Making the decision to sell your house is a BIG deal. You’ve likely thought long and hard about it. You may have already found a new property that you want to buy and the only thing left to do is list your place.
If you have made the decision to list your house you will have to find a real estate agent that best represents you and your property. Some one motivated to do a good job and make the house show like a dream. Once you have found them it’s time to get an appraisal – what is my house worth? Hopefully if you are lucky the price has appreciated over the time you have lived there and you make a few bucks off of it to put towards the new place.
Once you’ve received the appraisal you should contact the bank to see what your current mortgage terms are. You’ll want to be aware of any penalties for leaving a contracted term early. You will also have a better idea of how much money you will have going in to the purchase of your new place. Perhaps you’re not going to make as much as you thought and selling your house at this time is not the correct thing to do.
If you have a Porting mortgage you may pretty easily be able to just transfer your current mortgage to the new house (as long as the amount needed for the mortgage is the same or less than the current house) this also means you keep the same interest rate for the remainder of you current term. If you require more money you may have to pay a penalty for increasing your mortgage and you may also receive a new up-to-date interest rate. Your financial institution will have all the answers to your questions.
With all of the technology available now listing a house is pretty easy. Some agents have photographers come out with drones to do an arial shot of your property. This is excellent for those who want to see the roof. I know I’ve loved that feature when looking at houses on MLS. Just cut the grass and stage the outdoor furniture.
When you shift your focus in to the house you may have a few more things to do. Clean the crap out of your place. Make it spotless. I hate walking in to a property and it be filthy and cluttered. It decreases the value immediately. Take a couple days to clean and organize each room. Have a garage sale to rid yourself of unwanted clutter and make a few additional dollars (to put towards your new place) and donate things that are not worthy to sell. Hide some of your personal belongings such as trinkets and family photo’s. Make it feel warm and inviting.
Now that you’ve cleaned and de-cluttered you can stage your furniture to best suit each room. An agent will usually offer some advice or ask a stager to tell you where or how a room should look prior to taking a photo. Once that is done the photos can be snapped and the agent will prep your listing.
If you plan on downsizing you may have things in your property that you do not have room for in the new place. You can make it an inclusion on the listing (and leave it with the property) or you can list it as negotiable. If there are curtains, blinds, light fixtures or appliances you wish to take with you be sure to add those items to the exclusions list. A buyer will naturally assume appliances and light fixtures are included.
An agent will also measure each and every room of the house for the listing. And some also create a floor plan for the listing so a potential buyer can see the layout prior to viewing the house. I feel like this option can be both beneficial and not. For instance in my house the second and third bedroom are attached which means you go through one to get to the other… some people may not like that in the floor plan. Without seeing the floor plan first a buyer may fall in love with the houses decor and feel and make an exception during a private showing.
Have a list for your agent of all renovations that have been done to improve the property with the year they were complete. Buyers like to see things like “new roof 2014 or updated plumbing 2012”. If you have not torn down walls and fully gutted the place I prefer the term ‘restored’ over renovated. Some of you may disagree and that is okay. A good example would be; March 2019 I renovated my kitchen by removing the old backsplash, counter, sink and faucet and added all new ones. In January 2019 I restored the main bathroom by adding fresh paint, a new light fixture and mirror to spruce it up.
Once your agent has all the details and photos the listing will be put together and ready to post on a site like Realtor.ca or Point2homes. I find these sites have excellent traction and are well laid out for those shopping. You should always ask to see your posting prior to it being posted on a site. I know in the past a posting for a family members house had spelling mistakes and was missing important information for the potential buyer to know about.
Now that you’ve seen and approved the listing you just have to sit back and relax until the house is sold — well there may not be any relaxing since you should be keeping the place clean and hopefully being asked to leave the house every now and then for some private showings. Once you get an offer and determine the closing date you will be responsible for maintaining the property until the new owners move in. That means lawn mowing, garbage removal and house upkeep. Keep it civilized and make the transaction a happy one. Who knows it may be this buyers first home purchase.
🙂 Good luck!
My Country Farmhouse 