Real estate/Home Selling Help

[Silverfire]

I thought id ask you guys as im sure lots of you have experience buying/selling homes. This is our 1st house so obviously the selling aspect will be new to us. So if anybody could lead us in the right direction for how to pick a realtor / or use we list? what to pay attention to in our house to make it sell for as much as possible? And just anything in general that i need to watch out for in the process.

Our house was built in 2005 in Evergreen.

On another note we are selling because we are moving to Sask. Its not official yet but 99% for sure so this is why i want to get things rolling with selling.

Thx

[Silverfire]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

[Mitcheh]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

You're kidding right...

If not my best friend is a realtor, one hell of a hard worker too...

[Tuna]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

I guess since no one can afford to grow wheat anymore they can't call it "Wheat Country" anymore.

Saskatchewan eh? Didn't see that one coming but good luck.

As for selling a house, I can't give much help on the we list aspect as we had a realtor. Honestly, I was against the realtor thing at first but through the deal with our new house and the way it worked out we needed one. I'm really happy we had one now though. Takes ALL the stress out of it which is nice. It's not as painfull giving out realtor fees because the price has gone up a lot but it's still a big chunk. I can give more details if you want but honestly I liked having a realtor, he really looked out for me.

As for the kinds of things to do for your house, one thing is to make sure you don't have any 1/2 assed reno's. I don't think you're the type to do that but just in case. It may not affect your house sale but it causes people to question othe projects in the house.

The other thing is to try not to have too much clutter around (obviously) but also that your rooms aren't really "full" as in, don't have 2 couch's and a love seat in a room that should have a couch and a chair.

Those are the major things.

If you want I could give you my realtors name. I won't go into details but he really looked out for us being first time home sellers. He's been doing it for 20+ years I believe.

[Silverfire]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

thx jason

after some more researching i may get that info from you for the realtor

and yes mitch this is no joke most of our family is there and financially it makes sense when we can almost be mortgage free there from the amount we have made on our house here

[Mitcheh]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

I guess you can't have the best GTI in town, but you can have the best one in sask

[GINCH]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

Ha Ha! **** you crack me up Mitch!

Wow, Surprised you are moving Dayle. Would definately be nice to reep the benefits of Calgary's housing market thats for sure!

Good luck man!
Derek

[Kor]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

Have you seen those c-train ads trying to get people to move to Saskatchewan?

Anyway, my advice... get a realtor who does big volume. Get the person who sold the most homes last year or something. Those people might be busy but its kind of like a restaraunt, the busy ones are often the best. They get the most calls and have the biggest list of contacts and big email lists and things like that.

The selling realtor is getting their commission as soon as you sign with them no matter who comes to buy, right? Calgary has tons of buyers so if you get some joe blow he is just going to sit on his ass and wait. If you get one of the big volume sellers at least they are going to bring a lot of contacts with them etc.

I had a realtor who was more of a small timer, she was friendly and great attitude but I could kind of tell that there is some politics behind the scenes in the real estate business and the big players get the first looks at houses and the first chances, while the independants have second pickings. Its not what you know its who you know and who's back you scratched on your last 20 sales etc.

Or sell by owner.

I agree if you have any half assed or even 90% assed renos, paint jobs, or other things, get them fixed up by a pro before you sell, so many homes I went into I walked out of because of the bad perception of a bad reno or "makeover".

[R_Ethug]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

dayle..

kelly mckelvie did mine

www.kellymckelvie.com

somehow she has buyers lined up as my place sold in 1 day!! and it didn't even get on MLS.

i would highly recommend her.. VERY professional.. awesome staff group..

[Silverfire]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

thx ryan

[Mitcheh]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

Have you seen those c-train ads trying to get people to move to Saskatchewan?

I've seen 'em, one has a hot daughter!

[asp gti]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

where in evergreen? any pics?

[Tuna]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

Well Ryan, it takes 2 to 3 days before it shows up on "public" MLS after they put it on. Mine sold in 2 days and then the financing fell through and sold again in a day. By the time it showed up on MLS it was already conditionally sold. Right now houses pretty much sell themselves so a "quick sale" doesn't mean much in fact it can mean you listed too low. A better representation is viewings per offers. It might sell in 1 day but if you only had 3 viewings you may have listed too low. If you had 15 viewings and 1 offer then you are probably closer to the right price (or a little high) again, that's something that our realtor helped clarify for us.

I would sort of agree with Kor that I'm sure having a experienced high volume realtor is important (which we had) but i'm not sure the highest volume is the way to go. You want a realtor that is going to try to get the best price out of your house while being realistic and also make sure he is protecting his client. Some realtors will just do whatever it takes to make a quick sale to get their money and move on to the next house, so although he may sell lots, I wouldn't really consider that good. Also, they don't get the money right away, neither party gets their commission until the house is completely sold and the possession date has passed. I believe it's then given out by the lawyer. The non refundable deposit given at removal of conditions goes into a trust fund until the final sale I believe.

You want a realtor that will make sure you get the deposit you need, helps with the conditions and can give you advice on what you need to do and what things not to do. Also, someone who can tell you if an offer is "good" or what you should counter at etc.

Other things that are nice about a realtor is they take care of the paper work (again that's why you want someone that is good so they don't put you in harms way) and also the money is taken care of by them.

I wish I could comment on the pro's and cons of listing on your own vs. realtor but I didn't look to far into the we list approach. What would concern me though is having to show it yourself, having to take care of the paperwork, money and Lawyer stuff and making sure you don't screw yourself over (I did a private sale on our current house and almost cost myself a fair bit of money due to some small print that I missed).

[R-Audi]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

My advice to is deal with someone who is strongly specializes in that area... Their is a Remax in Midnapore, and Keller Williams by Southcentre.

[Billip]

Re: Real estate/Home Selling Help

I agree with pretty much everything you said Jason. I wouldn't go for the "highest of the high" sales realtor. One that actually works for *you* is best. Recommendations from friends are usually the best way to go.

Don't underestimate the amount of time and expertise it takes to list, sell and close on a real estate transaction. It seems simple but it takes a lot.