If you having been thinking about listing your property for sale recently, you have probably heard about home staging. It can be amazing what a difference a home stager can make. It is usually money well spent!

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Here's an article from shine.yahoo.com with 16 Budget-Friendly Home Upgrades for your home.

For the kitchen: the kitchen sink, a new countertop, new light fixtures or a "Splash of Color"

For the bathroom, their suggestions include: refinishing the cabinets, hooks, or a new tile floor

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For most people, buying a home is the most significant investment of their lives. Moreover, in spite of the doubt and confusion clouding both the financial markets and news headlines, there are many genuine real estate opportunities - especially for first-time buyers.

In general, prices are stable and historical data demonstrates that purchasing a home has proven a sound long-term financial investment. However, first-time homebuyers are often understandably anxious when it comes time to making the purchase. We have come up with a simple "do and don't" list to make the process easier for everyone dreaming of homeownership.

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If you are a first time home buyer (or know someone who wants to be one), let us help you take the process in hand!

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Here are some items to consider to better winterize your home in this video from Lou Manfredini and Marvin.com

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Here's Christmas Tree 101 from This Old House.

• How to choose a good tree
• Prepare the tree
• How to keep it looking nice
• Responsible disposal

Check out Christmas Tree 101 from ThisOldHouse.com

Image via Wikipedia

Wouldn't it be great to know just how must impact a basement renovation will have on the market value of your home? Wouldn't it be great if we could supply some definitive figures here on our blog to tell you just that?

Unfortunately, definitive figures are pretty much impossible to calculate. Every home is different and every buyer's needs are different.

However, we took a quick and dirty look at some MLS® figures to see if we could find anything interesting...

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Here's an interesting article from Coldwell Banker's US website on the process of buying building a custom home:

If you want a new home, but aren't interested in a cookie cutter subdivision, consider building your own custom home.

It's a "toss up" whether building your own home will be cheaper than buying one in a subdivision, said David Lupberger, a home improvement expert with ServiceMagic.com. A custom built home could run $100 per square foot, excluding land costs, he said, but up to as much as $300 per square foot with high-end finishes (excluding the cost of land).

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Here are the first ten items from the 100 ways to conserve energy list on the Count Me in Ontario website.

Consider them conservation inspiration!

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Here are links to information regarding first time buyer incentives, land transfer tax and also home renovation tax credit.

• This link refers to the Tax Credit for first time buyers announced with the recent federal budget: cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/bdgt/2009/fqhbtc-eng.html
• This link refers to information regarding the Land Transfer Tax Rebate for first time buyers...: rev.gov.on.ca/english/refund/newhome/

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Sometime soon most of us will see our utility company changing our electricity bill to "time of use" billing. It will cost more to use electricity during peak hours (for example a summer afternoon) than it will cost for non-peak times.

If you are considering the purchase of a new clothes dryer, you may want to take this into consideration while deciding upon your purchase.

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