Selling in Edmonton

Most home sellers in Edmonton think Spring/Summer is the best time to sell their home. Home owners who want to show off their beautifully landscaped back yards, may feel this will increase their sale price but the truth is the fall and winter months may actually bring you a higher sale price. Generally there are lower amount of homes listed in the fall and winter but the amount of homebuyers remains constant. Meaning you have less competition in the market and potentially more demand for your property. During the spring and summer months you will face more competition and it will be extremely crucial to price your home correctly from the start.

Small changes to the inside and outside of your home can make a huge difference in selling your home faster and for top dollar. Examples include paint touch ups, removing any extra items from the inside of home ( less is more) as well as removing all personal photos, cleaning the carpets, getting rid of pet odors or cooking smells, small repairs and keeping the outside of your home nicely groomed. Curb appeal is extremely important to many buyers and is the first and last image they will have of your home so it’s extremely important to make a good impression from the moment they arrive. When you list your home with me I will provide you with RE/MAX’s FIT TO SELL VIDEO which will show you how to make your home more attractive to potential home buyers.

Most people think that selling their home means listing it with a Realtor on the MLS system and sitting back to wait for buyers to come a knocking. In today’s world of technology, MLS is just one avenue to market your home. An established real estate agent should be able to market your home on print publishing and social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Linked In. A RE/Max real estate agent can post your home on their office’s website as well as their own personal website and of course open houses can bring in additional potential buyers. The largest factor in selling your home FASTER is PRICE, PRICE and PRICE!!!!

Renovations can increase the value of your property and will have a greater impact on homes 10 years or older but they have to be the right renovations and they need to be done to a professional standard. A local Edmonton Realtor can help guide you on what renovations will actually increase the sale price of your home. Some examples are upgrading your appliances, removing carpet and installing hardwood flooring, painting the house in neutral tones, upgrading kitchen cabinets, upgrading light fixtures, replacing doors and windows, replacing shingles on the roof, replacing an old furnace and hot water tank.

• Choosing the Right real estate company and Realtor will make the difference in selling your home for maximum price versus potentially not being able to sell your home at all. Although there are a lot of independent real estate companies in Edmonton, 42% of all homes sold in Edmonton last year were sold by a RE/MAX Realtor.
• When you are ready to choose a realtor, avoid hiring someone who is extremely busy and may not be able to focus as much attention on selling your home. Chances are you will be talking more to their assistant than the realtor themselves and they won’t have the time to provide valuable feedback from recent showings. Alternatively a slow realtor may lack the experience in today’s fast paced Real Estate Market. Did you know the average Realtor in Edmonton sells 10 homes a year? As your RE/Max local Edmonton Realtor for the last few years, I have the expertise and the commitment to selling your home as quickly as possible and for the best possible price.
• Naturally we all want save some money wherever we can but remember you only lose by not choosing an Edmonton Real Estate pro. One of the biggest mistakes a home seller can make is hiring a discounted Realtor, using a so-called commission free company or plopping a for sale by owner sign on their front lawn.
  • DISCOUNT REALTORS: 
    Just remember if someone can’t negotiate for their livelihood and is willing to give you a discount on their fee to earn your business, how can they negotiate top dollar for your home?
  • COMMISSION FREE COMPANIES: 
    These companies take your money upfront and post your home on their website. You’re on your own when it comes to the actual selling of your home. The disadvantage of using these companies is that you have to be constantly available to show your home, deal with the legal documents involved in selling your home, negotiate on your own behalf and are you sure you are getting what your property is actually worth? What happens when you receive a verbal offer from a potential homebuyer that you don’t even know has the financial backing to purchase your home? Remember also that an offer is not an offer unless you have a written contract accompanied by a deposit cheque. It’s going to be a realtor that will be bringing those pre-approved buyers to your home and YES these homeowners do pay a Realtors full commission when it’s a realtor that brings the official buyer to their home.
  • FOR SALE BY OWNERS:
    Some home sellers think that selling their home is as easy as buying a for sale sign from the local hardware store and using their city tax assessment to ball park the price of their home. They are hopeful someone might pay them what they are asking for their property, and they don’t realize all the legal responsibilities a homeowner has. Just remember as your RE/MAX Realtor I have errors and emission insurance that protects my clients from any future claims and law suits in case something goes wrong.

Choosing a Realtor is a crucial part of selling your home, and you need to hire a Realtor with the expertise and experience to get the job done. Selling a home is more than just putting a sign on the front lawn and posting it on the MLS system. Your local Edmonton Realtor should have knowledge about the current market situation, homes sold and available for sale in your neighborhood, marketing a property, planning open houses and a list of home buyers who might be interested in your home. I’m an expert in Edmonton area real estate, and would be happy to provide you with a FREE HOME EVALUATION. Just contact me to set up an appointment that is convenient for you!

This report also known as a market evaluation provides detailed information to guide you in determining exactly how much to list your home for based on current market values and conditions. I refer to this as an X-Ray of your home and neighborhood, very similar to what financial institutions use as a home appraisal. This report details the following:

• Homes successfully sold
• Listings expired without selling
• Days on the market for sold, active and expired listings
• Average dollar per square foot in your neighborhood
• How much your home should be listed for

This report is a computer generated value and as your Edmonton Real Estate Pro I will be able determine additional value in your home after a thorough walk through, assessing any recent upgrades or how well the home has been maintained. I always advise my selling clients to obtain their new REAL PROPERTY REPORT (RPR) at the time of listing their home, as this will save them money and stress later.

This shows the compliance and permits given to the home owner by the City of Edmonton which will show both sides of the home, property lines, shared fencing with neighbors, size of the deck, and landscaping. Some neighborhoods in Edmonton have architecture controls which means he landscaping has to be done in certain way.

As your Local Edmonton Realtor, I am able to tell you what home buyers in Edmonton are generally looking for when they walk into a house, and what small details will make your home more appealing resulting in selling your home faster. I work with professional home stagers who can come to your home and help you with staging if you should require.

This part of the home selling process is extremely important in bringing the right buyers to your home. By using different mediums whether it be a local newspaper, internet or social media including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn I will be able to direct the home buyers that actually would be interested in your home based on their buying criteria.

This is the most exciting and emotional part of selling your home, and we look to at the three major criteria of the written offer: the price, conditions and the requested possession date. All of these criteria can be negotiated to work in the best interest of both the homeowner and the homebuyer. Just remember homebuyers don’t yet have the emotional attachment to the home that you do as the homeowners to the property, they are simply trying to get a better deal and as the home owner your goal is to get the most money for your home. As your Edmonton real estate pro it’s my job to take the emotion out the negotiating process and negotiate the best possible price for you, my client. Based on my experience in negotiating for buyers and sellers, a homebuyer expects to get the property in the middle price range from where the original offer was written. For example if the offer was written $20,000 below the listing price the buyers intent is probably to go up by $10,000 to buy the home.

At this stage of the selling process all of the buyer’s conditions have been removed, you have met with your real estate lawyer to sign all the pertinent documents, the home has been cleaned and you the home owner have moved into a new property, giving your old keys to your Realtor to pass onto the new homeowner. In Alberta the keys are to be given to the homebuyer by 12:00pm, however not to say that sometimes this process can happen earlier or later in the day depending on the transfer of the funds from the homebuyer’s lawyer to the home sellers lawyer.