So you want to get started investing. Now is the best time to set yourself up for a comfortable financial future, but there are a few tasks you should tackle before putting your money to work for you. These tips apply to any investment, whether it’s in real estate, tax liens, or the stock market.

5 Financial Steps to Take Before You Invest in Real Estate

1. Fill Your Emergency Fund

Your emergency fund is a pool of savings you set aside to pay for emergencies. It’s self insurance for things you can’t insure.

Whether it’s a major car repair, unexpected medical bill, or the loss of a job, having an emergency fund can help bridge the the financial gap. Instead of turning to high interest credit cards for funding, you can turn to your emergency

Getting your home purchase or the sale of your Kamloops Property right there are a few simple steps to making it as stress free as possible.

BUYING A HOME IN KAMLOOPS

A step at a time: Before seriously house hunting, have your mortgage financing in place, says Kent Browne, broker of record with Royal LePage Team Realty in Ottawa. Make sure you also have roughly two per cent of the anticipated purchase price set aside in cash for legal fees, land transfer tax and other expenses.

Preparation: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.'s free, downloadable 72-page guide Buying a Home walks you through the entire house-hunting and -buying process. There's also a condominium guide: http://cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/buho/index.cfm.

Browne suggests scouting

Whether lighting a single family home or the common areas of an investment property, the difference in electricity cost between LED, fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs is astounding.

It costs possibly six times as much to operate an incandescent bulb as it does the equivalent illumination (lumens) of an LED bulb. In this writer’s geographic area, a 60W incandescent lamp costs 15 cents to operate 24 hours while the equivalent LED bulb costs 2.5 cents.

You can download a detailed analysis of 30 lights left on 24 hours a day for 20 years. While that is likely not the case for a home, the cost ratio between the two lighting technologies should remain similar.

The spreadsheet with all calculations can be downloaded here. Plug in your

This controversial real estate move is leaving some homeowners feeling scammed

Imagine your realtor sold your home for $500,000 more than the price you agreed to — but you didn't see a penny of that extra cash. That's the situation for some Vancouverites, as exposed in a Globe and Mail feature Saturday February 6th 2016.

A controversial sales technique called "shadow flipping" allows unscrupulous Realtors to score two or even three times their standard commission on a single house by reassigning the sale to different owners at ever higher prices. But it's a practice that has left the original sellers feeling scammed and justifiably so.

How does it work?

An increasing number of real estate transactions in the Vancouver region feature what's

If you’re selling a home in Kamloops, you’ll want the best possible representation.

Buying a home is a big step, but then again, so is selling a property. The most important thing when listing a home is finding the right real estate agent to get you the most money possible and ensure a smooth, stress-free process.

Before You Start to sell your Kamloops Home

First off all sellers should take a look at the Working with a REALTOR® brochure, available on the BC Real Estate Association website (bcrea.bc.ca). This is a great introduction to what a certified REALTOR® does, what their legal and fiduciary duties are, and how you can best work with one.

Interviewing Kamloops Real Estate Agents

To ensure your agent is the right fit for you, sellers

Province focuses affordability towards Canadian buyers of new homes, paid for by hiked luxury home tax;also promises collection of data on overseas buyers

It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-time buyer or not – the province is focusing the much-needed affordability measures in its 2016 BC Budget towards buyers of newly built entry-level homes, Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced February 16.

In an unexpected move, which had been widely predicted to be a cut in Property Transfer Tax (PTT) specifically for first-time buyers, de Jong announced that buyers of new homes up to $750,000 in value will no longer have to pay PTT (although GST still applies), effective February 17. This exemption is available to Canadian citizens and permanent residents

This is it! This is where I want to live. I'm home suite home. Why? Because this master suite is perfect. It's sweeter than all the other suites.

Just look at the cove ceilings, the quarter sawn oak floors, the fabulous panelled and architecturally detailed wall treatments. It is gorgeous, clean, organized, but warm and inviting. The antique glass doors are sensational. There are curved walls and niches designed for display.

And in the bathroom are sleek and sophisticated tiles and sconces. The floors are heated so that I can step out of a piping hot shower and still be oblivious to -15C weather outside. Not to mention, it looks like hardwood but is actually grey textured porcelain. But back to that shower; it looks divine - a glass steam shower with

We all know that the kitchen is considered to be the heart of the home and, as one of the most important rooms in the house, it needs careful planning if you’re to ensure that it both looks good and functions as it needs to. So, if you’re planning a kitchen makeover, here are five stylish and practical kitchen makeover tips to make sure that you get the best out of your space:

• Select your style

There are so many styles of kitchen cupboards, tiles, floor surfaces, backsplashes and appliances on the market at the moment so, before you embark on a kitchen makeover, think about what you want the end result to look like. It’s time to get creative, and consider the different colors and textures that you can incorporate into your kitchen, which

After years of making a house a home it becomes full of memories and emotions — not to mention stuff — which are not the features buyers are interested in when a homeowner decides to put the property on the market.

As home buyers have become more savvy with regard to what they can get for their money, staging has increased in popularity, helping homeowners to not only sell their home quickly but also to get top dollar.

"Because homeowners are attached to their homes there is so much emotion attached to it," said Tracey Jones, owner of Victoria's ReMarkable ReDesign Styling and Staging.

"We come in as fresh eyes. We're not attached to a homeowners' belongings. Homeowners become blind to their own surroundings."

Jones began her business in 2007

THE PROPERTY COULD BE YOURS FOR $15.9 MILLION!

KAMLOOPS - A part of Kamloops’ history is up for sale with the promise of future development opportunities.

Tranquille on the Lake is the most recent development property to hit the real estate market — a 150-year-old location best known as the former provincial tuberculosis centre, which later became an institution for the mentally ill.

While close to 50 buildings remain on the property its primary use has been agricultural, but Colliers International Broker Chad Biafore says the possibilities are endless.

“Nobody likes change, but I think it would be great for Kamloops if someone developed this property and put in homes,” he says. “There’s opportunities for people to live out here and grow