I’m a real estate broker who started in the industry 13 years ago as a home stager. But my background is criminology. I have a Master’s degree in it and spent 18 years working for the Canadian government in federal corrections, mostly at national headquarters and a bit in operations. One of the saddest facts […]
5 Things NOT to Worry About Before Photo Day When You’re Selling Your House
I know it’s common for home stagers and real estate agents to talk about the things you should do to get ready for listing photos if you are putting up homes for sale as well as luxury apartments or furnished apartments for rent. Here, though, I’m going to provide a bit of relief and talk […]
An Elegant Old Beauty in NDG
A word on our blistering hot real estate market
If you know me, you know that I’m pretty temperate in the tone of my blogs and emails, that I don’t get off on ramping people up unnecessarily, and that I would never scream “Now is the time to sell!” just to artificially ramp up business. So it is somewhat surprising that I find myself […]
You Don’t Have to Wrestle Every Single Dollar Out of a Property
You really don’t. I know that sounds strange coming from a real estate broker but the truth is, at times there are things more important than a dollar – your sanity being one. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman whose dad had just passed away. She needs to sell her parents’ home and […]
Your Buyer is a Detective
Yup, that’s right. Your buyer is a detective. In fact, all buyers are. They’ve watched Holmes on Homes, listened to the Jon Eakes radio show and gone blurry-eyed from hours spent in front of HGTV. They’ve lost themselves in the glorious rabbit hole that is Houzz, gone to Home Depot workshops and googled “what to look […]
Montreal Home Staging Before and Afters
I wanted to share a few before and afters from a Montreal home staging project we did yesterday for a condo in N.D.G. We do have a method to our madness in Montreal home staging although after so many years in the business, the process is now pretty intuitive. Broken down to its most fundamental, we […]
Got clutter? Might be time to move.
Have you got clutter? A linen closet that takes a full-on tackle to close? A cabinet under the kitchen sink that looks like a product testing lab for household cleaning products? Bin upon bin in the basement that may or may not contain your grade 7 report card? Well, then, it might be time to move! […]
Is the shine on your ceiling like the shine on my forehead?
A funny cute charming annoying thing has happened as I [ahem] age “gracefully”: I have developed a mid-day shine on my forehead. Call it the development of combination skin commonly associated with women of a certain age, if you must. Better yet, just hand me a napkin and tell me to wipe it off. Which […]
All the home staging in the world won’t sell an over-priced home.
“All the home staging in the world won’t sell an over-priced home.” That’s what Nairn Friemann, a great New York home stager, told us during my first day of home staging training back in 2007. I was reminded of those words today as I went out to preview West Island homes for sale and saw […]
