When you plan to take a journey – such as a vacation or road trip - you hope it will be ‘smooth sailing’ all the way. Quite simply, that means the trip will be relatively trouble-free, and without stress, upset, or hassle.

And in many ways, selling your property is a lot like a journey. So how do you ensure that selling your home will be as ‘smooth sailing’ as your road trip adventure?

No one can ever guarantee that there won’t be some kind of challenge or curve-ball to overcome on the road to selling your home; life isn’t like that. But there are tried-and-tested ways to help ensure everything goes as well as possible, minimising the chance of any of life’s unexpected events from occurring.

First...

Home staging may not seem important to some, but in today's real estate market, proper home staging can help your house stand out. Even the smallest details can create a sale. Here are a few tips to help and improve your home staging.

First Impressions Count

The first part of your house any potential buyer will see is the façade, so make sure you put some effort in here. A bit of landscaping can go a long way and something as simple as adding a few potted plants around your front door can make a big difference to your main entrance.

Remove Personal Effects

Potential buyers like to imagine themselves living in your home, so don't compromise that with your own personal pictures. It’s hard to disconnect everything from the home...

Imagine this; you've been waiting for exactly the right moment to put your home on the market. But then, just as you're about to put up the sign and list, you see other FOR SALE signs unexpectedly popping up around the neighbourhood.

So now there are competing listings. This is a fairly common scenario, but does that mean you should put your plan to sell your property on hold?

Not necessarily.

Just because comparable homes are for sale in your area doesn't mean that it's not a good time to make your move. In fact, even if there is a sharp increase in local listings, active buyers might still outnumber properties available. And buyers love choice, so in that scenario, you quite likely to get several interested buyers.

Even in the case of a buyer's...

With spring almost here, many of us are considering shaking off the last throes of winter and starting the refreshing task of cleaning up the place.  Spring cleaning always seems like a great idea – and a time for renewal - until you actually get started. Then quite often it turns out to be more work than expected!

The good news is, there are proven techniques to make the job easier so you can get it done faster. Here are a few suggestions to get you going:

• Before you start spring cleaning, make sure you have everything you need: hammer and other tools, storage boxes, tape, garbage bags, cleaning supplies, etc. Think of what you’ll need on hand, and the tools that will make each task easier. You don’t want to be wasting...

Setting out to purchase a new property is an exciting time, and when you think about your price range, you always hope to find the ideal property within that budget, however, the housing market is hugely variable, and it rarely works out that way.

There are many circumstances in which you may have to rethink your budget, and quite often you’ll need to increase it to get the home you want.

For example, you may find that properties in the neighbourhoods you’re looking to buy in are actually selling for more than you expected. With this eventuality, you’d have to either look for a home in a different area, or see if there’s a possibility that you can increase your budget.

Another scenario that comes up frequently is changing...