Spring might have officially started on March 19, but as Calgarians know, "spring" in this city is an elastic concept. Now that temperatures are rising and nature is showing new signs of life, it's time to give your home the spring-cleaning treatment.

In a competitive housing market, if you want to sell your home faster and get your asking price, a degree of home staging is a must.

Homeowners usually have the best intentions when it comes to selling their home, but it's still easy to make mistakes. Avoiding those mistakes wherever possible is especially important in a difficult market, such as the one Calgary is currently experiencing due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

With that in mind, here are the top-five mistakes sellers make and how to avoid them, according to Tamara Stearns, a local REALTOR® and one half of Central Calgary Real Estate Group, along with fellow Realtor Sam Crick.

If your go-to excuse for postponing all the do-it-yourself projects you've been meaning to tackle is "I'm never home," you might be changing your tune these days. Have some extra time on your hands and feel like putting it to good use? Then some minor renovating, rearranging or reorganizing could be just the ticket.

Thanks to COVID-19 – and the associated anxieties around grocery shopping and keeping occupied during long stretches at home – food gardens are suddenly fashionable.

Whether you have a window box, a small patio or a luxurious, pie-shaped lot, there is room to grow something on your property and now is the time to start.

For many Calgarians practicing social distancing and self-isolation for more than a month now, staying home is no slumber party. Those coexisting in smaller spaces with a romantic partner and/or roommate(s) might be struggling, as they strive to live, work and play peacefully – often in less than 1,000 square feet.

The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly made working from home a reality for many Calgarians, with no end in sight.

When you buy a home, you're also buying the lot, so it's important to make sure you pick the right lot for your needs.

A deposit is the first financial hurdle a homebuyer needs to clear when buying a pre-construction home.

That deposit is generally five per cent of a home's total value for a purchase of less than $500,000, but it can be as high as 20 per cent for a $1-million-plus home. Those funds are a pre-construction commitment to the builder to take that condo or single-family home off the market. That money also gets put toward your eventual down payment.

A custom home can tick every box on a prospective buyer's wish list. Without the right builder, however, both the experience of building the home and the finished product might come up short.

Before signing a contract with a builder, there are several important questions people in the market for a custom home should have answered.