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7 Tips for Staging Your Home and getting is SOLD! : Make your home warm and inviting to boost your home’s value and speed up the sale process. The first step to getting buyers to make an offer on your home is to impress them with its appearance so they begin to envision themselves living there. Here are seven tips for making your home look bigger, brighter, and more desirable. 1.  Start with a Clean Slate Before you can worry about where to place furniture and which wall hanging should go where, each room in your home must be spotless. Do a thorough cleaning right down to the nitpicky details like wiping down light switch covers. Deep clean and deodorize carpets and window coverings. 2.  Stow Away Your Clutter It’s harder for buyers to picture themselves in your home when they’re looking at your family photos, collectibles, and knickknacks. Pack up all your personal decorations. However, don’t make spaces like mantles and coffee and end tables barren. Leave three items of varying heights on each surface, suggests Barb Schwarz…

To-Dos: Your April Home Checklist : Kick spring cleaning into high gear, and troubleshoot cooling and irrigation systems for the warmer months ahead. With lengthening days and milder temperatures in many parts of the country, April is a wonderful time to freshen up the home inside and out. From windows that sparkle to a clutter-free garage, here are 13 tasks to make the most of the first full month of spring. Clean gutters and downspouts. Having your home’s gutters and downspouts cleaned (and repaired if necessary) is one of the first important tasks to schedule this season. Clogged gutters during a rainy spring can cause water to pool, potentially damaging the roof and siding. Wash siding. Using a regular garden hose, attach a siding cleaning kit (available at most home improvement stores) to clear away winter grime from your home’s siding. Spruce up the front porch. Clean the porch floor, exterior windows, windowsills and front door. Wipe cobwebs from the ceiling and high corners. Lay down a fresh doormat and plant…

Ontario looks to license home inspectors : TORONTO – Alyssa Hanson thought she had done her due diligence on the home inspection front. Hanson brought in three professionals — a home inspector, a septic tank inspector and a specialist to take a look at the fireplace and the wood stove — before she and her family purchased their dream home, a 2,000 square foot house with a view of the Rideau River in the southern part of Ottawa. A month after they had moved in, water started seeping into the basement. Hanson says at least six contractors have come by to survey the damage. “Every single one of them said, ‘How did your house inspector not catch the fact that there is water in the basement?'” Hanson recalled in an interview. “Obviously the house inspector can’t open up a wall and look, but there is a spot where it was unfinished, and it was very obvious to everyone that came in that there was water coming in, in that unfinished area.” Rusted support beams and rotting carpet tacking should have made it evident…