Ready to View Homes? Here's How To Do It Safely

Real estate agents have taken several steps to ensure private showings are safe and clients feel comfortable at all times. If you're gearing up to view some properties, here are some additional steps you can take to keep yourself protected. 

Bring a Mask

It's recommended that you wear a mask if you think you'll be unable to keep six feet apart from your real estate agent or any non-household members during your visit. 

Sanitize Your Hands

Before entering the home, sanitize your hands. The property or agent will most likely provide hand sanitizer upon your arrival. 

Avoid Touching Surfaces

Most buyers will want to take a look inside cabinets and closet doors. Luckily, many properties have taken the extra step to leave lights on and keep doors and cabinets open so that there's less need for viewers to touch any surfaces. 

Avoid Using The Bathroom

Again, you'll want to avoid touching as many surfaces as possible and that includes going to the bathroom. If you must go, make sure to wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. 

View Homes You're Serious About

Even though private showings are permitted, the number of showing you attend should be kept to a minimum. You should try to only see homes you're interested in buying. Before your appointment, you should review virtual tours, comparable properties, and floor plans to see if this home is right for you. 

Leave Children and Other Members At Home

It would be nice to bring the whole family, but you should try to limit the amount of time you spend viewing the home. More people could also mean more distractions. Besides, there will be other opportunities for the family to see the property after you've purchased the home. 

Stay Home If You Don't Feel Well

If you have symptoms related to COVID-19 or have travelled outside the country in the last 14 days, you should stay home and postpone your viewing to a later date. 

New Colour Considerations

The spread of the global pandemic has meant that many of us have spent more time in our homes. This has inspired many of us to brighten up our surroundings. Colour experts are well aware of the tendency to change the appearance of our living space as our needs evolve, and some suggest there will be predictable effects from this pandemic on our choice of décor. In essence, it's believed that the threat of compromised health and the sense of social isolation will contribute to a desire for comfort and reassurance from our surroundings. 

Consequently, it's now expected that we'll be more attracted to natural colours that offer comfort and sanctuary, such as soft hues and soothing shades of browns, greens, and blues. However, while such a palette selection might range from earthy beiges to ocean blues, experts caution against having one colour dominate a home. Colour should be used to support the noticeable trends toward delineating various areas in the home for specific purposes and designating spaces for different users over the course of a busy day. 

Herb Gardening Tips

Herbs are easy to grow, they need little attention once established, and they add a burst of flavor to your dishes. They are also significant pollinator plants when in bloom, and they offer plenty of colour and interest in a landscape. However, many people are intimidated to grow them, and are not sure what to do with them when it's time to harvest. Here are 5 tips to grow your herbs. 

Buy Starter Plants - If you are just starting out, using starter plants is the way to go. Seeds require a specific environment for germinating and hardening off before you plant them. For the same price (and often less) as a packet of seeds, you can purchase starter plants for basic culinary herbs like basil, rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, and English lavender.

When you have a season or two under your belt, then branch out to other specialty varieties. There are dozens of different varieties of basil, sage, and other herbs, and they all have subtle differences in taste and appearance. Getting starter plants for less common varieties will cost more, but after a season or two, you'll know what it takes to grow them, so your chances of success will increase.

Stick With What You Will Use - Think about what you like to cook or craft and buy according to your tastes and needs. Also, make sure you are picking the right varieties. Although an herb may be in the same family, there are differences in flavour. If you want to make homemade pesto, don't buy Thai basil, which has a strong anise flavor. Spend some time thinking about what you want to do with the herbs before you purchase them. This will help you narrow down your choices and pick the right herbs for your needs.

Don't Use Rich Soil - Most herbs aren't picky about their soil. However, the only requirement is that the soil be well-drained. Herbs do not like rich soil, so don't bother spending a ton of money on it. However, if your soil is heavy (like clay soil), you should amend it to drain better by mixing in some compost or other organic material.

Prune - One of the hardest things for a gardener to do is trim off healthy growth, especially when you are not going to cook with it—however, trimming herbs encourages growth. As an herb grows, it will eventually set flowers. Once it goes to flower, you will not get new foliage growth from that stem. Pruning herbs encourages new foliage growth, making them full and bushy.

If you feel bad tossing pruned cuttings into the compost, dry them for off-season use or use them in a floral arrangement as greenery filler. Pruning herbs is a "must" to maintain a healthy plant. 

Propagate Stem Cuttings - Halfway through the season, you may wish you had gotten more basil or extra oregano plants. Don't head to the nursery to spend more money on starter plants. Most herbs propagate quickly via stem cuttings.

The easiest method is to take a cutting right from a stem not in flower, making sure it's at least 4 inches. Remove the leaves off the bottom two inches. Put the cutting in a glass of water and place it on a sunny windowsill. You should see roots in two to four weeks. Once you see enough roots, pot the stem or plant it in the garden.

GTA REALTORS® Release June 2021 Stats

June home sales were up compared to last year, but remained below the March 2021 peak and were lower than the number of transactions reported for May 2021, consistent with the regular seasonal trend. The average selling price in June increased by double digits compared to last year as well, but the annual rate of increase moderated compared to the previous three months.

Greater Toronto Area REALTORS® reported 11,106 sales through TRREB’s MLS® System in June 2021 – up by 28.5 per cent compared to June 2020. Looking at the GTA as a whole, year-over-year sales growth was strongest in the condominium apartment segment, both in the City of Toronto and some of the surrounding suburbs. On a monthover-month basis, both actual and seasonally adjusted sales continued to trend lower in June.

“We have seen market activity transition from a record pace to a robust pace over the last three months. While this could provide some relief for home buyers in the near term, a resumption of population growth based on immigration is only months away. While the primary focus of policymakers has been artificially curbing demand, the only longterm solution to affordability is increasing supply to accommodate perpetual housing needs in a growing region,” said TRREB President Kevin Crigger.

In all major market segments, year-over-year growth in sales well outpaced growth in new listings over the same period, pointing to the continuation of tight market conditions characterized by competition between buyers and strong price growth. On a month-over-month basis, both actual and seasonally adjusted average prices edged lower in June.

The June 2021 MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark was up by 19.9 per cent year over year. The average selling price for all home types combined was up by 17 per cent over the same time period to $1,089,536. While price growth continued to be driven by the low-rise segments of the market, it is important to note that the average condominium apartment price was up by more than eight per cent compared to June 2020, well outstripping inflation.

TRREB MLS® New Listings June 2021

 

TRREB MLS® Sales-to-New Listings Ratio June 2021

TRREB MLS® Average Resale Home Price June 2021

TRREB MLS® Sales June 2021

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