WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE
INSIDER SEPTEMBER 2013
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Inside this Issue: How Much Home Do You Need? Making The Most of Small Kitchens Toronto Wins Dubious Honour of Longest Canadian Commute Times Pricing Your Home to Sell Remodeling Can Be A Home Wrecker Why Canadians Can’t Buy Flood Insurance
Wayne Cochrane...www.mooving.ca Your Neighbourhood Real Estate Professional
SEPTEMBER ISSUE
How Much Home Do You Need?
Written by Broderick Perkins
Your lender may be willing to loan you a mint, but do you really need that much house?
backyard family, you can't buy most condos. If you live small, a big house won't cut it.
Even comparison shopping with a site like LendingTree might not be enough to put you in the right mortgage.
You may need an extra room for an office, study, artwork or sleepingover space for relatives who never go home.
Likewise, a good real estate agent won't just ask you to determine the house you want based on the loan you can get, because you might not be able to carry the mortgage. Home much home you really need isn't simply based on your borrowing health, according to Hans Brings, vice president and broker with Coldwell Banker in Waltham, MA.
"Ask yourself questions about how you spend your time. Where do you spend the majority of your time in your current home? If the answer is "outside," then you probably don't need a lot of indoor space," Brings says Likewise, if your tribe gathers in a living space, you'll need one that's a comfortable fit for the gang.
We emailed Brings to pick his brain about what else you need to consider.
Bedrooms, bathrooms
"Have you stopped to think about what you need?" asked Brings, emphasizing the "need."
Family size and needs also come into play when you consider how many bedrooms and bathrooms you'll need.
Brings says your wants should be flexible, negotiable points. Your home owning needs are what truly matters. Brings says you'll also have to be flexible with your needs, not so much either-or, but more-or-less.
If you have a penchant for entertaining, you'll have to throw that into the bedroom-bathroom mix. You'll want a strategically placed bath or half bath nearby on the ground floor, to keep guests from ogling your private master bedroom.
Family size First consider the size of your family and your family's life style. If you are a
If you host really large crowds, you may need a second downstairs bath, maybe off the game room, the
guestroom or in the basement, but away from your personal spaces, says Brings. Kitchens, family rooms "If you're a cook, you may also look for more storage in the kitchen as well as larger, commercial styled appliances," Brings suggested Gourmet cooks want the latest appliances and lots of storage room. Kitchen islands and pantries can help with both. The island can double as party central and a family meeting center - with nosh to nibble on. Many homes today forego formal dining spaces and add more informal space in enlarged kitchens to meet all casual and gourmet dining needs, entertainment habits and family gathering needs. Today's kitchens are also typically just off the family room, today's second most important room in the home. This is also where families gather and where parties overflow. Brings says, when it's time to buy, how you and your family live often has a lot more to do with the home you choose, than how much money you can borrow. Be smart about it. Written By Broderick Perkins
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WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE INSIDER Making the Most of Small Kitchens Written by Phoebe Chunchua Many people complain about small kitchens but tiny spaces aren't always to be dreaded. If you're selling your home and your kitchen is, well, compact, know that you can find ways to achieve big appeal with a little creativity.
Bring in the light. Sometimes small kitchens can be dark, making them feel even smaller. But if you remove the curtains from any windows in your small kitchen, it'll let light in and open up the area. Instead of curtains, you can use small blinds that are recessed inside the frame of the window. These are easy to clean and still provide some privacy even when the blinds are open. De-Clutter the counter tops and the walls. Most people have a tendency to let kitchen clutter build up on the counter tops and walls. Removing items from the counters, kitchen table, and even off the walls will make the space feel bigger. Yes, I know these items on the counters are useful but when you're selling your home, a little inconvenience may help you receive a higher offer and you'll probably agree, that's worth it! Take the appliances
Give me a call... Wayne Cochrane EXIT Realty Metro wayne@mooving.ca (902) 830-4761 (902)
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and either store them in the kitchen cabinets or, if there isn't enough room, pack them up. You're moving soon, anyway. Clearing off photos and miscellaneous papers that are stuck on your refrigerator door or kitchen walls will also help make your kitchen look bigger. If you're tight for space, mounted storage units can be added to your kitchen walls to free up limited counter-top space. But again, too many storage units, even the decorative kind, will give people a feeling like the walls are closing in on them. The same goes for hanging pot racks from the ceiling. Be sure to leave some open wall space and to use storage units that aren't completely solid. The open units, if the shelves aren't stuffed, will give a less closed-in feeling.
Opt for lighter and brighter wall color. Going with lighter colors tends to open up a room. Light and bright colors are also very inviting and friendly, making them a perfect choice for the kitchen. You can use a darker accent trim to create some contrast. You can also use decorations including floral
arrangements or even some colorful kitchen appliances to add spice to the kitchen. Wall-mounted appliances and reduced counter-top depth. Wallmounted or under-the-cabinetsmounted appliances can save valuable kitchen counter-top space. You might even have a way to wallmount your kitchen faucet. In one small home design, the faucet was mounted to the wall, creating a very distinctive look. The counter-top was a standard 24 inches deep but elsewhere the counter-top was reduced just slightly down to 21 inches–very subtle and hardly noticeable but it allowed more floor space in a tiny kitchen. Small kitchens don't have to be an eyesore. Some even prefer less space because there's less to clean. If you know the audience you're marketing your home to, you can play up the home's best features–including, perhaps, a small, quaint, and simple kitchen.
Written By Phoebe Chungchua
SEPTEMBER ISSUE Toronto Wins Dubious Honour Of Longest Canadian Commute Times Written By Jim Adair Canadian cities have seen resurgence in recent years as living downtown has become popular. Condominiums in city centres continue to attract everyone from first-time buyers to downsizing seniors.Yet one look at the packed roads leading into the city shows that suburban living is not dead. Improving the infrastructure for overloaded roads and public transit is a hot topic across the country. Until the roads, rails and bike lanes are improved, the daily commute continues to be the worst part of the day for many people. A recent study by Erica Sandow of Umea University in Sweden says that if you commute more than 45 minutes to work, you’re more likely to get a divorce than people who have shorter commutes. Several studies have blamed the daily commute for health issues. "Each additional hour spent in a car per day was associated with a six per cent increase in the likelihood of obesity," says a 2004 paper by Lawrence Frank, from the School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, who wrote the paper with colleagues Marten Andresen and Thomas Schmid. "Conversely, each additional kilometre walked per day was associated with a 4.8-per-cent reduction in the likelihood of obesity." A more recent U.S. study says that long commutes promote a sedentary lifestyle - the further you have to drive to work, the less likely you are to exercise. "Other studies on long passive commuting have shown short-term negative health effects such as stress, fatigue, sleep disturbances, low selfrated health and wellbeing, work/ family conflict and increased sick absences," says Dr. James Aw, medical director of the Medcan Clinic in Toronto, writing in the National Post. "Suburbs might be better for families, if you simply consider the kids’ needs in a vacuum. But what
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about adult needs? Are the suburbs so great for families if they’re killing the adults who live there?" Statistics Canada reports that in 2011, Canadian commuters spent an average of 25.4 minutes travelling to work - almost the same as the U.S. average, which was 25.5 minutes. The Toronto area had the longest commute times at 32.8 minutes. This is close to the average in the New York/Northern New Jersey/Long Island area, which took 34.7 minutes. After Toronto, the longest Canadian commute times were Oshawa, Ont. at 31.8 minutes, Montreal at 29.7 minutes, Barrie, Ont. at 29.6 minutes, Vancouver at 28.4 minutes, Calgary at 27 minutes, Abbotsford, B.C. at 26.7 minutes and Edmonton at 25.6 minutes. The city with the shortest commute in the survey was Saguenay, Que. at 16.9 minutes. Statistics Canada says that the averages "do not reflect the experience of all commuters. For some, travel times are considerably longer. In Canada, 17.2 per cent of commuters usually took 45 minutes or more to get to work." Not surprising, those who work in the Toronto area were the largest percentage of this group. Across the country, those who used a private vehicle took an average of 23.7 minutes to get to work, while bus riders took 40.6 minutes, subway riders took 44.6 minutes and those who commute on streetcars, light rail or commuter train took 52.5 minutes. People who walked to work took an average of 12.7 minutes, while cyclists took 20 minutes. About 15.4 million Canadians commute to work each day, while about 1.1 million work at home. Four out of five people used a private vehicle to get to work. Seventy-four per cent of commuters drove their
own vehicle and 5.6 per cent were passengers. Only 12 per cent of all Canadian commuters used public transit for the largest part of their trip in 2011 - up one per cent from the 2006 census results. Of public transit users, 63 per cent travelled by bus, 25 per cent by subway or elevated rail, 11.2 per cent by light rail, streetcar or commuter train and 0.3 per cent by ferry. Just 5.7 per cent of commuters, or 880,800, walked to work and 201,800 (1.3 per cent) cycled. The city with the largest percentage of "active transportation" - walking or cycling was Victoria, B.C., where 10 per cent of commuters walked and 5.9 per cent cycled to work. Other cities that had a higher proportion of walkers were Kingston, Ont. and Halifax. The cities with the highest proportion of private vehicle users were Saguenay, Que., Brantford, Ont. and Trois-Rivieres, Que.Just over 29 per cent of commuters leave for work between 7 am and 8 am; about 22 per cent leave between 8 am and 9 am. Statistics Canada says 6.4 per cent of commuters are early-birds, leaving home between 5 am and 6 am, and 18 per cent leave between 6 am and 7 am. Written By Jim Adair
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WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE INSIDER Pricing Your Home To Sell Written by Kristen Brown How much your home is worth to you and how much it is considered to be worth in the real estate market can be two very different numbers. If you're planning to put your home up for sale, one of the most important factors in making a quick sale is pricing the property correctly. Your real estate agent can be your guide in making this all-important decision, but there are a few important guidelines for you to remember so that you understand how to put a price tag on your home without letting sentiment get in the way of sense. It's obvious that pricing your home too high for its value or your neighborhood can mean it might end up sitting on the market. Pricing it too low means that you're losing potential revenue and leaving money on the table. By pricing your home "just right," you will not only ensure that it will appraise for approximately the same value (increasing the likelihood that your buyer will secure financing), but you will likely see an offer or two – and if you're lucky, multiple offers.
homes you research are in the same school district as yours and the neighborhood is generally the same as your own. You'll want to focus on homes with approximately the same square footage and number of bedrooms that are a similar age, condition and style home with comparable features and upgrades. All of these factors will help determine how a home is priced. Once you have a "feel" for comps in your area, your agent can help you decide how your home stacks up. Using his or her expertise can be helpful if you don't have a lot of specifics about how your home compares against others in terms of features and upgrades, additions, or renovations.
Your agent will be able to tell you about market conditions and may point out any special features or deficits that might affect your listing price. Your agent will also be more objective about whether the unique aspects of your home that you may love (for example, a swimming pool So, what is the best way to or an in-law suite) will hold the same determine how you should price your appeal for buyers when you try to home? It's best to look at recent, sell. comparable sales, or "comps" in your neighborhood or surrounding area. Your real estate agent should With the market in better shape now be able to pull this information for than in recent years and inventory you, but you can get an idea of levels low, your chances of selling recent sales from various Internet your home quickly are good – but this still depends greatly on pricing. sites as well as public record. With a little research and the expert advice of your agent, you'll be able To determine which homes you to price your home just right to make should compare against your own, that sale. you'll want to target a search area of about a quarter- to half-mile radius around your house. It helps if the Written By Kristen Brown
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Brain Teasers What does this represent? COF FEE
Why are man-hole covers round?
Go to www.mooving.ca - ‘About Wayne’ and click on ‘Monthly Newsletter Trivia’ for the answers. Page 5
SEPTEMBER ISSUE Remodeling Can Be A Home Wrecker By Broderick Perkins Remodeling is relationships.
hazardous
to
some
More than one in ten couples admit to considering separation or divorce during a home improvement project. For many, the home is the heart of many homeowners' lives. Having it ripped apart for weeks or months can be a real heartbreaker. Tremendous emotional stress can cause a rift that strains even the strongest relationships. While 46 percent of homeowner couples found remodeling with their significant other to be collaborative, an equal percentage found the experience frustrating and 12 percent admitted the job threatened their relationship, according to a new survey from Houzz.com, a Palo Alto-based, online construction zone for designing, planning and sharing a remodeling project. Things could get worse before they get better. More and more homeowners are remodeling to take advantage of growing home values as well as to create a more livable, lovable home. Remodeling is up 5.3 percent from the first to second quarter this year and up 8.6 percent from a year ago.
percent weren't afraid to tell their spouse so. Honesty doesn't always work. Fortytwo percent of respondents reported being stuck with crap they hated, but weren't allowed to get rid of. One in five went ahead and trashed their love partner's stuff without telling them. Knickknacks weren't the problem. A disdain for old furniture created the most problems, followed by posters and artwork, mounted antlers, hunting trophies, wood paneling and outdated magazines. When couples are at loggerheads, some partners take control on their own.
What miffs remodeling couples? Houzz found that conflicting tastes can be a major point of contention. One third of previously happily married homeowners said they disliked their significant other's design style and 76
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Mind the money - Avoid financial stress by agreeing upon an upfront stick-to-it budget. Research costs for materials and professional work. Then, make a list of items both partners need to approve, including wall color, kitchen appliances and electronics. Houzz offers a cost finder and similar services are available around the Internet for comparison purposes.
Wiritten By Broderick Perkins
One in five respondents said they made a major remodeling decision without telling their partner, including tearing down walls, picking paint colors and choosing furniture and appliances. When the dust cleared, so did thoughts of splitting up. Four out of five couples said they felt more relaxed in their home, 42 percent entertain more and 41 percent report an increase in happiness with their significant other. Preventing break-ups
By this time next year, remodeling is expected to move higher, growing by 11.3 percent, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) recently released by the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Study's Remodeling Futures Program.
Both partners should be prepared to give up something they value. If one partner can't part with a loved object, be prepared for the other partner to do likewise.
So how do you keep the relationship intact when your home is being ripped apart? Compromise - Before beginning any project, each partner should browse photos, idea books and images and use other visualization aids to find preferred styles. Have a date to share styles and find common ground to establish a style both can live with. Negotiate - If the mounted antlers must go, give up the velvet Elvis paintings.
Give me a call... Wayne Cochrane 406-SOLD
WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE INSIDER Why Canadians Can’t Buy Flood Insurance Written by Jim Adair Flooding in Canada is getting worse. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) estimates the industry pays out $1.7 billion per year in claims due to water damage, and that doesn't include bills from massive flooding in Southern Alberta and Toronto in the summer of 2013.Floods are the most frequently occurring natural hazard in Canada, according to a white paper called Making Flood Insurable for Canadian Homeowners, which was produced in 2010 by Swiss Reinsurance Company and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR). The recent floods and the lack of flood insurance have put the white paper back in the news. Many Canadian homeowners don't realize that their home insurance policies don't cover overland flooding. Even if they want to buy such coverage, it's not available to them. If you get water damage in your home due to sewer backup, it's only covered if you have specifically purchased sewer backup coverage. The only water damage that is covered in typical policies is for sudden and accidental bursting of pipes and appliances, says the IBC. "Canada is the only G8 country where flood insurance is not available to homeowners," says Paul Kovacs, executive director of the ICLR. "The coverage void tends to confuse - even anger - homeowners when they discover that they are not covered after a flood event." The paper says that flood insurance should be bundled into homeowner insurance policies with other perils such as fire or theft, an approach it says has been in place in the U.K. for 50 years and "is the best suited model for Canada." But not everyone agrees that's the best approach. Critics say that approach penalizes those who live in low-risk flood areas, making them pay for those
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who choose to live in high-risk areas. Although those in high-risk regions would pay a higher premium, it wouldn't be enough to cover the inevitable claims, critics say. It could also encourage more development in flood plains because the homes would be insured. The paper acknowledges that "it may be necessary to exclude certain very high-risk homeowners from the program. Government policies, not insurance, are the best approach to address the risk of flood damage for homes that have been allowed to locate in areas of very high risk. For example, governments may wish to enhance flood protection measures or acquire flood-prone properties to bring flood risk levels down to an acceptable level." The paper says flood insurance "must not incentivize building in flood-prone areas, or encourage risky behaviour on the part of insured homeowners. Rather, flood insurance should complement existing flood management approaches applied by governments across Canada." Two educators with the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, Ont. say that extreme weather has the "potential to render large sectors of the Canadian housing market uninsurable, which in turn could impact the mortgage market (without home insurance, you cannot qualify for a mortgage)." In a story published in the Globe & Mail, associate professor Blair Feltmate and assistant professor Jason Thistlethwaite say that from 2003 to 2012, insurance company losses due to flooded basements exceeded premiums for seven of the nine years, costing the industry $11billion. The industry is likely to increase insurance premiums, but at some point insurance will "become cost prohibitive
for homeowners, which in turn will impact home sales and the mortgage market," say Feltmate and Thistlethwaite. The authors say four courses of action need to be taken: - Towns and cities should produce up -to-date maps of floodplains, which should be used "to provide guidance" on where not to build homes; - Infrastructure must be made more permeable, cutting down on concrete surfaces; - Building codes should be modified so, for example, new homes include backwater valves installed in basement drains to prevent sewer back-up; and - Homeowners must do a better job preparing their homes for extreme weather, by making sure water is directed away from foundations and keeping eavestroughs and downspouts are clear. The IBC also recommends landscaping with native plants and vegetation that resist soil erosion; using a rain barrel to catch water runoff; and clearing snow away from the house foundation.The ICLR says a "mainline, full-port, normally open backwater value, when properly installed and maintained, in tandem with the severance of backwater drains from the sanitary sewer, is one of the best measures a homeowner can take to reduce the risk of stormwater and/or sewage backing up into a basement."But the organization says that building code and local bylaw requirements to install such valves are "spotty across the country, largely owing to code interpretation." It says installing a valve in a new home costs about $250. Written by Jim Adair
WAYNE COCHRANE’S REAL ESTATE INSIDER
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Wayne Cochrane Real Estate Professional 902-830-4761 wayne@mooving.ca unless noted otherwise
Note: This is not intended to solicit clients currently under contract. The trademarks MLS®, Multiple Listing Service® and the associated logos are owned by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify the quality of services provided by real estate professionals who are members of CREA.
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