Selling Your Home
Thank you for allowing me to present myself. The information provided is intended to help you achieve the successful sale of your home.
You are considering selling one of the most valuable assets you own. Please take 10 to 15 minutes of your time to evaluate all the fine detail I am providing for you, versus any other means of selling your home. Should you hire an acquaintance that can just put your hme on the computer and hold open houses? Sell it on your own? Or hire a professional with a proven track record of marketing and selling hundreds of properties just like yours at top dollar.
An incorrect decision may mean thousands of dollars and many restless nights.
I trust the following information will help you make this decision with ease.
Things to Have Ready
Items I will need to review during our meeting:
- Copy of Site Survey & Zoning Memorandum
- Completed Disclosure Statement
- Utility Bills— gas, hydro—are you on budget?
- Age of the home and floor plan, if available
- Property Tax Information
- Favorite photo’s of your home
- Lawyer’s name, address, phone #
- House Keys
- Banker Name, Phone# & Fax #
For Condos
- Disclosure certificate
- Current Financial Statement
- Current Budget
- Declaration
- By Laws
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Marketing Plan
- List your home on MLS.
- Have For Sale sign put on your front yard.
- Place a lockbox with your house key on your property.
- Take notes on your home’s selling features.
- Take inside & outside pictures of your home and put them on MLS.ca (If you have seasonal photos I will take them & scan them for use on my website & feature sheets.
- Have your house pictures put on my personal website along with all the features of your home - this will be linked to Realtor.ca
- Post your listing on Craigslist and Kijiji.
- Deliver full color feature sheets to you before showings start on your home.
- Place creative ads in the newspaper.
- Have a Professional Visual Tour on your property that will be posted on the Realtor's website (Matrix), my personal website and on MLS to ensure your property gets the most exposure online.
- Advertise open house on the computer and in the paper (if required).
- Set up all appointments during showing times as previously discussed (No one can access your home without my permission.)
- Follow up on all showings & provide feedback whether it is positive or negative.
- Present all written offers on a timely basis and provide you with my knowledge and expertise of the market.
- Finalize all conditions of the offer by the due dates.
- Provide you with a full “Closing Cost” package once the sale of your home is final which includes an estimate of your "legal bill", phone numbers for setting up your taxes, hydro, phone, cable etc.
- Send copies of the final offer & all supporting documents to your lawyer and banker.
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Common Questions
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What do we do with the appliances?
Include, exclude or negotiate
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Can I take my shelves, Satellite dish & receiver light fixtures matching window coverings?
Yes, we need to make them as an exclusion on the listing.
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What do I do during the Showing?
The best would be if you could leave that gives the potential buyers to feel free to comment and ask questions without feeling restricted.
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What are options when an offer is made?
Accept, Reject or Counter
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Can you tell me what all my costs will be?
I will calculate your closing cost for you once your sale is final.
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What do we do with keys once our home is sold?
Give them to your lawyer he/she hands them to the buyers lawyer once all money & documents are in there hands.
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How do we deal with multiple offers?
Multiple offers are presented to the Seller at the time decided upon and noted on the listing. They will be presented to you sealed and untouched. We will open the offers, see which one is best suited to you and accept the offer.
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Can we counter an offer when we have multiple offers?
It’s your house, you can accept, reject, or counter any offer you want for any reason you want. Ethically, you should choose the best offer. Remember, in a multiple offer situation, the purchaser’s are usually paying over the list price for your home. You risk losing a good offer once you start countering. back to top Pricing Your HomeExperience is priceless when it comes to determining the market value of your home. The seller sets the price of the home, but ultimately the buyer determines the value. The entire world revolves around the principle that any object is worth what a buyer will pay for it. My job is to provide you with facts about what has sold recently and what is for sale now, along with the details on properties that attempted to sell but were unsuccessful. This information will help you make an informed decision on pricing your home. Pricing Your Home is not GuessworkIt takes an experienced and qualified agent to help you determine the fair market value of your home | Your home will sell within a range of what similar homes are selling for. Because every home is
unique, yours will sell in either the high or low end of the range depending on its condition and
other factors. You should receive a written, well researched computerized market analysis to
determine the realistic amount your home will bear in today’s market. | You benefit from having an Agent who has a high number of listings | Every listing is another “billboard” which generates valuable buyer calls which are the first
step in developing a good working relationship between buyer and agent. Inquiry call, generated
by a sign, ad or other special marketing promotion, are much more likely to be converted | You get what you pay for with an agent | Most discretionary costs— photos, brochures, listing services fees, printing, direct mail, signage,
etc are vital to getting results you want but are the first thing to go with a discount broker.
Does a discount broker have a staff to personally attend to your specific needs? Does
he/she have a proven track record of success—not only in sales but with customer satisfaction
and client retention? Does that person have the expertise to guide you through problems
that may develop during the process? Or are they just using the discounted commission to
win your business without all of the above. |
Prime Time Marketing The prime marketing time occurs during the first few weeks, making it vitally important that your home is correctly priced from the very beginning. A new listing should be correctly priced the first day. A brand new listing is exciting, is shown more, and generally sells for a higher price than older listings. Later fair or not, prospective buyers begin to wonder why it hasn’t already sold. Stay out of the RedBy pricing your home correctly in the beginning you will walk away with more money. It’s a fact. Properly priced homes sell faster and for more money during the first weeks of the listing. Your home will have the most activity within the first 30 days of it being on the market, Correct pricing is vital for you to sell your home within a reasonable time frame and for the most money. Don’t miss your prime marketing period by setting a price higher than justified by the Competitive Market Evaluation. You risk the possibility of it selling for even less later. back to top
Selling Tips
Buying a home is usually an emotional experience. People make the decision to purchase based upon their “feelings”. Get the competitive edge when you make the improvements necessary to generate a demand for your house. The subconscious appeal that you create may affect your sales price and help you sell more quickly and at a better price.
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Yard Area
- Clean, neat, cut and trimmed
- Accent entry with colorful flowers
- Toys, garden tools, etc out of sight
Exterior
- Fresh paint if necessary, especially on trim & entry door
- Achieve maximum brightness with clean windows & screens
- Entry lights bright and in working order
- Patio furniture clean and attractively arranged
- Pet areas clean & odor free
- Concrete areas clean and cracks repaired
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Interior
- Carpet and flooring clean and replaced
- Walls clean, touch up if necessary
- Good ventilation throughout the house
- Shiny clean baths, kitchen, mirrors and appliances
- High intensity bulbs in lighting fixtures for extra brightness
Garage, Closets and Storage Areas
- Reduce clutter appearances
- Neatly organized and clean
- Odors Eliminated
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Preparing for Showings
As tired and banal as these clichés may sound to you, the reason why they are clichés is because they are true. The decision to buy a house is not solely base upon rational factors such as price, location and accessibility to services. It is also an emotional choice. It is a search for a home, a place in which one will find comfort, security and happiness, a place one would want to settle down and live in.
Emotions are set early, so it is important that minor, even typical, nuisances such as an unmowed lawn or a pile of boots by the door are looked after. After only fifteen seconds most buyers have already developed a perception of your property that will color their feelings for the rest of the showing and perhaps dramatically affect their perceived value of the property.
The Presentation
Turn on all lights and open all drapes in the daytime. Play quiet background music. Turn on air-conditioning or light fireplace.
Keep pets outside during showings (or better yet at a friend’s) Have as few people in the house as possible. If you can, be absent during any showings as potential buyers often feel awkward and rush through if they think they are inconveniencing the owner.
“Love at First Sight”
- Plant flowers, weed and edge gardens
- Mow lawn & trim hedges and shrubs
- Clean driveway and sidewalks of dirt leaves & snow
- Water lawn extensively, well in advance of selling
- Remove old lawn ornaments, toys & play sets
- Clean & repair rain gutters and siding
- Touch up exterior paint
- Clean out garage & pick up any litter
“This Place looks Neat and Tidy”
- Clear all counter tops
- De-clutter all heavy traffic areas
- Store surplus furniture to reduce feeling crowded
- Put all seasonal clothing into storage
- Make all closets neat & tidy (and only half full, even if this means moving items to another storage area)
“Cleanliness is a Virtue”
- Make mirrors glitter and appliances sparkle
- Wash and polish all floors
- Clean & freshen bathrooms
- Clean/Shampoo all carpets
- Clean all windows, walls doors & trim
“It certainly is Well-Maintained!”
- Touch up interior paint and paper
- Repair cracked plaster
- Tighten door knobs and cupboard latches and oil any squeaky doors
- Repair leaky plumbing (taps, shower heads, toilets)
- Repair seals/caulking around bathtub & sinks
- Replace burnt-out light bulbs & install brighter bulbs
- Clean out furnace & humidifier & repair any other minor flaws
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Why use a Realtor?
Ten Good Reasons for Using a Realtor
In today’s market, you get what you pay for, and if you want the job done right, use a professional. Today’s complex market demands expertise and market resources not available to the average citizen. Consider the following compelling reasons why you should enlist the Professional services of Linda van den Broek.
- Will obtain you more net dollars for your property than if you tried to sell yourself.
- You will likely sell your home a lot faster when you use the services of as realtor.
- Listing your home with me and the Winnipeg Real Estate Multiple Listing Service (MLS) means you get the widest possible exposure for your home.
- I have the skills and the resources to market your home effectively.
- I know your neighborhood I can assess market conditions and properly values daily.
- I have been educated on the complex laws and regulations in real estate and am trained to put together a legally binding contract.
- Negotiating price is an art. I will negotiate objectively in order to get the best possible price for your home.
- I am on cell and usually available to show your home.
- I am aware of the many options available for financing the sale, and have the latest information on mortgages.
- Moving up or down? I can open the doors to thousands of properties through MLS and provide you with an up to date computerized list of homes suited to your needs, wants and budget.
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I am a member of the Winnipeg Real Estate Board, the Manitoba Real Estate Association and the Canadian Real Estate Association. More importantly to you, I have access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and am bound to adhere to a strictly enforced Code of Ethics and Standards of Business Practice.
When you sign a listing agreement I become your agent for the purpose of selling your home with the following duties:
- Undivided loyalty- to protect your negotiating position at all times, and to disclose allknown facts that may affect or influence your decision.
- To obey all lawful instruction.
- An obligation to keep confidences.
- The exercise of reasonable care and skillin performing all assigned duties.
- The duty to account for all money and propertyplaced in our hands while acting for you.
In Manitoba, it is assumed that, unless one or both of the parties otherwise disclose, the agent and the firm representing the seller is the seller’s agent and the agent and firm representing the buyer is the buyer’s agent.
It may arise that RE/MAX real estate inc. also represents the person who wants to buy your home (or represents the owner of a home you wish to buy). RE/MAX can only continue to represent both parties when both consent to the joint representation, in which case we must treat both in a fair and evenhanded manner. We would be unable to represent the interest of either party over the interest of the other in such a case as this, an “Acknowledgement of Limited Joint Representation” must be executed.
You can expect competent service knowing that RE/MAX is bound by ethics and the law to be honest and thorough in representing a property listed for sale.
Once you have signed a Multiple Listing Agreement, over 1500 sales people in Winnipeg subscribing to the MLS are advised your home is for sale and given the details necessary to sell it. They will be paid from the commission you pay RE/MAX Executives Realty unless otherwise disclosed.
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How Commissions Work
Commissions are the fee for service Realtors charge to sell your home.
Commissions are paid on the selling price of your home
1,000.00 plus GST of 5% = $1050.00
The listing agent shares this commission fee with the cooperating agent.
My Commission rate is 5% plus GST
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