Welcome Sunshine!

The sun is out; the grass is green and lush; the air is starting to sweeten with blossoms...the real estate market is busy and staging is taking off once again! Listings in the $200,000 - $300,000 range are going crazy! Above $350,000 seems a little tougher to move. The time frames for selling them are a bit longer and the prices are not reflective of the space offered when compared to the lower price ranges... This means for just a few thousand more - you can get a lot more house!!! A lot of my clients lately are in these higher price ranges - have tried selling without staging, unsuccessfully. They have called for the services of RSDR to assist in attracting their target market and are seeing great results! The realtors I have worked with suggest it may be due to competition with the new home building market - people are opting to build brand new vs. purchasing something that may need a bit of updating. The option of new is definitely appealing - fresh carpet, fresh paint, new appliances, picking your own materials and colour palette, energy efficient options, warranties... I have a couple of friends that will only buy new - they hate the idea that other people lived on their carpet, put knicks in their walls, painted colours they would never have picked, etc. There is something to be said for an older home though! Living in an established neighbourhood with trees and larger yards; decks that have already been built; landscaping that has been completed and has matured; a settled home, with no new cracks and nail holes popping up during the first year you're in it; larger rooms in some cases; no extensive delays with move-in dates; pools and hot tubs already installed; not getting damaged tires from driving through a construction site each day... It may be worth it to look at what it would cost to update an older home to what you would want and compare that with the cost of buying a new lot, building a new home, storing your things while you wait for it to be completed (in some cases), finishing the landscaping, building the deck or patio, and so on. I have always opted for an older home, personally. I love already having the yard, deck, fence, fruit trees, established gardens... I always start the move-in process off much like I would if I was building - I choose a new colour palette, I decide if new appliances are warranted, I typically change the flooring, do a little tiling in the bathrooms to update the look, maybe pick some new lighting fixtures, window coverings, install some dimmers and PRESTO...the house is now my home!