Real Estate with The Housing Block

Are you looking for homes for sale in Canada? TransCanada Rentals is proud to announce our partnership with The Housing Block to offer our users who might be interested in buying a home, a very easy, user-friendly solution to assist in making that leap to real estate, and owning your first home.

Real Estate can be one of today’s most profitable businesses and can provide amazing investment opportunities. The Internet serves as a tremendous tool to help real estate stake holders make valuable connections. Navigating through the online real estate world can be an overwhelming and daunting task. The Housing Block has created the perfect solution to simplify this process and offer the ultimate user experience.

Understanding the importance of keeping the real estate business in pace with modern times, The Housing Block has recently revamped their website to provide an updated, exceptional customer experience. Mr. Marc Ferland, Co-founder of the Housing Block, states “Real estate business is just like real estate property. You’ve got to renovate it according to the modern requirements. It’s all about staying up-to-date and that is what our visitors want”.

The Housing Block is a reputable real estate website that offers interested buyers and sellers, across Canada and The United States, a website that is easy to navigate and use. It allows users to explore their real estate options through a well organized, appealing interface. The Housing Block provides users with a one stop solution for buying, selling and renting real estate. According to Mr. Ferland, “The complete top to bottom renovation makes the site more user friendly and helpful. We offer a common real estate platform for buyers and sellers and a wide range of valuable resources and tools that are relevant to our users”.

The new Housing Block serves as a complete and comprehensive resource for all kinds of help required regarding real estate matters. Mr. Ferland states, “We want to keep offering our visitors the best through our services and our interface to help connect home buyers and renters with real estate professionals. We are proud to announce that it is exactly what they will get on the renovated Housing Block site”.

The newly revamped site offers a convenient, easy to maneuver format to assist visitors as they start their real estate investigations. A search bar, present on the homepage, allows users to focus their search faster and more effectively. The Housing Block search engine optimizes the value of online real estate marketing and shows the results according to the degree of relevance. Through this feature, visitors can use their time more effectively and the sellers and agents receive high volumes of quality leads.

One of the prominent changes on the new Housing Block website is the social network integration. The users can easily share their favorite pages with their favorite social groups including Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. “Being in the real estate business, we understand our customers and their needs, and that is what we prioritize”, states Mr. Ferland. He adds, “Users love to involve their friends and family in their property decisions and it gets easier with the help of social network integration”.

About HousingBlock.com
HousingBlock.com is a real estate website offering a comprehensive real estate search engine. The website was founded by Mr. Marc Ferland and Mr. Chad Griffin. It allows users to search through thousands of real estate properties in the US and Canada. The website offers amazing opportunities for buyers, sellers and users interested in rental properties. The newly renovated interface of the website offers a number of exciting features to make the real estate business more up-to-date and interesting.

TransCanada Rentals – Walk Score

What’s new with TransCanada Rentals? Recently, TransCanada Rentals has added Walk Score™ to our listings. We here at TransCanada Rentals feel that Walk Score™ is a great asset and tool for renters when trying to find a rental location that suits their active lifestyles. Our users can find Walk Score™ within the apartment rental search results, as seen in the image to the left. Click Walk Score™ within the search results will automatically generate a map based on that listings geographic location or address. From there, a Walk Score™ will be generated from 0-100 (100 being the highest score), as well as a list of local amenities which might include grocery stores, shopping malls, restaurants, and hardware stores. Walk Score™ can also be found on our single listing view pages, as seen in the image to the right. Try Walk Score™ out for yourself and you’ll see the great benefits it has for the apartment rentals industry, as well as the “green” living community. It is sure to help promote a more active lifestyle, and will give a future-renter a better understanding of the surrounding area.

Buying vs. Renting

On average there comes a time in one’s life where we ask ourselves if we should stop wasting our money on renting our current accommodations and start thinking about entering the housing market by purchasing a new home. There are pros and cons of renting or buying.

Read full article by clicking here

Responsibilities for Landlords

Read this article regarding responsibilities for Landlords that includes question and answers like:

Question: What is a Landlord?

Question: What can Landlords ask for on rental applications?

Question: What is a Landlords Responsibility?

Read the entire article at http://www.housingblock.com/landlord-resources/article/responsibilities-for-landlords-46.html

How to prepare to move

1. Find the right Mover

If you decided that packing or moving yourself is not a job that you are interested in doing, there are many great companies out there that can help. Throughout this article there are some great links that may help you find a company that fits your needs and budget. Do your research on the company before choosing. Remember that the movers will be moving or perhaps packing some of your most fragile belongings. Ask yourself, are they insured, do they have a good track record, do they own/use the right moving material such as moving blankets, tap, wrap, dollies etc.

2. You are moving out of a home you owned

• Contact your Gas, Water and Hydro providers to have your meters read to have the billing transferred on the day you move to your new billing address.

To read more of this article please click here

Effective Rental Listings for Landlords

Write an effective rental listing to help you find the right renter quickly

For every month that goes by while your rental stays vacant you continue to lose money. Writing an effective listing will ensure you capture your audiences interest. The following are some pointers that will help you along the way and you will see how easy finding and targeting the right tenant can be.

When posting/marketing your rental unit you need to think about what renters want and what type of renter you would like to attract. What features does your rental have that will help you draw viewer’s attention and keep them interested? Does your rental come with certain items, such as furniture, new appliances or perhaps your rental unit is a cottage and it comes with fun activities for kids and adults like boats or fishing gear. These are some important attributes that you should elaborate on when writing you description.

Some important features to consider are:

The Kitchen – Describe what types of appliances you are including and any upgrades such as granite counter tops. A brief description outlining the kitchens layout is also beneficial . Example: Enjoy our open concept kitchen that includes granite counter tops and brand new stainless steel Maytag appliances

Bathrooms – Indentify how many bathrooms the rental unit includes and how many are full bathrooms(toilet, sink, bathtub/shower) or half bathrooms (no shower).

Bedrooms – Outline the number of bedrooms the home has or if your rental is a cottage how many beds each bedroom has.

Basement – Some viewers may be interested in whether the basement is finished or unfinished. Provide a description for them so they know upfront.

General points– Are utilities included? Describe the neighbourhood highlights or is the rental near certain sites like a grocery store, liquor/beer store, gym or hospital. How much parking or storage space is available? Describe the condition the unit is in.

The more information you provide, the better results you will have in finding the right renter quickly. Click here for an example of a tenant checklist. See what they may be expecting by reviewing the checklist that they may have in hand while visiting your unit.

Tenant Checklist

Looking to post a FREE Canadian residential rental where your rental will get noticed. Post your FREE rental listing with TransCanada Rentals by clicking here

Being prepared to rent a home

Whether you are planning on moving out of your current housing accommodation or just moving to Canada, United States or UK you are most likely looking to rent your first home. Prior to jumping online or looking into the newspapers searching for that perfect rental, decide what you want in a home. We have placed together a useful checklist to walk through some important items that you should consider. Tenant Checklist

Now that you have decided what you would like your rental to include or not include visit some of the following sites which will help you in the searching process.

For Canada Rentals: http://www.transcanadarentals.com
For United States Rentals: http://housingblock.com
For UK Rentals:  http://housingblock.com

It is very important to look at several apartments. That way, you can be sure the place is right for you and your family. Take along one or two people such as your spouse, family member or friend who will provide you with honest feedback. Make certain:

• All doors are working and lock properly
• Are the appliances working?
• Is the Plumbing Working?
• Is the water tank is in good condition?
• hot water flows from all taps; the bathroom has a shower
• or bathtub, and the toilet flushes properly;
• Find a complete Property Evaluation Checklist by clicking here

Furthermore, make sure you visit a number of apartments before making your decision. The following Apartment Comparison worksheet will help you capture your thoughts and compare each address, while assisting you in your final decision. This worksheet can be printed and brought along to your viewings. To print a copy, select File from your web browser and then print.

There are several different types of rental housing that are available depending on your country or location.

Privately-owned rental housing is the most common. Tenant will pay rent to an individual known as a Landlord or a Property Management company for your living space.

Shared housing occurs when you share the kitchen, bathroom and other areas of an apartment or house with others. You and your family have your own private bedroom. Special needs housing is shared housing that is designed and built for people with special medical, physical, or psychiatric needs.

Subsidized housing, such as public housing, non-profit housing and co-operative (co-op) housing, is usually a lower cost alternative to market housing. The rent is lower for subsidized housing than for privately owned rental housing because a municipal government or charitable organization pays part of the operating cost. Understand that because subsidized housing costs less, demand is high. There is often a waiting period of up to four or five years

Link to this article: http://www.housingblock.com/tenant-resources/renting-a-home/being-prepared-to-rent-a-home-35.html

Stay organized during your next move!

Moving locations can be an exciting experience; however can quickly turn into a very frustrating experience during the actual move. To help the situation before you get to this point is to get organized. The following is a list of a couple items to help you start thinking of what you need to prepare for moving day.

Cardboard Boxes:
Cardboard boxes are essential to start your move. Before purchasing any boxes, check with relatives, friends or maybe even your work place to see if they have any spare used boxes. This will help save some moving expenses. If you still haven’t found enough boxes to help you safely pack your belongings, you Order Boxes Online!. Or click the following banner to purchase Moving Boxes and Packing Supplies

Packing Tape:
A strong packing tape is also an essential that you will require during the packing phase of your move. Make sure when you purchase packing tape you are purchasing a strong durable packing tape that will hold and maintain the weight in the cardboard boxes. Visit your local hardware store such as Home Depot to purchase the right type of packing tape.

Garbage bags:
Have garbage bags handy while packing up the house will be a big help. Garbage bags will not only help collect garbage while completing that last cleaning job during the move. Garbage bags are also a great resource to pack, towels, bedding, pillows and clothing to ensure the materials do not get damaged in the moving process. It`s a good idea to seal your bags up using the packing tape as well.

Newspapers or bubble wrap:
Prior to moving day rather than tossing away your weekly newspaper, collect a few. Newspaper is a great way to wrap up breakables to prevent and mishaps during your moving process. A great and even better alternative would be to purchase a role of bubble wrap, but may add to your expense since a majority of people do not have bubble wrap laying around.

Magic Markers:
Now picture yourself in your new home and the movers have arrived with your belongings, where does everything go I found the best method is to label all the cardboard boxes based on the room they belong to in your new home. Once you arrive to the new place tape a piece of paper to each door way labeling the room. Example: master bedroom, spare bedroom or kitchen etc Walk the movers through the home so they have a clear understanding where to place each box or furniture piece. Trust me on this one, this will be a big help making your move more efficient. The moving company or friends helping in the move will appreciate it as well.

 

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Enegry Saving Light Bulbs can make a difference!

Enegry Saving Light Bulbs can make a difference! Its time to replace those old standard light bulbs sucking energy from our homes with energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). This will put you one step closer to playing your part towards reducing greenhouse gases and overall fossil fuel use. Most homes have 15-30 bulbs. Replacing your standard lighting with Compact Fluorescent Lights will cost you a little more money, but will pay for themselves in reduced costs after approximately five months of use. According to Sylvania Products each bulb can save you $92.00 over the average rated life (12,000 hours) of the lamp compared to a 100 watt (1,000 hours) incandescent bulb.

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10% Off ALL Stage & Studio Lighting – use Coupon Code: 10bacj10015

Write an effective rental listing to help you find the right renter quickly

For every month that goes by while your rental stays vacant you continue to lose money. Writing an effective listing will ensure you capture your audiences interest. The following are some pointers that will help you along the way and you will see how easy finding and targeting the right tenant can be.

When posting/marketing your rental unit you need to think about what renters want and what type of renter you would like to attract. What features does your rental have that will help you draw viewer’s attention and keep them interested? Does your rental come with certain items, such as furniture, new appliances or perhaps your rental unit is a cottage and it comes with fun activities for kids and adults like boats or fishing gear. These are some important attributes that you should elaborate on when writing you description.

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