Tips for getting your Canmore Home ready to Sell for the Spring market!
The snow is melting in the Bow Valley, Spring is almost here and soon it will be peak home selling season. You will only get one chance to make a good first impression in real estate and if you want to stand out from the competition, maximize your sale price and sell quickly, your house needs to go on the market in tip top condition.
As soon as the listing of your home goes live, the days on the market start ticking. In the current Internet age, with easy access to a lot of up to date information, home buyers will definitely punish any seller whose house has been on sale for many months. If you cannot make the effort to ensure that your home is in its best condition, you should hold-off on listing it.
Prepping the house rarely occurs within one weekend. It takes thoughtful planning and time. If you are planning to sell your Canmore property this spring, below are a few steps you should take now.
1. Inspect
It might seem counter intuitive to spend your cash on a property inspection, but you should know about the condition of your home. If there are issues – big or small – you should address, it’s better to know about them early enough so that you can either account for them with a lower-listing price or remedy them before going to market.
The last thing you want is for the home buyer to discover flaws once they`re under contract. For example, the inspection enable’s you to know about your home’s nearly-dead furnace or bad roof now which you can disclose upfront and avoid concessions later. Below is a few local Canmore inspectors to choose from;
Bow Valley Home Inpections – Alasdair Cook
http://www.bowvalleyhomeinspections.com
Alpine Summit Home Inspections- Greg Killin
http://alpinesummithomeinspections.ca/
2. Stash
As you are preparing to sell your home, you should think of it as an investment and begin to look at it through the eyes of the market and the potential buyers. When you are trying to sell your house, the less is more approach applies.
Put away personal items and big furniture, some family pictures are ok though they should be limited. Put away or store all the things you will not be using until you move into your new house. In the kitchen, you should make space in the cabinets for the items you’ll want to use every day, but will want to put them away for the showings. I typically encourage a seller to go through their home and start packing any items that they will not be using in the next 3 months. Canadian tire periodically has sales on their blue storage tubs, these are great to help you stay organized during & after the move.
3. Improve
It is quite common for home sellers to make cosmetic-improvements before they list their homes. Bathrooms and kitchens sell your house. You should plan to have the grout in your bathroom cleaned and have some of the walls of the home painted so that you can give it a fresh look. By doing this, you also enable the potential buyers to more easily imagine how they can adapt the rooms to their requirements.
You should also take color down a notch. You may like your lime green bedroom, but it might sour the buyers. Paint the walls a neutral color which will appeal to a wide range of home buyers.
Consider painting kitchen cabinets, cleaning rugs or refinishing hardwood floors. If you are planning to list your house in the spring, I would love to assess your home and give direction on what items should be completed to give you maximum resale. After the assessment, I have an incredible interior designer and contractors that could help complete any project cost effectively. For more direction on staging your home, take a moment to view my Staging Tips Blog.
4. Research
Today’s home buyers have research in their DNA and most of them will investigate all they can. You will need an up to date RPR (Real Property Report) which is a legal document that clearly illustrates the location of significant improvements relative to property boundaries. If you can dig up your RPR from when you purchased the property then it should be carefully reviewed and compared to the current state of improvements on the property. If structures (including decks, fences, sheds) were added/changed since the RPR was prepared then a new RPR would have to be created. Having an Real Property Report with compliance ahead of time can expedite the sale and avoid rush charges, as the buyer and the lending institution will want to see it. If you are need of a new RPR, below is the most used company in Canmore.
McElhanney Tel. 403-609-3992
[email protected]
Ensure that your title-report is clean, and talk about the potential disclosure items with a real estate agent. Banks will not lend if there are unresolved issues, and you do not want to have to jump through hoops at the last minute. By conducting your research now, you will be able to be a step ahead of the home buyers.
The sale of your house is probably one of your largest financial transactions. You should get a real-estate agent on your side early, and also make a list of the tasks you have to complete before listing your home this spring. Now is the right time to have these discussions. A good strategy and some smart planning will ensure a profitable, quick and painless home sale.
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