Staging & Selling Montreal West Island Homes

When my first child was born, I got angry with my mother.  I called her and lamented, "You didn't tell me." "I didn't tell you what, sweetheart." "You didn't tell me that as soon as he was born, it would be like my heart would get transplanted from the safety of my chest, to the outside of my bod...

I'm in the middle of a great Montreal home staging job.  Yesterday was a really big day of loading and unloading artwork, lighting, bedding, pillows, accessories, etc.  You know, the stuff we use to make a home look and feel warm, inviting, comfortable and full of life.  This morning at breakfast...

New Year's Eve 1990. I'm newly single. My best friend and I plan to travel from Ottawa (where we live) to Montreal for some guy's annual New Year's Eve bash.  But there's a snowstorm outside.  And she has a terrible cold.  But we go anyway.  And I meet my future husband there -- he's the "some gu...

Earthlings: We need your help.  More specifically, my son Tyler does. Remember that old shampoo commercial where "I'll tell two friends....and I'll tell two friends...and I'll tell two friends"?  Well, it's sort of like that. In honour of Earth Day, which is today, April 22, 2010, my son Tyler's ...

Fellow Rainer Inna Hardison of HaMedia Group rocks!  She and hubby Jon Hardison, owners of HaMedia Group, did the concept, design and printing of a new postcard that I'll be sending out in my real estate territory of Kirkland, Quebec.   There's been a lot of talk lately about postcard campaigns: ...

Did I say that loud enough?  Seriously.  Stop with the cheap, DIY laminate floor, people! I've been showing Montreal West Island homes to my buyers for the past month.  And I cannot get over the number of crappy, self-installed, cheap laminate floors we've seen! If you can't afford to get a bette...

Last week, Steve Dawson wrote a post asking us realtors whether we were feeling fat.  He had noticed that the more "mature" agents around him were a wee bit chunky.  He himself had put on 30 pounds in 6 years selling real estate. I've put on 12 pounds in the 3 years I've been involved in the worl...

My listing for a St. Laurent 3-bedroom condo just sold for 98% of the asking price and in 30 days. The market average for this type of property was 93 days.  No price reduction.  No languishing on the market.  The recipe for success here had many ingredients: Sellers who trusted me and my experti...

'Tis the season for spring clean-up!  But please don't go throwing your old paint cans, batteries, gas cans and medicines into the trash.  The chemicals they contain can leach into the ground and contaminate the soil and flow into our rivers and streams and...well...you know what that means: unin...

I'm a very private person. And I want others to respect my privacy.  So the leading questions from a salesperson? I hate them. The request for my phone number from someone I just met? Can't stand it. The inclusion on somebody's mailing list without asking me if I want to be on the mailing list? H...