For the Love of Houses

While very new to blogging (though not so new that the fact this should be updated this way more frequently hasn't escaped me), I am not embarrassed to call myself an experienced Tweeter.

Practically every night, I chat with a fascinating, entertaining and talented bunch of people. We tweet about all kinds of topics, share embarrassing photos of us with hideous 80's hair, laugh about what's on TV that night, encourage each other through challenging times, cheer each others' victories, and are sometimes far too honest with each other - just like any other friendship.

On one such night, I admitted that I enjoyed taking evening strolls so that I could admire other peoples' houses. I went so far as to say that I felt a guilt-free rush when I walked past a home whose owner had left their blinds open, because then I could also have a gander at their interiors.

Well! Someone commented that they were "thankful I didn't live in their neck of the woods"! True to my M.O., I flushed. Thank goodness no one but my dogs could see me.

Couldn't they relate? Didn't my Twitted Sisters love homes the way I do? The way we love shoes, beach reads, gossip websites? The answer, apparently, was no... well, not everyone. I have since met a few house-lovers on Twitter, but they are few and far between.

Don't get me wrong - I don't love these friends any less for not sharing all my passions, but I do want to be able to share my treasured Internet finds with people who will be as happy to receive them as I have been. Hence, I blog.

I love, love, LOVE this site - Hooked On Houses - I'm so happy I Stumbled-Upon it. I even had fun answering all the questions designed to determine if I was indeed, "hooked on houses" (truthfully, I already knew the answer to that question!). Thought I'd post her list here, along with my answers.

How would you answer?

Are you Hooked on Houses? Give yourself a point for each of the following statements that you agree with:

Q: If there’s a “For Sale” sign in my neighbor’s yard, I can tell you how much they’re asking for their house–and whether it’s worth it.

A: I won't profess to be an expert yet, but I hope to be soon! I love my neighbourhood, so I'm definitely "in the know" about ballpark values.

Q: I have a habit of checking the real estate listings online, even though I’m not planning to move.

A: Absolutely, I've always done this, and I blame it on my Mum - she loves houses too, and we've often browsed the MLS together. She helped me develop a healthy adoration for houses, a lust for curb appeal, and an appreciation for good neighbourhoods.

Q: I think the best time to take a walk is at dusk–after people have started turning on their lights, but before they have closed their blinds!

A: I've admitted this out loud more than once and been accused of being nosy! It's not that, I swear!! If you loved homes the way I do, you'd check out strangers' taste in decor when lighting permitted, too!

Q: I’ve been known to visit Open Houses and model homes, just for fun.

A: Model homes yes, Open Houses, no. Not yet, at least. As much as I love houses, I would hate to be called-out as an impostor and am a terrible liar!

Q: I will stop to take a photo of a beautiful house if I have a camera with me.

A: I certainly do. I've also been known to take pictures of hideous houses.

Q: When I visit someone’s home, I immediately start looking around to see what changes they’ve made since the last time I was there.

A: Discreetly, yes. And my father told me that if I don't have something nice to say, to not say anything at all. Most of the time though, people will ask my opinion, and I have a hard time lying...

Q: I get upset when I see a beautiful old home that looks neglected and unloved, and I fantasize about “rescuing” it.

A: Oddly, I don't. In fact, in a weird way, I find abandoned homes beautiful in their own right. Case in point, a fave site of mine, 100 Abandoned Houses.

Q: I would go to a neighbor’s party just to get a look inside their house.

A: Although I've never had the opportunity, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, I think I would!

Q: I have considered becoming a real estate agent, or have been told I should be one.

A: Yes, yes and yes! In fact, I can't imagine wanting to take that on as a profession if I didn't have a passion for homes.

Q: I’ve been known to check out the local house listings when I’m on vacation to see how much it would cost to live there.

A: On every vacation I've ever been on :)

Q: If I drive through a pretty neighborhood, I slow to a crawl so I don’t miss anything.

A: Definitely!!

Q: I’m always redecorating my house. It’s never “finished.”

A: I'd like to think that my house is in a constant state of not-done-yet because I don't have the money. If I did, oh how my house would look! In the meantime, my approach is to not “half” decorate anything, lest people think it was meant to look like that. Instead, I go room-by-room, all or nothing. As a result, I have some rooms I consider stunning, and others that are just hideous!

Q: There are certain movies I have watched repeatedly because of the houses featured in them

A: Ha! I love this question!! What Lies Beneath, The Bourne identity, Six Feet Under, Brothers & Sisters, many more. I can even list off commercials featuring gorgeous homes!

If you agree with 3 or more of these, then you are definitely hooked on houses. You’ve come to the right place! Welcome to the club.

Have fun on Julia's beautiful website. I did, and will visit back often! In the meantime, I'm having fun with my new friends and look forward to August 22 when I get to meet (most of) them!

Leaps and Bounds? Erm - Not So Fast...

Still buzzing from having finished my OREA Course I on a high note, I eagerly scheduled my exam for Course II and dove right in. Sailed through chapter 1, and got mostly through chapter 2 when I hit a wall: Metes and Bounds.

OREA defines metes and bounds as "a system of written land description whereby all boundary lines are set forth by use of terminal points and angles; metes referring to a limit or limiting mark (i.e., distance) and bounds referring to boundary lines (i.e., directions)."

More simply, they go on to say, "All metes and bounds descriptions start at a point of reference on the property and progress around the property, ultimately returning to the original point of reference (point of commencement); i.e., a written walk around the property that includes metes (the distance) and bounds (boundary lines; i.e., directions)."

Huh?

Undaunted, I told myself that I wasn't "getting it" because of everything going on at home right then - upcoming class trip for my eldest daughter to prepare for, impending dance recital for my youngest for which the clomp-clomp-tap-tap in my home could be heard for neighbourhood blocks, the school year drawing to a close, summer social plans being finalized. So I put the course aside for a bit, with the intent to come back to it when things had settled down.

Later, when I sat back down to the computer to finally get my head around metes and bounds, I found myself worse off than before! It was not only foreign to me, but seemed contradictory.

Still, determined, I read, and re-read, the section over and over again. I rationalized, "Was the material poorly-written? Was this perhaps content that was easier taught by an instructor than learned on your own?" but then I thought, "Is it - ulp - me?"

With the exam date looming, I began to panic. First things first, I thought. I called OREA and moved the date out a bit, knowing whatever the reason, I would require extra time to get through it.

Next, I considered skipping chapter 2 for now, moving forward with the remaining 14 chapters, with the hope that metes and bounds wasn't a "building block", but something less significant. But then I remembered reading an OREA warning when I began this self-study course not to do that. OREA explained that the chapters were organized in this order deliberately, and should be followed sequentially.

So I did what any desperate and easily-distracted social media addict would - I tweeted! "Stuck on metes and bounds", I updated on Twitter. "Help!"

Immediately, three awesome Real Estate professionals in my area tweeted back with real and intelligent suggestions:

1. Call the instructor help line that OREA makes available for self-study students
2. Use the student forums that OREA has established for discussions related to course content
3. A useful and informative link was emailed to me, which helped explain the concept I was troubled by

These brokers/agents/salespeople didn't have to do this for me. Receiving help like this from people who might never stand to benefit from having been kind to me once really restored my faith in people, made me more thankful than ever for my Twitter "community", and further solidified my decision to join the Real Estate profession.

They say good things come in threes: I believe it. I've bought myself three extra weeks to get through the course, I made three great contacts - nay, friends - in my new Real Estate world, and am now thankfully armed with three awesome tools with which I will get through metes and bounds. With leaps and bounds - hopefully!

Exterior Painting Tips for Your Home

Above is a photo of the front of our home, right after we moved in four years ago. Just below that, a photo of our home showing our new paint colours, including a picture of my front door, which I opted to go with a different colour for. Last, I included the colour samples I picked up from my roof, brick, grout and walkway, from which I chose my paint palette.

When deciding to repaint, I decided to go less bold with colour, in an attempt to detract attention from the garage doors, to make the home itself stand out more. My mom got me onto the idea that the garage doors are the first thing people notice on many homes, because of where the garage itself is situated. Since mine is featured prominently, I decided to keep the tones neutral, and along the same colour scheme as the house itself. Who knows, I may soon tire of it for the very reason I chose it (its 'blandness'), but for now, I'm happy with my choices.

1. Know if your home's colours are warm or cool - Regardless of whether you go safe and shy, as I did this time around, or bold and brash, it is very important for you to know whether the fixed elements of your home's exterior feature "warm" colours, or "cool". Keeping this in mind, one can choose a rich, warm, rusty red for their garage doors on a home whose colours are "warm" (think: rust, tan, gold), or a cool, lusty, blue-toned red on a home whose brickwork, roof and trim are cool (thin: grey, taupe, black)

2. Choose the right paint type - I made the mistake one year of painting my front door with the same paint with which I painted my garage doors, in an effort to cut corners to save money. Not only did I end up having to spend more money on the proper paint for my metal front door, but we had to sand and re-prime the door after the paint easily scratched off through daily wear, causing it to be unsightly for a time, as well as causing us more elbow-grease in order to get it to where it should have been all along. Before buying a paint due to price or convenience, research on the net, or ask your friendly, neighbourhood hardware store professionals to suggest a paint type for you.

3. Don't cheap out - I made this mistake, too, very recently in fact. I didn't heed my own advice, and simply chose the cheapest quote, thinking, "it's only exterior painting, how can someone slough that up?" - but was quickly convinced when the painter left after having spilled the water bucket he was using down my newly-recovered driveway, and then walking through the mess, leaving his stupid footprints up my gorgeous, stamped-concrete path. This, after he began the work, realizing half-way through that his ladder could not reach the decorative elements 30-feet up, so I would have to get someone else to do those! Right, like future painters will be beating down my door for an $80, dangerous job. Next time, I'm going professional (or doing it myself!)

4. Front door and garage doors CAN be different colours! Much in the same way many of us were taught to never wear white after labour day, and to never expose our toes at work by wearing sandals to the office, we also all grew up believing that our front doors should match our garage doors' colour. This is not true! You'll notice this trend being bucked in newer home developments, as their younger designers throw conformity aside, in favour of colour flair! If you look around your own neighbourhood, I'm sure you'll notice many people opting for two complementing colours. When deciding to be this bold, keep your home's "temperature" (see tip #1) and colour palette in mind. A very handy tool I like to use is Behr's Virtual Colour Centre, where you can save colours, and have Behr recommend other colours that match! To help me choose my front door colour, I saved colour samples as close to my roof's colour and my brick's colour as possible, selected my desired garage door colour (Country Club), and let Behr's awesome system suggest a colour for my front door (Oyster). I'm really happy with the result, and because my front door is hidden and shaded, was thrilled to go light.

Never underestimate the power of a fresh coat of paint - ever into aesthetics, the feeling I get from a fresh coat of paint on my house is akin to the feeling I get walking out of a salon after a great hairdo!

The Good, the Bad and the Fugly

A photo of our TV room as it looked when we moved in, and another, after we renovated it, using a great contractor we found on Homestars.

Now I remember why I shop online, in the comfort of my own home! Drove around Mississauga today, looking for bathroom fixtures stores, to help me choose items for my soon-to-be-renovated principal ensuite (thank you Kelly R. for that great, gender-neutral term for "master bath"!).

I had heard ‘Tubs’ was a big place and worthy of a look-see, but boy was that a mistake... sure, they had some nice stuff, but most of their displays were from the early 90’s and u-g-l-y! Toilets with painted hummingbirds (that would have you thinking you were using part of a tea set), blue tubs and gold-tinted mirrors! Not to mention the place looked like it was in shambles, and made me question whether they'd be in business long enough to see me through my renovation.

We did happen into a great bathroom store by accident (Peel Tile – excellent selection) which thankfully made the trip out in the rain not a complete waste of time, but still... I would much rather browse in my PJs, from my computer, than have to schlep from store to store as I did today. Three hours, four stores. Could have done that in 15 minutes online!

A few posts ago, I wrote about Homestars, and what a great tool it is to help you weed through the thousands of contractors out there, by allowing users to rate their overall services. I’ve had great results from using them in the past, but this time around, my experience was a little sour.

I used the Homestars “Contact” feature (for most, I think), leaving my phone number and email address with the details about the job I’d like quoted for about 3-4 highly-reviewed renovation companies. Only two of them even had the courtesy to call me back, one asking for photos (which I sent), and then nothing! No emails or phone calls back.

Presumably, these companies are fully-booked right now, so maybe they don’t need the work. But still, I think that no contact at all is just plain rude! I didn’t call any of them a second time because I’m not the type to beg someone to take my business. But the experience got me thinking that people who don’t get to have any experience at all with a company, because the company simply didn't acknowledge their contact, should also have a say!

I’m going to leave a few reviews tonight...

The Joys of Home Ownership (or, How to Spend $20K Really Fast)

While owning my own home has been a complete joy for many reasons (get to decorate how I want to, live in a great neighbourhood, smart investment for my future), there is also a downside: there's no one else to complain to when things start to act up, or break down.

Case in point, my master bathroom.

We recently discovered a leak, and after having two professionals in to assess the damage and determine the cause, we've concluded that our bathroom is simply old, and was constructed using sub-standard materials (i.e. drywall behind shower stall instead of cement barrier). So, an unforeseen expense, but it's got to be re-done.

Which of course has me thinking of resale value, and how I should select the fixed elements which will make up my new master bath.

I've posted two pictures of the powder room we had re-done last year, which I'm really happy with. I like how it turned out, and I'm certain it will help attract buyers for my home, when it comes time to sell.

I'm thinking for the master bathroom, I'll go more white and bright, with shiny chrome and perhaps espresso cabinetry for a shot of masculine colour.

The thing I always try to keep in mind when re-modeling or re-decorating a room that has a lot of fixed elements (like kitchens and bathrooms) is that I am adding value to my house. And with that in mind, here are a few guidelines I follow:

1. Don't go too expensive. It's a well-known fact that you're likely to get 75%-110% of your investment back in resale value when you sell your home, but only to a certain point. You're not going to get your money back if you put a million-dollar-home kitchen into a $250K home. Keeping that in mind, though...

2. Don't go too cheap. Have a look at what your neighbours are doing, or at recently re-done comparables on the MLS. Browse design magazines for ideas. People are willing to pay extra for a nice kitchen/bathroom that fits well with the house. So even if it's more than you'd like to spend, resist the urge to put in a cheap, assemble-yourself "bathroom in a box". You'll thank yourself later. And I'd say always opt for a granite or marble countertop. People expect them now!

3. Keep consistent. In the same way that you usually like your shoes to match your belt, or your jewelry to be all yellow gold or all platinum, the same should go for your kitchen or bathroom. Choose a metal and stick with it. Choose a wood and stick with it. I deplore nothing more than entering a bathroom and seeing a brass sink faucet with brushed chrome bath hardware, with a black-bronze lighting fixture. There's just too much going on, and the eye doesn't know where to look! Same for woods: if you've got a light maple vanity don't use a cherry medicine cabinet and an espresso-coloured bathroom shelf!

4. Go neutral with fixed elements. Express your individuality with with paint, art and towel colour choices. Resist the urge to put in a green floor tile and matching countertop, even though it may be all the rage. Because in 5 years, it may not be, and it in fact may date your home. If you choose neutrals (clean whites, crisp creams, warm browns, cool greys, classic blacks), your home will appeal to a broader audience.

5. Ask advice! If you're unsure about your choices, talk to friends and family about what they think. I'm always happy when I do that, because people might bring up things I hadn't considered (for instance the porosity of certain countertops, or the tendency for particular tile shapes to retain moisture in the grooves). Don't discount the people who work at the stores, too. They're often very experienced in their areas, for instance, Home Depot.

Have fun!

I'm On My Way!

Last Saturday, I wrote my Course 1 exam in Real Estate. I was very nervous, as I wasn't certain I'd be able to recall all the mathematical formulas I'd learned (calculating area of irregular shapes, mortgage rates and compound interest calculations, future value of money, capitalization factors, etc.).

Hellbent on having some kid-/husband-/dog-free time so that I could study after my coursework was complete, I set my alarm for 5:00am the day of the exam, and was sitting in the college parking lot ready to go, by 7:00!

This stress-free buffer gave me all the time I needed in order to study and review my notes, apply my makeup (when you look good, you do well - of this I am convinced!), and sip my coffee, with plenty of time left over to relax before the 9:00am start time.

Last time I was in school, the three-hour exam windows were excruciating to me. I don't know if I have a mild touch of attention-deficit disorder or what (not to treat that condition lightly, I'm serious), but I just cannot sit there for that long! I get so restless.

This time around was no different. I breezed through the exam, confident I was answering most, if not all, correctly, and by the time I reached the last couple of the sixty questions, my promise to myself to check over my work went out the window, and I rushed through the last bits, and jumped up to leave.

My grade was posted over the weekend, and I got 89%! I'm very pleased with that result, and wonder what effect (negative or positive?) checking over my answers would have had on it.

In any case, upward and onward! Course 2 here I come :-)

Back to School

Anyone who knows me knows that I wasn't a big fan of school the first time around.

But it sure feels different when you're studying about something that genuinely interests you.

I'm enjoying the real estate business and home staging books I picked up, and OREA's Course I has been fun, too. I'm studying about all kinds of stuff I've been exposed to through my experience buying and selling my own homes, and helping family and friends make their largest life purchases.

On the home front, my husband and brother-in-law opened our in-ground pool today for the summer. It didn't take a lot of convincing on my part to coax them out of their shirts (I suggested that a little colour wouldn't hurt them as long as they sprayed on a little SPF), and Voilà: pool boys! I bet all my female neighbours were jealous.

I’m also happy that the colder weather is behind us, so that I can run over to Terra Greenhouses to pick up my hanging flower baskets. We don't have any grass in the backyard (because of the pool), so hanging baskets over the surrounding garden really helps bring more nature back there, so that we don't even miss the grass! I’m also going to pick up another red bush to balance out the colour in the garden – the Japanese Maple we put back there is so gorgeous, especially when the light hits the red leaves, that I want another red element to the space.

So, we’re happy and healthy, the warmer weather is here (which I love), the gardening and painting will be done over the next two weeks, and I'm moving on to Course II towards my Real Estate registration.

La vita è bella.

Taking the Plunge

Life is so funny sometimes.

I come from a business background, but every time I explained to people how I ended up in my industry, I say it was "by accident". In truth, mine was a summer job that hung on... for 15 years. And I'm sure the reason people asked, is because I probably didn't strike them as someone who, as a young kid, looked forward and said, "One day, I'm going to be in middle-management at a utilities company!" -- on the contrary - I was always creative, and spent my childhood playing with dollhouses, my teenage years imagining the layouts of my future homes, and since then, have had nothing short of the staging/decorating/moving bug!

Recently, I've had some good fortune and been given the opportunity to re-assess my career. And I've thought carefully over a number of months. Months that I have spent painting, and moving furniture, and de-cluttering my home. Months that I have walked through these beautiful neighbourhoods, admiring the homes, gardens, amenities and community that surround me.

And so I thought to myself, "Self? What would make you truly happy?" And my answer was simple: "To be able to use my business background to help people find home happiness" :-)

I've enrolled in the Ontario Real Estate Association's Realtor course. And you're going to join me on my journey! And now, when people ask me how I came to do what I do for a living, I can smile and say, "It's what I've always wanted to do!"

Stay tuned...

PS - the driveway looks exactly the same, despite all my elbow grease!

♫ In the Ghetto... ♫

My husband's car (RIP) has finally gone to Chrysler heaven. The awful thing served its purpose (he used his car for work, racking up the mileage and the car came through for him), but in doing so, it left its mark on our driveway, big time. We have a spot the size of a triple-homicide where my hubby parked his car for the last four years!

I never bothered to do anything about it as long as the car was still around, because what was the point? It would simply make more filth after I was done. So knowing it was on its last legs (wheels?), I decided to wait.

Well the day has finally come! This past weekend, my hubby's car kicked the bucket, and now I have a bucket of my own, full of hot, sudsy water. I read a few Heloise-type columns in which it is suggested to try this magic mixture a few times before running out to the hardware store for the industrial stuff. So I'm giving good old Sunlight a try.

I don't know which is more ghetto: the oil stains that were visible from Google Earth all these years while I waited the damn car out, or the towels that currently grace my driveway, as they sit in the sun, hoping to soak up the bulk of the repugnant mixture?

I'll let you know how my driveway turns out (and whether the spot increases to quadruple-homicide size - hubby's in trouble if this doesn't come up!). Knowing me, I'll give up, and just go into more debt, opting instead to scrap the whole thing and start over. I'm already thinking: stamped concrete or stones?

Ahhh to dream...

PS Update June 20 2009 - Bought two bottles of CLR Industrial-Strength Driveway Stain and Oil Remover - Did NOT Work.

Exterior Painting Do-It-Yourself FAILS

HomeStars

Being the savvy Internet shopper that I am, I promised you I'd share my tricks of the trade. The first one is: Try Before You Buy.

I like to learn through other people's experience, via User Ratings. Many websites offer this tremendous feature, the most notable being eBay (user ratings are the foundation on which eBay was built). Amazon, Home Depot, Ratemyteachers, Homeaway.com and so on.

HomeStars.com is what I choose for all my home improvement needs, rather than Craigslist, or my local classifieds.

While Mike Holmes gets 8-10 estimates and 5 references the hard way, you can also "Do It Right", but without having to go through the pains of having a zillion contractors traipse through your house!

Rather, you can peruse user comments (and Before and After shots), in the comfort of your own home, and call in selected contractors, knowing you're choosing from among the best.

Shortcuts

The same driving force (or lack thereof) behind my need to find the route of least effort (see my InterNat post), helped me sell my last house really fast. It was a credit to my laziness (and my hard-working agent!) that my house sold within 8 days, with extremely little time or work on my part.

Everyone knows that from the point of view of the person selling a home, the most tiresome and troublesome task after getting the initial staging done is the constant running around and cleaning up every time a potential buyer wants to view your home. That pain in the butt task alone can deter people from taking the plunge, and deciding to sell.

Unless you're a single person who works late and eats out a lot, chances are you are a lot like most families and make one heck of a mess, in a short amount of time, just by living! I thought I was the only one, for the longest time, and loathed when people (even family) would show up unannounced, for fear that they would discover my "dirty little secret" - I was a slob.

Truth be told (and with me, it always is), while I'm a clean person (bathrooms and kitchens are cleaned and vacuum gets passed once a week), I'm horribly messy. I believe there to be a huge distinction between the two. I am an accumulator of "stuff". Clothes, toys and books, mostly, and between me and the other three pigs, within 30 minutes, our house can look like total chaos!

So when I listed my last home for sale, knowing the work involved for each showing, I packed up my husband, child and baby, took only what we needed plus ALL the baby gear (you know how quickly your home can go from House Beautiful to Gymboree with all that brightly-coloured paraphernalia!), and moved into my Mom's place for a few weeks. I told my agent he could go hog-wild with open houses and showings, and took off!

My agent was happy with the arrangement, because he didn't have to instruct the office to call me to set up an appointment each time a prospective buyer showed interest, lowering the risk of buyers losing interest if they couldn't obtain an appointment right away. I was happy with the arrangement, because once I got to my Mom's, showing my home was completely stress-free for my family and me.

Of course, not everyone is in the position to have a second home to go to, as I did, but for the sake of helping make even one family's selling experience a little less stressful, I offer my story as a suggestion :-)

Buy Me! An HGTV Gem

As soon as Buy Me! came on the air, I was hooked. Maybe because it started off as a Montréal-located show (and that's where I'm from), or maybe because it showed the low-down-and-dirty world of selling a home, and I've always loved to be a fly on the wall!

It may also be the fact that it is a very well-presented show, with respect to its apparent impartiality when it comes to the points of view of sellers, buyers, agents, inspectors. Buy Me! does what it can to give equal airtime to crazy agents vs. excellent agents, greedy sellers vs. realistic and helpful sellers, picky or nonchalant buyers vs. determined and thoughtful buyers.

Whatever it was, Buy Me! has been chocolate for my mind for years, and I have yet to be disappointed. Lately, I've been waiting for two episodes in particular to be aired, one features a seller with whom I went to high school, and the other features the best friend of a good friend of mine.

From what I understand, like any good reality show, dozens of hours of footage is taped, which is whittled and pared down to 22 minutes of pure entertainment! For anyone interested in real estate, in buying, selling, or entering it as a career, I highly recommend this fantastic program. For now, here is a little gem of helpful tips from the show:

Buy Me! Top 10 Real Estate Tips

By: The HGTV Editorial Team

Before you put your home on the market, take heed of these 10 valuable tips from the producers of HGTV's Buy Me.

1. Interview several agents before making your final choice.

2. Know your rights and obligations. Have your realtor explain the contract in detail or have a lawyer look at it with you.

3. Always base your price on market value rather than needs or emotions.

4. If the agent suggests your home needs some TLC, do the required fix-ups.

5. Make sure the agent is taking out advertisements to promote your property.

6. First impressions are important. Use attractive photos to advertise the listing.

7. Your house must have curb appeal. Make sure the outside is as attractive as the inside.

8. Keep your house clean and de-clutter before every open house and visit.

9. If the house isn't selling, think about lowering the price. A house that sits too long on the market raises suspicion for buyers.

10. Take the first offer seriously. It's often the best.

Living/Dining Rooms Before & After

Since my corporate job and I parted ways in January, I've enjoyed all the extra time the change has allowed me and my home. We've become quite close, as my Type-A personality likes to be productive, and my love of my home sees me continually looking for inexpensive ways to improve it.

I'd describe my style as comfortable, with Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware as my inspirations. If I had more money, I'd shop there, or rather, I'd have Candace Olsen and Sarah Richardson shop there (my two favourite decorators).

In the main areas, I tried to make it as inviting and comfortable-looking as possible. In the same way that I wouldn't mix leathers belt/purse/shoes, and wouldn't mix metals (jewelry), I generally don't mix woods or metals. For instance, if the major wood elements are espresso, they all are espresso. If the major metal elements are brushed nickel, they ALL must be brushed nickel. I also like to use an inspiration. For instance, the Cappelli vintage poster art in black, red and gold were my inspiration for my dining room/living room area. Sticking with one theme allowed the two rooms to flow seamlessly together.

InterNat

Since the inception of the Internet, I have been finding ways to exploit it to my (lazy) advantage.

Shopping - for anything - from the comfort of my own home is a tremendous convenience, and businesses are keen to take advantage of this fact, and people like me, offering new and improved ways to make spending money with them easier.

I would be hard-pressed to try to think of something I have yet not been able to find and/or purchase over the Internet, from the comfort of my flannel PJs. For this reason, I don't object to the nicknames: InterNat or eBay Rea. On the contrary: I wear them with pride! The fact that I have not stepped into a mall through the holiday season in over five years, and yet my gift-giving continues to receive praise for its thoughtfulness, is a stat I see as a credit to my ingenuity!

I laugh at people's incredulity when I tell them that I found my husband, dog, car, house, clothes, purses, furniture, courses, books, movies, bedding, cookware, rugs, lighting, diamonds, art, groceries, phone service, prescription eyeglasses, home reno contractors, kids' tutors, wedding dress, organist, wedding bands, electronics, etc. etc. on the Internet.

"Surely it can't be safe!", people exclaim, as they hold on tightly to their purses, happy to know their credit card is safely inside. "You've undoubtedly been burned by poor service, or unreliable vendors who take your money and don't ship you the goods!", they snicker. On the contrary: my years of being InterNat have allowed me to develop a keen sense of being able to identify a secure and reliable transaction/vendor versus a scam.

Among my random thoughts, stories I feel like sharing, real estate observations and home decorating and staging tips, I will infuse this blog with tips on how to find anything you need on the Internet. And then you, too, can shop in your PJs and may never have to brave a busy mall in December again!