Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You are listening to thereeastatepodcast CA brought to you by JNC Toronto Real Estate Group.
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back to Thereeaalestatepodcast CA, the podcast that is for anyone and everyone that is interested in real estate from the general public, investors, enthusiast, enthusiasts, realtors landlords, tenants, and more. We are real estate for the masses. Before we get into it, our disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent. Okay, so now let's get to it. We are John, Nicole, and Cheryl, the JNC of the JNC Toronto Real Estate Group. And today's fun filled and helpful topic is the top five updates to increase your property's value. And I think that it should be said that this is kind of viewed through the lens of a realtor. What should you do in order to maximize the sale of your home? Now, everybody loves top five lists. After all, that does account for about 75% of blog to's content, for better or for worse. And my question for you, Nicole, and I don't mean to put you on the spot here on the spot, but what are your top five favorite foods to enjoy in the seven minutes between showings in your car?
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Cold burritos, hot burritos, a banana.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: What?
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Veggie pepperoni in the car. That's gross. You have to put soy sauce on it. And then ginger pepperoni, jerky.
[00:01:34] Speaker C: Jerky pepperoni. Hot burritos, cold burritos.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's in the car. And plus, I was really going for a top five quick.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: And bananas.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: And bananas, right?
[00:01:42] Speaker C: That is the strangest you know what.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: I think that we should probably have prefaced this with the reason why I asked you that question, because the last episode that we recorded was So You Want to Be a Realtor. And Nicole glamorized it so much. Let's play back what Nicole had to say about burritos from that episode.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Eating cold burritos in your car in the seven minutes between showings or it's a hot burrito, but it's like not good hot. Like, I might get salmonella.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: I'm so like, you're going to get salmonella hot.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Very blamy episode, that episode.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: Yeah, that was my everyone's in a.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Great mood that episode.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Actually, let's ask Cheryl a question. Who are your top five ex boyfriends? In no particular order, because I've always wondered and I hope I never make that list.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Who are my top five ex boyfriends?
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Let's do it.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: I think you mean, like, who do I hate the most? Or like the most?
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Well, it's up to you.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: How do you interpret the list?
[00:02:38] Speaker A: We're getting way off topic here.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: In all serious, though, I feel really awkward right now.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: In all seriousness, though, now folks, let's bring it back to the reason why we're here. Top five updates in no particular order to increase the value of your home. Number one, bathrooms. Number two, kitchen number three floors, number four, painting and number five, light fixtures. So these are not all major renovations and in fact, they are updates. Obviously, kitchens and bathrooms may or may not be a major renovation. I think we want to talk about the fact that not all of them have to break the bank as well. There's different levels of updates that you're going to be doing and not all as well, and this is very interesting to note, are going to net you a positive return. Unlike all the HGTV shows that you see, the renovation shows where they say, oh yeah, we're going to put this much money in and we're going to get this much back.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Plus all this other money.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: All this other money. It doesn't necessarily work that way.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: I was going to say something along the lines of, yeah, it really is very frustrating to watch it from a realtor's perspective when they're like value of the home before renovations that does this, right? Yeah, the renovations cost and now the value is $50,000 more. If you add them all together, there's your profit. But it doesn't always work. Rarely it's like that. And then that also leads me to selling sunset and commission. Anyways, maybe we should cover that next time.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: We will. Maybe we will. Reality show real estate programs. Interesting. We actually did a blog post and that's what made us do this as a topic for our podcast. And that was the top five updates we're going to link to that in the description.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: And we get asked this a lot.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: We do. What should I do?
[00:04:17] Speaker C: All agree that these are sort of the five easiest because kitchens and bathrooms sell homes.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: And then stuff like flooring painting and light fixtures can be relatively easy to do.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: And they make a big impact on how the property shows.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: And don't even the painting and light fixtures. Your Realtor may be helping you with that. There's lots of Realtors we do that, take care of that stuff as part of our listing process. So you may want to have the conversation with your Realtor before deciding to do anything at all.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Well, we work as a team, right. So definitely lean on your professionals, your contractor, if you have one. Your Realtor as well, because some contractors may think that this specific type of finishing, for example, marble veined marble all across the backsplash, the floors. We talked about renovating the renovation. There's a property just down the street from us that's been on the market 113 days full. Took it down to the foundation walls and built it up. We were having a look, going, man, what's this property going to look like? And we went in and there's marble floors on the entire first floor.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: Not even nice marble. It's like gray and gold.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Did I see it? No.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: John and I went, sounds like we.
[00:05:23] Speaker C: Talked with one of our unfortunate.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Yeah, we talked with one of our colleagues that we popped into their open house here in Leslieville in our neighborhood, and we talked quite a bit about that property.
That's why it hasn't sold. But anyway, let's go to number one. It's a room I spent a whole lot of time in, and that is the bathroom.
Now, it can be a total redesign to enlarge a bathroom or as simple as, like, a new mirror or freshening up. And this is what we do a lot of times before. If it's a more dated bathroom that hasn't seen a lot of love, just freshening up the grout, cleaning it up, getting rid of the old caulking, putting a nice fresh bead in there can make a huge difference.
[00:06:00] Speaker C: I just rolled my eyes in case someone's listening. Just because he loves doing a fresh bead of caulk.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Fresh bead. It's got to be a good bead, though. Like, none of this sloppy, sloppy stuff. We see some homeowners will do it themselves, and maybe some are more skilled.
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Than you're great at it.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: We know a master caulker, right?
And Nicole, you've done your share listing a lot of properties of getting elbow grease and the nitty gritty getting rid of.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Well, John has enlisted me to help with the caulking.
[00:06:28] Speaker C: Funny, he's never enlisted me.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: I do okay in a pinch. I'm okay.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: And you practice at your own house, too?
[00:06:36] Speaker B: I practiced at my own house. It went good. But then I don't know. The type of caulking you get is important.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: It is.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Because it didn't live up to Mr. Lee's caulking.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: Do we need another podcast on which type of grout in caulking?
[00:06:50] Speaker B: So interesting.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: How large a bead.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Can I use a tool?
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Do you use your finger?
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Do you use your finger?
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Can I take us away from caulking for a second? Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you guys.
Also changing hardware. Something very simple to do. Painting cabinets.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to touch on that in kitchen because those are two big ones that you can do, but you.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: Can also do even less expensive if you do it in the bathroom.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: So, Cheryl, what is on your wish list for an updated bathroom?
[00:07:18] Speaker C: Me personally, or to sell?
[00:07:20] Speaker A: How about a little bit of each to sell? If sky's the limit, you can do anything.
[00:07:26] Speaker C: Storage. Oh, my God. I mean, design is important, but storage and for resale a tub, because first of all, there are some people that just love their bath. But even if they don't love a bath, if it's a family home, they're going to need a bathtub to bathe their child in. So a bathtub is very important. I am big on the design stuff, so I like a feature wall, and whether it be a tile feature wall or a painted feature wall or whatever it might be.
Lighting mood in the bathroom. Yeah, totally. We have undermount lighting, but even the lighting fixture can change the look and feel of a bathroom.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: And ladies will look for good lighting because you can spend a lot of time doing makeup there, right?
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Yes. What do you think of bad lighting? I want some harsh bad lighting. If I look good there, I look good everywhere.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: God, really?
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Kind of, yeah.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: You know what?
[00:08:12] Speaker B: There's a couple opposite of beer goggles.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: For myself through rose colored glasses, right?
There's two things here I thought one of you might mention. What do you think? If you have the room for it. Double vanity.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: I am like married marriages. I am married to double vanity. I will squish a double vanity in a bathroom that could barely take it. And people are like, I don't know. I think it's going to be I don't care. I want two sinks.
[00:08:35] Speaker C: There's lots of people that say it saves marriages.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: I don't want people spitting in my sink.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: So that's a big one, ladies. You don't want to be sharing the same sinkhole.
[00:08:44] Speaker C: Say, though, when we got our double vanity, I was so excited to show because you never believed that you were the one splattering on the side was disgusting.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: I was.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: This was we lived there for two years. I'm like, I told you, can you clean your sink?
[00:08:58] Speaker A: This was our condo. And then we went into our house and we bought it. Had the worst tiniest bathroom ever.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: But we didn't share that one, though.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: No, we didn't. I got my own downstairs, which is still not updated. Hint, hint. Can we update mine now?
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Cheryl, a lot of this, too, we're coming at like, we do work with a lot of buyers. And so we can say when they go into a home, they see that double vanity, they're like, oh, yeah, everybody likes it. No one wants to spit in the hole with their husband, I think, even.
[00:09:20] Speaker C: If they don't know it's about not spitting in the hole with their husband, which I'm pretty sure some people listening don't mind.
It looks luxurious to have that extra sink. So, John, I see here you have heated floors and none of us mentioned it.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: I know. It's one of those things when you walk into a property with your buyer clients and you see that there's heated floors, a lot of them go, it's nice. It's not as expensive to do heated floors as it used to be as well, because of the electric under padding, the electric sort of pads that you can use.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: And we didn't see a heated floors because it's like the first week of October and it's been really warm. If we did this podcast in February, might be like, what do you want?
[00:10:00] Speaker C: We'd be like, Heated floors for a bathroom right now?
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Is it cold?
[00:10:03] Speaker C: It's wonderful.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: No, we did heated floors.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Okay, perfect.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's one thing that if you can if you have the budget for.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: It, I think that our bathroom was 2 sqft.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Didn't cost us much.
And then what do you think about toilets? I'm a big fan of the smart.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Toilets, the ones that it's not a self cleaning toilet. I just want to say it is.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Actually, I looked at the manual.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Okay, well, I'm going to tell you because I clean the toilet, it is.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Not a self cleaning because we haven't.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Put the product into it.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's more than that, but I find it too loud.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Is it Japanese?
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Yes, it is. Yeah. For those of you that like South Park. There's a great episode on Randy and his Japanese toilet. But anyway, so that's pretty much it for bathrooms. So next big one, I think, would be kitchen. Some people might put that as number one because the kitchen is the heart of a home. If you cook well, if you not even just for cooking, it's just for people. Sit around, entertain.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: I have had recently buyers that were just the kitchen, and this was the exception, not the rule. You're right. Usually people, but they were like meh. Kitchen, we don't care. We need a long counter.
[00:11:12] Speaker C: Condo house.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: We need a long counter. And if they're listening, they'll know it was them and they were fabulous. They're one of my favorite clients. We just need a long counter to put our Uber Eats bags along.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: That's why I ask condos, because we have lots of young clients who they do order out more than they cook. We had one client who used their dishwasher as storage. Kind of ala. Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City.
She didn't use her dishwasher, she used her stove. Yeah, I think that generally speaking, we can say that the kitchen wows the pants off of people. If it's a nice kitchen and it does sell houses I think it is.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: It'S one of the more expensive if you're going to do a full renovation, kitchen renovation. But it doesn't have to if you're just going to update the kitchen. If you've got the really old cabinets instead of doing all new cabinets. What we've recommended our clients done, and what we've facilitated for them is painting the cabinets and putting on new hardware. Because if you have that sort of old wood design, if you put nice melamine paint on it, which is a nice furniture paint, one of our clients.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: Painted on their own before even deciding to sell. Remember, they painted it green. Oh, yeah, that looked amazing. So a lot of people, or a lot of realtors, you might hear, say, paint your cabinets white to brighten and freshen it up. But because it's now trendy to do two colors or a completely different color, you can do that very easily over what used to be the wood veneer or whatever that was popular in the.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Were they like, crafty? Did it look good having had them?
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing. Not all clients have the skills to do it. We've had to go in and basically repair bad paint jobs before.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Yeah, because that can hurt you if it's sloppy, because buyers will notice that it's sloppy.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: I do always tell people to try. If you can do it yourself and it looks great, it looks great. If you can do it yourself and you screw it up and you have to pay somebody, you fix it. But it's the same as if you had paid somebody to do it.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: To begin first place, save yourself.
I was like, Save yourself the time.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: Anyway, you two were on opposite different planets.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:13:07] Speaker C: Different planets. Venus and Mars.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Two Tone is actually quite popular right now. We just helped facilitate the renovation. We project managed it, actually, it's up on our YouTube channel right now. We did a little case study and we went for Two Tone. Green lowers white.
You know, you don't have to go all traditional white. Now, let's talk about other things you can do. Appliances, really old appliances. Appliances aren't as expensive as they used to be. But what we're seeing, and maybe this is a personal preference for me, is people putting in older kitchens, new appliances that look like old appliances, keeping them white. And I don't know, white appliances to me, just screams like, eighty S. Ninety.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: S, unless it matches. We've seen a couple of times where someone has done a mid century, modern, very lightwood kitchen, and the new KitchenAid white fridge looks amazing.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: It does. But it's a nicely designed white and it's flat front. So I think appliances do make a difference. In my opinion, if you've got nice new appliances, or if you can see that it's a new appliance, but it's the cheapest amount of brand or something.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: Like that, there is a reason why in our MLS system, when we are loading listings. One of the choices is stainless steel appliances as whatever feature you have in.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: The kitchen because it's traditionally been more sought after.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: If it's white or black appliances, if you've got stainless steel, you've upgraded your appliances. I mean, now most are stainless steel, and now it's cool to get the black ones and stuff that are like the white KitchenAid.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: I like the flat fronts and other things that you can consider, and this will also depend on the design of the kitchen, is whether or not to go counter depth, because fridges are always the most awkward things to fit into the kitchen. A lot of times you'll see that a fridge will just be off on its own, on one side, without any cabinetry around it. And when you go with counter depth fridge, it looks a lot nicer, however small. You don't have a whole lot of space.
[00:15:02] Speaker C: I think that depends.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Very important appliance.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: Yeah. If you're renovating a big house, and we've seen this where people have done the counter depth small in a family house, like, no, put a larger fridge because they're probably going to have one, two, three children. It's actually a pet peeve of mine when it's a bigger space and someone puts a really small fridge in it. Oh, yeah, I hate seeing space everywhere.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: The big space on top, you can.
[00:15:22] Speaker C: Tell it's not custom cabinetry or no use an apartment. The space is for a regular sized fridge and they use an apartment sized fridge in there because for whatever reason, that's what they had. And I don't know, it just drives me crazy.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Especially post COVID. A lot of times when we've had that happen, people have been like, well, I had to buy this fridge in COVID like it was this fridge or don't have a fridge. So I bought this fridge and now.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: I have supply chain issues. This is all that was available.
[00:15:43] Speaker C: That's my pet peeve. First world problems.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: The small fridges and the big fridge hole.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: I think with appliances that they've come a whole long way in the last four or five years. As far as your finishing is concerned, yes, you got the white, the black, the stainless steel, but you've also got the fingerprint proof stainless steel, which is a bit more of a matte finish, which is awesome.
The flat fronts, which are cool.
Does it depends on how much grease and crap I have.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Okay, so to that point, I think we should maybe do a podcast on appliances because we're getting off on a tangent here, but the fingerproof or fingerprint proof proof, the one that we have, you cannot see fingerprint.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: It's amazing.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: Unless the light is hitting it a certain way and I'm like John or I see food stuck on that's more on your finger. That's more what? I see dirt for food versus actually because our old one wasn't fingerprint proof and it made me insane.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. Let me just a couple other quick things with regards to new appliances, ranges would typically have the back wall sticking up where all the controls are. Now they have the full flat tops where the controls are at the front, which I kind of like, and then sinks as well. People love the new double sinks, the deep sinks, the farmer sink a little bit more desirable. And your faucet.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Can I ask? So sinks are a very preferenced thing, right? Like you want a nice sink, but what's a nice sink. So what would you prefer? A big pharma sink, a double sink or single sink? Pick your own sink. What's your favorite sink?
[00:17:14] Speaker A: Deep doubles.
[00:17:15] Speaker C: And why is that?
[00:17:17] Speaker A: I don't know. I do the dishes for the most part.
[00:17:20] Speaker C: Good answer.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Doesn't splash around as much.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: I want a double because same thing. I want to be able to dry the dishes that I've hand washed in the depression. Right now I have a single sink and so you have to dry the dishes on the side and then I don't put them away for four days. The way that it looks. And I got all this anyway, so.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: Double sinks for people who clean. I say a deep sink, whether it's double or single, because you can hide dirty dishes in there because if someone's coming over and you don't have time to do whatever or anything, you'd hide anything in there. Yeah. Throw it in the sink and no one can see it.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Clear your countertop.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Don't ever look at my it's all in there and trying to run the water. And you've got meat falling in there.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: Meat.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Meat.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: There's a sponge.
[00:18:00] Speaker C: We should do a podcast on how much you two love meat.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: All right, let's get back on topic. Kitchen, anything to add before we move on to number three?
[00:18:09] Speaker C: You have backsplash here.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Backsplash.
[00:18:11] Speaker C: That's important.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: I do, because personally, if you're going to do a backsplash for selling, make it kind of neutral or do something that's on trend, honeycomb, you can also do herringbone. Cheryl's pet peeve is like the stone, different shaped rock type stones that get all the dust on them. For a kitchen as well, you wouldn't want to do that.
Subway tile is kind of nice and simple. Sometimes people are using the large tiles.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: The hex tiles.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah, hex tiles are great.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: I think if you pick a nice tile, it doesn't cost that much more than, say, a Subway tile, which is kind of cheap and it looks way better. The wow factory.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: That's almost like the feature wall right there. Your backsplash.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: However, if you're doing vanilla that everyone's going to like, subway tile fits the bill for everybody. It does because and it's classic, right? You're right.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: I have Subway tile in every single house, so I'm super over Subway tile.
[00:19:01] Speaker C: You're just jealous because we have penny tile.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: Entire kitchen is almost penny tile.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Let's move on to number three. Number three is floors.
It is not always the cheapest to do. It depends on the material you're using. I wanted to put this in because when we go in to look at people's properties to get ready to sell, when we're doing our comparative market analysis, one of the things we pay attention to is the floor. What's the material? Is it matching? Is it in really rough shape? Because buyers are immediately going to go in there and be like, oh, I'm going to have to redo all the floors. Or if it's been done two or three different times over the decades and you've got vinyl in one, you've got parquet in the other.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: Can I make a comment here? I think more important than the material because some people can't afford an engineered or a hardwood floor. They only can afford a vinyl or a laminate. It's the consistency in the house more than anything. And there's lots of homes that don't have matching floors, but if you can afford to do them all the same, it makes a difference.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: It does. Yeah. And I think that it will help to increase the value of your home on sale if you do that update. And if you to do that update. Not everyone has an unlimited budget. There's some decent vinyl products out there. It is the cheapest and there's resilient. It is the most resilient. And there's like, it yeah, it's good for pets, good for basements. But there's cheap vinyl and then there's.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: More expensive vinyl, nice newer vinyls that look like wide plank flooring. Some of them are quite good.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: They have quite a good option. It can look like tile, can look like wide plank flooring, look like laminate. Next up would be laminate with regards to cost and a lot of people, and there's a wide variety of laminate. There's cheap laminate and then there's laminate. Sometimes that you can look at that you're like, is this wood? Is this not wood?
[00:20:46] Speaker B: I've had to touch it a few times.
[00:20:48] Speaker C: Condos are a big one because there are some condo projects where you can walk in and you know right away that the developer, the builder used the least expensive laminate. And there's times when we go in and you know it's laminate, it starts.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: To curl up at the corners.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: But there's times when you go in and you're like, this is really good laminate. I'm not even sure is this engineered hardwood? I think that also with laminate, more than wood, but also wood. The trends. Like, you can tell when a house has been done because, okay, it's small planks and the regular shiny hardwood, and now everything is matte and gray. Laminate was like, that grayish color was really popular, but now it's starting to look dated. So you can white oak has been popular for the last couple of years. So I think that also if you want to make sure your house is you're opening up yourself to the biggest buyer pool, do something that's trendy but also classic that is going to last more than a year or two.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: Yeah, there's people that have spent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars on their renovations in the can just tell because it might be hardwood floor, but it's very thin plank and it's like this rosy red or whatever dark, whatever's trendy at the time.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: Can I go on a slight tangent? I've had a few clients in the last year that have bought places with not great floors, and they've gone and they've pulled up carpet or whatever and refinished, maybe. It is really good quality. It looks so great. I've had people take paint off of it. I've had people pull up carpet and it was just destroyed under there. And they've had someone come and sand it down. It's relatively cost effective. They replace the ones that are damaged and it looks fabulous. It can ten out of ten.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Some people look for that and they're like, oh, I wonder if it's original floors underneath that. And they want to pull it away.
One thing that we have seen in some of these century homes where there is original floors is the fact that they secured them down with nails. And it's one of my pet peeves.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: Oh, is it?
[00:22:34] Speaker A: Where you hear the squeaks? There's something about like a solid, and I prefer hardwood or even engineered hardwood. If the top layer is very thick, you can even sand it down multiple times and refinish it if they get gouged or anything like that. But if it has these big squeaks, it just drives me nuts.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Like the squeaks.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: Oh, my God, you guys are so opposite.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: I know.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: We should not get married.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: I mean, also because.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: It'D be weird.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Mine weird, but it's funny that sometimes people will go ahead and do a new floor, and if they use a contractor that doesn't put a new subfloor down or just puts it right down on a subfloor that's being held down with nails, then you're putting a new floor down on something that's already squeaking. I think it's important if you personally redo your floors, make sure you screw the subfloor down. Use glue and screws if you can. And that just has that real solid feel. It's those things that buyers walk through and they're like, I don't know what it is about this house, but it feels really solid. Right.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: We do hear that, but at the same time, think about there was a house that we offered on in the beaches, and every single floor squeaked, and I'm pretty sure the neighbors could hear them, but it was an awesome house.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: Yeah. All original. Just stunning gorgeous. And it'd been very well maintained, and.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: It was renovated in some areas, but the floors were very squeaky and people loved it.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: They were original floors. Right.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I remember that.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: So if you're going to be doing a lot of these updates and you have a little bit more of a character home, try to keep the character if you can. It's another thing that we talk about.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: And that is about the largest buyer pool versus whether or not we like character. We just find that in Toronto, because this might not be the same in Mississauga or Markham or New Brunswick. Or Brunswick. Right. Like, there is a lot of Toronto buyers that are looking for that century home, that character. So things that do have character, try to keep some of it. Don't try to erase all of it. But there's also buyers who like the clean, modern aesthetic, and that's fine, too. But if you have character, don't get rid of it just for the sake.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Of getting rid of it. Absolutely strip away the soul of a home.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: I mean, there are some ones that have been stripped away of souls and still have new souls.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:46] Speaker C: What?
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Anyway, let's go on to number four. Let's talk about painting. I think this is the biggest difference maker as. Far as an update, if you're going to sell your home, make sure that it has fresh paint, because buyers walk in, they see gouges, they see rough scuffs, they see colors from the 90s. Every room painted a different color in a bad way. Yeah.
[00:25:09] Speaker C: There's two things that I think buyers notice, too, right away. Especially the entryway where there's a lot of scuffs, where people have taken shoes off and that will go for baseboards as well. And under desks.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: If you look under Nicole's desk and my desk, we're kickers. What can you say?
[00:25:25] Speaker C: We've seen this multiple times, and we've painted and we've used magic eraser to get rid of the kick marks because you walk in and you notice it. If you're looking for that, if you're on the market and you want that clean, I'm ready for my big day moment. From your room or house, then those kinds of things matter, and it's a very easy fix.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: It is.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: That's what I was going to say. Pound for pound, that is the best, most cost effective you get the biggest return update that's going to give you the most.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:25:52] Speaker C: Would you guys say paint white? Because a lot of people say paint it white and let someone else imagine what they want to do.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: I think that if you go all white in some kinds of properties, it can feel clinical. Like if you have all white and brand new kitchen and then light floors and then all white paint everywhere and like white, it feels like you're walking into a hospital.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: Have no soul.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:26:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Another thing that if you are the kind of person who thought it was a good idea in the have an orange room, a purple room, a black.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: Room color was yours all of those? Yeah, I had a green room, a purple room, a dark brown room.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Here's the thing. If you go white, it's going to be primer and probably three coats. So it's about what is your budget?
[00:26:36] Speaker C: So you're saying if someone did have a very colorful house, if you want to paint it white, that it might be expensive?
[00:26:40] Speaker A: It would be expensive, yeah.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: But would you both agree that there have been homes we've been in maybe ones that have a little bit more character or stage really well, are a little unique, and it's all white and it looks awesome.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah, sometimes. For sure. You know, what we're seeing as well is in some rooms painted all, like, really dark charcoal. I love that.
Yeah. Traditionally, you'd say don't paint it because it makes you feel smaller. Don't paint in dark colors, but it can work in certain environments.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: It's homey.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:05] Speaker C: And a cozy there was a house we just sold last week, and they had oh, so they had navy grass, cloth wallpaper, but also did all the baseboards in the same color, and it felt like a cocoon for your sleep.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: So I didn't notice that in that house. They painted the baseboard that same color.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Oh, I loved that room. That room is my and the walking.
[00:27:24] Speaker C: Closet, all of the drawers and stuff were the same color. They did it very monochromatic and then just did curtains and pillows and whatever.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: And the curtains were orange. And I love that too.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: The navy, I really love that.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: I think about it against the grain, but it really worked for that property.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: To my question about the white walls, I noticed that you have feature walls in here. What do you two think of feature walls?
[00:27:46] Speaker B: What I really like that John Paulson's been doing recently is the wallpaper feature walls.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: Oh, God.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: I think it's and it doesn't always go that well. Yeah, exactly. But when it's done, if it's done properly, good wallpaper. Yeah.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: And I would say the majority of homes now are not doing full rooms like we used to do in the 80s. They're doing just the feature wall in this wallpaper. I mean, we just said that there was grass cloth in that one room, but that was a very special design feature. But if you can do like an entry wall or maybe a wall in a child's room or something like that in a very fun wallpaper, it is.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Dramatic, it adds character to the house, it gives it personality, and it makes the property stand out a little bit from the other properties out there. And I think because so many people are shopping online, if you have a really dramatic feature wall with some nice contrasting colors, be it a couch or some art or a mirror, then it's.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Attention grabbing, it's photogenic, but also in person, it looks great.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: Do you think more and more realtors are now picking up on this? And we've seen it really in the last couple of years, many people doing this. Do you think it's starting to get a little washed out or a little oversaturated, the whole feature?
[00:29:01] Speaker A: I think more people are doing it. Yeah. It's just becoming more commonplace and less special. But I still think it makes a property look better.
[00:29:07] Speaker C: But don't you think that maybe you have to pick and choose if a property needs it or not?
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe not every property don't do it just because I have to have a feature wall. Just make sure it fits in with the motif and the feel of the property, the vibe. All right. I also want to touch on painting the outside of a home because we've talked with a couple of our clients with potentially refreshing the color of their house to make it a little bit less dated, perhaps give it a little bit more curb appeal, and I think it can be worthwhile. But depending on the size of the house and what you're going to be doing, it can be cost prohibitive.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Does make a huge difference to curb appeal, though. I'm remembering the house I live in now, the exterior used to be yellow and red, that porch. Yeah. And above the windows, and then replaced all the windows, everything. So now they have electric, but it's still and then a few years ago, we painted it the two tone gray, which is getting a little worn now. But people stop and look at it and say, like, we love to strike grays as well.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: If your trim and your window sills on the exterior, they weather very easily.
To sand those down and give them a fresh coat of paint, I think adds a lot to the curb appeal.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: I think where you will see the biggest exterior painting changes is when it is like somebody has painted old brick, like an older yellow or red or orange or whatever, or stucco, like that light brown khaki stucco is not cool anymore. But black or white stucco or gray stucco is very cool. So that modernizes everything.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: What are your thoughts? And this is a divisive subject, I think.
[00:30:40] Speaker C: Divisive? I mean, you can say divisive.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Divisive, divisive. What about painting brick?
[00:30:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, this is your house is painted brick.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: No, it's the porch.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Not the brick, the window frame.
[00:30:53] Speaker C: Because that's what I was talking about with the yellow and red. I'm thinking about all those ones near Trinity Bellwoods that are like and the paint starts to peel, too. Right.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: And if you have that beautiful well, it depends on the kind of brick you have. If you've got the rosy brick or the traditional red brick or the 90s brick, honey brick.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: I do like the painted brick. If you do it well, once again, maybe you'd need someone. We're seeing a lot of people very good with color.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: People doing it white with black trim can look quite striking.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Like my heart house in Leslieville when they redid that house.
[00:31:23] Speaker C: So you just asked what we thought of it. I think some painted brick looks amazing, and I think it depends on the brick underneath. If you have like an old Victorian with beautiful red brick, please don't paint it. It looks striking with a red brick house with black windows. And we know that that is a very popular curb appeal and look. But if you have pink bricks, allah the suburbs, and you want to try and modernize your house a little bit, then, hey, paint it, because that'll work.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And I wonder if because so many people did go with white brick, in ten years time, is that going to look dated?
[00:31:54] Speaker C: Maybe.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Never know.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Get rid of the paint and paint.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: It the new color.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Sandblast it. Yeah. Again, cost to everything. So you got to keep that in mind. Let's move on to our final of the top five updates to increase the value of your home, and that is new light fixtures. First impressions when you walk into a house and you see a boob light the builder's boob light or a really dated and dusty and rusted light fixture?
[00:32:21] Speaker C: Rusted.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: Rusted, yeah.
[00:32:22] Speaker C: You would know, because you take I'm.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: The one that takes all down and changes the lights. I think it's a great value add to have new light fixtures. Doesn't break the bank in many cases. And it's a giveaway for datedness if you have the really old light fixtures. And also it's how bright do you want the property to be when you walk in for the first impressions? If a property doesn't have a lot of windows, you're going to want to make sure that you have a light fixture that casts just the right amount of light.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: I think it's also one of the clues on Cost, like those boob lights. I don't even know what they $10. Right. But if you see one in a house, it's sort of like, well, if they put in that cheap light, what else was cheaped out on? And if everything else is nice, have they renovated that?
[00:33:07] Speaker C: It always makes me I think that it's only been maybe in the last decade, not even where people started to pay more close attention to lights. And there's been way more lights to choose from. I think that maybe a decade ago, everybody had boob lights.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: And when we say boob lights, we mean the half dome light with the screw on nipple in the mittens. Yes, what he said.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Well, they look like boobs.
[00:33:32] Speaker C: Yeah, but they also are they're not flattering, they're not very fashionable, they're not trendy. They just do their job, which is to light up the hallway or the bedroom, barely, even.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: They illuminate.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: That is a light bulb, Nicole.
Don't blame the light. Blame the light bulb.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: The blue blip tends to have a crap.
[00:33:49] Speaker C: But I think about, even when we started in real estate, how much this whole light fixture thing has changed. There is way more choice and way more affordable choice now than there was even five years ago. So I think that that is something maybe social media and Instagram and stuff has something to do with this, where.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: People are more in tune to design.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: Yes. Because remember the days we're talking about even, like, the outside of a house? Do you remember the days when you bought the house because you could afford it and it was like comfy inside and your family you didn't necessarily go in and renovate something. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:34:22] Speaker C: Right. And now we talk about the renovate, the renovations, and we talk about changing the way things look and a lot more than we did. And it makes me feel kind of like, well, no, we all have all this money to throw around. Lots of people don't have money to do this stuff.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but you can get, I think, stylish light fixtures, even from Ikea, we see a lot of those around for under $100.
[00:34:45] Speaker C: Wayfair and Amazon have changed the game. And actually Ikea was the first one, I think that had trendy cool lights for inexpensive prices. But now Wafer and Amazon have upped their game and there's lots of and we've bought lots of great quality lights for very inexpensive prices from those websites.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Now with lighting, I also want to talk because Led has kind of been the way to go now changed as well, just in the last yeah, well, it's just so much more cost effective for the amount of energy that you're using. And initially when the LEDs first came out, they didn't really have a selection of color temperatures. And I found that most Led lights were very cool, like daylight. And we talk cool, it's like more of a blue light than kind of a warm light. Well, I just think we talk about having a property that feels clinical. If they've got the Led lights that are a really cool color temperature, it feels like you're at the operating theater.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: It really does feel like you're at the operating yeah.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Or like a weird grocery store.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Fluorescent. Yeah, reminiscent of fluorescent.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: It is.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Say that five times.
[00:35:48] Speaker C: You know how people put on just their lamps at night to feel cozy, to set that atmosphere? LEDs did not set an atmosphere.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Well, and now you can choose between daylight, soft and warm.
[00:35:58] Speaker C: Yeah. I like that it's changed.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think that if you want to set the tone as soon as you walk into a property to have kind of like a warmer or softer light, albeit brighter, is very important.
[00:36:10] Speaker C: Do you remember when we could buy light bulbs for $0.99 dollarama?
[00:36:14] Speaker A: You still can. They're one of the only places that still sells incandescent bulbs.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: I'm fine with Led. I actually prefer environmentally, but for sure. Boy, has the game changed a lot, kids.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Sure has. I want to talk about matching the style of the light fixture to the property, because if you're selling your old Victorian and you have a little bit more beautiful moldings and wood trim and exposed brick, you're probably not going to go with something that's super modern.
[00:36:44] Speaker C: Cold skin.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Whereas if you have a really funky condo with ten foot ceilings and floor to ceiling windows and concrete everywhere, then you probably want to go with something that matches a little bit. And a lot of times what we also see is in these flips, you can tell what was on sale at Costco or Home Depot. So the crystal, it's a giveaway. Again, it's a personal preference. Some people like them.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: I was going to say we sound like we're being all like some people like that, but some people do. But it is something because of the Cost that we find that flipper contractors will often use. And then it makes all these flipped houses look exactly the same.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Cookie cutter.
[00:37:27] Speaker C: Cookie cutter flips.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: You bet. And so that kind of rounds it out the top five updates to increase the value of your home. Once again, this has been looked at through the lens of a Realtor, actually a Realtor and two brokers or three Realtors, however you want to describe it.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: I wasn't burned.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: I know. It wasn't really burning either.
[00:37:45] Speaker C: I'm the smartest.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: So let's talk a little bit about takeaways. Is there any takeaways you ladies want.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: To talk about like that we learned from each other.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: Here the takeaways of okay, so we were trying to bring you value listening to the podcast today. So we've narrowed it down to some things, depending on your budget, that you can do to get your house ready, looking its best to sell it or to updated it, even if you wanted to just live in it. Right. So the takeaway is that we know kitchens and bathrooms sell, and they're also both kind of the heart of the home bathrooms.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: They're usually the most expensive, expensive, and.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: They'Re the ones where we spend the most time.
Flooring is something I would say that's probably at the bottom of the list because painting and light fixtures are really easy changes. You can express your personality with painting and light fixtures.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: And the caulking.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Don't forget the caulking in the bathroom. That was part of the bathroom. Sorry.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: I was waiting, waiting for my chance to talk. And I want to say I was.
[00:38:41] Speaker C: Doing a bigger overall takeaway, but your takeaway is caulking. Awesome.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: I've got a couple here.
Not all updates require big dollars, a lot of expenditures.
You also want to update your property according to whether or not you're looking to sell. Obviously, if you're updating it and this is your forever home, by all means, do shag carpet throughout, including the bathroom, if you're into that.
[00:39:08] Speaker C: I mean, don't put carpet in the bathroom. Don't listen to John John. Do not give design tips. But I was going to say something to this because there's people like, I spent $200,000 on this and I should be able to get it back. Have you lived in it? Have you enjoyed it? It might not be the taste of someone else, so you might not get that $200,000 back, but if you lived in it and enjoyed it, then it was probably worth it for you.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: But we were talking more about getting it ready for market. The most bang for your buck and the top five things that you do to increase the value of your home.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: Were you trying to burn me there?
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Trying to summarize your summary?
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's all. I'm not trying to burn you. Ever broker thing was burned. All right then. That's it, folks. Those are the top five updates according to John, Cheryl, and Nicole, to increase the value of your home to help you get your home sold quicker and for more. Before we leave you, we want to shout out a local business as we always do, and because it's Tuesday today.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Taco Tuesday. It is.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: Every day is Taco Tuesday. If you go to Puerto Bravo, it is just down the street from us. It's on gerard near Ashdale. And it is, in our opinion, probably we're going to do top five tacos. We've been talking about doing that.
[00:40:19] Speaker C: Let's do a podcast on all top five foods.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: And these guys are absolutely fantastic. They were given a bib gourmand by the folks at Michelin. It's affordable, it's delicious. If you haven't tried them yet, it is Puerto Bravo and they are fantastic.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: John is a taco connoisseur too, so he's tried many a taco before giving you this recommendation.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: I'm a big, big fan. So top of the list, right?
[00:40:40] Speaker B: John loves the tacos.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: All right, so thanks so much for joining us, as always. You can find us at therealestatepodcast CA. You can also follow us on all of our socials. Check out our YouTube as well. They're all at Toronto Group. Thanks, ladies.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Bye. Thanks, John.
[00:40:59] Speaker A: You have been listening to thereeastatepodcast, CA. Visit our website for more episodes and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at Toronto Group.
