Establish the Reason you Want to Sell
Some decisions to sell are easy to make, for example if you are moving to your dream home. Other times, it can be very difficult, even heart wrenching. During this stage you may want to consult your family or friends to get their input into your decision. If you are thinking to move into a retirement type home, you may want go and visit potential centres and find out the waiting times, if any.
Consultation with a Real Estate Agent
When we come to view your home we will give you information on current market conditions and give you a written evaluation of your home. We will tell you at what price we would recommend you list your home for sale and give you a price range wherein we feel your home would likely sell.
Preparing the Home for the Market. To Fix Up or Not to Fix Up?
When we meet with you we will give you advice on how to stage and prepare your home for sale in order that you may receive the maximum price possible. We don’t usually recommend that you do work on the home unless it would bring you an increase in value beyond the cost of the expense. We understand that sometimes you are not in a position to do work on your home and you can always sell it “as is”.
List Your Home for Sale
Now that you have made the decision to sell and are comfortable with the estimated market price of your home, we would complete a listing contract with you. One part of the contract sets out the details of your home, its legal description, room types and sizes and all the homes attributes. The other part of the listing contract sets out the terms of the contract, i.e. time of the listing and remuneration.
Marketing Your Home
During this phase, we begin marketing your home to potential buyers through the Multiple Listing Service, internet advertising, social media and printed advertising. If you will permit us, we also like to do open houses on your property as soon as possible after the listing contract is signed.
Receiving Offers
Once we receive notification that a buyer or buyers have prepared an Offer to Purchase, we will contact you and arrange a time when we can present the offer(s) to you. Usually the buyer’s agent will also be in attendance. Before we conduct the offer presentation we will spend some time with you, advising you of the process and instructing you on how to respond in the event the offer is favourable or unfavourable to you, in order that you maintain your best chance to get the maximum sale price possible.
Offer Negotiation
Sometimes offers come in that are not acceptable to you. At this point you have the choice to reject the offer completely or negotiate the terms and/or the price. We will guide you through the process. Once the offer is changed it is given back to the buyers’ agent and they are given a certain amount of time to accept or negotiate the offer.
Conditions in the Offer
Most often there are conditions put into the body of the offer for such things as the opportunity to arrange satisfactory financing, a professional home inspection and an opportunity to have further inspections.
Deposit Money to be Received
Once the Agreement of Purchase and sale has been accepted by all parties, the purchaser has 24 hours from the final acceptance to pay the deposit stipulated in the Agreement . The deposit will be held in trust by our office (the listing brokerage) pending completion of the transaction. The deposit is generally thought of as a proof of “good faith” on the part of the buyer.
Allowing Inspections and Appraisals
Most Agreements of Purchase and Sale contain a clause allowing the buyer to attend at the property with a professional building inspector. This inspection takes about three hours and the home inspector will show the buyer all of the major components and systems in the home. He will provide his expert opinion on each of these components and systems and point out work that should be done. Your Agreement of Purchase and Sale may contain other conditions that inspections be done on things like swimming pools or septic systems. The lending institution may also require that an appraisal be done on the property before they commit financing to the buyer, therefore an appraiser may need to come and view the property.
Buyer to Remove Conditions
Once the inspections have been performed, if the report on the home is satisfactory to the buyer, and once the buyer has received a mortgage commitment, the buyer will be asked to sign a “Notice of Fulfillment of Conditions”. Once we receive this document, we will give a copy to you.
Contact Lawyer/Forward Necessary Paperwork
Usually you provide us with the name and address of your lawyer and we will send to them all the necessary paperwork. You may want to telephone them ahead of time and let them know that you have sold your property and the paperwork will be coming.
Title Search
Closing/Transfer of Title/Handing over of Keys
Your lawyer’s office will contact you a few days before closing and arrange an appointment for you to come and sign the land transfer documents and make arrangements for the key. On the day of closing they will call you once the property is sold and make arrangements with you for the disbursement of your sale proceeds.