sidewalk is no longer a tripping hazard.
As you can see, it looks much better now and if we ever do decide to move, the sunken drive will not be an impediment to our sale.
If you’re thinking of working on your homes curb appeal this year, but aren’t quite sure which part to prioritise, reach out to your agent early for some tips!
My sister Sarah, Pat Greenwood, (owner/creator of the Great She Shed) and me.
I’ve been thinking for some time about starting a blog to accompany my newsletter, with real estate related content interspersed with some real estate adjacent stories.
Those of you who know me, know that I was born and raised in England and only moved to Canada in 2007.
Back in England I was lucky enough to meet Pat Greenwood who was our neighbour, and Pat could do just about anything. She is one of life’s truly inspirational humans, meeting challenges head on with positivity, grit and determination and she’s had more than her fair share of challenges.
At the start of this pandemic, Pat was doing cooking lessons on her Facebook page, keeping up the spirits of all those who are lucky enough to know her, and she and her friend Kelly Waddington decided they needed a project.
I’d been seeing Instagram and Pinterest posts for some time about “man caves” and suites that you could put a home office in at the bottom of your garden (yard), and every now and then I’d see something for women, but nothing like this.
In November of 2021, I finally got to fly to England to see my parents, and while I was there, I was able to pop in and see Pat and this amazing shed and I thought some of you might be inspired by it too, so I did a little Q & A with Pat for this, my first blog post.
Pat Greenwood.
Let me start with a little introduction to Pat, I asked her to tell you a little bit about herself and her friend Kelly.
“Hi, I’m Pat, Wife, Mum, Grandma, and workaholic! I’m a Cook and Pudding Maker by trade but diverted to work in TV and film as an extra and then working as a wardrobe assistant on films, and three series of “Last of the Summer Wine.” Due to ill health, I had to slow down a little, but not much!!!
Kelly my young friend is 26 years younger than me and had helped me make a pond and a patio. She’s fab at anything and everything. When we were locked down, I said I wanted her to help me build a “She Shed.” When I showed her where it would go, she said “it won’t fit!.” I said, “oh yes it will, we will build it around the tree and then build in front of the garden shed.” So that’s how it began.”
The She Shed in November, 2021.
Q & A.
I asked Pat to answer some questions about the project and she was kind enough to respond:
Why did you decide to commit to building the shed?
“If we were going to be locked down, then I needed a project or two.”
What was important to you when you were planning to build it?
“The most important thing to us when we started was that it had to be big enough to be worthwhile and it had to be different!”
Was it very expensive to do?
“We had to make sure we could afford the shed! So we started by looking at marketplace and Ebay and local sites for things we could upcycle. The Shed costs came in around £1200 in total” (that’s around $2020)
Did it require any kind of planning permission? (Here in Canada we often need permits for all manner of things including larger sheds)
“No planning permission was needed because we kept within the allowances in the U.K.”
Did you create a very specific plan or did you wing it a little?
“The whole shed was winged! No plans were drawn, just measuring and buying wood from the wood merchant”
How long did it take you?
“The shed took eight weeks to build on and off. I did all the labouring, digging, removing 23 barrows of muck before we could start laying the foundation.”
What was your favourite part?
“I think the best bit was sourcing the leaded windows and flags, stones and wood. Going to all the different places to pick up what we had bought, then cutting the leaded windows down to fit.”
How often do you use it?
“I have my 95 year old mum living with us, so I try to go in my shed every day or every other day even if it’s just for a bit, but usually a little longer. I now have electricity in there.
We were really excited to see it, have you had other people just dying to take a look?
“I sent the shed to Air BnB to see what they thought, not realising they would put it on the site for letting. The bookings started coming the day after. Of course, I haven’t let it, but it’s lovely to know that people love it as much as we do.”
If you were going to do it again, would you do anything differently?
“I don’t think I’d do anything differently other than making it bigger and putting in a toilet and shower, so my guests could stay independently.”
Has it been a rewarding experience?
“It has been the most rewarding thing to do. We have also nearly completed a potting shed to go opposite to it too!”
As we head towards the warmer months here in Alberta, perhaps you’re thinking of a project like this for your own yard. Take a look at some of the photos from Pat and Kelly’s project and a sneak peak of the “potting shed” and remember to check out your local municipality websites for details of any permits you might need!
