Five Steps to Making Your Dream Renovation a Reality

The lure of a stunning gourmet kitchen or sparkling spa-style bathroom may have you chomping at the bit to begin a home renovation. But if you heed the advice of experienced renovators, pre-planning and advanced preparation are the secrets to renovation success.

Here’s a helpful checklist to get your renovation started on the right track:

1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

For most people, this is the fun part – flipping through magazines and watching home decorating shows to get inspired. But it is also one of the most critical phases in any home renovation.

2. PREPARE A REALISTIC BUDGET

Determine how much you are prepared to spend on your renovation. Remember to boost your budget by at least 10% for unexpected costs.

3. ARRANGE FOR FINANCING

Get financing in place early so that you can plan your renovation with confidence. Leveraging the equity in your home is often a good option. With a secured loan, you can usually obtain an attractive interest rate with flexible repayments. Other alternatives include refinancing your existing mortgage or arranging for a second mortgage on your home.

An independent mortgage broker can help by negotiatiating competitive financing with a number of competing lending institutions.

4. SELECT THE RIGHT TEAM

You’ll want to entrust your project to people known for their quality of work. Ask for recommendations from friends and family, interview prospective candidates, and I strongly recommend that you check references.

5. STICK WITH YOUR PLAN

Your contractor, who does the construction or subcontracts it to other trades people, will work with you or your designer to implement your plan. With a sound plan, reasonable budget, financing in place and a team that you trust, your renovation can get off on the right track.

What renovations are on your wish list?

Home sales down, prices up in April 2011

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, home sales activity was down 4.4% in April 2011.  This softening was expected due to the tightening of mortgage regulations in March.

Home prices were up 8% compared to April 2010, buoyed by continuing increases of multi-million dollar home sales in Vancouver.  

To see the full article, click here.


Photo credit [c] Liz Orfao for openphoto.net

Rates drop - but only slightly

The bank posted 5 year rate has dropped from 5.69% to 5.59%. That .10% is not significant but it is allowing fixed rates to continue to edge down. Overall, rates are lower than they were a few weeks ago, and a lot of our lenders are beating the posted rate by 1.5% or more. 

It would be nice to see rates stay at these levels throughout the summer!

Mortgage and homebuying tools - free for the taking!

If you do a quick google search you will find that there is an overwhelming amount of information available for new homebuyers.  Save yourself some time and check out one of the best sites out there:  the CMHC website.  It contains literally thousands of articles on everything from homebuying to mortgages to renting and dealing with home ownership issues.  And it's not just in English; translations are available in French and eight other languages.

Check out this first time homebuyer video, then spend some time looking at the homebuyer guides, easy-to-use calculators, and of course, information about CMHC mortgage insurance.

I'm a big believer in getting educated.  Since a home purchase is the biggest financial investment most of us will ever undertake, it is worth knowing about a resource that gives you so much unbiased, high quality information about home buying.

Let me know what you think!