7 Concrete Steps to get your Home Sold Quickly & for Top Dollar.

#1 –  Pull the Listing from the Market in order to Undertake Improvements        

If you have a property sitting on MLS that is not getting a lot of activity from buyers, pull it. You are not doing yourself any favors by leaving the listing sit on MLS to continue to accumulate days on market. If you are planning to undertake the below 6 points, you need to pull the listing when you are doing so to give yourself time to refresh the listing for re-launch and consider what went wrong.

We are not talking about taking it off for 6 months, but more like a couple of weeks to make sure you are all ready for the re-launch and give the listing time to be seen as new again. A couple of weeks off-market will not make a lot of difference in this market and will allow your re-list to be as effective as possible. There are new buyers cycling through the Vancouver market all the time and your re-list will gather great attention again after being off the market for a short time. This is crucial while you consider the following 6 points.

#2 – Get a new agent!

If you have been on the market for a while with little or no action from buyers, you need to change it up. This is first & foremost. If a hockey team isn’t performing, you don’t fire the team – you fire the coach! The agent in this case is essentially the coach. It may or may not be the agent’s fault, but blame doesn’t need to factor into this change. 

The reason you need to get a new agent is that you need fresh perspective and fresh energy.

This will also allow you to remove any stigma from the property by wiping the narrative clean. Getting a new agent allows any stigma associated with the property to be directed at the old agent (rightfully or wrongfully) – allowing your property to be listed anew fresh & without that stigma.

Wondering how to choose a Realtor? Google Reviews demonstrating deep expertise, experience & satisfied clients is one place to start.

#3 –  Re-paint and Fix Minor Imperfections      

You need to address any minor issue that a buyer will object to with your property. In a hot market, buyers will look past things like new paint and small renovations and see the potential of your property. As the market continues to cool, buyers start to take their time and their psychology changes. They no longer see small paint chips as something they can easily address, but as additional work that the next place they are seeing probably won’t have.

We don’t suggest that you spent lots of money on remodelling a kitchen or bathroom, but a new coat of paint can go a long way to making your home as attractive as possible. Use bright, neutral colours that give the space an airy feel – this is what buyers in Vancouver are looking for.

#4 – Re-Stage  

You want to freshen up your listing. Staging a property involves a professional stager viewing your home and providing suggestions on de-cluttering, furniture placement, accents and decorating. This is someone that will have an outside objective look at your property and give you feedback on how most people will view it. Staging can come at various levels. Part of our service offers a staging ‘consult’ where a stager makes suggestions to improve the way a property shows but using existing furniture, but you can also have the stager provide some additional furniture and input on how the property looks or have a full stage in which the stager provides all furniture and accents to make the home look its best possible. The goal is to make the property look its best for photos and showings.

#5 – Deep Clean!

This might be obvious for most people, but your property has to be as clean as possible. We are talking ‘move out’ clean. In this market, people are looking for reasons to cross your property off the list. People will not look past a mess to see the potential of the property. By having a filthy property with uninviting smells, you are drastically limiting your property’s appeal to a large chunk of buyers.

Generally, a property that is dirty suggests to potential buyers that there are ‘other’ issues with the maintenance of the property; the feeling is that the dirtiness is symptomatic of a larger issue with the home. This may only be a perception and the home might be in great shape, but this is the psychology of buyers looking at a messy listing.

Get a professional to clean it! We are talking about a deep clean – your oven, fridge, toothbrush in the grout. This could cost upwards of $500 for a large space, but it will be worth the cost to attract as many buyers as possible to the space. The Deep Clean is something we organize & include as part of our service.

#6 –  Take Great Photos & Video          

Get great professional photos & Video! Get a great real estate photographer/videographer. Don’t take the photos yourself, don’t let you realtor take them with his/her iphone. This is crucial to getting eyes on the listing and people interested in seeing your property.

If you are planning to relist your property and think you will do some work prior to the relisting, do not use the old photos. If you are working to make your property as attractive as possible for a re-list, you need new photos to showcase how great it looks!.

The point of relisting is for people to think your home is a new listing – this requires new, great photos.

Photos shape memories. If someone views a property, they are normally there for a short time, usually under time constraints. What buyers normally do, is they review the listing again at home and look through the photos to re-perceive the property. Great photos will shape great memories and help sell your property

#7 –  Make it Easy to Show      

Strategies change, In hot markets, with hot properties, a strategy to sell your home isto push off any potential buyers to the upcoming open house and limit any private showings. Buyers who are very interested to see the property will do whatever they can and limiting access stokes demand.

This the exact opposite if you are having trouble generating interest let alone offers. You have to make your property as easy to show as possible. Buyers no longer feel the pressure to make a quick decision in these situations. This allows them to be selective regarding the properties they want to see. If your property is not available when they want to see it, chances are, they will give it a miss.  If your home is not available to be seen, you won’t get any offers – it is that simple.

We are not suggesting you having multiple open houses in a week or anything that drastic.  We are talking about private showings. Make sure the property is clean, and available to be seen for private showings on a fairly open schedule. This will give your property maximum exposure.

Important takeaways: 

Adam:

upfront legwork will pay major dividends in the long-run when marketing your property. Put the work in beforehand to get the best results.

Matt:

These 7 tips will involve some elbow grease and some out of pocket money. Worst case scenario for an average property, the cost of completing all 7 tips might be $5,000-$8,000 (on the high side). But, in a market where the average prices for a property are approaching a million dollars, a $10,000 drop in price can happen in an instant during a negotiation. Our suggestion is, spent the money upfront to ensure you are getting top dollar on your property and it should payoff 10-fold – a great investment.