The Real Estate Podcast

Fall Home Maintenance Tips! | The Real Estate Podcast EP304

Welcome back to the Real Estate Podcast! In this episode, Ariel Kormendy and Chris Behie are diving into essential tips and tricks to prepare your home for the upcoming fall season. Whether you're planning to sell your home or just want to keep it in top shape, these practical steps will help you maintain your property during the colder months. From lawn care to roof inspections, we've got you covered! ************************ 0:15 – Introduction and Overview 1:25 – Importance of Fall Home Maintenance 3:01 – Tips for Maintaining Your Lawn 5:54 – Sealing Your Driveway: Why and How 7:54 – Garage Door and Window Maintenance 11:08 – Planting Trees and Shrubs in Fall 12:12 – Roof and Gutter Inspection 14:10 – Inspecting Your Attic for Rodents and Moisture 16:14 – HVAC System Check-Up 17:20 – Changing filters, and testing alarms and sump pups 23:38 – Point out the home features that are in hidden in plain sight 26:37 – Disconnecting and flushing your hose bibs 28:02 – Outro/recap ************************ Want more real estate podcast discussions? Watch it here: youtu.be/uLhNb8fdHt4 Listen to it here: http://www.soundcloud.com/ktrealty Catch clips and highlights of the show here: http://www.instagram.com/kormendytrott ************************ Our Social: Instagram: www.instagram.com/kormendytrott  YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/kormendytrott  Facebook: www.facebook.com/kormendytrott  Twitter: www.twitter.com/KormendyTrott Soundcloud:http://www.soundcloud.com/ktrealty  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ktrealty  Pinterest: www.pinterest.ca/KormendyTrott  TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@kormendytrott?lang=en ************************ In 2011, Ariel Kormendy and Adrian Trott formed The Kormendy Trott Team, now often referred to as KT (thanks to our logo!). The foundation of KT is built on providing unmatched value and attention to detail in everything we do. From our ever-expanding, comprehensive list of exclusive services to our expertly trained team, you will receive the highest level of care throughout your entire real estate journey. Originally a team of two in Milton, Ontario, the KT Team has grown into a large team of exceptional REALTORS®, a client-care department, and now includes KT media, KT Commercial and KT Property Management to provide our clients with a complete lineup of genuine, professional, and proven services across Halton Region, Peel Region and the surrounding Regions within the Greater Toronto Area. We’d appreciate it if you’d subscribe and follow us for behind-the-scenes footage, real estate tips, industry secrets, exclusive listings, The Real Estate Podcast, and more!

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 09 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

- And in the garage, you have the washer and dryer for the upper unit now, in the garage, not heated, not insulated, and copper water lines against the exterior wall. - Sure, that's the code. What are the chances that's gonna freeze in the winter? - Welcome back to the Real Estate Podcast. You're not selling your home. So here are some of the things you need to do around the home and your property during the fall season. (upbeat music) - Welcome to the Real Estate Podcast. You're go-to source for raw, unfiltered stories and expert tips. Whether you're a buyer, seller, tenant, landlord, or realtor, join us as we dive into the world of real estate. (upbeat music) - Wow, welcome back. Chris Behe, two weeks in a row, two weeks in a row. So if you didn't watch the last podcast, Chris joined me. We talked about the fall real estate market, what to expect in the fall, what we were seeing, and all kinds of good stuff about the fall real estate market. - A couple tips for getting your home ready for sale for sale in the fall. - Yes. - And now today is all about if you're not selling, maybe some ideas or some tips and some things you should be doing now to get your home ready. - Not everybody is thinking of or planning on selling their home, but the fall season, in my opinion, is the most important season to pay attention to your property, to your home, and to prepare it for what's to come because certainly in the Ontario climate where we're located, you've got a lot of rain, wind, snow, varying temperatures from warm to very cold. Winter attacks homes inside and out. It's hard on the inside, the outside. - Absolutely. - So it's definitely the most important. Any cold climate area, it's the most important season to get it right. - And a lot of things can easily get overlooked. And getting into the right habits and the right routines for different seasons and making sure that you're protecting yourself 'cause it is an ongoing maintenance thing that if you do it properly, you're probably saving yourself money in the long run. So I'm gonna start with kind of like the timeline of things. So we're now into early September and over the course of the next four weeks or so. We've already seen a fluctuation of different weather, different climate. Some days it was a little bit chilly, some days a little bit warm. - No snow yet though. - No snow yet, that's good. So this is usually the time of the year that and I'll defer to you for this because your grass always looks amazing. - Thank you. - And you've got a bit of a green thumb. You enjoy it. - I enjoy it. I mean, obviously I wish I had a little more grass, but I also, I like it. I like doing it. I have adopted my neighbors' properties too. So if their grass is looking a little long, I take care of that. And when I fertilize mine, I fertilize theirs. So I don't know if they know that necessarily. Keep your kids and dogs off of it. But no, it's, this is a great time. And what you do now in lawn care really helps set up the spring. And hopefully if you've been watering and maintaining it throughout the year, there's not much more you have to do in the fall. I don't do a lot. I just make sure I add a good fall fertilizer. - Yep. - I always, I never cut my grass too short. I always do three or four inches in length. But your last cut of the year, you don't want to do it too, too short. If you do too short, there's less grass, less photosynthesis happening. And I always do two final cuts. So I do a longer cut where I bag and then like one, just a shorter cut right below it where I mulch. So to give some my inside, to give some nutrients back into the grass, help insulate the soil. But I always bag, but the last cut of the year, leave it long and I leave it with a mulch. - Give it some mulch. So you've got the nutrients from everywhere coming into the. - Yeah, it's also good for the insects and bugs to have a little bit of grass for, you know, burring in and that stuff. - So aside from applying a fall fertilizer. - That's all I do. I mean, if you maintain it throughout the course of the year, it's much easier to maintain a green grass than it is to create a grass. - So that's a pretty simple task, but a task that sometimes people overlook is to apply the proper fertilizer. And some of them have added things like nitrogen or whatever to prolong the nutrients getting sucked into the soil. - I don't know too much about it. - I don't know the science behind it. My understanding is it basically helps the grass go into like hibernation and gives it energy for in the spring to really kickstart. - So if you're not familiar on how to do it, you don't want to do it high or somebody to do it. It's not expensive. And it can preserve your lawn for the winter and started off in the spring on the right foot. - Yeah, easy. So moving on. So after you maintain your grass, is there anything specific that you address on the outside of the lawn? - Well, there's two things I think people, well, one thing I think you should be doing, if not, not every year, but every two to three years, is this a perfect time of year to seal your driveway? - Yeah. - So those one of the things where if you have cracks, you want to seal it, the cracks first, and then apply a sealant over top of that. So it does two things. - Don't, by the way, like the spring you apply it. - Hire somebody that doesn't-- - I don't like it. - I don't like it. - I don't like it. - The guys that, okay, my problem with the guys that spray, I don't like the glossy finish. So like you have to hire someone that does, I like the flat finish on my driveway. - Okay. - So eventually it goes flat. - Ah, but peppy, anyways. - So you do it yourself? - I do it myself. - You roll it on, roll it on. It's a thicker coat, I like it better. I don't know, it's a little more expensive maybe, I don't know. But again, I usually do my neighbors at the same time. But what it does is does two things. Winter ice goes into the cracks. If you have cracks in your driveway, they're gonna grow over the winter. So you want to seal those up. It'll help prolong your driveway life substantially. But a fringe benefit, blacker the driveway, sun hits it in the winter, snow will melt quicker. So that's why-- - That's a good point. - And this time of year, it dries quicker with the cooler weather. So falls a perfect time. If you haven't sealed your driveway in a long time, get it done now. - Yeah, and it just keeps it looking fresh or nicer. - For sure. And we often recommend, I know this is about not selling your home, but we often recommend it for photos because it just looks better. So it's one of those things that add instant curb appeal to your house. - Yeah, just, it's a simple cost-effective way of giving good curb appeal. - And it's something, it's a maintenance item that really should be done every couple of years. - Yep. So I'll talk about a couple of things that I typically do. Not necessarily in September, but certainly into October, like before the real colder weather approaches, is I lubricate all of the garage doors, the entry and exit doors. I have a look at all the windows and open and close all the windows a few times, clean out the sills 'cause you're not gonna likely be opening the windows now for maybe several months. So just cleaning them. - What are you using for a spray usually? - For the hinges and anything that needs lubrication, I use jiggle lube, it's a silicone lubricate, and I find that works really well. If I don't have it, I actually use olive oil and that has seemed to work quite well too. And for cleaning windows sills and all of that stuff, I just use a cup. I take a mixture of one cup of cleaning vinegar, not regular vinegar, cleaning vinegar, and one cup of water, so a 50/50 solution. And I've got it in a spray bottle and a microfiber cloth. - Yeah. One tip when you're doing the windows too is apply it, but open it and close it a couple times so that lubricant actually seeps in and goes to the areas that you want it to. And if you're not opening and closing your windows on a regular basis, you should be doing it anyways because it'll help the lubricant work into those areas as well, otherwise they dry out. - Same thing with any shut off alps. We've talked about this. This is not necessarily a fall maintenance item. It's an ongoing maintenance item. But you should pop under your sinks and your toilets and turn the, this is something we do with our property management company. This is a part of the yearly inspections that we do with renty is turning on and off your shut off alps. Because if you never shut it off, it is very likely that they will get seized a little bit. They'll get maybe a little rusty or a little bit tougher to turn off. And you just want to make sure that if you do need to shut it off, that it will actually shut it off and nothing has snapped or seized. - Right. The effects of the window, what I will do as well is I remove the screens in the winter. - Yeah. - And put them in the laundry room and clean them. Screens I find at ice storms, they can collect ice and trap water and water will drip into the sills more. But I just don't like the look of them in the winter. - Yeah, let's more light in. - Yeah. And it gives me a, that's my opportunity to clean them and give it a good clean. And then I'm ready to go in the summer. - Yeah, and screens are easy to take off. - Oh, they're super easy. Just four tabs usually if, or some of them don't even have the tabs anymore. You just pull down and... - Yep. - Anything else on the outside of the home? - One thing I think that people don't know what they can do in the fall and it's actually a great time is to plant trees and shrubs. So nurseries have them on sale. - There's the green thumb again. - But it's a great time to plant them. So the problem is if you're planting them in the summer, the root that they can dry out fall is a perfect time to be planting them and they're on sale right now. So, and then you have a... - Is that because they're getting more moisture? - Yeah, so the roots are more, again, I'm not like technical with this, but I just know it's a good time and they're always on sale. - So if you've planted it, you have to cover it up after... - Depending on what it is, yeah. I mean, covering is not a bad idea anyways. I don't, but if you're going to be doing an area that has a lot of winds, it's a good idea, along walkways, if you're using salt still, you want to make sure you're getting a hearty variety that's going to be resistant to that. - Yeah. - And I'm sorry. - All right, let's move on to the inside of the heads. - So talk about windows. - Actually, I'm going to backtrack for a second because we didn't talk about the roof. - Oh, yeah. - And that kind of goes hand in hand with me with for me, with my next topic, which is going to be the attic. - Right. - But before the snow starts hitting and the rain that we've experienced in fall and sometimes the high winds, you want to make sure that your roof shingles are in good shape. You want to make sure that your gutters are cleaned out. So if you live in an older area or you have tall trees, like even the, I don't know if you've seen my backyard, your trees are going to be big. The ornamental pear trees that we have, we've got eight of them. When I planted them, they were, I can't remember, maybe eight feet high. They're probably about 30 feet high now. And that means my gutters are now susceptible to some of those leaves. - Well, even if you don't have leaves, birds or something nesting, you want to make sure you're getting up and taking a look at it. - Yep. - Weird things can happen in those gutters. So making sure that you have the proper drainage for any water that's coming off your roof. But the roof shingles, if you've seen, if you see any that are glipping, cracked, missing, they should be addressed right now. - Yeah, a lot of roofing companies, because they don't actually have to go up on their roofs anymore, they use drones. They'll give you a free inspection of your roof and show you photos of it. - Yes. In fact, I offered that to a bunch of past clients because we have three drones here. And I like flying it sometimes. And we've got two drone pilots. So if you are a past client and want a free roof inspection with our drones, let us know. - That's actually pretty awesome. - Yeah, why not? So checking the roof. Now on the inside, you want to get up into the attic. And this is the perfect time of year. September is great for weather to get up into the attic. It's not too hot, not too cold. And you want to have a look and see what's happening up there. You want to see, first of all, are there any evidence, is there any evidence? Are there any signs of rodents? Because as we transition in the season, and you might see that maybe in a few weeks from now, especially, rodents are looking for nesting for the winter, right? They're looking for their home. So mice, skunks, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, bats, they're all trying to find their new home for the next few months. So you can see tracks sometimes in the insulation. You can sometimes see droppings. - Or you can see if they've been chewing on anything sometimes, more in basements, you see that. 'Cause it's balls, but. - Just have a look with a flashlight, see if there's any-- - If something doesn't look right, it chances are it's not. - It's probably not right. - And then have a look at all of the trusses, and just, again, take a flashlight, look around, make sure there's no evidence of moisture, moisture, mold, any of those things. - So that's a big one for me. - I don't think 99% of people probably don't do that on a regular basis. - No, like, no, even-- - I can't think of the last time I did it in my own house. - Even I preach it, and last time I was up was probably two and a half years ago. - Right. - So it's due. And my roof now is-- - You're at that age. - They're at that age. - And it's looking a little, it's getting towards the end of its life, so I don't know. All right, anything else on the inside of those that you like to address in the fall? - Yeah, I mean, it's something that, I mean, if you actually get your HVAC system taking a look at, then it's often, it's recommended every year. I certainly not something that-- - We talked about that in a recent podcast, Adrian and I-- - Yeah. - About hiring an HVAC specialist to do an inspection and how often we set every two years-- - Everything two years is good. I do think if you have pets or if sometimes that can be harder on the system, it might need to be cleaned out more regular, but every two years I feel it's a good window for that. - Yeah, and it's a good time to make sure that your furnace is working well because when it starts to get cold and you need-- - You need to-- - You need the hose up. - Yeah, you-- - You're not getting as much fresh air inside, change your filters, you should be doing that at least four times a year anyways. - Every season, change the furnace filter. - But again, if you have pets, like when I had my guy around, I knew I needed to do it almost, I did every two months because that hair and dust got into the system, but now it's less. - Yeah, so typical stuff like changing the filters, your carbon monoxide and-- - Give it a test, smoke detectors, give them a test, change the batteries out. - Something you preach all the time is testing your sub pump. - Yeah, that's a great time. - Again, just going down and manually, starting your sub pump, make sure it's working, make sure it's doing its job because it potentially is going to work hard over the course of the next, who knows, right? Sometimes we get a lot of rain in October, November, sometimes we get a lot of rain in February, March, then you have the snow-- - The snow, it's not, it's just, it's not so much the rain even, it's a thaw, the melting and-- - Sure, the accumulation. - Exactly, on the window front we touched on, but you're probably, most people don't, I don't feel like don't caulk or seal around the window sills. That can be an area where a lot of, or heat is lost in those areas, do you wanna do that? - Or potential penetration of water. - Water, exactly, and you see that-- - And that's inside and outside of the windows. - Yes, yeah, I feel like inside is an easy one that is often overlooked. People don't think of it as losing energy necessarily, but it's important to do. - Yep. - What else is there? - I would say if you're protecting the, from the elements of water, specifically rain and snow, wind, and the cold climate, those are, that's where you should focus this month. - Yes, and one thing I like to do this time of year too, is I tend to try and stock up on the winter stuff right now, just so I'm not caught off guard. - Yeah. - So things like-- - If you got a shovel, if you have-- - Tune up the snow blower, right? - You got your salt or whatever you use on your driveway and sidewalks. - Yeah, get it now. - Yeah, washer fluid for the car, all that stuff is a good time to do that stuff now. - Yeah. - A lot of times too, I'll start prepping the Christmas decorations now. - Oh, boy, don't mention that word. - Oh, I know. But if you're gonna be doing things like the higher eaves troughs, you're doing it yourself. A lot of people like to get that up now before it gets closer to the end of the fall before the weather really changes. - Yeah. - Or if you're like some people, just leave it up all year round and you don't have to worry about it. - What are your, so unrelated? What are your takes on the built-in lights now? - So, I actually had that priced out because we hire a company to install. - And your home looks fabulous. - It does, it looks great and they do a great job, they're very efficient and they'll set it up right on time. They'll take them down when weather permits. - Do your eyes clean the windows when they do it? I have a couple companies that don't do that. - No, I have my windows cleaned at once every couple of years for, I don't know what it costs, 150 bucks, they do all the windows, but no, they just install the lights, they install the wreath above my garage door and the wreath on the pillar on the front porch and all the lights that accompany it, it's not cheap, but it looks great. - It looks great, I don't have to go out there, I don't have to worry about buying lights, I don't have to worry about it all matching, I don't have to worry about anything. - Ladder safety is huge for a lot of people. - It is. - Like I used to be fine with heights and ladders, I still feel comfortable, but as I get older, it gets a little sketchier. - Well, in my home, it's pretty slanted in certain areas, like pretty steep slope on some of those roofs. - I know, I remember I first house I bought, I thought I'm gonna put Christmas lights everywhere and then I did the first level and then I looked up and I'm like, yeah, it's probably good enough. - Yeah, and that's kind of what happened with me, is I started by doing the first level and it didn't look that great and then, yeah. So anyways, what do I think about the built-ins? So essentially they're LED track lights, essentially, and I had it priced out and it was, in fact, I just deleted the email a few days ago because I figured the pricing is no longer valid. I had it priced out five years ago, just pre-COVID. - Wow, that was when you didn't see by them very often. You start seeing it more right now. - Yeah, and for my home to do everything except the dormer, so if those of you know what a dormer is, you'll understand if you don't, it's basically a peak that comes off the roof and mine is fake, sometimes they're-- - Most are, some are. Sometimes it's by design and it's the window of a bedroom. Mine is a fake window, it's a fake dormer, it's basically a box with a roof that's just attached to the roof. It's ridiculous when I replace my shingles, I'm gonna have it removed, and the price to do the main and upper floor was I believe 40, 200 bucks, tax in. So I was like, holy crap, that's an investment, and I didn't know if we are going to stay in this home, how long we were going to stay 'cause we'd already been in it for 10 years or close to it, had talked about potentially moving, and that's not something you're gonna get a return on your investment really. - It is kind of cool though, because you are app controlled, so for like fall, tying into that, you got a Halloween lighting, you can do it. - So that was one of the discussions. - An selling feature. - Yes, and again, as Adrian likes to talk about, if you have these features, they have to be pointed out in the marketing for you to get a return on it or to bring more attention to it. But yeah, so you can control pretty well everything. You can control which lights stay on. So in the off season, it can be more like, yeah, soft at pot lighting, where you just have the corners, and then to your point, Halloween, maybe you put on some orange lighting and put a few more of the lights on, Christmas time, you can scatter the colors, you can, so the flexibility of them is quite nice, and they actually are not that visible. - No, they're not. It's a little vagacy looking for me. Like I like the traditional. - Me too. - Yeah. - Me too, I like the traditional lights where it casts that, the C, what they call them, C9 bulbs, like the big Christmas lights. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Traditional Christmas lights. The other stuff looks a little, I don't know, it looks a little cheesy. - Yeah. - Looks, it doesn't have that same warmth, it doesn't have that same vibe to me. And that's why ultimately actually we decided not to. - So now that we're completely off topic? - Yes. (laughs) - Yeah, well that is something you think about this time of year, right? Like if you go into Canadian Tire right now, they're starting to stock up for like, they're already getting rid of Halloween stuff and bringing Christmas stuff in. - Yeah, it starts real quick. So, something to consider. But yeah, we talked about weather stripping, cocking. Do we talk about weather stripping? - No. - So that goes hand in hand with cocking. - Yeah, for sure. Just chilling. - Just chilling. - Check the seals around your doors because especially when they start to get older in the summer when it heats up and there's pressure against those seals when the doors are closed. They can compress and sometimes they don't bounce back, which means you're allowing more potential air flow from the outside to the in or inside out. So have a look at those. Make sure you're cocking on the exterior is all up to snuff so you're not losing your heat. - Yeah, one thing I neglected to do last year is actually properly cover some of my patio furniture which was a teak which now I had to refinish this year. So covering anything you invest in outside, you want to protect from the elements. It's not designed to be out in the winter. So you want to make sure everything back there is covered. - Yeah, your umbrellas, your patio furniture, your pillows, all of that stuff, your hose. - Yep. - Make sure you disconnect. Now, here's something interesting what a lot of people don't do. And it turned into a problem on one property that we sold earlier this year. People are pretty adapted to the fact they have to close your shut offs for your exterior hose bibs. This is the time of the year to start thinking about that. You might not do it yet, but do you bleed them? But do you bleed the line after? So when you close that, when you close the shut off valve for those exterior hose bibs, you have to go outside and open it up to make sure that all of the water is clear from the line. So there's no water left between the shut off valve and the exterior bib. - Well, the new code is they do have like the self, like those... - The pressure was. - Yeah, yeah. - But I take those off, I hate those like... - Yeah. - 'Cause the shoots are at the drywall. So I take those off anyways. But to bleed the hose, bleed anything that has water in it. I have a sprinkler system, get that blown out. So make sure you're doing that. - Anything that has light woods, especially water, gotta make sure that it's protected from the elements, from freezing. - Yeah, oh my God, can I tell you a quick story? I was in a hose last week that had a basement apartment in it and so I'll let you be the judge with this story. So we go down to the basement and the laundry situation is washer dryer right against the furnace, first of all. - Yeah. - And then we go out to the garage. - Sure, that's the code. - Yeah, go to the garage and in the garage, you have the washer and dryer for the upper unit now in the garage, not heated, not insulated and copper water lines against the exterior wall. What are the chances that's gonna freeze in the winter? - Good luck to that person. - Yeah. - Yeah, well, we've seen some funny things, but that, I'm pretty sure that basement's not permitted. - It's safe out. - So some great tips there. - Yes, thank you for sharing your wealth of information, likewise. - Thank you for joining me this week and last week. - Thank you. - And love the new space. - Thank you. Happy September, happy fall selling season, feeling good? - Feel great. - Oh, that's a good way to end off. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening. Leave us a comment. Let us know, did we miss any tips? Are there any tips that you have, things that you do around the house during the fall season that you think others would benefit from? Leave us a comment, let us know. And for the 95% of you that are watching and are not subscribed, please do us a solid and subscribe. Thank you.