360renos - Home Improvement & Decor

How to make your home stand out when selling

We can help your house sell quickly and at a good price -- even in a slow market.

It takes a lot more than sparkling windows, scented candles and chocolate-chip cookies to sell a home in today's market.

Improvements should be made so that the property shows well, is consistent with the neighborhood and does not involve capital investments.

Beyond any doubt, the best investment you can make is new paint. Painting can make a room or an exterior façade look brand-new, and totally transform the look and feel of a room or the entire residence. It is always wise to be somewhat restrained when choosing colors for a home-staging paint project. Avoid choosing colors that are too individual or flashy and favor neutral colors and schemes. This does not mean painting everything white, however.

Use subtle color schemes to accentuate the home's strengths and minimize weaknesses. Dark colors, for example, tend to make a room feel smaller, while lighter colors and pastels can make a room feel bigger.

There is another benefit to painting as well: the process of preparing the interior or exterior surfaces of a home for painting automatically allows us to go over the entire area receiving paint in great detail, and this can often expose items or areas requiring repair. It seems you always discover where the caulking has let go, where the wall is dinged.

It is always preferable that we discover and deal with these items before the real estate agent (or worse, the prospective buyer) points them out to you!

Dave - 360renos




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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Curbing Rental Property Maintenance and Repair Costs

See full size imageIt's one thing to collect rents. Ample rents, of course, amps up the cash inflow and is favorable to any landlord. But investors who turn a blind eye to maintenance and repair costs can also discover that, despite abundant income streams, their cash flow is surprisingly lower than expected and the profitability of their real estate investment bitterly disappointing.

Enlist a Handyman

Even if you plan to do some of the work yourself, it's still a good idea to build a relationship with a person on whom you can regularly depend and trust. Employing a trustworthy and competent all-around handyman to take care of your day-to-day property maintenance and occasional repairs will do wonders to ease the drain on your time and pocketbook. Moreover, it improves your status with tenants if they know the landlord is listening and is responsive.

Engage in Preventive Maintenance

The idea here is to save you money in the long run by fixing something correctly before it either breaks or gets worse. When a loose hinge, leaking faucet, or toilet isn't fixed in a timely manner, for instance, floors and ceilings can become damaged and cost you a lot more than a simple repair. Just apply the same principle to your rental properties that you would to your car. Anticipate and alleviate repairs when the cost is relatively small and always ask your maintenance experts how you might replace high-maintenance items with low-maintenance items.

Real estate investors that pay close attention to a property's entire financial performance, including maintenance and repairs, are more likely to succeed at generating a profit from rental property investment than others less discerning.


At 360renos we currently manage the maintenance and repairs for investment owners in Orleans, Ottawa and even as far flung as Nova Scotia.

Give us a call how our packages can save you money and to discuss our competitive rates for when your in need of repairs.

ezinearticles

Dave - 360renos


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