The Six Steps to Selling and Getting What You Want

1. Listing your home
2. Prepping your home
3. Marketing and showing your home
4. Offers
5. Meeting conditions
6. Closing

Step 1 - Listing your home

The Listing Agreement is the contract between you and the brokerage. It establishes our relationship and provides specific information about your home that is in turn communicated to potential buyers. Determining the ideal asking price is an important part of our overall strategy, and will depend on whether you want a quick sale, a bidding war, or a specific closing date based on your unique situation. In addition to gauging the current mood of the market, we'll look at historical sales information in your neighbourhood as well as comparable homes that are currently listed for sale. As part of the listing process, you'll also need to decide which personal items you're prepared to part with to make the deal sweeter for the buyer the kitchen appliances (like maybe that 52 inch LCD TV you've installed in the living room).


Step 2 - Prepping your home

Now it's time to think like a buyer. What can you do to improve the appearance of your home to make it appealing to as many prospective buyers as possible? At a bare minimum, this step will involve a serious cleaning and de-cluttering effort on your part. Repairing those items you've learned to live with - leaky faucets, holes in window screens, missing cupboard handles, etc. can also be surprisingly important, as they can have a significant impact on potential buyers. The end goal: to turn your home into a space any potential buyer can see as theirs...which means clearing out any personal items, too. Throughout the prepping process, as with every stage, we'll provide plenty of guidance; we can even hook you up with professional stagers, cleaners and organizers if we think it's necessary.


Step 3 - Marketing and Showing your home

At this point it's time to develop our custom marketing strategy, aimed at reaching the greatest possible number of potential buyers. The first step involves listing your home on MLS (Multiple Listing Service), giving your home online exposure to over 27,000 Realtors and their clients in Toronto alone. We'll also develop marketing materials, conduct well-advertised open houses, and make effective use of the web and other advertising mediums. As prospective buyers become interested in your home, they will naturally want to come and see it for themselves. This part of the process can be tedious it means having to vacate the property during appointments, as well as making sure your home is in top showing condition at all times. If we play our cards right, we'll find a buyer quickly and keep this part of the process to a minimum.


Step 4 - Offers

This is it--the moment we've been working towards. Offers are generally submitted in writing, and contain all the details and conditions the buyer is looking for: the price they are prepared to pay, their ideal closing date (the date they take possession), what they want included in the price (e.g. appliances) etc. Once we get an offer, we have three options: accept it; decline it, or sign back a counter-offer. We'll help you through the negotiations at each stage, always keeping in mind our number one goal: Getting What You Want.


Step 5 - Meeting Conditions

A buyer's offer often includes conditions to protect their interests. For example, the deal may be conditional on the buyer obtaining financing or on a satisfactory home inspection, all obtained during a certain period of time. Once the conditions have been satisfied or waived, the deal becomes binding on both parties.


Step 6 - Closing

You're almost home free! The closing of the sale of your home will be a joint effort between your lawyer and lender, and those of the buyer. As always, we will be there every step of the way to make sure things go smoothly. Congratulations you've just sold your home!