Whether you're looking to upgrade, downsize, relocate or simply want a change in lifestyle, selling your home is one of the largest transactions of your life. To make sure it doesn’t become one of your biggest regrets, we’re here to share some helpful tips and tricks on how you get the best return on your investment with the least amount of stress and hassle:
Yes, you can certainly sell your home on your own. You may think this is a great way to save money on commission fees. But this is the reality: not only does the whole selling process take much more work than most homeowners realize, you actually often miss out on getting the highest dollar for your home. Why? Real estate agents have the experience, knowledge and know-how to properly price your home, promote it to attract the widest audience of qualified buyers, and skillfully negotiate offers by using data to prove a preferred sales price. The key is to find the right agent you can trust and depend on – that’s where we come in.
Your agent will be asking you for copies of your heating, electrical and utility and tax bills, so take the time to photocopy or scan them. A list of improvements you’ve done to the home such as a new roof, hot water tank, furnace as well as current warranties and manuals should be gathered too. If you have tenants, you’ll need a copy of the Residential Tenancy Agreement. If you live in a strata, most buyers will want to see the past three years strata meeting minutes, bylaws, depreciation report, budget and any other additional reports. If you have physical or digital copies of those on hand, you can pass them along to your REALTOR® as well.
You’ll also want to review your mortgage agreement so you don’t get any unpleasant surprises at the end of the selling process, like a pre-payment penalty.
Too much furniture and too many personal items can detract from key features and make it hard for buyers to visualize themselves living in your home. Before you list, aim to spend at least one weekend organizing and purging items. Don’t forget about decluttering your yard, basement, and garage – just like with the rest of your home, too much stuff in these spaces can make them look visually smaller and unattractive to buyers. You can rent a storage locker or a GoBox mobile storage container to store furniture and items you want to keep but are taking up too much valuable real estate in your home.
Have things you want to get rid of? You can donate good condition household items to a variety of thrift stores in our city. We proudly support Thrift City as 100% of their proceeds go directly to New Life Community, a non-profit organization that helps homeless and low-income residents in Kamloops. Plus, they’ll even pick your donated goods for you! For items that need to be tossed, you can drop them off at one of the City of Kamloops’ landfill or recycling depots. Click here to find your closest facility.
An added advantage to decluttering early in the home selling process is that it will make it take much easier to pack up and move! (FYI: we also make your move easier by offering complimentary use of our client 14 ft x 7 ft moving trailer – once you’re ready to move, we drop it off, you fill it up at your leisure, and we move it to your new home for you.)
Have a wonky closet door? Fix it. Got an old leaky faucet? Replace it. Have walls covered with markers from your child’s latest art exhibit? Paint them. There are a number of small, inexpensive projects you can do to boost the appeal of your home. Buyers add up all these small jobs and their offer price can reflect those deductions.
If you’ve hired us as your agents, we can recommend what improvements you can do to get the most bang for your buck. You may even decide it’s worth the time and money to do a larger renovation to substantially increase your listing price. It’s easy to spend money and time on the wrong things, and there’s nothing more frustrating than finding out that the $10,000 you spent upgrading the kitchen will only increase your listing price by $4,000.
Gone are the days of snapping photos with a regular ol’ camera and posting them online. We hire top-notch professional photographers that take high quality pictures so your home will pop off the screen when buyers are scrolling through listings. For many of our listings, we use a Matterport 3D camera to create a realistic, interactive virtual tour and 3D floor plan of your home. Check out an example of a Matterport tour below.
Tip: make sure your home is clean and uncluttered before getting photos taken. It should look like it would on an open house day. If you have tenants, ask them nicely to tidy up – offering to pay for a professional cleaning service could help them be more amenable to your request.
While you may think you’ll be needed to answer questions, homeowners who stay during showings actually distract buyers and can make them feel uncomfortable. A good real estate agent will have informed the buyer’s agent about the highlights of your home and will follow-up after the showing to get feedback. Same goes for dogs – ideally, they should be out of the house or at minimum crated during showings.
A final note: be as flexible as possible with showing times. Most buyers see homes in the evenings or on weekends. A weekend getaway or a short-term stay with family could make for a more tolerable experience if your agent expects your home to be popular with buyers.
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