The House Seller’s Guide: A Checklist For Success

Diving into the home seller’s market can be a bit intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re a first-time seller or you’ve lived in your home for a long time, there are a few steps to follow to ensure you find the best buyer—in the fastest amount of time—to get the best deal for your home.

With an experienced realtor and a great to-do list, you can approach selling your home with ease.

Steps To Prepare Your Home For The Market

A home is a big investment, and selling it can come with big liabilities. In that case, the best way to start preparing your house to sell is to hire a realtor, someone who can guide you through the fine print and recommend tips for improving your sale. If you live in the golden horseshoe region of Ontario, it’s best to find a local expert who is hyper-aware of all market trends and knows the ins and outs of Oakville houses for sale.

The next thing you need to do—and often the hardest part—is to determine the selling price. This will depend on things like renovations, how much you bought it for, whether it’s a waterfront or luxury house, and even how much income you hope to make from the sale. One thing that could affect this, and your home sale, is whether or not you fill out a seller property information statement (SPIS). An SPIS is a document that details property information regarding your home, which can be very helpful in proving the value added to your property, or it might even be a condition required from the buyer.

Marketing Tips To Boost Your Property

Selling houses often requires a certain amount of marketing. In the greater Toronto area, especially in Mississauga, due to a recent influx of buyers, adding a few touches to sweeten the selling experience can be the difference between a fantastic sale and a mediocre one.

Here are some of the areas to focus on when visually marketing your house for sale:

• Keep any visible grass, gardens, and trees mowed, clipped, and pruned. This will catch the eye of anyone doing a drive-by and will hopefully convince them to take a closer look!
• Add an interior decorating touch to the inside of your home: re-paint, re-organize, clear clutter, and more. Having a clean home will allow potential buyers to see its full potential.
• Get great photos. Photos of your home, inside and out, are often the first thing people see, so having a great photo will boost your chances of getting viewers.

Things To Consider When Negotiating An Offer

So, you’ve found a buyer for your home, what now?

To ensure the remainder of the deal goes as smooth as possible, be sure to go over the agreement of sale, the legal document containing the specifics of the negotiation. This contains the sale price, whether repairs have been requested, the move-in date, and more. If repairs have been requested, now is the time to hire someone to fix those as quickly as possible.

Finally, it can be helpful to get an appraiser’s official valuation of your home, and it is often required if your buyer is using financing to purchase the property. This will place a definitive value on your property based on the market and any work you’ve put into it.

Selling your home is an exciting opportunity to reap the value of your long-, or short-term investment. By following this guide and reaching out to your local expert realtors at Alex Irish & Associates, you can improve the process of selling your home by ensuring you have all of the support and information you need. And, with the checklist complete, you’re off to the races and, hopefully, to finding the best-interested buyer out there!