Although most people consider Realtor’s as salespeople, we’re really Advisors providing a service.  We live and breathe real estate and as such we can provide valuable insight to the consumer.

Your Realtor will provide you with market stats.  If you’re planning on marketing your home for sale, knowing & understanding the history of activity in your neighbourhood is imperitive. 

Pricing your home effectively can only be achieved if you take the emotion out and let the stats pick the range.  Buyers will certainly make comparisons and so should you.  Listen to the market. 

Through the listing process we’ll be required to submit data on your home.  The age of the roof, basement ceiling height, defects, etc, will all need to be determined now.  Buyers may also ask for things like hydro costs, etc. so it may be nice to have those things ready.

De-Cluttering doesn’t mean taking the recycling out.  You’ll need to start downsizing the visual clutter into boxes (you are moving soon, right?) to start the staging process.  Sean has written about this in his Basic Guide to Home Staging if you’d like to give it a read. 

Professional photography is absolutely essential in your marketing plan, along with cutting-edge ideas to attract buyers to your home.  Your marketing strategy should be focused for your individual home and goal.

But first, let’s prepare for the shoot.  Read here to find out how:

Buyers will be coming through with their Realtors for a private showing, and will be inspecting everything from the cupboards to the crawlspace. It’s time to have everything as white-glove clean as possible.  Learn more here in our guide:

Some buyers don’t even know they are buyers yet.  We love hosting open houses and feel that is a great way to welcome everyone, including neighbours, who may know someone to purchase your home. Read more about our guide for open houses here: 

This is where we invite all of our colleagues over to your house and drink champagne.  No seriously though, a Realtor-tour is an event we hold that generates valuable feedback from knowledgable experts we value in our industry.  

Price, Dates, Deposit, Conditions, it’s all in there; The buyer will have submitted an offer which is open for a certain period of time.  Review their offer and discuss with your Realtor if you have any questions.  Sean likes to provide a copy of the Contract of Purchase & Sale for his sellers to review for the future. 

If you’d like to counter, remember that this “opens up the contract” and the buyer may refuse, rendering the offer dead in the water.   If you’d like to accept, remember that acceptance is irrevocable and the buyer will be entitled to remove the subjects set out in the contract. 

If the buyer had any conditions to their offer they should be diligently working to remove them on or before the effective date.  The most common would be financing, building inspections, & strata review, but can be specific for certain properties.  Usually the less, the better.

Your lawyer will review the contract, charges on title, etc, and start the conveyancing process of transferring ownership.  You’ll head to your lawyers office to sign paperwork and discuss the details of the transaction and contract.  In and out, usually.  

Once everything is in order, the funds will be transferred to your lawyer from the buyer’s lawyer.  Speaking of finances, don’t forget about property taxes, mortgage penalties, title charges, and capital gains if applicable.  

The funds are transferred, paperwork has cleared, and now the process begins where the title transfers to the buyer.  You’ll leave the keys with your lawyer (or Realtor) who will pass them on to the Buyer’s Lawyer or Realtor.  You’ve officially sold your home!