Coldwell Banker offers seven simple staging tips to help boost [...]]]> When it comes to staging a home for sale, sellers should create a warm, inviting yet neutral atmosphere that will appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. The good news is, sellers don’t need to do a complete design overhaul to get a great result.

Coldwell Banker offers seven simple staging tips to help boost a home’s appeal and give owners a competitive edge to help sell their home.

• Stage rooms with one purpose.  Rooms that have many uses can confuse or even deter homebuyers, so staging rooms with one purpose is vital.  Determine who your most likely target market will be, whether its young professionals with no kids, families, or even empty nesters.  Then present your areas to fit their needs.  If you’ve been using a room as a guest room/kids playroom/home office, pick the one use that best suits your buyers. 
•  Tackle the easy “do-it-yourself” projects. In a Coldwell Banker consumer survey of first time buyers, the vast majority said move-in conditions are very important in their search.  Spruce up your home by replacing outdated kitchen and bathroom fixtures.  Add a fresh coat of paint.  Repaint or refinish kitchen cabinets and update with new hardware.
• Focus on the living areas.  Potential buyers should envision themselves entertaining friends and family in the living areas of the home.  Make sure those areas feel as spacious as possible by removing any unnecessary furniture to allow for easy traffic flow.   
• Make sure the master bedroom appeals to both sexes.  Remember that the master bedroom is a room that a couple will be sharing, so the décor should appeal to both sexes.  It should feel like a calm and peaceful refuge, not a frilly boudoir.  Remove any feature that seems too gender-specific and paint the walls a neutral colour. 
• Clear away family photos and mementos.  Buyers want to picture their family living in a home, not the previous owners. Put away family portraits, personal collections and knickknacks. Removing these items will also eliminate clutter and ensure that people are focusing on the home, not the photos from the last family vacation. 
• Furnish the home, but don’t overdo it.  While an empty house may look spacious, it’s often hard for buyers to visualize their belongings in a home if they’re just looking at bare walls and floors. Leave the basic components that allow the viewer to define each room.  
• Don’t forget the outside spaces.  First impressions can play a key role in a consumer’s decision-making process, so don’t neglect your home’s curb appeal.  Make sure the home’s exterior is inviting by trimming the bushes, mowing the lawn and painting faded window trim.  Buyers will appreciate the seller’s efforts with the yard work, and will tend to assume that the same attention to detail has been devoted throughout the property.  

First, I want to tell you that yes, the rumours are true, you do not need a realtor to sell your house in Ontario, or even Canada. You can sell it yourself – privately. This is known as private sale or for sale by [...]]]>
You have many options available when selling your home in Toronto, Canada. 

First, I want to tell you that yes, the rumours are true, you do not need a realtor to sell your house in Ontario, or even Canada. You can sell it yourself – privately. This is known as private sale or for sale by owner (FSBO).  There are a number of places available to you for support if you want to do that.  With a private sale, you should be prepared to conduct the open houses yourself, put the ads in the paper yourself, take the photographs, post your house details on the internet, do all the negociating yourself.  Its a very hands-on process. 

If you are going to use the private sale route, I suggest that in real life you be employed either as a sales person or a business person as the skills you use in these positions make selling your home much easier.  When you are a salesman you are able to pick up on unspoken cues that potential buyers will be making.  When they come to your open house you will also be able to better decipher any statements they make to you about the property.  You will also be better able to speak to them and sell them on your house.  Skills aquired as a business person are good too as one of the most important decision making ability you will need to use is the ability to decided where to put your advertising expense.  You have to think about the money you are investing in a particular advertisement, gage who will see it, and if you will see a return on that investment.  If you are not a sales person, (or can’t force yourself to be one for a few months) you wont be able to close the deal and make the sale,  If you are not a business person, you will spend money aimlessly going down alley ways that don’t lead any where.  My reccomendation is that if you are not one of these people, please don’t try to sell your house yourself. It’s not going to work out.

Once you have decided to sell yourself, harden yourself to this decision.  You cannot sell with a half effort, you must give it everything you have, your full attention.  It will likely take longer than you imagine and you will need great amounts of patience.  Patience will also come in handy when negociating as the buyer of your property knows that you are saving the real estate commission when you are selling privately and will want to split that savings with you. They will ask for a cost savings if they are to buy your property. I spoke earlier about some of the activities that you will be required to perform, but there is some good news here for you. You can contract out those activities that you do not do well.  There are companies that can make a yard sign for you,  a website if you are not sure, internet marketing can be done by others, so can the photography or videography.  So if you know you don’t do something well, hire someone else to do it. You can hire a for sale by owner company that have a lot of these tasks integrated into a package for you, but don’t be fooled into thinking that once you sign up with these companies that the work is done, in fact it has just began.  The price they ask for what they give in return is quite high, but If there is any reason to use them it would be to save you energy so you can focus on closing the sale.

The descision to sell your home shouldn’t be made lightly, and neither should the decision to sell privately.  Make the decision once you have weighed the pros and cons and knowledge you can succeed.  You should also seek assistance and regular contact from your lawyer.  This is important if you don’t know the steps that go into the sale of a home.  The trickiest part is knowing what step comes after which.  I don’t want to weigh this down with too many warnings. If you want some advice, remember I can come see your house and give you my assessment of your situation.  At one extreme, we have the people who want to sell their condo at Bay and Wellesley for sure, if you are in this situation, you don’t need a realtor, or much help from anyone.  Just print a little sign ‘ Condo for Sale’ and put it up on the notice board in your building and it will be sold in no time.  Well, just make sure its a reasonable price and that you are not too crazy a person.  For the rest of us some good tips include : knowing what your competition is selling, and how, knowing your limitations, and being open to ask for help when neccessary.   The most important is to think about what you are selling and develop a plan that will get the type of buyers you want and stick to the plan.

Some expenses you will incur are media promotion (print newspaper, flyers for the neighbourhood, etc) $1200 for 3 months. Your lawn sign should be another $100, the feature sheets that you will give to potential buyers and the all important website will be another $150. So for three months you will have spent $1450. So thats why I say, if your going to do it, go all out! It doesnt make sense to spend that kind of money and get no results.  Think like NASA astronauts : Failure is not an option!

Now, my part of the story, I am Marcus Assalone, a Real Estate Salesperson for Coldwell Banker Terrequity here in Toronto.  I run this investment newsletter ‘Real Value’ that this article was first published on at news.marcus-assalone.com . Coldwell Banker Terrequity is a full service real estate brokerage which means that we sell properties and make our commission based on a percentage of the sale price.  Different brokerages offer different services and also charge different commission percentages.  Obviously, the less they do, the less the percentage.

Being full service basically means we do whatever it takes to sell your property. I sell every home like it was my own, but I do give my client a choice in one thing, and that is weither or not to list their property on the MLS.  Everything else is the same, I still advertise in the the same places, I still tell my buying clients about your property, the only difference is that in one case, if I list it exclusively, without it being on the MLS I am able to save you the commission that would have gone to the other Realtor.  So, you can choose to list your home either exclusively at a total commission of 3% or with the MLS listing which will be a total commission of 5%. If your property is in a competitive market, we may have to raise the total commission to 6% in order to give the buying Realtor and added incentive to bring their client to see your property.

If you decide to list your property with me, all these fees are totally contingient on me selling your house! If i don’t sell it, you don’t owe me anything.  All I am concerned about is – success! My success will be your success.

As you are deciding what is the best course of action for you and your home think about ‘what is it that sells a house?’  Is it the location of the house? The amenities that location offers? The condition of the home? of the neighbourhood?  Is it the kitchen that sell homes? is it the bathroom? how useful are these rooms to the house? or is it knowing what price to sell the property for? knowing if it is staged well? does it have curb appeal? is it the high end finishes that sell the house? or is it the advice of someone who knows what buyers are looking for and can counsel you correctly on that sale – who can tell you the right things to do – the right moves to make? In different neighbourhoods the buyers are looking for different things.

As your realtor I will be legally obligated to look out for your best interests.   I will do everything in my power to sell your home for the most money possible.  When we meet and together we develop a plan for the sale of your home, I will tell you my ideas. You will have no doubt that I bring the best value to help you sell your home.

So lets start on the right foot, schedule an appointment and have me come see your house and we will start the planning. Once you have all the information you need you can decide as you please, I will not put any pressure to force you into any contracts. My job is to help you.  My email is marcus-assalone@coldwellbanker.ca my direct line is (416) 495-2362.  If you call, chances are I will be on the phone and you will get my voicemail, leave me a message with how and when to best contact you.