Article published in the November 2018 issue of the Beacon.

When friends get together in the autumn of the year they will often find themselves regaling each other with stories about how they spent their summers, not unlike when kids return to school. I’d love to describe tales of trips to exotic far corners of the globe but unfortunately, for the fall of 2018, I could not. Following is an account of how our summer 2018 “break” turned into an intense HGTV style adventure.

I have owned a rental property in Collingwood, a small town located north of Toronto, for many years. It was originally built as my retirement home before warm weather winters in SW Florida beckoned instead. Over the previous five years it had been a relatively carefree investment as the young professional couple who were renting it took on responsibility for basic maintenance tasks, or so I thought.  When they gave their notice after purchasing a home of their own, we made a decision to dress the property up for sale. This was when we discovered how deferred maintenance can quickly morph into essential maintenance.

The house had excellent bones but after many years of hosting renters it was tired. We took stock and decided that much needed to be done if we were to achieve top dollar. What could we do ourselves and where did we need help? There were tasks we did not consider doing ourselves given complexity or our tight timing such as new roof shingles, appliance repairs, new thermal windows, new hardwood flooring throughout, garage doors servicing and a new garage door opener. We did, however, remove the old carpet and prep the floors, rebuilt and painted the back deck, laid a new patio, applied a skim coat to the concrete front landing and steps, painted the entire interior, painted exterior doors and garage doors, purchased and installed eighteen new light fixtures, deep cleaned all floors, cupboards, Venetian blinds, ducts, fans, A/C unit and appliances <pause for breath> cleared plumbing drains and traps, repaired or replaced several taps and faucets, replaced several door handles, cleaned and greased hinges, refurbished a front door lock set, cleared and cleaned eaves and soffits, rebuilt front porch columns, freshened up the landscaping and made nine trips to the local land fill.

We also staged the house ourselves hauling furniture north and then back south by truck with help from our son. We borrowed some items from my sister who had just sold a furnished property, took some from our own home and made a few select consignment store purchases. All of the art placed on the walls was created by Diane. We also decided to market the home ourselves, offering a fair buyer’s commission of 2% to any broker who could bring in a successful purchaser. A professional photographer took wonderful photos and created a website for us. Total marketing costs were about $500.

We tried hard to support local businesses as much as possible, but the ubiquitous Home Depot could not be avoided. Another wonderful resource was the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (the smart man’s HD) where we discovered some attractive door handles, sundry hardware and several furniture items which we refurbished.

So, how did it all work out? By the time we finished our work and came to market there were seven new listings in the 200 home subdivision, as opposed to none when we first decided to sell. Fortunately, we were able to promote the “as new” condition of our house. Within two weeks of launching the listing we had several offers, all facilitated by buyer’s brokers, including a successful one for 99.5% of the asking price.

It was a great team effort consisting of over 600 hours of hard labor, a deferred sailing trip and more than a few cuts and bruises. Graham’s worst experiences – a utility knife cut which gashed a finger and purchasing and deploying 80 pound patio stones and 100 pound bags of tailings; his lasting souvenir – a new ten pound sledge hammer used to tame the deck. Diane’s worst experience – painting the inside of a 2’ x 2’ closet; her lasting legacy – a beautiful antique mirror and a mahogany sofa table which we restored, used in the staging then donated to our church.