Edmonton Real Estate Blog

From the first day that you decide to sell your house to the last day when you hand over the keys, it is a cooperative effort between you and your Realtor to get your home sold fast and for the most money possible. Yes, you also play a big part in selling your home. Here are some helpful tips to make the transition from owner to seller a much easier process:

1. Mental Transition: You need to start here if you want to sell your home. Stop thinking of it as your place of zen, where you lay your head at night, etc, and start thinking of it as something that is going to put a lot of money into your pocket.

2. Remove all personal items: During showings, you want people coming through the house thinking of where their pictures will go and not feel like they’re walking though someone else’s memories.

3. Clutter-be-gone: Throw away the things you haven’t seen or used in ages – meaning, if you haven’t needed it in the past two years, chances are you’re not going to. If you are serious about selling your house, you will be serious about moving out of it. Start going through your belongings and get rid of everything that you don’t use which will help de-clutter your spaces and make your move an easier one.

4. Don’t forget to clean/organize the small spaces: Expect that when people are walking through the house, they are going to look through the closets and kitchen cabinets. Pride of ownership will be apparent to prospective buyers when they see that even the nooks and crannies have been tended to.

5. DO sweat the small stuff: Burnt out light bulbs, drippy faucets, a squeaky door, etc, are minor things that you can do yourself to get the house ready for those all important showings. The less a prospective buyer has to do, the better, as a multitude of small things can add up to one big “no”.

6. From the windows to the walls: Put yourself in the buyers shoes – if you walked into a house and saw a greasy counter top, dirty bathroom sink, bugs on the window sills, etc, what would you think? Wash or clean anything with a flat surface and dust everything else. Be proud and show off the house in the best light possible!

7. Create Rubber-necks: As important as it is to keep the interior maintained, the exterior is the first thing people will see when coming to the house. Cut the grass, collect the mail, clean up cobwebs around your porch light, etc, and you can ensure that the people walking up or driving by will continue on without the idea that the inside of the house may look as bad as the outside.

These tips can make the difference between listing your home and selling it, specially in Edmonton.
For more helpful tips and information, visit us online at FindMyHouse.ca.
Brought to you by Team Leading Edge and Re/Max Elite

It’s the million dollar question, how would you really know the monetary value of your home? With the advent of the internet, it’s now easier than it was 20 years ago. Although, accuracy could be an issue since data changes all the time, knowing an estimated value of your precious home is better than knowing absolutely nothing at all.

Here are 5 easy ways to get you started if you’re thinking of selling your home in the near future.

1. TIMING: The time of year you’re thinking of selling your home plays a considerable role in its overall success. Winter season would typically pose a certain difficulty in the selling process since majority of the buyers don’t want to move things in negative degree weather.

Nonetheless, there’s always a market in whatever season, the only difference is the time it would take to sell it. Since there would be fewer buyers in the cold season, this may drag the price down as those people who would really like to sell will lower down their selling price to attract buyers. Also, homes that are for sale in the summer time might sell faster than those being sold in winter.



2. COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS: One technique that is being done by appraisers and Realtors all over the world to know the value of a property is called Comparative Market Analysis or CMA. Though this should really be done by professionals, there is no law that would stop you if you want to do this yourself.To put it in simple terms, CMA is the process of extracting an estimate value of a subject home based on the prices of properties sold in the same neighborhood, area or location in past few months, given the value of the sold properties have similarities to the subject home; same square footage, number of bedrooms.This isn’t a perfect science but it would be a good guide to know what the price range of your home is.

   Google search homes sold in your neighborhood the past month and see what prices come out. Ask your neighbors if they know anybody around your area that have sold a house and for how much. If everything goes as planned, you can compare and contrast the data you have gathered against your property and analyze the result which can basically give you a rough estimate on the price range.

   Do note that appraisers and Realtors have the tools and trainings to perform this process properly. It could be a hit or miss on your side of the business.

   

3. FREE ONLINE CALCULATORS: Take advantage of the technology that’s available. Like the CMA, online calculators might not give you the most accurate value but it would surely help validate the price range that you got out of the previous step that you have done.Keep in mind to be certain that the information you included in the info fields of the calculator are proper like the address, sq ft, etc. There is a probability that results from the calculator may vary widely, if and when this happen, you may just want to get the average of the results.
   

   Click here

4. MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE (MLS): Realtors or real estate professionals all over the world use the MLS to store real estate data. From Edmonton, Canada to Manila, Philippines, MLS is being used. Although the systems being employed to run the process are very different, using MLS is the internationally known way to provide real estate information to clients.The public have limited access to the information inside the MLS but you may still use this as a tool to perform the first two steps. You may be able to check the number of people selling similar homes like yours on a particular neighborhood at a specific time and at what prices their homes are selling for.Realtors on the other hand have 100% access to all the pertinent information inside the MLS that they are a member with and could extract this information to establish an appropriate price for a distinct property.

   

5. USE PROFESSIONALS: That is what Team Leading Edge is for; licensed, competent Realtors that make it a living to help people like you determine the most competitive value for your home.An experienced Realtor will do the leg work in consolidating all the data needed to accurately put a price on your property. He or she will combine online, offline and internal information found in the Realtor network to help you sell the property in the best possible price, at the shortest amount of time.

After you have done all your homework, the next best thing to do is to work with the people who do this the best. Recently awarded as one of the Top 30 RE/MAX Real Estate Teams in Western Canada, Team Leading Edge has all the systems in place to help you succeed in this endeavor.  Call Team Leading Edge now at (780) 634-8151 to get you started.

You can download our FREE HOME EVALUATION here.

Selling a home is no easy task that is why there are Realtors such as our team, but don’t think of it as a deterrent. The point that you are reading this article suggest that you would like to do something on your end to make the selling process as fast and efficient as possible, which is great! Below are 5 incredibly easy ways for you to help your Realtor market your home and create more value for your priced possession. Follow it and you’re going to be smiling your way to the bank.

Ceramic Wall Tiles

1. CHOOSE NATURAL: Materials such as granite, ceramic tiles and even hardwood create more value than synthetic materials such as acrylics. When renovating kitchen floors, chose wood over linoleum as it will look classier to home buyers than the latter.
   Laminated products offer additional value for wall-to-wall renos. Keep the carpets well maintained as it is one of the very first things home buyers see. You wouldn’t want potential buyers to think they’ll spend tons of money just to replace the carpet, wouldn’t you?
2. KEEP THE PAINT FRESH: Keeping a fresh coat of paint in the master bedroom, kitchen and other parts of the house will go a long way. It is the most cost effective way to add that buzz to your home.Stay clean and neutral with taupe, brown and off-white colors. Neutral shades is key as bright colors would tend to do more harm in the selling process than good. Lastly, stay off dark colors as it tends to create an effect which makes a room smaller than it really is.
3. BE ENERGY EFFICIENT: Nothing beats having low electrical bills. You experience it yourself every time the bill comes. An energy efficient house is a very marketable piece of real estate especially now that almost everybody is budget conscious. There are low cost solar panels and rain catchment systems now out in the market that you could take advantage off. You may even ask your local utility company to show how to truly maximize home energy efficiency. Majority of the energy providers do it for free.
4. STORAGE GALORE: The more storage you have in your home, the better. Home buyers nowadays prefer a generous amount of attic and closet space. Having space is very important, especially if the potential buyer/s have a lot of equipment’s, i.e. snow blower, bicycles, lawn mower. In this kind of scenario, an over sized garage would really come in handy. His and hers walk-in closet in the master suite would be synonymous to additional dollars in your pocket.

   

5. LAST BUT NOT LEAST, MAINTENANCE: Hold off the lavish home upgrades and focus on the basics first. Fixing the small things such as leaks, leaky windows, insulating the attic, inspecting the septic system and weeding the flower beds go very long way towards creating value. These small repairs could cost you a hundred dollars but it may create additional zeros to your selling price.