Selling
Grande Prairie Property Selling Guide
Deciding To Sell?
If you have decided you are ready to put your house up for sale, now is the time to make touch ups, declutter, and clean. It's best to present your home in its best possible condition. Filling small holes in the wall, paint touch ups, decluttering, and a full clean are a few tips to help with selling your home more efficiently with minimal work. Less clutter makes it easier for buyers to visualize their belongings in the house.
Listing Your Home
1. Start With A Free Home Evaluation
Book an appointment with a Realtor to come in and view your home. Then they will review a Comparative Market Analysis with you, outlining everything that is currently active on the market or has recently sold. This will help determine what the value of your home is.
2. Signing The Listing Paper Work
Once the Comparative Market Analysis has been completed and you are ready to move forward, there are 3 documents that need to be filled out by your Realtor when listing your home. They are: “EXCLUSIVE SELLER REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT”, “CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP GUIDE” and “FINTRAC INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION RECORD”. These documents legally protect the seller and the Realtor.
3. Collecting Documents
Your Realtor will require additional documents from you aside from the listing paperwork. For residential properties they will need a photo of your driver’s license emailed or texted, and an RPR (REAL PROPERTY REPORT) if you have one that is current. If you live on an acreage or farm, you may be asked for a well report if available. For a condominium or condo association, updated condo docs should be provided if you have them.
4. Paper Work Completion
Once the paperwork is completed and has been signed by all parties (sellers and Realtors), photos and other marketing techniques can begin on the home. RMS Floor plan, Photos, 3D Tour, etc.
5. Prepping For Your Listing To GO Live
The turnaround time for marketing to come back to the realtor is roughly 24-48 hours. During the turnaround time your house will be prepped in the MLS System (Multiple Listing Service) so when we receive photos we can have it go live right away.
6. Photos & Marketing Sent To Realtor
Once the marketing is returned and the MLS has been prepped, your listing can now go live and become an active listing. As soon as it is active, expect to receive an email from your Realtor showing you your house is active on the market. This is your time to review and see if you want any changes made.
Your Listing is active, now what?
1. Your House Is Active
When your house is on the MLS system you are more than likely to receive showing requests. Your Realtor will be contacting you to book them. Please let your Realtor know if you have any restrictions on times you don’t want people coming. Do note, however, that in order to sell your home, you may need to be flexible with showings. It is essential to try and make every showing work so you aren’t turning away buyers who have strict schedules. *A common misconception is that the Realtor you chose to list your house with will also be the one selling it. This is in fact false. Your Realtor can be the one to sell it, but any Realtor or person can call to book an appointment to see your home*.
2. Tips For When Your House Is Active
- Keep it clean all the time because you never know when a showing will be booked.
- Always keep up with mowing, shovelling, etc. A lot of people do drive-bys to see if the home is well kept on the outside.
- Leave all lights on before you leave so when people come in they are greeted by a bright, well lit space. This also helps to make the home look bigger with less shadows.
An Offer Is Made On your Home, NOW WHAT?
1. WHEN AN OFFER COMES IN
Your Realtor will help you negotiate the deal until you come to an agreement on price, day of possession, inclusions, title insurance or real property reports, condition dates, and any other stipulations. Condition dates are for the benefit of the buyer and seller. The buyer will generally opt for finance and property inspection dates. This way they give themselves time to get their finances in order, and also inspect the home thoroughly before committing to buy it. Sellers do not always include conditions in the sale of their house. However, there are circumstances where the seller may opt for conditions, such as the purchase of a new home. They can set a date in place to ensure they are able to purchase their next home before selling their old one. These are just a few examples of different conditions and they can vary depending on each circumstance.
2. Marked as Pending
Once price and other stipulations are agreed upon and signed, your home sale will be conditional and marked as pending on the MLS system. Now the waiting game begins to meet each of the conditions that have been agreed upon. Once all conditions are met, the home can be marked sold. There is always a period of time between when all conditions are met to the actual possession day. This allows time for both parties to pack and get ready to move.
