Tag Archives: Top realtor

10 Shortcuts to Selling Your Home Without Losing Your Mind


Selling your house can be a headache.

You want the process to be as quick, easy and painless as possible. But your home is a significant asset so it’s crucial you find someone you can trust to maximise the sale and support you through the process.

So how exactly do you do that?

Well, there are ten key things that you need to get right. We’ve pulled them all together to make life easier for you.

1.     Engage the Best Agent

Engaging the best agent for you and your property is critical. The best agent is not the person who helped your friends or family sell their place because that was only one sale.

The best agent is an individual with a strong track record, good market knowledge, and stellar personal service. We recommend that you interview at least three agents.

Yes, this is just like hiring an employee. But the thing is, this person is working for you and selling your most valuable asset – your home.

So invest the time to make sure you have the right person for you and your property.

2.     Get a Pre-Inspection

We get pre-inspections on properties before offering them for sale. Here’s why.

The pre-inspection places your property above the competition, promotes confidence in potential buyers, and gives you stability. A pre-inspection also helps you avoid a lot of stress and inconvenience when you’re selling your home. (Click to Tweet)

You avoid offers vanishing after they’re accepted. You avoid sleepless nights wondering if the inspection will uncover something. You have the opportunity to fix anything that’s discovered early on.

You also have the upper hand when it comes to the bidding process.

3.     Stage it Right

Staging your house is an art in itself. It helps you present your property at its’ best, which increases the number of potential buyers.

But staging isn’t easy to get right so it’s a great idea to get help from the professionals. Residencity gives you professional advice on the best way to stage your home for beautiful photography and an effective sale.

4.     Provide a Floorplan

Research suggests that buyers are less likely to enquire about a property or arrange a viewing without a floor plan. The survey by Rightmove suggests that a floorplan may even be more important than the main image or summary description of your home.

Floor plans can demonstrate the flow of you home to potential buyers. They’re also a useful reminder to buyers after they’ve visited a property.

We believe floorplans are essential to marketing your property effectively, so be sure your agent includes them when publicising your home.

5.     Present it Professionally

You’re smart so you know that everyone is online these days. People look at any potential homes thoroughly before they view them in person so professional presentation is important.

Your property needs to stand out as being better and more inviting than the competition. This starts with professional photography.

Ask potential agents how they plan to photograph your home and eliminate anyone who doesn’t use a professional photographer. Professional photography brings out the best in your property and can elicit emotion, which sells homes more effectively.

 

 

6.     Provide a feature sheet

Just listing your home isn’t enough. It has to be marketed professionally, particularly if you want it to sell quickly, and for the maximum amount.

The more information you can provide potential buyers, the better. A feature sheet can answer questions before they arise and help you stand apart from other buyers. (Click to Tweet)

A high-quality feature sheet also allows you to showcase the benefits of your particular property, and make the most of your professional photography.

7.     Arrange an Open House

Open homes help sell your house – if they’re done right. You want your agent engaged and attentive, and working to sell your property.

Unfortunately, many agents see open homes as an opportunity to find buyers who don’t have agents. Not cool.

At Residencity, we only represent sellers – not buyers. We want to help you have the best experience possible when it comes to selling your home.

8.     Receive Reports

No matter who you engage to sell your house, be sure they have regular communication with you. In particular, you need to know the how many visitors have been on your property, and you should receive an open house report.

As the vendor, you’re entitled to know what is going on and also be informed of any neighborhood sales and listings.

9.     See all Offers

Be sure that your agent shows you all the offers they receive. This is a real problem in the real estate industry.

Some agents filter offers to ensure they receive a commission for both the purchase and the sale of the property. In fact, agents can filter offers for all sorts of reasons that you’re not aware of.

You need to be sure you can trust your agent to show you all the offers, and to work with you to negotiate the best deal.

10.           Close the deal

A good agent will help you close the deal. Between the initial sales agreement and settlement (or closing) there can be questions. The agent can help you by answering questions, helping to resolve issues and move the transaction to close.

 

 

 

At Residencity we believe in offering you the best. We include pre-inspections, professional photography, floor plans and feature sheets as standard with all our property listings.

If you’re interested in listing your home for sale, give us a call at 604.288.9166 to see how we can help.

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1 of the solutions to getting your home sold (and you don’t even need to do anything)


Imagine blow drying your hair in your new home and having the circuit breaker trip: you’re in the dark and you have no idea where the breaker box is, and often it’s tucked away in a dark corner in the basement. Everything you buy nowadays comes with an instruction manual- the drawer set from Ikea, the blender from The Bay and even the second hand car comes with a manual in the glove box. Buying a new home, probably the most expensive thing you will ever own, does not come with a manual.

Whenever someone buys a house, they should always receive a specification sheet. Residencity will provide you with both a specification sheet and a manual. The manual will provide details such as location of breaker boxes, water shut off, instructions for sprinklers. The specification sheet will contain details of the appliances and materials used in the house.

We believe that it is essential to have a specification sheet when selling a home and to find a realtor who will make you one when listing your home. Not only does it contain important notes for the new homeowner, but it can also be used as a marketing piece. Additionally, a manual should be provided upon closing with the rest of the details. The more information you present, the more familiarized potential buyers are with the property, the more likely they are to take interest and present you with an offer.

Specification lists and home manuals are a standard here at Residencity, unlike other real estate brokerages and teams where they are not required and it is up to the realtor if they want to prepare one for their client. As a result, we prepare one for every property that lists with us no matter the price of the home. Call us at 604.288.9166 or email us for a consultation to see what our agents can do to get your property sold.

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“It’s about the sale, not the amount it sells for”


The real estate industry is designed to focus on increasing the volume of transactions rather than delivering a quality product. A real estate agent is only invested in 3% of your property (the commission you are paying them) and they are focused on speeding up that process in order to get their 3% as soon as possible.

Here are some examples of how real estate agents have done so:

  1. Nike would never sell a $100 pair of shoes without a professional images but houses which are worth millions get posted on MLS® with poor quality images or none at all.
  2. When buying a car, it is expected that it will have a mechanical and/or accident report (if second hand). Properties get put on the market everyday without having passed any inspections or reports. The buyer is supposed to do the due diligence.
  3. Properties are sold in days and sometimes even on same day the listing goes live. The seller believes they got a good deal but the truth is, they may have been able to get an even better deal, had the property been on MLS for a week.

As you can see, the real estate industry is is designed to move houses as quickly as possible and for agents to earn commission. Things that will maximize your selling price such as taking the time to get professional photos done, providing a pre-inspection report and letting the property sit on MLS for a few days, often slows down the process. A top Realtor understands the importance of taking a bit of extra time marketing the home properly. 

At Residencity, we believe that it’s about the amount that your property is going to make you, and not so much about closing the sale so that another notch can be added to our beltThis matters to us because it can mean the difference of adding or missing out on several thousand- even hundred thousand dollars to your property.

This is why we have come up with a standardized 6 step process which we use for every listing that we acquire. We start with a consultation, then a home inspection, home preparation (photography, videography, staging, aerial, 360 tours etc.), open houses, offer presentations and finally, closing. We want to ensure that the price you sell for is the price you deserve. Call us at 604.288.9166 or send us an email to see what we can do for you.

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