Location, location, location

It might not be all about location, but remembering location, location, location is still some of the best advice.  Case in point is this mobile home that listed for $1.1 million.

 

 

 

A 79-year-old fisherman who purchased a modest, third-acre lot in the Hamptons on New York Long Island paid just $300 for the piece of land in 1956. The fisherman then placed a 700-square-foot, one-bedroom mobile home and shed on the property and has lived there ever since.

 

Little did the fisherman know when he purchased the land, but he hit the jackpot. The tiny piece of land and single-bedroom trailer home is now with an astonishing $1.1 million. What makes Richard Lester’s land and mobile so valuable? His neighbors.

 

The home is locate just one mile away from the ritzy Indian Wells Beach. The property is surrounded by huge homes owned by the rich and famous. In fact, Lester can boast neighbours that include Jerry Seinfeld and Paul McCartney.

 

 

 

One way to create some excitement about your listing

A house-seller in Holland came up with an ingenious way of attracting more potential buyers. The house had been for sale for more than six months and failed to attract anyone prepared to meet the $780,000 price tag. So, the owners decided they needed to come up with something special to create some interest in their home.

A roller-coaster was installed to show people around the house and grounds. This video shows people whizzing through the living room, kitchen and bedrooms and around the outside of the property.

Don't worry about not understanding the language because a movie is worth a thousand words.

No word on the place being sold yet.

Be Home Smart Not Home Emotional

Take two minutes of your time and get some valuable advice on buying a home.  

Mandatory Carbon Monoxide Detectors

It's now mandatory. Do you have one?

A new law making carbon monoxide detectors mandatory in all Ontario homes is now in effect.

The new regulation, which became effective on October 15,2014, updates Ontario's Fire Code following the passage of Bill 77 last year.

These updates are based on recommendations from a Technical Advisory Committee which was led by the Office of the Fire Marshall and Emergency Management and included experts from fire services, the hotel and rental housing industries, condo owners and alarm manufacturers.

Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week will take place November 1-8, 2014

Bill 77 is also known as the Hawkins-Gignac Act. It is named after a Woodstock family. OPP Const. Laurie Hawkins, her husband Richard and their two children, Cassie and Jordan died in a tragic carbon monoxide leak in their home in December 2007. They did not have a carbon monoxide alarm.

Carbon monoxide detectors will now be required near all sleeping areas in residential homes and in the service rooms, and adjacent sleeping areas in multi-residential units. Carbon monoxide alarms can be hardwired, battery-operated or plugged into the wall.



Quick Facts

Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless and tasteless.

More than 50 people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning in Canada, including 11 on average in Ontario.

Bill 77, an Act to Proclaim Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week and to amend the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, received royal assent in December 2013.

The first Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week will take place November 1-8, 2014.

The Ontario Building Code requires the installation of carbon monoxide alarms in homes and other residential buildings built after 2001.



Safety Tips
(Provided by the Hawkins-Gignac Foundation for CO Education)

Install at least one CSA-6.19.01 approved carbon monoxide detector outside bedrooms. However, it is advised to install one on every floor.

Check the expiry date of existing detector and replace any devices built before 2008. Alarms need to be replaced every 7-10 years depending on the brand.

Have a licensed technician inspect your fuel burning appliances (re. furnace, range, fireplace, water heater) annually, to ensure they are in proper working order and vented correctly.

For families with older parents or relatives, help them inspect their detectors.

Replace batteries in your detector annually, or opt for models with 10-year sealed lithium batteries that never need to be changed.

When a detector sounds, make sure everyone is out of the house and call 911. Exposure to carbon monoxide reduces a person"s ability to think clearly, so don"t delay clearing out.

Kidde Canada has published a very helpful CO information sheet and law guide in PDF format. It is available on their website.

Another great website with valuable information is safeathome.ca. They also have a very good CO Safety Guide in PDF format.

IKEA HACKERS

Ikea is a familiar name to most with their massive array of Swedish named products to fit almost every conceivable purpose and for the creative individual products that are building blocks for bigger ideas.

There is now an entire community of bigger idea folks who are on a re-purposing mission for IKEA products.  They call themselves "IKEA Hackers" and there is an online community to share re-purposing product ideas.

http://www.ikeahackers.net/

Check out ideahackers.net to see some simple and some very creative ways of modifying IKEA products.  Most projects even come with detailed instructions to complete you re-purposing project like this Lego storage idea using a headboard, plastic storage cases and some binder clips.

Be wowed or smile as you look at some of this stuff and join the club of IKEA Hackers with your own idea.

This is being organized

A house with under 500 square feet of living area qualifies as a micro home.  It is also an unthinkable place to call home for most families, but one Austin, Texas family would almost call 500 square feet of living, huge.   

Scott Sprague, his wife Carrie, and two boys live in a home that is 260 square feet.  Actually, the home is quite cute and very well kept.  How do they do it? 

It takes a lot of planning as the video shows.  Although this home is very cost efficient for a family of four, it's also a great example of how over stuffed and disorganized most home owners are compared to the Sprague's way of living. 

How Much Is Too Much For A Kitchen Reno?

I recently had the opportunity to speak to Scott McGillivray, author of How To Add Value To Your Home, Cash Flow For Life, and host of HGTV's Income Property.

Scott is a wealth of information and shares it at his many seminars currently titled Scott's Wealth Tour..  He does flip houses but for the most part looks for the right home to buy to turn into another income property.  If you are thinking of doing this, I would highly recommend you attend one of his sessions.  More details available here.

I took the opportunity to ask Scott if he has a formula to know how much to spend or better put how much not to spend when renovating what can be one of the most expensive rooms, the Kitchen.  He uses a 5% calculation based on the value of the home.  His explanation below.