Purchase a home within your budget Find the right mortgage that works for you Price and sell on your terms Selling? Buying? Here's what you need to know Looking for your dream house? Want to make your house someone else's dream? The new edition of this friendly guide shares secrets to help you reach your next stage in life. If you're buying, discover how to decide whether you need an agent, know what to consider as you shop, what you need to know about mortgages, how you can compare homes, and more. If you're selling, find out how to price your home, what selling will cost you, how to market your house, what's important about listings, and how to handle appraisals. Enjoy success whether you're buying or selling! Inside... Planning for your first home Discovering who the players are Analysing your finances Understanding inspections and surveys Deciding if you want to sell Sprucing up your home Negotiating and bargaining

Whether you're new at the home-buying or selling game in Canada, or whether you've played it before, most of us dread the onslaught of flashy, fast-talking real estate agents and property managers. Well, help has arrived. This revised edition of "Buying and Selling a Home For Canadians For Dummies" prepares you to get what you need and want when buying a new home or selling the one you're in. Everything from arranging your finances and hiring an agent, to researching neighbourhoods and assessing home values is presented in a clear and humorous way to help you get the most out of the process. Important information to help you: Market your home and sell for the highest possible price Negotiate the best price and terms of sale Find the right new neighbourhood with reasonable prices and the type of housing to suit you and your family Decide whether or not to hire an agent and tips on how to choose a good one Select the best mortgage and understand tax considerations Updated in the 2nd Edition: Examining zero percent down payments, lines of credit and other alternatives to conventional mortgages Using the 'Net: New, useful sites - and what to watch out for Buying condominiums: An expanded chapter full of useful information on what you need to know before you buy Selling your home on your own: Expanded online resources and tips Fixing up your home to sell: Tips from the designers on how to make your home as sellable as possible

Make your next house sale or purchase a homerun with the latest edition of this celebrated Canadian guide In the Fifth Edition of Buying and Selling a Home For Canadians For Dummies, best-selling authors and real estate experts Douglas Gray and Peter Mitham unpack the good, the bad, and the "I can't believe I didn't think of that" of buying or selling a home in Canada. Buyers will discover the answers to the questions that have kept them up at night, from whether they need an agent to what they should look for in a new home. Sellers will find out how to price their home for maximum value, the real costs associated with real estate sales, and how to list their place. Real estate doesn't have to be intimidating. Gray and Mitham show you how to navigate a home sale or purchase with skill and confidence and have fun doing it. You'll: Identify unique, regional issues you should consider whether you're buying a condo in Toronto or a two-bedroom in Yellowknife Discover how to maximize your home's asking price by presenting it in its best light Learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to finding hidden gems and diamonds in the rough in a seller's market Perfect for first-time home buyers and sellers as well as people who've been around the block a few times, Buying and Selling a Home For Canadians For Dummies is the ultimate guide for Canucks who are looking for expert help throughout this seriously important and exciting process.

Home staging strategies needed to succeed in a down market Whether a buyer, seller, or real estate agent, the home selling and purchasing process is fraught with potholes that can usually be overcome. But in this weakened housing market, everyone involved in the selling process must increase their efforts. In order to sell homes at top dollar, houses must be "prepared for sales." That’s where Staging comes in. The real estate mantra is no longer location, location, location. It is now Staging, Staging, Staging! It’s all about presentation. In Staging to Sell, Barb Schwarz, The Creator of Home Staging®, offers her winning tactics, secrets, and strategies for selling a home at top dollar during these challenging times. In addition to offering specific tips on how to Stage a home, Schwarz, a sought-after speaker and Real Estate broker who has Staged and sold over 5,000 homes, provides readers, sellers, Realtors® and Stagers, with useful advice on correctly pricing properties, marketing properties so that they sell, addressing objections early on, having the seller handle the Staging before the house is viewed, and much more. Written with today’s turbulent real estate market in mind, Staging to Sell contains the information readers need to get their homes Sold in the market quickly for top dollar.

In this groundbreaking new book, readers learn how small color changes can increase a homes value, minor repairs and de-cluttering tricks, how to rearrange furniture and art work, decorating tips and ideas, how to ensure a positive traffic flow through rooms, how to use mirrors and natural light, and much more.

If you've ever bought, owned, or sold a home--or are about to--you know how exciting and how daunting it can be. Buying, Owning and Selling a Home in Canada, Second Edition, completely revised and updated, tells you absolutely everything you need to know about the joys and headaches of owning a home. Complete on-volume reference on every stage of owning a home. Covers shopping for a mortgage; negotiating your agreement of purchase and sale; signing contracts with renovators, movers, and others; understanding those mpenetrable insurance policies; dealing with problem neighbours and much more. Your "operating manual" for legal issues as well as the everyday problems of home ownership. Written in plain English that's easy to understand. Includes helpful, practical checklists and forms. Tells you what you need to know to prevent and solve many problems on your own. What you need to ask lawyers and other professionals--it may even help to reduce the fees you'll have to pay. Completely revised and updated including: how to look for a home on the Internet and how you can use your home to save, or get more money. Expand information on such topics as: condominium ownership, making offers on a home, and homeowner's insurance, to name just a few.

Explains how to locate a house to buy, negotiate an offer, get a mortgage, use the Internet to finance and sell one's home, increase resale value, and sell without a real estate agent.