If the words condo for sale and the image of young urban hipsters are inextricably linked for you, you haven’t been getting out enough. Drive less than 30 minutes out of the city and you’ll find luxury adult-lifestyle condos sprouting up in small towns and communities throughout the 905 area. Elegance rather than edginess is the appeal of these condos in small towns and condos that ring the GTA such as Bolton, Whitby, Pickering, Newcastle, Bowmanville and Mississauga. These homes appeal to a different clientele than downtown and styles reflect the older more discerning demographic of the condo market. With the housing demand from empty nester’s, divorced singles and those with strong roots in their neighborhood, this growing trend is redefining not only condo living but condo home designs too!
As the demographics shit to more and more 50+ home owners, developers are recognizing that there is an untapped demand. These buyers no longer want to putter around in a bungalow backyard garden. They are keen to enjoy summer vacation homes on the weekend, Florida in the winter and less overall home maintenance, but are not keen to move away from the neighborhood they have lived in for so many years. And in many of these communities, there is no condo option, so to find what they are looking for they leave their comfortable neighborhood bank, doctor, hair salons, libraries, churches and friends.
To find a condo close to your neighborhood, click here — Condos for sale Mississauga , Toronto, Milton, Etobicoke, Brampton and GTA.
1. The Kitchen - If you haven’t known by now, the kitchen is the heart of a home! Potential home buyers always have something to say about a kitchen when they first view a home for sale, so make sure it’s clean and relatively updated. Kitchen faucet, cabinet door handles and upgraded energy efficient lighting fixtures can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. If you have a higher budget then replace the cabinet doors and hinges, if not you can buy a can of paint with Teflon and paint them white; white gives the appearance of a larger kitchen.
2. The Appliances - Try to match all your appliances with the same color scheme. If you cannot afford new appliances, then just buy the replacement doors or face panels. A more cohesive looking kitchen makes a big difference in a buyers mind and the re-sale value of your home. HINT: Many dishwasher panels are made black on one side and white on the other, you can easily unskrew the panel then flip it over to match the rest of your appliances!
3. The Bathroom - Next to the kitchen, the bathroom is also most important! A new toilet seat and sink are pretty easy to install and are relatively cheap. Make sure your bathtub is clean, replace broken tiles and if need to re-tile your floor use vinyl tiles or sheets. They are inexpensive and you can install right over the old floor.
4. Add a room? - If your house is a 3 bedroom + 1 den structure than add a room! The only difference between “bedroom” and “den” is that there is no closet in a “den”. Add a closet to the den, now your house is a 4 bedroom unit. Adding an extra room raises the value of your home significantly and you can do this for under $1500.00.
5. Can you judge a book by its cover? - Although it may seem obvious to trim the grass, shrubs and sweep the walk way, when buyers drive by your house, what they see is extremely important. If you can, instal some new sod and plant a few evergreen shrubs, if not hire a landscaper. These minor changes will impact a buyers first perception of your home and therefore increase its value. And your neighbors will love you cause you just help increase the value of their home too!
To find out how much your house is worth click here for a free assessment!
A new program this unveiled this week by the Bush Administration to help strapped home owners to avoid foreclosure. Homeowners who qualify are 90 days past due, they will be allowed another 30 days while lenders try to work out more affordable terms. The lenders who are participating in this are: Bank of America, Citi Group, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual. The Americans have already reported a $225bil loss in the sub-prime market, lets hope “Project Lifeline” prevents this from increasing higher and in turn affecting us here in Canada!
