A simple welcome mat and a mailbox bearing your name just won't cut it.

Making your home's entryway both hospitable and a clear statement of who lives inside means starting at the walkway or even the curb, proceeding to the porch, carrying through the front door and continuing all the way into the foyer.

This movement from public toward private space prepares visitors, albeit subconsciously, for who and what to expect inside. So, how do you manage those expectations?

WALKWAY AND PLANTINGS

When planning your front yard, start with the walkway, says Mary-Anne Schmitz of Gardening by Design (gardeningbydesign.ca). Making it wide enough to allow two people to walk side by side (meaning 4½ to six feet) makes visitors feel welcome.

"If you

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You'd buy a sweater on impulse, but when it comes to buying a home it's all about calm deliberation, right?

You might be surprised.

Price, square footage, location: "All that can be trumped by the visceral reaction of seeing a home," says June Cotte, who teaches marketing at Western University's Ivey Business School.

"Smells, colours, sounds you can hear inside or from the outside - you might not be aware of them, but they can have an influence."

The layout may even subliminally remind you of the home of a former boyfriend, says Cotte. That can have a positive or negative emotional impact on how you perceive a home that's for sale.

In fact, a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research in 2002 said emotions can be twice as

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The spring housing market, despite the best efforts of weather gods, is budding.

A new crop of sellers is preparing for a crowd of eager buyers. Benignly neglected imperfections - a wayward cable cord, the wine stain that never fully came out of the carpet, holes in the wall where the kid gate used to be - shout out accusingly: You should have fixed me a long time ago! A perfectly serviceable kitchen, updated only yesterday, suddenly looks like a set from The Golden Girls. That basement bathroom may scare small children.  

Time to quit fantasizing about all the money to be made on a bidding war and start to think about how much to spend.

While there are no hard and fast formulas, a good realtor will be able to take a look and make

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As tax season approaches, now is the time to educate yourself on some of the lesser-known tax deductions and credits you might qualify for.

That’s especially true if you want to save some money or score a return. Here are six surprising options that could score you some major money.

Employment expenses

Many people think that only self-employed individuals can deduct work expenses on their tax returns, but that’s actually not the case. If you are salaried or commissioned and your employer requires you to pay expenses to earn your employment income, you can deduct those costs.

The following qualify and can be deducted under employment expenses on line 229 of your tax return:

• Accounting and legal fees (applies to commission income only)

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For most of us, buying a home is the largest, most complex purchase we’ll ever make.

Whole industries and sub-industries have formed to help ease the understandable anxiety we endure before we sign on the dotted line to close a deal: real estate brokerages, real estate lawyers, mortgage brokers, property inspectors. That’s a lot of people doing a lot of things for us, and it’s not always clear what we should expect from each.

Home inspectors might be the most interesting of the lot. Home show king Mike Holmes has been dining out on a line for years: “The home inspection industry is like the Wild West — a lot of cowboys but not a lot of sheriffs.”

In order to protect consumers, British Columbia introduced mandatory licensing of home inspectors in

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Mortgage Terminology

To Understanding common Mortgage Terminology  we have to start with the basics:

What is a mortgage?

A mortgage is a word that has been in the English language since the late 1300s and comes from the French “mort,” which means “dead,” and “gage,” meaning “pledge.” Therefore, a mortgage, in the real sense of the meaning of the word, means that the security pledged to the mortgagee for the debt will be taken from him if he fails to pay the debt, and will, therefore, be “dead to him upon condition.” on the other hand, the mortgagee fulfills the obligation to pay the debt, the pledge is dead. Either way, something dies.

A dictionary definition is much simpler and tells us that a mortgage is a “temporary, conditional pledge of

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Buying or selling a home is probably one of the largest investments you will ever make. That is why it is important to choose the correct REALTOR® that will work to your benefit, to guard your equity and your future.

Which REALTOR® should you choose? Some people sign with the first REALTOR® that comes along, later, they realize they should have interviewed several people prior to signing. Not all REALTORS® are the same.

This will provide you with some selection criteria and some questions to ask. When you are choosing a lawyer, doctor or health care practitioner you would interview several people before you select an individual you are most comfortable with. The same rule applies to a real estate agent.

When it comes to your next home it makes

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With the Feb. 29 deadline for registered retirement savings plan contributions looming, many Canadians are wondering whether it is better to pay off debt or add to their RRSP.

Financial advisers say that while making any contribution to an RRSP or a tax-free savings account (TSFA) is always a good thing, clearing up consumer debt should be the first priority.

“If they’re in credit card debt then forget it, all they should be focused on is paying off that debt,” said David Trahair, a chartered professional accountant in Toronto. “Forget buying a house, forget RRSPs and focus on making money and spending less so you can pay off first the credit card debt and then the student loan debt.”

Canadians with taxable earnings can contribute up to 18 per

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Thinking of buying your own place? It’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed. After all, it’s the biggest purchase you can make. In an effort to remove some stress from the equation, here are a few tips from the experts.

Don't forget to read our buyers advice pages..

What to do when you’re a first-time home-buyer:

1. Get pre-approved.

Some real estate agents won’t even work with you until you’ve been pre-approved for a mortgage. This is an important first step in the home-buying process. You don’t want to start house-hunting and fall for a home you can’t afford.

Plus, there may be problems with your credit that you don’t know about.

“Sometimes people are just unaware that they may have like a Sears card that they forgot to cancel and it’s

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If you’re listing your strata property and haven’t sold one before, there are some things you should know

The process of selling a strata property is not the same as selling a house, and it tends to be much more involved when it comes to drawing up the paperwork.

What Are You Actually Selling?

One of the major differences between selling a house and a strata property boils down to what exactly you are selling. When you sell a house, you are selling the home and the land it is on. With a strata property, you could be selling a unit with or without land depending on the development type. Typically, a strata property sale will also include areas that are under shared ownership by all unit owners in that complex.

It is important to understand

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