Selling your home is not as easy as hammering a sign into your front lawn.

We will get to the key elements of a sale but here’s basically how it all flows…

1. Meet with your Realtor to establish a time frame, go through comparables and discuss the marketing strategy.

2. Sign the documents to make it all go! Here is some of what will need to be signed initially:

• Consumer relationship Guide – This shows the different types of relationships you can have with your Realtor when buying or selling. It also explains the duties your Realtor has to you and the duties you have to your Realtor.

• FINTRAC – This form is a validation of your identity for the Government to ensure you are not a financing terrorism or attempting to complete a Real Estate transaction to launder money (for real).

• The Illegal Drug Manufacture/Grow Op Listing Acknowledgement – This form says to your knowledge, your home is, or never has been, used as an illegal grow op.

• The Exclusive Seller Agreement – This form is the meat and potatoes of how your home will be sold.

• Initialed Title - Every person listed on Title must initial a copy of the Title.

3. Get the photographer in for the pictures and book a full measurement of the home.

4. The MLS listing gets built, the sign is hammered in and the listing goes live.

5. The home stays in a constant state of clean and tidy so viewings can be accommodated at almost any time and little preparation is needed for open houses.

6. An interested buyer will submit an offer through their Realtor in the form of an Offer to Purchase form. This form outlines the Buyers’ terms for buying the home.

It is normal to get an offer with basic conditions attached to it. The most common condition is Subject to a Home Inspection. This allows the Buyer and their Lender time to inspect the home and ensure nothing is wrong. The second most common condition is Subject to the Buyer Securing Financing. This just means their bank agrees with the homes’ value and gives final approval of the Buyers’ financing application by a certain date.

7. You have done your homework, now you and your Realtor begin to negotiate with the Buyer. Are the conditions and terms acceptable? Is the amount offered enough?

8. Once those conditions are lifted we fast forward to about a week before possession day when both parties will sign documents with their designated lawyer. On possession day, when the Sellers’ lawyer verifies funds have been received from the buyer, the keys are released.

Staging a home for showing is key to getting your home sold quickly and at maximum price. Prospective buyers need to envision themselves living there so it is important to remove as many distractions as possible.

Start by decluttering shelves, mantles, drawers, and counter tops. Remove a good portion of the clothing regularly hanging in bedroom and walk-in closets. Minimize ornaments, family photos and any type of personalized item. Have discolored and dirty carpets cleaned, ensure the kitchen and bathrooms are spotless and avoid the use of heavy perfumes and air fresheners. Having your furnace and hot water heater serviced gives the impression that you are diligent at maintenance. 

Remember, dirty is worse than dated.

Insert first impression cliché here. Almost all prospective buyers will use the MLS System as their primary search tool. Working with your REALTOR® to get your listing just right can take time but is the most important element in the sale process. 

Assuming you de-cluttered, cleaned and prepped your home correctly, hiring a professional photographer to showcase it is key. Along with perfect pictures you will also need a a well written, creative and descriptive write-up. 

Bad pictures, errors, poorly presented or missing elements and badly written or boring descriptions can hamper or even kill the sale of your home.

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MLS is the perfect tool for determining a listing price range. The system gives users access to over 10 years of bought and sold pricing data and listing information. Based on what is for sale, what has sold, what is under contract and how the market is trending, finding an ideal listing range should be straight forward. Your REALTOR® should be able to suggest a specific listing price range…The final price is up to you.

Whether a buyer is moving across the city or across the country, their search nearly always begins with a property related web search. Searching for properties by compass points, community, price, square footage, the number of bathrooms, or almost any criteria you can think of, will deliver a smorgasbord of properties to consider. Those results, almost exclusively, are generated by the Multiple Listing System. The MLS system alone is an amazing tool, but its’ reach is multiplied many times by REALTORS® integrating it directly onto their own websites. This integration, and near perfect all-around optimization makes it the perfect tool to get your house seen and sold.

Your REALTOR® can supplement the MLS system with active social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and a great website. Before you choose your Realtor ask her/him how they market homes they are selling.

A properly priced and well presented home in Calgary should sell in 35 to 50 days. If the timeline is short, the price must reflect the urgency. If time is on your side, pricing on the high end of market might pay off.

The worst input is no input. You need inquiries and showings if you expect to get an offer. If your listing write up is solid, your pictures look great, all of your marketing is in play and open houses are being done - but you are still are not getting any activity…It may be time time to lower your price.

Stay flexible and be realistic.

In Real Estate, there is no such thing as a "Master Negotiator." If a Buyer does think your home is worth what you are asking for it, there is no way to force, trick or out maneuver them into paying that price. It is as simple as that.

Negotiating is 100% about preparation and 0% about skill.  Here are a few points to consider when preparing for an offer:

- Thoroughly research your neighborhood and homes like yours that are for sale and have sold. Knowing what your home is worth takes most of the stress out of negotiating. If you cannot get what you 100% your your home is worth, walk away.

- It’s hard to argue with facts. Knowing the comparable properties inside and out will help you backup offers and counter offers with old fashioned logic.

- Respond to every offer, even the terrible ones. You can't blame a Buyer for trying to find out what your bottom line is. Know what your final number is and respond to even the worst offers with a counter offer. 

- Know exactly what leverage you have. Market conditions, time on market, possession dates, price, property deficiencies and inclusions (like appliances being included or excluded) are just some of elements to factor in.

- As important as the research is, you (as the Seller) you need to be realistic as to what your home is actually worth. Choosing an agent because they say your home is worth more than what the other agents said it is worth, is a big mistake. Go with an agent that feels right and presents the most logical value based on facts.

One final thing...

While negotiating is not a skill, it does require the proper attitude and confidence. Your Realtor needs to be cool under fire when dealing with pushy, aggressive agents...and there are many of them out there. A quiet, soft spoken agent that lacks confidence is not the best choice when you want top dollar for your home.