Canadians and Americans are different. For every similarity—our love/hate relationship with Celine Dion; our affinity for televised sports, with regional differences, of course — there are differences that clearly make each country separate. And I’m not just talking about Canada’s love for Clamato and the ongoing love affair Americans have with spray cheese. Gross.

But the real difference between America and Canada, at least as far as this blog is concerned, concerns the White House and 24 Sussex Drive. Don’t know what “24 Sussex Drive” is? That’s my point.

This past weekend, the Canadian media reported on the decrepit state of Prime Minister Steve Harper’s abode, pointing out that the 34-room house, built in 1866, is in desperate need of a reno—to the tune of $10 million.

At stake: who will pay for the renos and where will Steve and his family live during the repairs, which include replacing old windows, removing asbestos and installing a sprinkler system. They’re looking at a 12- to 15-month project, and that’s assuming that the subcontractors show up on time.

I simply cannot imagine the White House undergoing such prolonged and publicly debated scrutiny over when and how the “official residence” will be brought up to date; it’s not that the White House has never been renovated—it has, many times—but that Canadian leaders have historically lacked the political will and wallets to authorize big-budget renovations, let alone the cosmetic changes brought in by U.S. presidents and (likely) future leaders.

Of course, all this pales in comparison to the reno headaches suffered by other world leaders. Former Czech president Václav Havel writes in his memoir, To the Castle and Back, about concerns with the Castle’s garden hose, which needs to be lengthened, and the bat inhabiting the vacuum-cleaner closet, all while trying to run a newly democratic country. Talk about gaining perspective.

Sometimes I think Canada suffers from too much democracy; as in, too much debate over how and when things need to get fixed. It’s why there is an excessive number of elections, and a state house in need of the Holmes treatment. In the States, on the other hand, the chain of command means things get done ASAP, which is good when it comes to renos, but not as good when it comes to foreign policy.

No, we’re not the same. But that’s what makes us friends.

Five years ago, “green” renovating meant three things: increased costs, questionable quality and searching through pages and pages of contractor listings till, eventually, you found a contractor knowledgeable about green building that didn’t also charge the moon. It wasn’t easy being green, but that was then and this is now.

Today, none of these statements ring true: green building materials have increased in quality while decreasing in cost as consumer demand for environmental products and systems keeps climbing. What’s more, environmentally responsible products save you money over the long haul because of increased efficiency and longer life spans; it may cost you slightly more upfront, but you’ll quickly earn back your investment while also upping the resale value of your home.

But don’t just take our word for it. Even Wall Street, traditionally weary of any shade of green other than the dollar bill, agrees: green building is both responsible from an ecological perspective, but also beneficial from an investor’s point of view. Investor website TheStreet.com takes a look at green building from a cost/benefit point of view.

Similarly, CNN’s Money Magazine takes a hard look at green reno costs and return on investment.

Incentives

Still not convinced green renos suit your budget? Well, perhaps the state can help change your mind. Governments across North America are trying to cut back on energy and water consumption, so it’s in their best interest to entice homeowners to go green, which means a plethora of grants, incentives and rebates. American rebates take the form of everything from tax breaks to grant programs, while the Canadian version is pushing energy audits various government rebate programs.

Up next in Part 2 of Green Your Home: the health benefits of green renovation.

—Jay Somerset

The ecoENERGY Retrofit program is open to all Canadian homeowners renovating to be more energy efficient.

Things to know about the program:

• Homeowners can receive a rebate of up to $5,000 for improving their home.
• You have to pay $295 to have someone come into your home to assess it before you renovate, and an additional $150 to have them come back after the renovations are complete.
• Some provinces will send you an instant rebate of up to $150 after the first assessment to subsidize some of the cost.
• The average homeowner receives $1600 in rebates
• By following the recommendations of the advisor, you can help lower your house’s emissions by up to one-half. Homes are one of the major producers of green house gas emissions in Canada.
• All advisers must be impartial — be careful of those that come into your home and try to up-sell you.
• Homeowners can choose what to upgrade based on their adviser’s recommendations, their budgets, and what has the most payback.

posted by Nikki Rollins
nrollins@homerenovationguide.com

Recently we heard from a new homeowner who thought they knew exactly what they were buying after having the house fully inspected by a home inspector. To their surprise, when they called in a contractor to do some renovations, the contractor found numerous errors and mistakes made by the home inspector.

Sadly, the house is going to be much expensive to renovate than was initially budgeted for.

In this blog entry, we try to give you some things to think about during a home inspection.

1. Seasonality of Inspection - When you have a home inspected prior to purchase, consider the season that the home inspector is working in . For example, if it is winter and the roof is covered in snow, how can the inspector properly judge the quality of the roof ? If this is the case, try and get documentation from the homeowner on the condition of the roof, the warranty, and the last time the roof was worked on.

2. Knob and Tube Wiring - It is very difficult for a home inspector to determine the extent of knob-and-tube wiring in a house. Often, you will get an estimate percentage from the inspector. Since the inspector can’t rip out the walls and actually see the knob and tube, their determination is made based on the plugs and switches.

3. Hiding the house’s faults - As a home inspector’s visit to your house is brief, often they can miss things that have been hidden from the inspection. A common example of this is when homeowners paint their foundation walls to hide mold and leaking.

4. Home inspection liability limitations - Remember that the inspector is not liable for missed items during an inspection. They are only liable for the amount of the actual cost of the inspection, so before you agree to the results of their inspection, make sure there isn’t anything you think they’ve missed .

5. Insulation in the Attic - This is one area often missed in an inspection. Due to the difficulty of getting into the attic, the volume, type and quality of the attic insulation is often not included on an inspection.

So what is the end result? Home inspection services are very useful and can give the homeowner peace of mind when making a decision on buying a home. However, given the nature of the job, it is important to choose a home inspector with experience, not just the cheapest one. There are some really great home inspection companies out there to choose from. Please try to keep in mind some of these lessons during an inspection.

For more information on home improvement visit The Home Renovation Guide - http://www.homerenovationguide.com - The complete guide to home renovation.

Renovating your home can be an exciting and rewarding process. Whether you are making modest changes in one or two rooms, or you are transforming the entire house into a dream of a lifetime, the process can be pleasant and smooth, if you take the time to plan your project carefully.

The Renovation Council of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association (GVHBA), suggests that homeowners can ensure a successful renovation if they follow these 10 steps:

1. Do your homework. Advance research is the key to getting what you want. Study magazines and books to get an idea of the look you want. Visit friends, family members and colleagues who have renovated recently. Consider your lifestyle and the needs of your family, both in the short and long term.

2. Find out how much you can afford. Once your have a firm idea of the kind of renovation you would like to undertake, it is time to decide how you are going to pay for it. If you are thinking about using outside funds, discuss your borrowing needs and options with your lender. You will probably find that there are many financing possibilities to consider, from personal loans and lines of credit to home equity loans and homeowner’s mortgages.

3. Look for a professional renovator. Ask family and friends for recommendations. Drive around your neighbourhood to see who is renovating, then talk to the homeowners about their project. Most people are delighted to share their renovation experiences.

4. Get estimates. Obtain two or three different bids; more are usually not required. Make sure that you provide all the renovators with the same detailed information. It is important that they bid on the same job, or you will not be able to compare estimates. This information could be a description of the job including sketches, drawings, photographs and measures.For estimates involving major structural changes such as additions or moving interior walls, renovators may also need a set of plans. An architect could be a great help here. The set of plans includes site and floor plans, elevations and detailed drawings. The plan forms the basis for the estimating process and will also be used to obtain building permits. Be honest and open about your budget. The renovator will be able to make suggestions that will help you stay within your budget or provide alternative ideas to stretch your dollars.

5. Check references. Don’t omit this step just because you are too busy or “they seem like the right person for the job.”

6. Work out a contract. Don’t automatically take the lowest bid, unless you are certain that the renovator has properly understood what you want. Sometimes low bids turn out to be the most expensive in the end. When you accept the renovator’s offer, it’s time to write up a contract. Even the simplest of jobs should be outlined in writing because the contract is the basis of understanding between you and your renovator. Before signing a contract, read it carefully. Are you satisfied with the description of the work to be done? Does the payment schedule include holdbacks? Are the responsibilities of the renovator clearly spelled out? Remember that if something is not in the contract, then it’s your responsibility. Have a lawyer examine the contract before you sign it.

7. Plan how you will live during the renovation. Careful planning can greatly minimize inconvenience of living in the midst of a renovation. Talk to your renovator about the schedule of work to be done and how your daily routine might be affected. For instance, will the water be turned off for any length of time? Do you need to set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the home? Can major work be done in stages so as you always have a livable space? Discuss your expectations of the work crew and determine the work environment. The crew needs access to washroom facilities, telephones, water and electricity. Decide which areas of your home are off limits. It is a good idea to let your neighbours know that you are going to be renovating. Show them your plans and explain how long the work will be going on.

8. Establish a good working relationship and mutual trust with your renovator. Renovators and homeowners agree that a good working relationship is a vital ingredient in successful renovation projects. Keep lines of communication open at all times. Expect a brief report on the progress of your job at regular intervals, perhaps every evening. Be available to make decisions when they are needed so work is not held up, perhaps costing you more money. Don’t hesitate to bring your concerns to the attention of the renovator.

9. Try to stick with your first choices. Once work is underway, changes should be kept to a minimum. The details of your project are described in the contract, down to the finishing touches, from the basis of both the price and the schedule of your job. Changes could affect both significantly. Your GVHBA member renovator, however, wants you to be satisfied with the final result, and will likely attempt to accommodate any alteration in plans, as long as you accept a possible delay in completion and/or a change in price.

10. Be prepared to enjoy the results. Research, good planning, a professional work crew and open communication and trust, a recipe for a home renovation that you will enjoy for years to come!

Article complements of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association http://www.gvhba.org/

for more information please visit their web site.

posted by Nikki Rollins nrollins@homerenovationguide.com

When you are dealing with limited finances, and still want to add a new look to your home, here are some easy home makeover solutions that can be done in an afternoon.

Foyer
If you have a small entranceway, and you want to brighten it up while adding some depth, a carefully selected mirror can do the trick. An inexpensive mirror can be found at a garage sale, and then touched up with some textured spray paint. The textured paint will cover minor flaws better than a smooth surface.

If like the look of natural wood, pick up an unframed square mirror for $12 - 15 at any home accessories store, a few pieces of wood doweling and a glue gun. At the hardware store, ask them to cut the wood to size for you to avoid added work at home.

Living Room
Changing your artwork can add a completely new perception to your home and cost little or nothing. Remember that anything can be art, so put that antique silver serving tray that your grandmother gave you to use. Hang it over you mantel with some well-chosen candleholders to frame it and a few suitable pictures that may explain the serving tray’s history.

If you have an abundance of books, and do not want to get rid of them, make your bookshelf part of your home makeover. Freshen the bookshelf with new paint or perhaps stencil a pattern around the edges to give it some new life. Your books can be placed both vertically and horizontally, and in between, add a few photos, baskets or collectibles. It makes your bookshelf something intriguing, instead of just a cluttered space in the corner of a room.

Bedroom
Headboards seem to be missing from many bedrooms. They are expensive and deemed unnecessary, often getting pushed to the end of the decorating list. A few easy solutions in lieu of the traditional headboard:

• Give the picture you removed from your mantel another purpose. You may have to update the frame to match your bedroom, but it does make an easy headboard. Pick up a few extra matching frames and make a theme for your room.

• If you have low ceilings, head to the fabric store and pick out some inexpensive patterned sheer fabric, a curtain rod, and two-way tape. Hang the curtain rod close the ceiling. Ensure your fabric is long enough to tuck in between the bed and wall. Two-way tape the curtain loop onto the fabric (simple, and no one will see it!) and you have a fresh new look that makes your bedroom larger.

With less than $100 and only one day, your foyer, living room and bedroom now have a great new feel, and your home has the appearance of a total home makeover.

nrollins@homerenovationguide.com

It usually happens that when you buy your first home, you were thinking about your current situation. A few short years later, you are feeling cramped and debating between renovating or moving. Most people like their area and do not want to move, but feel that renovating can be costly. In addition, they lack the liquid cash to do so, making selling and moving seem like the better option.

Another consideration is a renovation loan. This can be added to you mortgage payment in small amounts that will add up to less than the cost of purchasing a new home.

Since 1994, the cost of buying a home has increased 3.7% per year*. That is 48.1% over the past 13 years. Moreover, the savings from the real estate agent to sell your current home and purchase a new one can be $10,000 or more**.

Continue to add in your new moving costs of $ 2,000 - 5,000, depending on the distance*, and your renovation seems more and more affordable.

The instant savings of not moving and paying a real estate agent already have saved you over $12,000. Add that to the budget for a home makeover, and you can add in a new level, upgrade your kitchen, finish your basement, or create an en-suite so you have the added privacy you crave.

nrollins@homerenovationguide.com

*Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
** Figures correct if current home sells for $ 200,000, and new home cost $ 245,000 at a commission rate of 2.25% (($200,000.00 x 2.25%) + ($245,000.00 x 2.25%))

In a hot market, there are more buyers than homes for sale. Prices rise, and the days a home is on the market may shorten to a week or even less. Some homes will sell before they are even registered in the local MLS. This can mean that some sellers are presented with multiple offers. How can you position your offer to be the one the seller accepts?The best way is to gain an understanding of how multiple offers work and how they benefit the seller. Multiple offers mean that the seller has their pick of offers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a disadvantage for you as a buyer. You just have to determine how badly you want that particular home. If you want to compete in a multiple offer situation, here is what you will need to know: there are two things that matter to the seller – price and terms.

The sellers want the highest price possible, and terms that best are best suited to them. Both of these areas leave room for negotiation. Just because a seller is entertaining multiple offers doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance, but there will be only one winner.

To be that winner you have to hit the right note with the seller where the other contracts don’t. Just to give you an idea of how important terms are to the seller, let’s look at a hypothetical situation. You offer a seller the highest price for their home, but you put in the contract a condition that you must sell your home first before you close on the seller’s home.

It may seem reasonable to you, but this a condition that all sellers do not like. When they have a choice, they will not accept this condition. Sellers do not want to wait to see if a buyer sells their home first, before they know they have made a firm sale and will generally accept an offer with a lower price to avoid such a condition. The seller’s desire is to accept terms which meet their own needs, so keep conditions to a minimum.

Ask your agent to find out from the seller’s agent what terms will be most favorably viewed by the seller. If you can’t get there first, get there the best way you know how. In a multiple offer situation, the seller is not under any obligation to negotiate with the first buyer who submits an offer. So, if your offer is not the first offer, don’t panic. Because the seller has the liberty of choosing the best offer to negotiate, your offer stands a chance of being noticed.

As you already have learned, the seller will accept the offer that best reflects their needs. They not only consider price, they also look at such things as the buyers financial situation, what the buyer wants included or excluded from the sale, and the possession date. That means room to negotiate for you.

Believe it or not, the highest price doesn’t always buy the home. Sellers have a number of needs aside from price; they want a quick closing, or a delayed possession, or they may wish to exclude items in the home, and so on. Any offer which puts any of these goals at risk will not be looked upon as favourably as others that come closer to what the seller wants. Sellers are very interested in the buyer’s financial capability of completing a purchase.

A seller who accepts an offer from an unqualified buyer is taking a substantial risk. Should the offer fall through because the buyer fails to qualify for financing, the home will lose valuable marketing exposure and momentum. In a hot market, many sellers won’t even entertain offers presented by unqualified buyers. (Hint: Get pre-approved for a loan. Not only will you know exactly what you can spend, you will demonstrate your seriousness to the seller.)

Your seller may have a special need that is more important to them than price. For example, your seller may have a need to sell quickly, but remain in the home for a period of time until school is out or until a transfer takes place. Your ability to negotiate on this point may be more important than coming up with the highest dollar amount. You can offer a short-term lease after closing or offer to delay possession to accommodate your seller.

You can do a number of things to get the seller’s attention, such as work with your agent to determine the seller’s “hot” buttons, and act accordingly within your budget and your own needs. Deadlines can be deadly. Don’t assume that the seller has to respond to your offer by your deadline. Deadlines are only important to the seller if they plan to accept your offer without any changes.

To make their acceptance of your offer valid, they must accept it within the time limit you specified. If they are not going to accept your offer as presented and are going to make changes to the offer to see if you will accept their changes (this is called a sign back), they do not have to sign your offer back to you within your time period. They will be making a new offer to you and they will then put their own time limit for acceptance on their offer to you. Do not falter in the negotiations. Do not assume that because your seller is negotiating with you that they can’t entertain other offers.

All it takes is for one party to make a change that the other party doesn’t accept and negotiations are over and another offer can be presented and accepted. The seller may be waiting to see your best offer before accepting another offer that may already be on the table. Multiple offers often allow sellers to improve upon the asking price or terms.

The seller’s agent may be instructed by the seller to ask the buyers to “submit improved offers” and may set another presentation time where the seller will either accept the best offer or decide to “work with” the best offer to see if they can make a deal. There are many variations of the offer game and there are no specific industry guidelines in how multiple offers are to handled, but rest assured that there are very specific industry rules that everyone has to be treated fairly.

Hot markets don’t stay hot forever. They may be hot for a while, but there always comes a time when they will cool, at least for a while. The home you are so anxious to get now may level off in value very shortly. Make sure that this is the home you want no matter what the market conditions say. The home’s history may be helpful here.

Ask your agent to provide you with the home’s history or a history of comparable homes in the area. If similar homes have been sold several times in the last few years, the history can tell you how much was gained or lost by the sellers involved and what current price levels are, or at least were. Also, look at the affordability of the home. Are the extra considerations you are offering to stay in the game really worth it? Do they price the home out of your range? Will you be able to afford the other costs associated with move-in such as furniture and updates? Know when to throw in the towel.

There may come a time when it is wise to simply give up and move on to another home. Some sellers, in multiple offer frenzy, will simply make unreasonable demands and some buyers will accept them. Some offers will go beyond what can be justified by recent sold comparable homes or local lender guidelines. Lenders have a ceiling (created by prices of recently sold comparable properties … the appraisal).

Lenders are required by law not to lend more that a certain percentage of an appraised value, depending on the type of loan and insurance paid. In no circumstance can a lender finance more than 100% of the appraised value of a property. You should throw in the towel when you feel that the price has gone too far above what an appraisal might suggest.

The best way to position yourself as the buyer whose offer is accepted is to work closely with an agent who can help you step by step; from getting pre-qualified for a loan, to helping you find homes in your pre-approved price range, to showing you current market value statistics, to helping you negotiate the home of your dreams.

*Article is courtesy of Prudential Plus Properties

The Home Buyers’ Plan allows first time homeowners to withdraw up to $20,000 per person from their RRSP to be used as the down payment for their home. If you and your spouse, common-law partner, or other individual, are purchasing the home together, each person can withdraw up to the $20,000 maximum from his/her RRSP.

Essentially, the benefits of purchasing a house with the money in your RRSP are the tax benefits. For example: if you and your spouse both have been contributing to your RRSP, you would have received tax refunds. After contributing to your RRSP, you have decided to purchase a home. This being a first home for both of you, you are able to apply for the Home Buyers Plan (HBP). The HBP defers the taxes on cashing in your RRSP over the next 15 years, which has a number of cost-effective advantages.

One benefit is that repayment is as low as $1,333.33 per person per year, of the maximum $20,000 per person withdrawn.
Note that you will not be able to reap the tax refund again for repayment amounts, however topping up your RRSP’s with each repayment can increase your tax refund allowing you to use the money on renovating your home, like a new roof, deck or landscaping.

nrollins@homerenovationguide.com