Before we start, a personal note to you.
Go to the end of the post and click on all the social media buttons (facebook, twitter, google+) for which you have accounts. If you don't do that right now, you have to read the next paragraph.
Are you enjoying these? Make a comment and say so. Hate them? Make a comment and say so. Are you on facebook, twitter, google+? There are handy little buttons at the end of each post. Click on them whether you like this or not. Why? Because, as much fun as this is, it's also part of our business. It also fits nicely with one of our basics: When we do something with a marketing objective, we try to do it in a way that adds value. For example, when we send out self-promoting postcards, we put a frameable photograph by a local artist on the front. Same here. This is supposed to be entertaining and informative ... and it's marketing. If you "like" us, make comments, etc., we show up higher in searches, more people see us, read us, and occasionally call us for help with their real estate needs. And I don't feel like I'm writing this thing into a void.
Thanks in anticipation.
Now back to our regular programming.
"Staging" is stupid, deceptive and drives me nuts. We used a great stager and I know it helped sell our house. So, that about sums it up.
A little more detail ...
First, the rant.
Even before staging, there was the pretty kitchen syndrome. Two similar houses. One with new and updated wiring, roof, furnace, plumbing, beautifully maintained; not a lot of kitchen/bath/decor upgrades but whatever had to be done was done and done well. It has a "lived in" look as a result of raising a family and collecting a couple of decades of memories.
The other house has older systems and a bit of a musty smell in the basement, but the old carpets have been pulled and the floors stripped and urethaned, a few gallons of taupe applied, and a shiny new IKEA kitchen installed.
Guess which house sells first for more money.
Picking up on this syndrome, an entire "staging" industry developed.
Early on, we had the perfect house for staging. A young and handy couple with a family spent every last penny doing an outstanding job of reno'ing a house in a good solid middle-of-the-road neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the reno'd a little past the top end of the neighbourhood and all their money went to the reno and the kids. We had toys and tools, but no furniture. The house needed to be furnished and decorated in a manner befitting the budget of a buyer for this high quality renovated property. Enter the stager and a van load of rented furniture, art, bedding, pillows, etc. Perfect.
But then almost everybody started doing it. Houses didn't just have to be clean and solid. They had to be "decluttered" to the point of "unliveable". And it worked. The house that looked like magazine photo shoots of houses where no-one ever reads a magazine or uses a towel sold. The house that looked like real people lived in it just sat there.
With time, we thought it might get better. As people saw more and more staging and the media picked up on the trend, we thought clients were learn to see through staging and to see potential.
What happened? (go ahead, click)http://www.leadingthewayhome.com/Files/buzzer.wav
Instead it got worse. Now we could show clients 5 houses. 4 might be staged, one not. Previously, the 4 would sell first. Suddenly it was hard to even get your clients to go through the unstaged one.
It went from a reward for the staged to being a penalty for the unstaged. Buyers were even suspicious of why a seller wasn't staged. It all reminds me of what has happened to hitchhiking. In our youth, there were occasional hitching issues, but it was nonetheless quite common and positive. Now, I won't pick anybody up -- "what kind of person would be hitching?", and I would never hitch -- "what kind of person would pick me up?"
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
We're Moving! (part 6) How long has that been like that?
.jpg) |
| Yes, you! |
In spots, we even get a peek at the goat-puke green semi-gloss the place was covered in when we bought.
And Lee says: "We have to paint the bedroom". But Gord says: "It's fine". Lee: "I hate yellow". Gord: "But it's fine and it goes with the bedding". Lee says ... well, nothing really, but we're painting the bedroom.
Oh, jeez look at those nicks on the wall corners ... how are we going to deal with those? Paint the wall. Which is connected to another wall. Which is connected to a stairwell. etc.
You know those two drawer pulls that came apart and that you can't get anymore so you have to replace all the pulls in both bathrooms? Well, they only make screws that are 1/4 in. too short or 1/4 in. too long for the way the vanities were built.
I guess we never got around to framing that bathroom mirror, did we? It really would look better framed.
Lee: "We're painting the bathrooms, too" ... Gord: "Aw c'mon, they're great ... Those are 'treatments' and just the way the guy said that (with a certain trill and hand wave) I think cost us an extra $500" ... Lee: "I hate it. It's dated. I'm* painting the bathroom"
[update: an actual compromise ... with a little support from the painter, we agreed that only one washroom needed de-treatmenting. Which brings us to the asterisk. "I'm painting" means "someone other than me is painting"]
And so on.
[pause for hysterical laughter]
Without even applying the standard rule of thumb for Gord projects (double the estimate and take it to the next order of time ... 2 days = 4 weeks)
Simultaneously, we still have jobs, Gord is about 2 years behind on paperwork (courtesy of a very easy Quicken update that smoothly obliterated nearly a year of financial data just in time for the approaching tax season), and as our own agents we have a ton of work to do for our own listing.
Enter John Peirson of Inside Job (jrpeirson@gmail.com ... 647-864-4464), painter handyman and saviour ... good, nice, calm, quick and reasonable.
The lesson of course is that all that stuff that you never got around to because you were busy and it wasn't that big a deal or you barely noticed -- is the same stuff that you would notice in someone else's house and everyone will notice in yours and wonder if it reflects your careless general approach to home maintenance.
Next up: a vitriolic staging rant ... sort of
Friday, March 9, 2012
We're Moving! Part 5 ... Oh, the Horror
We're starting to look pretty good. We've filled up our garbage and recycling bins a few times, along with those of a neighbour or two. Bags of clothes have gone to good homes from Toronto to Mumbai and Africa. The locker is still navigable but starting to look like it's doing its job.
The sprucing up is on track (there will be a post on this), I guess I'd best deal with the home office.
Ask me how I feel about this?
I'm sorry. Can't talk any more. Must lay down. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. The thing is a room-size junk drawer. Breathe.
The sprucing up is on track (there will be a post on this), I guess I'd best deal with the home office.
Ask me how I feel about this?
I'm sorry. Can't talk any more. Must lay down. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. The thing is a room-size junk drawer. Breathe.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
We're Moving! (part 4) "Lock and Load"
The last episode mentioned "The Locker".
The phrase fills me with fear and trepidation. I've lost count of the number of clients who have rented a locker "just for the move". Years later ... still there, still full, still costing you money every month.
If this is you, go back to part 3 and listen to George Carlin again. No, wait, I'll make it even easier ... here's the link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
The best plan is to get rid of what you're getting rid of well before you list and before you get the temptress of a locker. But you won't. We didn't. Time sneaks up.
Lockers. Our first obvious rule was to be nearby. You can get better deals at Uncle Bo's Country Storage and Sheep Farm. But it'll cost you the difference in gas alone. And time is money. The exchange rate on "time" rises dramatically as listing day approaches.
Oddly enough, prices vary significantly among storage companies even within the same area and even after allowing for variables.
Variables?...it's a freaking closet! We mentioned location. Some are multilevel so you need to know about the loading dock, where the elevator is, what sort equipment you can use, etc. Heated or unheated. Security. Hours of access.
Another complication is "the deal". They all have a deal, sometimes several. A lot tend to be like the convert-your-credit-card scam. You know .... Huge print: "diddly squat interest rate" ... Little teeny tiny tiny print: "for the first 3 months" ... not printed at all: "then we screw you good". You need to figure out the real cost for a realistic time frame. Despite heeding my warning above and my claim in the last episode, I'll bet you should assume you'll have the thing a few months longer than you think.
Our winner. Advantage Self Storage's Toronto location on Warden Ave. Tracey was nice (most of the time, unless she thought you weren't paying attention), really knew her stuff, was very competitive and the place is five minutes from the house.
We ended up with a 10x10 foot locker, despite my pitch for a pair of 5x5's. I can justify a longer hold on one small locker for our work files and seasonal things if we end up in a storage-challenged condo. But price and availability convinced me. We can switch later if need be.
By the way, if you need a locker -- or some stuff to put in it -- give us a call. As Advantage tenants, we get a realtor discount for clients. We have discount cards.
Before I go, I'm going to yell at you about one more thing. GET A SYSTEM AND LABEL THE BOXES CAREFULLY.
There are spiffy computer apps out there to help with this, but I found them all problematic or clunky. We just started a list on our iPhones, numbered the boxes, and came up with a system for marking them for access ... some stuff we need easy and regular access to, some we hope to never look at until we empty the thing for good.
Where the hell did the dog's ashes go?
The phrase fills me with fear and trepidation. I've lost count of the number of clients who have rented a locker "just for the move". Years later ... still there, still full, still costing you money every month.
If this is you, go back to part 3 and listen to George Carlin again. No, wait, I'll make it even easier ... here's the link again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
The best plan is to get rid of what you're getting rid of well before you list and before you get the temptress of a locker. But you won't. We didn't. Time sneaks up.
Lockers. Our first obvious rule was to be nearby. You can get better deals at Uncle Bo's Country Storage and Sheep Farm. But it'll cost you the difference in gas alone. And time is money. The exchange rate on "time" rises dramatically as listing day approaches.
Oddly enough, prices vary significantly among storage companies even within the same area and even after allowing for variables.
Variables?...it's a freaking closet! We mentioned location. Some are multilevel so you need to know about the loading dock, where the elevator is, what sort equipment you can use, etc. Heated or unheated. Security. Hours of access.
Another complication is "the deal". They all have a deal, sometimes several. A lot tend to be like the convert-your-credit-card scam. You know .... Huge print: "diddly squat interest rate" ... Little teeny tiny tiny print: "for the first 3 months" ... not printed at all: "then we screw you good". You need to figure out the real cost for a realistic time frame. Despite heeding my warning above and my claim in the last episode, I'll bet you should assume you'll have the thing a few months longer than you think.
Our winner. Advantage Self Storage's Toronto location on Warden Ave. Tracey was nice (most of the time, unless she thought you weren't paying attention), really knew her stuff, was very competitive and the place is five minutes from the house.
 |
| only just begun... |
.jpg) |
| Our new home?? |
We ended up with a 10x10 foot locker, despite my pitch for a pair of 5x5's. I can justify a longer hold on one small locker for our work files and seasonal things if we end up in a storage-challenged condo. But price and availability convinced me. We can switch later if need be.
By the way, if you need a locker -- or some stuff to put in it -- give us a call. As Advantage tenants, we get a realtor discount for clients. We have discount cards.
Before I go, I'm going to yell at you about one more thing. GET A SYSTEM AND LABEL THE BOXES CAREFULLY.
There are spiffy computer apps out there to help with this, but I found them all problematic or clunky. We just started a list on our iPhones, numbered the boxes, and came up with a system for marking them for access ... some stuff we need easy and regular access to, some we hope to never look at until we empty the thing for good.
Where the hell did the dog's ashes go?
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
We're Moving! (Part 3) Too...Much...Stuff...A Lot
In the immortal words of George Carlin, "Have you noticed that their stuff is sh*t, but your sh*t is stuff?" For the rest of this classic bit, including a nice slam at our infatuation with homes, have a boo hear (language warning: he doesn't use asterisks) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
Both of our parents were packrats. Think entire closets full of knitting wool (Lee's Mom) and 6 full sets of Pyrex measuring cups (my mom). So we've been fighting the gene our whole lives.
But now it's time. Yes there will be a locker for the inevitable staging and for the interim period. A small one may even be needed longer term for records and seasonal stuff. But we are NOT keeping a 10x10 locker for more than a month after we move unless we're living in it.
So as well as the staging-decluttering, there is some true lose-it-never-to-be-seen-again decluttering.
The mantra has to be that stuff is just stuff. Only the memories are important. Need a memory jog? Take a pic and stash it in the computer's "locker", which is much smaller physically and easier to access than box 7, locker H112, second floor, Advantage Storage on Warden Ave.
The mantra is much easier to follow when you can find a good home, use ... or price for the stuff.
A great help here was Kathy Zaremba of Felicity Moving (www.felicitymoving.com). If the whole process is a little overwhelming, she can help with many aspects. As a result of her work, she also has a great knowledge of places where you can get rid of or sell various kinds of stuff.
My mother's wedding lingerie, however, I believe had her stumped. I mean, nobody wants it. Including me. But it's gorgeous, silk, 64 years old, and my Mom's. And the only solutions seem to be the garbage bin or torn up for rags. The mantra, the mantra, the mantra.
The dinky toy collection has been dramatically reduced. And I let go of the awesome white-handled six shooter with the actual bullets that take round caps ... Santa contacted me directly by letter one year to suggest that it was new and very cool and might be preferable the boring old standard two-gun capshooter I had requested. Interestingly, my father also thought it was very cool.
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Also, there is a teddy bear dressed in some of my toddler duds that still seems to be with us (recall my mother kept everything)
For our current clothing, the canadian diabetes folks will come and get it. Value Village is pretty good and there are legit charity bins at their store sites. Beware the bins in most places. Most have minimal or zero charity components -- they are just moneymaking ventures.
Goodwill is OK, but they are bugging me lately. Used to be they would take stuff and employ down-on-their-luck or challenged folks to repair, learn etc. Now, at least at one location that I will never enter again (Eglinton East), a very aggressive lady comes out, looks in the van and says "Can't sell that ... Don't want that ... That's no good, don't want it".
Excuse me dear, if you only want the good stuff you aren't much use to me ... If the van doesn't go home empty, you're wasting my time. The idea is that you decide what you can use and YOU dispose of the rest.
Same issue can pop up if you are getting rid of your skinny clothes, etc. Really good, still in style, barely used duds should be saleable at a consignment store. But many will have an absolute rule that they won't take anything over 2 years old. Back to the garbage bag and the diabetes folks.
I quickly confirmed that I didn't like dealing with stuff, so I went to Arizona golfing with the boys. What could go wrong with that approach?
Both of our parents were packrats. Think entire closets full of knitting wool (Lee's Mom) and 6 full sets of Pyrex measuring cups (my mom). So we've been fighting the gene our whole lives.
But now it's time. Yes there will be a locker for the inevitable staging and for the interim period. A small one may even be needed longer term for records and seasonal stuff. But we are NOT keeping a 10x10 locker for more than a month after we move unless we're living in it.
So as well as the staging-decluttering, there is some true lose-it-never-to-be-seen-again decluttering.
The mantra has to be that stuff is just stuff. Only the memories are important. Need a memory jog? Take a pic and stash it in the computer's "locker", which is much smaller physically and easier to access than box 7, locker H112, second floor, Advantage Storage on Warden Ave.
The mantra is much easier to follow when you can find a good home, use ... or price for the stuff.
A great help here was Kathy Zaremba of Felicity Moving (www.felicitymoving.com). If the whole process is a little overwhelming, she can help with many aspects. As a result of her work, she also has a great knowledge of places where you can get rid of or sell various kinds of stuff.
My mother's wedding lingerie, however, I believe had her stumped. I mean, nobody wants it. Including me. But it's gorgeous, silk, 64 years old, and my Mom's. And the only solutions seem to be the garbage bin or torn up for rags. The mantra, the mantra, the mantra.
The dinky toy collection has been dramatically reduced. And I let go of the awesome white-handled six shooter with the actual bullets that take round caps ... Santa contacted me directly by letter one year to suggest that it was new and very cool and might be preferable the boring old standard two-gun capshooter I had requested. Interestingly, my father also thought it was very cool.
h.JPG)
For our current clothing, the canadian diabetes folks will come and get it. Value Village is pretty good and there are legit charity bins at their store sites. Beware the bins in most places. Most have minimal or zero charity components -- they are just moneymaking ventures.
Goodwill is OK, but they are bugging me lately. Used to be they would take stuff and employ down-on-their-luck or challenged folks to repair, learn etc. Now, at least at one location that I will never enter again (Eglinton East), a very aggressive lady comes out, looks in the van and says "Can't sell that ... Don't want that ... That's no good, don't want it".
Excuse me dear, if you only want the good stuff you aren't much use to me ... If the van doesn't go home empty, you're wasting my time. The idea is that you decide what you can use and YOU dispose of the rest.
Same issue can pop up if you are getting rid of your skinny clothes, etc. Really good, still in style, barely used duds should be saleable at a consignment store. But many will have an absolute rule that they won't take anything over 2 years old. Back to the garbage bag and the diabetes folks.
I quickly confirmed that I didn't like dealing with stuff, so I went to Arizona golfing with the boys. What could go wrong with that approach?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
We're Moving! (Part 2) Explain this to me again.
Why are we doing this?
We absolutely love our neighbourhood and house. The garden is outstanding and backs onto a "secret" park. That park has done good things for my chipping game.
But ...
A bunch of good reasons and some that seemed good at the time came together.
Although I do own a recliner chair, WE ARE NOT RETIRING !!!!!
But it is probably past time for thinking about and planning for retirement. Our parents had a fairly long list of bad moves after the nests were empty. A few of those mistakes involved waiting a few years too long to move, then whining about why they didn't do it years earlier. So in the usual way of parents and kids, we are probably bailing too early.
Bailing early will give us a few years to figure out what we can live with. It's pretty unlikely we'll discover we are happiest in a basement apartment somewhere that has monthly visits from Aetna. We hope it's unlikely that we will be knocking on our old door in two years trying to buy it back. There is a lot of room in between.
I have a theory that smart, adaptive people will move way more often in the decades post-55 than in the decades pre-55. It's all about focusing your energy on the stuff you want to do and a little less on the stuff you have to do.
Downsizing is quite a neat way to convince yourself that you have added to your savings nest egg... so long as you don't get distracted by the silly thought that it is just swapping one asset for another and we have no clue whether our house is smarter or dumber than our financial advisor. Lately the house has looked pretty smart, but the financial advisor has also had his moments. Maybe if we give him some more money to play with he'll stop phoning in the middle of the night to tell us that there's a 57% chance that the sky is falling.
WE DO NOT THINK THE MARKET IS CRASHING !!!
We long ago realized that we know enough to know that we don't know when, if, or how much the market will correct. Our biggest worry today is that so many "smart" people now are saying the same as what our best guess has been for a few years: growth will likely at least slow and maybe correct gently in a while, for a while. When the analysts start to agree with each other, something else is going to happen ... when they start agreeing with us ... that's really spooky!
Lee has changed her tune. She used to love gardening. She still loves her garden. There's a difference. I am scared to death that the next phase would require me to help with the gardening. Gotta move.
There are some gimpy body bits that have something to do with this ... could be the mangled neck vertebrae and arthritic bits can only handle mass quantities of either garening or golf. I am thrilled that she has made the obvious and brilliant choice. Though she still has to find time for golf and her nasty singing habit.
Our dog died. Sounds silly, but Mallaig was one of the things that anchored us to the place. That made us full empty-nesters. And, of course, being dogless opens up several options.
1...2...3...
How many properties do you really want to maintain? We have a condo in Florida that we occasionally get to visit, and a cottage ... that we occasionally get to visit. Maybe a condo would be a significant property management simplification.
You know, when I read this over, it's not nearly as compelling an argument as it seemed a couple of months ago .... OMG, What Have We Done !?
Next up: back to dealing with the stuff
We absolutely love our neighbourhood and house. The garden is outstanding and backs onto a "secret" park. That park has done good things for my chipping game.
But ...
A bunch of good reasons and some that seemed good at the time came together.
Although I do own a recliner chair, WE ARE NOT RETIRING !!!!!
But it is probably past time for thinking about and planning for retirement. Our parents had a fairly long list of bad moves after the nests were empty. A few of those mistakes involved waiting a few years too long to move, then whining about why they didn't do it years earlier. So in the usual way of parents and kids, we are probably bailing too early.
Bailing early will give us a few years to figure out what we can live with. It's pretty unlikely we'll discover we are happiest in a basement apartment somewhere that has monthly visits from Aetna. We hope it's unlikely that we will be knocking on our old door in two years trying to buy it back. There is a lot of room in between.
I have a theory that smart, adaptive people will move way more often in the decades post-55 than in the decades pre-55. It's all about focusing your energy on the stuff you want to do and a little less on the stuff you have to do.
Downsizing is quite a neat way to convince yourself that you have added to your savings nest egg... so long as you don't get distracted by the silly thought that it is just swapping one asset for another and we have no clue whether our house is smarter or dumber than our financial advisor. Lately the house has looked pretty smart, but the financial advisor has also had his moments. Maybe if we give him some more money to play with he'll stop phoning in the middle of the night to tell us that there's a 57% chance that the sky is falling.
WE DO NOT THINK THE MARKET IS CRASHING !!!
We long ago realized that we know enough to know that we don't know when, if, or how much the market will correct. Our biggest worry today is that so many "smart" people now are saying the same as what our best guess has been for a few years: growth will likely at least slow and maybe correct gently in a while, for a while. When the analysts start to agree with each other, something else is going to happen ... when they start agreeing with us ... that's really spooky!
Lee has changed her tune. She used to love gardening. She still loves her garden. There's a difference. I am scared to death that the next phase would require me to help with the gardening. Gotta move.
There are some gimpy body bits that have something to do with this ... could be the mangled neck vertebrae and arthritic bits can only handle mass quantities of either garening or golf. I am thrilled that she has made the obvious and brilliant choice. Though she still has to find time for golf and her nasty singing habit.
1...2...3...
How many properties do you really want to maintain? We have a condo in Florida that we occasionally get to visit, and a cottage ... that we occasionally get to visit. Maybe a condo would be a significant property management simplification.
You know, when I read this over, it's not nearly as compelling an argument as it seemed a couple of months ago .... OMG, What Have We Done !?
Next up: back to dealing with the stuff
Monday, March 5, 2012
We're Moving ! part 1
We're moving!
Sitting on the lanai with a G&T in December a whole bunch of things came into alignment. No, we aren't retiring or moving to a commune or a cabin in the woods. But a lot of things added up to: simplify, downsize, etc.
Now, our Realtors (that's us, remember?) told us that such a decision should be made in ample time to go to market at the perfect time, if possible.
We didn't, of course.
In this market, for the past several years, the Buyers appear shortly after New Year's dinner. Sellers, meanwhile, need some time to tune up the house. This phenomena explains a fair chunk of the annual January/February lunacy ... lots of buyers, few sellers.
We already thought we empathized well with our clients around the stresses of a move, no matter how positive the experiences and outcomes. We now REALLY empathize ... the tummy-tightening hit the instant we realized we had actually made a decision.
We also immediately reinforced a thought we have had before: As stressful and inconvenient as moving is, everyone should move at least every five years just to force a decluttering and junk-clearing. We haven't moved for 21 years. Oh dear.
I thought a blog of our moving experience might be interesting, both for those thinking of moving themselves and for those who take a perverse joy in the misery of others.
Events seem to have passed by blog-writing, but I did manage to keep notes. So the blog will come out in bit-size pieces. Subscribe to be sure you don't miss an episode ... there may be violence and bad language, but probably no sex!
Sitting on the lanai with a G&T in December a whole bunch of things came into alignment. No, we aren't retiring or moving to a commune or a cabin in the woods. But a lot of things added up to: simplify, downsize, etc.
Now, our Realtors (that's us, remember?) told us that such a decision should be made in ample time to go to market at the perfect time, if possible.
We didn't, of course.
In this market, for the past several years, the Buyers appear shortly after New Year's dinner. Sellers, meanwhile, need some time to tune up the house. This phenomena explains a fair chunk of the annual January/February lunacy ... lots of buyers, few sellers.
We already thought we empathized well with our clients around the stresses of a move, no matter how positive the experiences and outcomes. We now REALLY empathize ... the tummy-tightening hit the instant we realized we had actually made a decision.
We also immediately reinforced a thought we have had before: As stressful and inconvenient as moving is, everyone should move at least every five years just to force a decluttering and junk-clearing. We haven't moved for 21 years. Oh dear.
I thought a blog of our moving experience might be interesting, both for those thinking of moving themselves and for those who take a perverse joy in the misery of others.
Events seem to have passed by blog-writing, but I did manage to keep notes. So the blog will come out in bit-size pieces. Subscribe to be sure you don't miss an episode ... there may be violence and bad language, but probably no sex!
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