The Ultimate Guide To Selling
There’s a lot to know when it comes to selling a home in Toronto. Whether you’re selling your first condo or house or you’re a seasoned Seller, our in-depth Selling Guide will take you through all the steps. Click through the tabs above to find out how to:
- Prepare your home and stage like a pro
- Price and market your house or condo (or know how to pick the right agent to do it for you)
- Be ready to show your home to prospective Buyers
- Negotiate and close on your home
There are five 5 steps to preparing your home for sale:
Step 1 – De-cluttering and De-personalizing
We all have too much stuff, and too much stuff can be distracting to potential Buyers. When preparing your home for sale, you want to eliminate as much clutter as possible—books, knick knacks, storage boxes, off-season clothes, your giant shoe collection, etc. It’s also important to neutralize your space as much as possible so that potential Buyers can see themselves living in your home—and that means putting away personal photos, mementos and collections.
Step 2 – Cleaning
Think of the cleaning you need to do to prepare your home for sale as what you’d expect in a hotel room. Wash the baseboards, remove the cobwebs from the ceiling, clean inside your fridge and oven, clean inside your closets and kitchen cupboards, dust under your stuff and have the carpets professionally cleaned. Sadly, the cleaning won’t stop when your house goes on the market–every day, you’ll need to make your bed, do the dishes, wash the floors and clean up after the kids.
Step 3 – Staging
Staging involves optimizing the use, look and feel of every room in your home. It might mean converting your home office to a third bedroom, adding, removing or re-arranging furniture, painting the walls, replacing light fixtures or investing in some fluffy towels for the guest bathroom. Whether you bring in a professional stager or just work with your Realtor, making your home appeal to the greatest number of Buyers doesn’t have to be expensive, but it will take time. But remember: the effort you put into transforming your home will impact how long it takes your home to sell and of course, the price you get.
Step 4 – Repairs and Renovations
Let’s face it, we all have a tendency to procrastinate fixing the little stuff – the leaky faucet, the peeling wallpaper, the dent in the kitchen cabinets, the loose gutters. Bringing in a handyman to complete all those little fixes will go a long way to communicating to potential Buyers that your home has been well-maintained (and you’ll wonder why you put it off so long). And make sure there are no burnt out light bulbs!
Step 5 – Pre-listing home inspection
If you own a house, completing a pre-listing home inspection before you put your house on the market will help you identify any issues with the home that might be objections for Buyers. For example, the home inspector may determine that your house needs a new roof. Armed with that information, you can choose to either a) fix the roof before putting the house up for sale, or b) factor it into your asking price. Either way, having accurate information puts you in control of how the deficiencies in your house will affect the price you get for the house. If you’re pricing your home for a bidding war, making the pre-listing home inspection available to Buyers will encourage them to make offers.
How I can help you prepare your home for sale
- I’ll tell you what others won’t. I’ll give you frank advice on what you can do to help get top dollar for your home.
- I’ll help with coordinating the preparation of your home and give you access to more than 100 trusted home professionals including handymen, painters, plumbers, gardeners and more.
- I’ll send in our Certified Stager to make your home look its best – our staging warehouse is full of accessories to fit any decor.
- I’ll send in my professional cleaners to clean the places you probably don’t.
Pricing
Your home is only worth what a Buyer is willing to pay, but the right pricing strategy can make the difference between how much money is left in your pocket and how much is left on the negotiating table.
Should you price your home for a bidding war? Price high and plan to negotiate? How do you factor in the time of year you decide to sell into your asking price? Should your listing price be a whole number (700,000) or end in 9’s (699,900) and does that even matter? What should you include in the price? When is it time to lower the price?
Your asking price is equivalent to naming the first number in a negotiation, so it’s important to select the right asking price. Price too high and you risk being on the market for a long time and getting less than you might have (had you priced at market value); price too low and you’re leaving money on the table.
When it comes to determining how much your home is worth, it’s important to look at:
- recent sales in your neighbourhood
- properties currently on the market
- current market conditions
- the pluses and minuses of your home
It’s also important to remember that the price of your home is a moving target, and will depend on the time of year you sell and who you’re competing with.
How I can help you price your home:
- I know the market and the comparable sales. I live and breathe Toronto real estate, and when I'm not out looking at properties with clients, I'm doing it for myself.
- I physically see all your competition before and during the listing, so I know how to price ourselves accordingly.
- I know what sells, what doesn’t, and why.
Showing Your Home To Buyers
Your home is ready, the price is right, the marketing has worked, and the Buyers want to see it. Here’s my best advice for showing your home to potential buyers:
1. Be flexible with showing times
Selling your home is an inconvenience, there’s no denying that. But if you want top dollar for your home, you’ll want to be flexible with when you allow people to see it. Remember that most people work from 9-5 Monday-Friday, so they’ll most likely want to see your home in the evenings or on weekends.
2. Leave your house during showings
While I’m sure you could tell potential Buyers all about your renovations and the leaky basement, Buyers aren’t comfortable looking at a house when the Sellers are home, so it’s best to let them explore at their own leisure. Go for a walk, catch a movie or temporarily move in with a friend—do whatever you need to do to allow potential Buyers free reign.
3. Make sure your home is always in top condition
Make your bed, do the dishes, wash the floors, clean the litter box—and always remember to crate the dog (or better yet, take him with you).
4. Open houses
While the official stats are that 4% of houses sell as a result of an open house, my personal experience is that they’re much more effective than that. Open houses allow potential Buyers (and let’s face it, curious neighbours) to see your house in a non-threatening, low-pressure environment. Many a Buyer who wasn’t in the market to buy a house fell in love at an open house.
5. Feedback
Remember: what really matters in selling your home is what Buyers are seeing and feeling. Responding to their concerns and objections in a timely matter will go a long way to reducing how long your home is on the market.
Your hard work has paid off…and you’re getting an offer from a Buyer.
Here’s what to expect:
The Buyer’s offer may be presented to you and your agent in person, your agent might receive it by e-mail or, in a throw-back to the 90’s, the offer may arrive by fax.
The offer will contain some important points of negotiation:
- The deposit
- The price
- The closing date
- The irrevocable time/date
- The conditions
Once you receive an offer, you can respond in one of 3 ways:
- Accept the offer as is – congratulations, you’ve just sold your house!
- Make a counter-offer (with better conditions and/or price for yourself) – the Buyer at this point can accept your counter-offer, make another counter-offer or walk away altogether.
- Decline the offer and walk away.
Negotiating is a fine art, and if you’ve chosen your agent wisely, they’ll provide solid advice and guidance to get you the price you want. The final price decisions when selling your home are always yours to make, but it helps to have a strategic negotiator on your side.
How I can help you negotiate an offer on your home:
- I’ll negotiate on your behalf as though I am selling my own home and won’t be bullied or pressured into making a move you aren’t comfortable with.
- I know the legal agreements backwards and forwards and can help you decipher the fine print. I’ll take the mystery out of all that legalese and do everything I can to make the process as painless as possible.