Do you own a home that was built prior to 1965? If you do then your property may contain a buried (out of use) Oil Tank. Under the City of Vancouver By Laws, these buried tanks pose an environmental hazard and must be removed.

If you are planning to sell your home and you think there is a possibility of a buried tank, the plan of action should be as follows: 

1. Call an Oil Tank Removal company and have them inspect your property for a tank. There are several in the lower mainland that will come out on a day or twos notice. If you have no tank have the Oil Tank Company provide you with a letter confirming such. The cost for this is minimal. If a tank is located then you’ll need to gain a couple of estimates.
2. The tank removal can take place prior to listing your home for sale or after. The key thing to consider is that any tank removal must take place no less than 1 month prior to the closing of a sale. This is due to the time it will take for the oil tank company to deal with an Environmental Report if required. Also, banks funding a mortgage for a prospective buyer on your property will not fund a mortgage without all documentation being provided regarding the oil tank removal and the environment report.
3. I have come across many home owners who have told me they know nothing about an oil tank on their property only to find one after a site scan is conducted. In order to assist the selling process its best to have the site scan done so that a letter can be provided to a prospective buyer’s before they make an offer. This scan should be done prior to the home being listed for sale.

If you have any questions and or need a list of recommended Oil Tank specialists we are pleased to provide.

Happy Selling!

Photo: currenenvironmental.com

This is a question I get from most homeowners that are considering the sale of their home or investment property. For homeowners that have a nicely furnished home the Staging is typically not required. It is a proven fact that a properly furnished home will sell faster and for a higher price than a vacant home and or one that has furnishings that are old, tired and or do not fit the space well. 

There are some cases when a vacant or older home probably does not require staging. Those being homes that are sold for Land value and there is a high probability that the property will be sold as a Building lot. 

I also had an instance recently where a homeowner had a beautifully built new home but there were key rooms that had no furniture. We suggested the client call in the Staging Co and for about $5000 have the vacant rooms furnished to help for the sale. Remember, its really tough to take appealing photos of vacant rooms. This client decided not to spend the $5000 and instead spend about $25,000 buying furniture for the vacant rooms. It’s really a personal decision. The advantage with Staging is the convenience and speed to which the home can be furnished for sale. We can usually arrange to have a home staged within 1 week of the client making the initial call to the Staging Co. Should you decide to go out and purchase the furniture and accessories yourself this can take a lot of time and rarely do stores keep furniture in stock. You can typically wait weeks or months for specific furnishings to arrive once they are ordered. This is not ideal when you want your home listed within a few weeks.

Part of our service when listing your home for sale is to provide such advice on Staging . The key is to bring your home to the market so that it attracts the maximum number of buyers and ultimately achieving the highest price. A poorly furnished home can cost you a lot more than the cost of staging. Most buyers do not have the ability to visualize so we as realtors want to make sure your home shows the best it can. 

Happy Selling! 

(Photo: flickr.com/buildersdesign)