Robert who?

You'll never believe who brought a couple of people to look at our house last night............none other than ROBERT REDFORD!!!!!  I mean who knew he was a real estate agent on the side😊

The following is a true story, which made this all the funnier.  Whenever I talk to my mother I'll ask her what she's going to be "up too/doing" this coming week and she normally replies:

"Well it all depends on whether Robert is coming over or not."

The Robert she is referring to, is of course Robert Redford.  Suffice to say, I will be popping his business card into my purse to take with me to Britain to show her.

I was talking to the receptionist at the real estate agents office and her last name is BOND, asked her if she had a James in the family and yes her uncle is called James Bond!!

I would think it would be annoying to have the same name as someone famous.  What do you think?

Must say I think Robert looked the best when he was filming this movie.  Which reminds me must watch this again as I haven't seen it in a while.

It turned out that the movie star Robert, looked a lot more dashing to my mind than the real estate Robert!!

Open Houses..........

(image credit)

An "Open House," is when a real estate agent opens up a house for a set period of time, usually on the weekend for the general public to walk through without an appointment or without being accompanied by a real estate agent.

Unless you are selling your own home, the homeowner does not show any potential buyers around the house.  In fact our lawyer told us back in the day to have no contact what so ever with any potential buyers as it could come back and bite you in the butt!  I took his advise to heart and it has always worked out well.

So this past weekend we had an open house on both Saturday and Sunday from 2 pm until 4 pm.  It was our choice as to whether we would like to do that and we said yes.  So of course the house was spic and span again and we left and let to real estate get on with it.

It was a nice day on Saturday, perfect open house weather, although our real estate agent said Saturday's have been generally quiet.  We ended up having four couples over, and one very nosy "neighbour" who told us (as we came back for 4 pm and were talking with the agent) she just wanted to see what we had done to the house, so she could get idea's on how to pretty her house up😲

On Sunday it poured down and one of the couples came back for a 40 minute look and another woman came.  So all in all not too bad, as the real estate market sucks here at the moment.

On Sunday we decided to visit three open houses at houses that looked great in the ads.  We all know what you see online and what you see in real life will not be the same, so despite these houses looking great online, in real life we were disappointed.

Number 1, had an odd layout and the third bedroom had no closet as it was too small, it was a baby's room and I guess could have worked as a sewing room for me.  Needed a new kitchen, again odd layout and the master bedroom was half carpet and half hardwood flooring?  It probably needed around $50,000 to make it how I would like it.

Number 2, well the best bit about the place was the back yard; BUT at some point in the future houses would be built behind you, so your privacy would be lost.  The rest of the house needed work and although mainly cosmetic, I wasn't keen on the neighbourhood and on the whole place in general.

Number 3, was a century home just like the farmhouse.  Even had the same musty smell like our farmhouse, until we had a dehumidifier running full time to get rid of the smell.  Had issues and as I told the agent it was over priced by $100,000..........never ever ask for my opinion, as yes you will get an honest opinion, ask anyone who knows me😊

So all in all our house looking quest was a bust!!  Here's hoping we get some people wanting to take another look at our house this week!!  I hate all this waiting around.....

Real Estate Agents and selling homes

I have a love hate relationship with real estate agents, because we are good clients to have.  We listen to what they tell you and make adjustments accordingly.  Our houses are generally pretty easy sells as they show well.  We tend to be flexible and accommodate all viewings within reason.

I am not faithful to a particular agent or company.  We have used a different agent for every house.  The way I chose them is:

1. Dh and I have to like them; though we did have one agent who got on all our nerves, even Maxine our black lab.  I think it was her voice it grated on you, she sold the house though.
2. Choose an agent that sells a lot in your area and is knowledgeable of your area.
3. Is professional and offers good service and has a good marketing plan.  Nowadays internet marketing is the way to go and is so, so important.
4. Offers a good plan of how they work and what they will do for you.
5. You have to like them; if your real estate agent is not friendly and willing to listen to your needs, walk away from them; they're not a good match for you.

Here in Canada and the United States, the real estate agents get a percentage of the selling price as their fee.  The rates vary from agent to agent but if for example you sold your home for $500,000 and the agent charged a 5% fee then the buyers agent and the sellers agent would split the $25,000 fee, oh and for us in Ontario there is a 13% HST tax on top of the $25,000 as well, so all in all you end up handing over $28,250.  So although I am willing to hold up to my end of the deal and keep the house spotless I do expect our real estate agent to do her part as well.  Which means lots of publicity, following up with me (super important) and open houses.

You can negotiate with agents on their fees, but somewhere between 4 to 4 1/2 % fee is the usual.  You can get cheaper but I find you get what you pay for.

Here is Ontario we have a land transfer tax we have to pay when buying a home.  Again using the $500,000 as a price you are paying for a home you would have to pay $6,475.00.

Then of course there are the lawyers fees.  For selling your home, it's around $1,200.00, for buying your home it's probably a little more, say around $1,300.00.

Then of course there is hiring a moving company.  The cost varies and also depends on how much stuff you have to move and how far you are moving.  But for this exercise lets say it's going to cost $3,000.00.

Now lets add all this up:

Real Estate Fee:    $28,250.00
Land Transfer Tax: $6,475.00
Lawyers Fees:        $2,500.00
Movers:                  $3,000.00

TOTAL:          $40,225.00


Moving is an expensive and time consuming business.  There are alternatives, DON'T MOVE😏, or sell the house yourself, or use cheaper agents, but for us this is the way we go.

Not sure if this is the same (price wise) all over the world? Would love to hear your thoughts, experiences.

Exploring potential areas to move to.

We went on a road trip the other day to the Fenelon Falls and Coboconk areas of  Southern Ontario.  We are lucky in that we don't have to be fixed to one area.  We do have a few requirements though, and they are the following:

• to be able to find a family doctor and have a hospital not too, to far away; we are getting older
• have a library close by
• a post office close by
• a grocery store by
• a dentist close by
• ploughed roads in winter
• friendly community and a community centre
• not too, to far from the kids and grandkids; though we are still capable drivers
• not in a new subdivision
• and the most important......INTERNET SERVICE!!!

Now I think there are probably lots of other little things that would be handy to have but with most things available online nowadays, as long as there is the internet, postal service and courier companies, we are all set.

We did talk to a real estate agent in the area, and he gave us some good pointers about the area, which was helpful.  As I said we are not anywhere near to moving yet, but it's best to learn as much about an area as possible before moving.  For example we have found out the property taxes in one county we were looking at were twice the price than an adjoining county.  That in itself would save us around $1,500 a year, which makes a big difference when living on a fixed income.

Lots of things to think about......

Thought there were some good ideas here for party balloons, most I had never seen or thought of before.

Such a softie.........

Sitting here writing this on Tuesday night in tears.  Why?  Watching Coronation Street and it's Haley's last day.  It's funny I know what is going to happen but it doesn't make it any easier.  Feel so sorry for Roy; all this sadness and crying for a flipping soap opera that's not even real.

Had Sarah around today (Tuesday) to make sure we are ready to have the photos taken to put the house up for sale.  Due to another winter storm coming in Tuesday night through Wednesday (that's nice!!) the photos won't be taken until Thursday but it will be on the market late Friday/Saturday.

As I said to Sarah on Tuesday I have ran out of steam.  Enough of all this cleaning and trying to make the house perfect.  We have done as much as we can now and it is what it is.

Sarah has a couple of websites that may be of interest to you www.homeinstyle.ca and www.sarahlunn.com  Sarah is going to do a blog post of the "photo shoot" so that should be interesting also as it will highlight some of the things we did. 

Oh and finally our Miss Nora got her two month shots (better later than never) and would you believe she is up to 12 lbs 11.25 oz.  That girl enjoys her food!!!

Big weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

We had our real estate agent over yesterday, her name is Sarah.  She wanted to pop by and see our progress.  She seemed pleased with what we have done; as we are.  During the course of the conversation the home stager situation came up.  As I explained at the beginning she charges $125 an hour and I wasn't in love with the woman.  Anyway, Sarah said there was no need to bring her in as between us we could do the rest to get ready for the photos.

Immediately I felt so much lighter and happier. I must have been worrying deep down about having to deal with her again.  Its not that her suggestions weren't right, believe me they were very, very helpful, but she was just a very overpowering person to deal with.

So we have decided to put the house up for sale around the middle of February, but it could be earlier or later depending on the weather.  Also our driveway is an ice skating rink and very dangerous, and there is no salt to be found anywhere at the moment.  I got a lead there should be some coming in the beginning of next week at our local Home Hardware so will call them.  We are putting ashes down at the beginning of the driveway as dh put his brakes on the other morning and went straight out into the main road.  Luckily it was just after 4:30 am so there wasn't much in the way off traffic.  We just don't want anyone falling on our driveway and suing us!!

We are not finished all the jobs, should be done 90% of them in the next week or so.  The mud room will be done by the end of next week.  I will then be able to take photos for you.  We will then be waiting for the trim to come back from Hope Acres and our kitchen table also from there.  Hopefully they will be back by the end of the month.

The house just then needs to be primped and polished and the final staging and decluttering done.  I do feel as though I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally.

So that is where we are at the moment with the house.  I also got rid of another bag of clothing for another 25 things to leave the house this week.

It's been a few days since my last blog post, hasn't it?

Last week was a busy week and in all honesty this coming week isn't looking much better.  Will say though I am very pleased to announce that I have all my Christmas cards written, the dreaded Christmas letter written and everything is ready to mail out for tomorrow.  Here's hoping I get change out of $40 for mailing just the British Christmas cards.  I'll let you know.

On Wednesday I went down to dd and son-in-law's to do some batch cooking for them.  Also to have some Nora time!!!

She seems to be doing fine, not that I had much conversation with her as she was asleep most of the time.  However she did let off the biggest fart for such a small baby.  All her newborn clothes are still too big, but she is feeding well and has plenty of dirty diapers, so that's a good sign, right?  She also had her first "photo shoot," as her parents wanted baby photos taken of her.  She slept right through the session.

I will be seeing her on Wednesday when I go down again.

We didn't go this weekend, as we had things to do to get ready for winter, which included putting up the snow fences.  As it was it was a heck of a shock to get up to all the snow we got overnight on Saturday.  It took dh an hour and a half to blow out the driveway.

One thing we have going on this week is I have arranged for two real estate agents to visit the house on Thursday and Friday to see what they say about the house and any suggestions they have.  Also I want to see what they can offer us and what their plan of action would be for our house if we signed with them.  I am favouring one agent as I have met her and talked to her.  The other lady (both are women) is a lot younger and maybe not as experienced in this area.  Regardless I'll give both of them a fair shot and see who we like better.

So it will be a major cleaning and tidying up week for me.  I also have a few little jobs that need to be accomplished in amongst hands.  Dh got a number of little jobs crossed his list this weekend so that is good.

Look out for a before and after post tomorrow!