Shopping for a house is as much a lifestyle decision as it is a financial one. After all, unless you’re a professional real estate investor, you’re not just buying a house – you’re buying a home. Sure, there are important financial matters to consider, such as mortgage rates, payments and resale values. But when deciding

A Feng Shui bedroom, a retro bathroom, a cottage kitchen; there’s so many creative ways to perk up the look of your home. But if the costs of your next home reno just aren’t adding up for you, it’s time to get equally creative with ways to save, and it starts with supplies. Here are

Protect Yourself and Your Neighbourhood There are lots of reputable home improvement businesses that rely upon “person-to-person” marketing to get new customers. Unfortunately, there are also some undesirable contractors whose plan is to relieve you of your possessions and/or money while performing substandard, overpriced services that are void of any guarantee. Below is a short

The Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released in July showed the average price of a home in Canada increased year-over-year between 3.3 and 5.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. By the end of 2012, Royal LePage expects national average prices to be 3.2 per cent higher compared to

In a case heard in Waterloo, the tenant had a pet and lived in a building that was not subject to rent review. The landlord tried to raise the rent by 10 per cent claiming that since pets were damaging his property, he needed to raise the rent of those tenants who had pets to

Experts suggest puting 30% of your things in storage when preparing your home for sale. This is unpractical for most people. But, it does pay to make your home look spacious and as uncluttered as possible. Not sure what to do with everything? Once you have sorted through all your stuff separate them into 4 piles

GTA Home Prices up in July according to the Toronto Real Estate Board Click on the latest issue of Your Cizmar Report to see what the market is doing in New Toronto and Mimico.

Aug 16, 2012 – Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 2,857 transactions through the TorontoMLS system during the first 14 days of August 2012. This mid-month result represented a dip of 7.6 per cent in comparison to 3,091 sales reported during the same period in 2011. “A number of factors played into the dip in sales

Question: I’m thinking about selling my house but don’t want to spend a lot of money on fixing it up. Are there certain improvements I can do that will not break the bank but, will still increase the value of my house? Answer: Yes! There are so many improvements you can undertake that are very inexpensive. With

Read any Top 10 list of things to do to prepare your house for sale and “Get rid of the clutter” is sure to be on it! But how important is cleaning up really? Does your home have to look immaculate, like it’s been torn from the page of a decorating magazine? Can’t the average

                    You’ve received an offer on your home. But should you accept it? To help you figure that out, below are some questions you should ask yourself and discuss with your real estate representative. Can you live with the price of the offer? Is it fair (i.e. close to market value) or is it a

It’s a buyer’s market. It’s a seller’s market. You’ve probably heard these terms before. But what do they really mean when you’re considering buying or selling a home? A buyer’s market exists when the supply of homes in a particular market exceeds the demand. Since there are more homes for sale, and fewer buyers, homes