My top tips for sellers:1. Keep the Reason(s) You are Selling to Yourself: 
The reasons you are selling will affect the way buyers will negotiate with you. By keeping this to yourself you don’t provide ammunition to your prospective buyers. For example, having it known in the neighbourhood that you must move quickly can place you at a disadvantage – this information will filter out, I guarantee it!
2. Before Setting a Price – Do Your Homework: As a seller you will want to get a selling price as close to the asking price as possible. Buyers are well-informed and realtors do extensive research on pricing for their clients - if you start out by pricing too high, you run the risk of being ignored by buyers and their realtors.3. Do Some “Home Shopping” for your own home - Yourself :The best way to learn about your competition and discover what turns buyers “On” and “Off” is to spend several hours with me checking out other similar properties currently on the market. Together we will assess floor plans, condition, appearance, size of lot, location and other features. We’ll discuss the asking prices of the current competition and review these against the prices received for similar recent sales. This is one of the best ways to narrow down to an asking price and feel confident about it.4. Ensure You Have Room to Negotiate: “Price”, “Closing Date”, “Chattels Included”, “Fixtures Excluded” and “Conditions” are what you and the buyers will focus on during negotiations. In each of these we need to be sure you have room to negotiate. I’ll help you set a lowest and highest selling price and assess your priorities, plus evaluate the impact of a shorter or longer closing date and the financial versus emotional issues involved with what you include/exclude. 5. Appearances Do Matter – Make Them Count!  Appearance is critical – the look and “feel” of your home will generate a greater emotional value than any other factor. Remember – buyers must ‘fall in love’ and want your home more than any of the competition. Prospective buyers react to what they see, hear, feel and smell. Scrub, scour, tidy up, straighten, get rid of clutter, and declare war on dust. Repair squeaks and the light switch that doesn’t work, stain the worn deck, and replace the bathroom mirror with the tiny crack. These are small expenditures in the scheme of things. Such items can be deal-killers and you’ll never know what turns buyers off. Remember – you are not just completing with similar resale homes in your neighbourhood, but newer homes in the same price range in newer neighbourhoods!
6. Allow Prospective Buyers to Visualize Themselves in Your Home: The last thing you want prospective buyers to feel when viewing your home is that they are intruders into someone else’s personal space. What you want them to do is walk in – see the spaces – and start placing their own furniture! That’s why all the home décor magazines emphasize neutral colours and removing all personal photos from walls and table tops. If you have decorated in strong colours, tone it down by ruthless de-cluttering. You need to be objective about your home’s good points as well as the bad ones. Every home has flaws. Every home has strengths! Ask me for assistance in this – I am always constructive when discussing what should be done to make your home marketable – remember, I am on your side! 7. Send the Pets on a Sleep-over for the Key Marketing Weeks: Many sellers with pets resist accepting that pet smells may be a major deal-killer. In fact, the mere presence of a dog or cat in the home causes many buyers to simply turn and leave without inspecting  whether the home is suitable to their needs. My suggestion: send your beloved on a holiday to family
or friends for the first three crucial marketing weeks. I know that’s tough advice – but only 52% of Canadians own a pet – and why turn off almost one-half of your buyers? 8. Be a Smart Seller – Disclose Everything: As part of the Listing Documents, you will be filling out a Seller Property Information Statement in which you advise the potential buyer of all known defects in your home. Now, every home has little problems – the bathroom fan that vents into the attic rather than through the roof, the garage door opener that’s plugged into a socket instead on mounted into its own box, the ‘frozen’ outdoor tap, the basement leaks you had fixed, the patio light switch that doesn’t work. Be proactive and disclose all known defects, ones you’ve fixed and the ones you haven’t. This put you in the best negotiating position, maximizes acceptance by the buyer of minor flaws discovered during the home inspection stage and can reduce liability and prevent claims after you close. 9. Plan Your Buying and Selling Timeframes:  Obviously it’s best to sell before buying to avoid duplicate carrying costs and bridge financing – although when the right property comes along you may simply have to “go for it’. When this happens, you need to be very objective and analytical about the selling time frame required for your current home. This may mean working very quickly or hiring assistance to get your home ready to market.
10. During Negotiation – Listen, Question, don't challenge or defend: I always tell my clients to go into the negotiation meeting as if they were walking in the buyer’s shoes. We do this so we can figure out what price to sign-back the Offer at! As a rule, buyers are looking to purchase the most affordable property for the least amount of money. Don’t hesitate to ask the buyer’s realtor exactly why they chose to place an offer on your particular home over all the others in competition with you. Quite often, when buyers would “like” to close is when they need to close. Again don’t hesitate to ask what flexibility the buyer has on the closing date. Another key matter is of course, figuring whether the buyer has “price room” – if the offer is lower than you wanted, don’t hesitate to ask the buyer’s agent whether the client is pre-approved to pay up to and including your asking price. I’ll help you pre-plan these questions! 11. Turn That Low Offer Around: Before your even consider an offer, I will have gone over the offer process with you and you will know in detail what to expect. Usually, the initial offer is below what both you and the buyer know he’ll pay for your property. Don’t be upset, don’t take it personally, evaluate the offer objectively. This can simply provide a starting point from which you can negotiate. You can counter any offer- a really low offer or even an offer that’s just under your asking price. I will have discussed with you in advance your “walk-away” point and options – and I’ll be with you supporting your decision-making process at every step. 12. Obtain a Complete Contract and Stick With It: I place a lot of emphasis on getting the details correct from the outset. It is crucial to ensure that all terms, costs, and responsibilities are spelled out in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. I work toward minimizing the potential for amendments to the contract as there is always the potential for the sale to fall through once a signed contract is ‘opened up’ in any way. 13. Be Ready to Address any Buyer’s Home Inspection Issues:  As a Condition of purchase, most Buyers will commission their own home inspection. Even though you have declared all known defects, there may be ones you simply are not aware of. I always ensure that the buyer’s realtor is aware of my seller’s view that the purpose of the inspection is to address any unknown structural or mechanical flaws, not to seek out minor repair issues or pre-existing conditions known about of home in order to get an ‘after the fact’ price reduction.
Plan Your Move, Work the Plan. Congratulations! You have a firm deal. I'll be with you through all the closing steps. |