How to sell your house in 2018 (using FSBO, mere listing) and save a lot of money

In today’s day in age, it can get quite tough trying to navigate the #real estate industry.  There are a lot of choices for a consumer to make, not only in the house they are trying to buy (or the competition that their #sale is up against), but also, which realtor to pick, which brokerage to pick, whether or not to stage your home, how many upgrades is too many, etc… It’s meant to be a confusing world so that realtors can reap the benefits of charging you high commissions for being in the know.

Luckily, since 2009, the Competition Bureau forced the Canadian Real Estate Association’s hand by pushing for more (and different services) offered by real estate brokerages, services that allowed for things such as mere listings, per add-on pricing and transparency to the consumer.

Prior to 2010, CREA did not allow its members to offer innovative unbundled services, including a “#mere posting” option where home #sellers hire a Realtor to simply list their property on a #MLS system while the sellers handle other aspects of the transaction themselves.

As evidenced by certain dinosaurs in the field, you can see that there is still a huge reluctance and disdain for realtors (only openly by other realtors) who offer reduced commission services and who talk about them openly per this twitter and LinkedIn exchange that we saw on our Broker’s social media.  If you run a small search against our own social media channels (i.e. Twitter and LinkedIn) you’ll see responses to our articles and posts from certain #Toronto area realtors that are completely asinine.

One such realtor goes on to try to lambaste our Broker who is also our Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and a superstar #Artificial Intelligence engineer. Seems like CREA’s message didn’t make it out to certain folk and that you, as a consumer would be ill-suited to work with such backward thinking people.

After you’ve listed with iListMLS (or another brokerage willing to offer mere listings or mere postings)

Having gone through and filled out the paperwork ourselves many times, we also thought that it would be so much easier for the public to do this on our web forms, so we created that. As part of our platform, and free to all our users, when you are putting your listing on MLS, all you need to do is use Lizty, our AI realtor, which will guide you through the entire process, while explaining ALL the clauses and #rules that you need to know – thus doing a WAY better job than the majority of deal-hungry realtors in Toronto.

Once you’ve made the (right) decision to list with us and put your mere posting on MLS via our platform, here are the tips that you’ll need for a wonderful listing, maximum exposure and top sale.

Getting Ready

If you happen to have a while until you’re going to list, you could opt for some renovations, here is a list of the most cost-effective renos you can do to your home:

So you’re at the point where you’re ready to list your home, but have you done all the necessary things that you should?

Clean out your home

As soon as you decide to sell your house, give it a very thorough spring cleaning (from top to bottom). Don’t forget rarely-cleaned areas such as baseboards, blinds, roof gutters and window wells. A clean home will help an appraiser see your house in a better light and value it more highly, as well as appealing to buyers.

Tackle the bathrooms

Get rid of your toiletries (the ones on display).  Invest in some new white towels (but NEVER use them). Visit clearance accessories stores for affordable accessories: soap dish, toothbrush holder, etc. If your toilet seat, shower curtain or bath matt are gross (be honest with yourself), replace them. Consider replacing the toilet paper holder and towel rack/hooks too.

Get your kitchen in an HGTV reveal state

The kitchen (and bathrooms) are what sell homes; home owners spend upwards of 60% of their time in the kitchen, so this needs to be one of your best rooms, if not the best. Remove your all small appliances from the counter, clean inside all the cupboards (remove everything and wipe them out). Don’t cram all your dishes and food back in; you want to make your kitchen appear larger by being able to look very organised. Clean inside the fridge (and remove the magnets, photos and reminders). Turn on your self-cleaning oven (probably for the first time). Store your booze collection (and take out the empties). Consider investing in some fresh flowers and a beautiful bowl with some fresh fruit in it.

Clean and inviting bedrooms

If you don’t already have one, invest in a neutral-coloured duvet cover and some new fancy pillows. Straighten the bookshelves. Remove personal photos, knick knacks and personal grooming products. Clean out the closets. Consider getting an area rug if the floors are cold. If you’ve jammed in a dresser or armoire that doesn’t really fit into the space (condo owners, I’m looking at you), consider storing it offsite. If you’ve converted two of your three bedrooms into offices, convert at least one of them back to a bedroom.

Make your living room liveable

Clean the sofa and chairs and invest in some new throw pillows. Consider getting an area rug to bring the room together. Hide the magazine rack and all the clutter that has accumulated. Hide the wires from your TV/stereo/speakers.

If you have any built-ins, stage these well with things Buyers want to see. The trick is to arrange neutral items in clusters. Make sure that no single accessory stands out too much. That way, you’ll show off your attractive built-ins, and not your personal belongings.

Ensure your dining room is Michelin worthy

Buyers need to see a dining room, so create one!  A round table pushed close to a wall or a dining table on one side of a large living area will work for small spaces.  Utilize the surrounding space and hang large artwork or a grouping of pictures on nearby walls.  Make a statement when #staging the space and show buyers the possibilities.

A dining room is an easier room for buyers to envision laying out furnishings but you want to still capture their attention.  A large vase with fresh flowers centered on the dining table and colorful artwork on walls is key when staging this room and helps create a focal point which is easy on the eyes.

De-clutter, organize and clean the basement

If you’ve lived in your house for a considerable amount of time, this may take a few days, but it’s well worth it. Whether your basement is finished or just a storage area for your extras, you’ll need to invest the time to make it look as spacious and clean as possible. And what a great way to rid yourself of all that stuff you never use.

What you can’t see will hurt you: clean out closets and storage areas

First and foremost, de-clutter your closets as you have with all other rooms.  Make sure that you can easily open the doors and nothing falls out, that would be a travesty.  If you happen to be able to do (on the cheap), get some nice organizers – Buyers love these.

Never sell a home without his and her clothes in the master bedroom closets. When selling your home, even if you are having marriage difficulty, in order to maximize your advantage in selling your home, you simply MUST have both his and her clothing in the master bedroom closets.

Whatever you do, try not to have your clothing migrate to another room’s closets (if you’re in a condo), that signals to Buyers that “This home is too small for these people. It’s probably too small for us too.” The fact that closets are stuffed together, shelves are full, and there is stuff all over the floor, making walking in the closet impossible, shows me clearly that this is not big enough for you.

 

Have a grand entrance

Remember that most Buyers will have an emotional reaction to your home within 15 seconds of entering it, so what they experience at the entrance is CRITICAL. You want your entrance to be clean, de-cluttered and inviting. And no, you won’t really wear all your shoes and coats while your house or condo is for sale, so be disciplined and store things away.  If you don’t have a hall closet, don’t pile 15 coats on a coat rack – that’s just drawing attention to your lack of a closet.

Depersonalize Your House

Before buyers see your home, you should make an effort to store some of your personal belongings. A good way to do it is to treat it as packing – items that you won’t use regularly can be packed and stored away until you move yourself. Part of the ‘never been lived in’ look involves decluttering. It’s hard for a buyer to visualize themselves in your home when all they can see are family vacation photos and sentimental items.

Paint touch-ups and re-painting

One task on your presale list should be to touch up paint around your house. If you’ve ever done any house shopping, you know how much a coat of paint can do for making a first impression. It’s true that a well-painted house is an essential step in good home staging for a successful home sale.

1. Lay down a tarp to protect the floor.
2. Cover hardware, baseboards, air vents, etc. with painters tape.
3. Clean the surface and let dry.
4. Repair nail damage or dents if needed.
5. Paint and let dry!

Clean your windows

I know, you probably don’t even think about cleaning your windows, but rain, snow and construction can really make your windows dirty. If you need someone to do the higher floors, you can look for local students on Kijiji or someone like College Pro Cleaners.

Carpet cleaned and floor (minor) repair

Unless your carpets are brand new, you’ll want to have them steam cleaned (or do it yourself). You’ll be amazed at what a difference it makes.  For around $500 for a full house, your carpets will look brand new.

If you have hardwood or laminate in the home, you’ll need more than a Swiffer to get into all the corners and cracks. If your floors are scratched, there are some great products out there to make them look almost-brand-new.

Create great curb appeal

People often forget the most important thing: the outside of your home will be a buyer’s first impression. You can’t have a second first impression, so you need to make sure that the outside of your home matches the inside.

The top things you should do include:

• Mow the lawn regularly
• Weed – no one wants to see weeds and imagine a yard overrun come springtime
• Trim and prune as needed – it doesn’t have to be professional, but your shrubs and trees should look neat and tidy
• Put away any toys or tools
• Make any small repairs – if you have a broken shutter or a cracked doorbell cover, these are low cost repairs that will make your house look better
• Wash any dirty surfaces – a deck is a great feature, but a dirty deck will leave a bad image in the buyer’s mind. Take a power washer to anything outside that could use a good washing.

Have your property evaluated

Luckily for all clients of iListMLS, we use Artificial Intelligence to do a better job at assessing your home’s value than any realtor would through their Comparative #Market Analyses (CMA – a marketing tool used to suck you into a listing meeting with that realtor).

If you really want to do this yourself, rather than using iListMLS’ Valery system, then here are some tips:

The first step in conducting a CMA is to analyze your home. Ideally, this should include both objective and subjective elements, such as:

• Square footage
• Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Land area
• Number of floors
• Construction age
• A comprehensive list of amenities and features such as swimming pool, fireplace, etc.
• Location, including proximity to major roads, marketplaces, schools, etc.
• Subjective features such as views, design, style, etc.
• Recent improvements, if any.

You then want to get “comparing” to other properties:

1. Recently sold homes: Homes within the same region and with similar size, construction, amenities and location will often sell within the same price range. A long, hard look at recently sold listings will often tell you everything you need to know about your home’s prospective value. In fact, professional appraisers also use these listings to assign a value to a home.

2. Active listings: This includes homes currently on the market. Understand that a home still waiting for a buyer represents prospective, not real value. Some sellers have high expectations and list their homes for far higher than their actual value. Others may reduce prices in hope for a quick sale.

3. Pending listings: This includes recently finalized deals that haven’t fully closed yet. You most likely won’t have access to actual selling price of these listings, but it does give you a general idea of the state of the market at the moment, at least in terms of the number of days a property spends on the market (called ‘DOM’ in realtor parlance).

4. Expired listings: These are listings that expired because they couldn’t find any buyers. Listings mostly expire when prices are too high. If homes similar to yours find their way into the expired listings, it might be an indication that you may have to price your home a bit more aggressively.

Valery herself takes into account all of the above, plus city planning, demographics and upwards of 200 other data points which most realtors and brokerages never have access to. She is much more accurate and makes this valuation piece a cinch for you during your #mere listing.

Have your home inspected

Make minor repairs where possible (and worth your time and money)

Homes that look like they need a lot of repairs will spook a lot of buyers in today’s market. Buyers want something that is move-in ready; the buyer doesn’t want to invest the money in the minor repairs you should have done and will bypass your home altogether if too many exist.

Focusing on general repairs will keep your overall improvement costs down, but guarantee a high return on investment. Putting a few thousand dollars into your home may prevent you from taking a $10,000 reduction at the time of sale.

Get your home in move-in condition before you put it on the market

Change light bulbs and update light fixtures

It’s easy to forget about all the bulbs that have burned out over the years, but you want your home to be as bright as possible. Lighting makes an incredible difference to how a home looks to potential Buyers. If you have dated light fixtures (it’s OK, a lot of us do), take a quick trip to IKEA or Home Depot and pick up some modern ones.

Avoid Bad Odors

Little things could turn off prospective buyers. In other words, bad smells could also sabotage your effort of getting your house sold. As much as possible, try and fix the source of every bad odour by

• Clearing drains and wash bins
• Allowing enough ventilations
• Get rid of old cooking smell in the kitchen
• Get rid of old furniture etc.

Make your house smell good

On the other hand, a good smell makes your home feel worth getting and also attracts prospective buyers. While you might not be able to bake bread or cake for every interested buyers, perhaps some freshly brewed coffee will do the magic.

Make alternate plans for your pets

It goes without saying that many people are afraid of Fido, Rufus or Mitsy, your pet rottweiler. Even if you have a small unassuming ferret, people may be afraid or allergic to those.  Call up a friend or family member that you trust and ask to keep the pet(s) there until you sell your home.

Plan to keep all kids stuff out

No Buyer wants to look at all your kids’ toys, finger painting works of art or dirty diapers, so put it all away and make a plan to keep it concealed.

Make an extra set of keys

Prospective Buyers and their agents will need to access your home, so you’ll need an extra set of keys. We provide you with a lockbox at checkout (which you absolutely should buy) where these guys need to be left for prospective Buyers (their real estate agents specifically).

Professional (or great) photographs

Many people try to cheap out on the final step of marketing your home (pre-sale) – photographs.  We, at iListMLS bundle professional photography into many of our packages and it makes a world of difference.  Look below at some of our reveals

Be flexible on scheduling

A frequent issue with for sale by owner properties is that they are less flexible for viewing than those with a realtor at their disposal. Luckily, with iListMLS, you can order a lockbox through our online service and ensure that all realtors (and ONLY realtors) have access to your home at a moment’s notice – even when you’re not home. Make sure that your house remains in perfect showroom condition at all times (every single morning that you leave for work) and that it continues to smell good and has fresh flowers. Ask that all realtors who visit your house leave a card and try to follow-up with all of them about their showing thereafter.

Realtors’ dirty little secrets

And finally, I thought we would also tell you about some of the dirty little #secrets that realtors will not tell you when selling your home.

At Open Houses – the Realtors DO NOT Work for You

When showing up at an open house, be clear on one thing: This person is employed by the seller of the home. That seller may be a private person or a corporate developer—and they are paying the agent’s commission.  This realtor has a fiduciary duty to the Seller to get the maximum sale price for the Seller and will do anything (that is legal) to get you to buy.

Commission Is Negotiable

Bargain—up front—with prospective brokers regarding their take. Offer a commission that’s hefty enough to give the agent an incentive to work hard for you, but don’t feel tied to 5 percent. Especially if you believe your home will be an easy sell.

A Big Agency Isn’t More Competent—Or Less Costly

Boutique firms market themselves against biggie rivals by carefully choosing their listings, offering buyers personalized attention and, more and more, by offering sellers representation at a lower commission. This is especially true in large cities, where the competition is fierce. Smaller firms may not have the famous name or slew of exclusives, but they upload their listings to the MLS just like everybody else.

You Don’t Have Go Through a Realtor at all

Somewhat widely known but almost never offered up to the inexperienced seller by an agent is that fact that you can BYOB (Bring Your Own Buyers, that is) to the table, and get around paying a commission if one of them comes through. You’ll need to negotiate this up front, before you’ve signed on with the agency. Then, disclose any legitimate buyers you have found on your own before hiring the broker, and you could end up owing the realtor nothing.

Realtors favour the fast-money

What’s better to a broker, a dozen percolating sales at $300,000 each or four potential $900K deals? You might suppose that fewer transactions would be sweeter—less paperwork, after all—but since any given sale can fall apart, most salespeople prefer volume to price. While many agents are serious in their promise to get you the top payoff possible, it is not necessarily in their interest to wait for the very best offer.

When listing agents are competing for your business, they will talk about your lovely house and the high price they can get. Once they have you signed, that’s when they mention the old roof and tell you to drop your price for a quicker sale. Further, as mentioned in the popular book Freakonomics; most Realtors won’t work harder to get you a higher sales price.

Seems counter intuitive since they get paid on commission, right? However, due to the way commissions are structured there is little incentive to fight for that extra dollar.

Let’s say you get an offer of $800,000 on your condo. It likely doesn’t make mathematical sense for the Realtor to tell you to hold off and try and get $820,000. To keep things simple lets say commissions are 5% of the price, which is shared equally with the buyers agent. If you sell for $800,000 the Realtor will make $20,000 (per side – each agent). If you sell for $820,000 the Realtor will make $20,500. Most Realtors would rather a quick sale than wait a couple week for the extra $500.

This is why hiring a realtor who’s incentive is commission (and does not align with your own incentive of the highest possible sale price) is foolhardy.  Further, realtors on average keep their homes listed for 29 days and (in Toronto at least for December 2016) the average days on market (DOM) of a (non-realtor) home was much lower – and remember this is at a time when there are way fewer Buyers on the market.