Thinking Of Selling? Here’s What To Expect
By Stefan Walther | May 15, 2023
Selling anything, whether it be a kitchen table, a car, and most certainly something as large and significant as a house, can bring about some trepidation, the fear of the unknown.
We put these items out there for sale, on the open market, and hope for the best. Will they sell? Will they sell fast? Will they sell for the price we are asking? Or maybe a lot more?
Will anyone appreciate our beloved Home Sweet Home and give us some good money for it?
No commission, no problem! No need to hire an expensive realtor salesperson. Save this money, put in a bit of time and effort — could be only a few hours, and you’d be thousands of dollars richer.
Your time is worth this money. This big money is worth a bit of your time.
Here are some steps to selling a home and a little bit of what to expect.
1. Prepare Home For Market — Clean and tidy up, declutter, make small repairs, mow the lawn, trim the bushes. For more, see “5 Easy Ways To Prepare A Home For Sale” and “Staging A Home: Should You Do It?”
2. Put Home Up For Sale — Choose ThunderBayHouses.com to best showcase your home and to the largest buyer audience, over 30,000 weekly website visitors, over 22,700 followers on social media. Call 807-344-9393 or E-mail to set up an appointment with one of our photographers. We collect the information and create a professional listing with attractive write-up. We can also provide feedback on the market, including specifically for your neighbourhood or area, as well as feedback on a possible asking price. We’re very knowledgeable, we’ve been in business and immersed in real estate for 20 years.
In order for an ideal asking price to not only, ultimately, attract a best offer and top price, it should also invite and encourage the most response.
With the most buyers interested, the best overall sale success is achieved.
3. The Home Hits The Market — A day or two after our photographer is there, the home hits the market! The professional listing goes live on ThunderBayHouses.com and on our popular social media, the latter where our many thousands of followers can like, tag and share with friends and family. Perhaps your home will go viral. Don’t worry, all is removed after the home is sold, to protect the privacy of both the buyer and the seller. You can now also put up the beautiful eye-catching lawn sign that features our slick logo and website address.
4. Inquiries And Showings — Prospective buyers will call or text the seller to inquire further beyond the ThunderBayHouses.com listing, as well as to set up an in-person viewing. For viewings, turn on all lights and open window coverings, put away any valuables, stand back and allow buyers to comfortably view your home and its various rooms, spaces and features. Offer to answer any questions they may have.
No hand-out feature sheet is necessary — all full-size quality photos and details are online at ThunderBayHouses.com.
Just about everyone has a cell phone or tablet these days. Your home listing on ThunderBayHouses.com is like a comprehensive virtual “feature sheet,” accessible 24 hours a day from anywhere, with all photos and all details.
5. Offers Begin Coming In — A ThunderBayHouses.com listing reaches tens of thousands of people in a very short time frame, usually over 22,000 in the first 24 hours, so it is often not long before offers begin rolling in. Most buyers will approach and discuss with the seller an agreeable and acceptable price before having a formal offer drafted up.
If a home is priced right for the current market, it should sell within seven to 10 days.
This has been ThunderBayHouses.com’s experience, due to the vast exposure we can offer. A listing basically reaches all, or at least most, buyers who are currently in the market, so they will respond right away if your home appeals to them.
If a home is not priced right for the current market, then the seller has two options:
- Revise the price to encourage better response.
- Or wait it out and hope that the market catches up.
The latter would involve a change in market conditions, such as a change in mortgage rates or other market stimulus, or may involve a change in seasons, so that current buyers have another reason to consider a particular home, or so that new buyers enter into the market and may consider the home.
Whether you sell privately or with a realtor, a lawyer is required to make sure all best interests, both of the buyer and of the seller, are looked after, and to properly and legally complete the purchase and sale of the property. De Bakker Law works with many of the buyers and sellers in the ThunderBayHouses.com community and they will draft up an offer for free for anyone looking to do so, see “Partner Spotlight: De Bakker Law,” as well click or tap here to get started.
A seller may receive one offer for their home, they may receive multiple offers. We don’t advise on setting a particular time and date as to when they will finally accept any and all offers, as this could backfire if none — or none that is preferable and acceptable — is received by the self-imposed deadline. Instead, we recommend to let things play out naturally. Allow buyers to inquire and schedule personal viewings, engage with them. The seller will quickly get a feel as to where things could potentially end up — who will bring an offer, what price they are willing to pay, who will have conditions, who has another home to sell, how many offers are coming, etc.
Time and time again, our many sellers tell us how smoothly and seamlessly everything ends up going.
The fear of the unknown quickly disappears.
The preferred offer is, of course, one that has no conditions, a so-called “cash offer.” However, most offers will have the condition of the buyer being able to secure financing, as well as the condition of a favourable home inspection. Sometimes, especially for higher-priced homes, there may be the condition of the buyer selling their own home, in order to purchase the next one. This can be tricky should the buyer’s own home be difficult to sell. They normally would have three months to do so and fulfil this condition.
In the meantime, the seller is usually able to continue marketing the home in hopes of attracting an unconditional cash offer. And if this comes in, the first buyer would have the opportunity to either waive the condition of their own home sale, or somehow otherwise satisfy this condition — or lose out on the home and the cash offer is accepted.
This is called an escape clause, is fairly standard and common, your lawyer will make sure it is covered in the agreed-upon offer.
A seller may prefer to accept a lower offer with no conditions — a quicker sale — rather than a higher offer with conditions.
For more, see this other great article on the ThunderBayHouses.com Market Insider: “Best Offer And Top Price: What’s The Difference?”
A seller can also counter an offer, perhaps with a higher price, perhaps also with striking out one or all of any conditions. The lawyer can advise on these steps. It is quite common for a seller to counter an offer, especially if there had been no verbal agreement ahead of the offer being presented.
A buyer often tries their luck with an offer, with a lower price and some conditions; it doesn’t hurt for the seller to counter and try their luck as well.
For your author, the founder and owner of ThunderBayHouses.com, I put in an offer on my first and current home that was lower than another, already accepted offer that was conditional upon that buyer’s other home sale. The seller countered my offer at a bit higher, I countered again lower, we agreed on a price. The initial buyer had 72 hours to waive or meet their condition and could not do it. My offer was still conditional upon financing and a satisfactory home inspection, both of which were fulfilled within a week.
6. Accept An Offer — Once the seller accepts an offer and there are no conditions to be fulfilled (either there were none to begin with, or any have been met or waived), it is time to start packing and getting ready for possession day. Depending on what has been agreed upon in the accepted offer, possession could be very soon (immediate possession) or it could be several months away.
For your author, I put in the offer for my home in early December, with possession taking place three months later, mid-March. Who wants to move furniture and stuff in the cold, icy winter? Not me. Three months savings on the heating bill was nice, too.
Once an offer is accepted, the buyer would make a deposit that would be held “in trust” with the seller’s lawyer until the possession date and completion of the sale. The deposit could be just a couple thousand dollars, could be $10,000, but it could be five percent of the purchase price, the latter would indicate serious interest and may be desired by the seller, especially in a highly competitive market — and for a higher-end luxury home. Your lawyer can best advise.
7. Move Out — Vacate the home by the possession date. A seller’s lawyer can advise on particulars, but basically the seller would completely move everything out of the home, move everything off the property, and leave it in the same condition as when the buyer originally viewed it. Any negotiated chattels (like appliances, bar stools, window coverings and such) and fixtures (central vacuum canister and attachments, light fixtures) would remain at the property.
It is also a nice courtesy to leave the home in a good state of cleanliness. As well leave behind the owner’s manual for the furnace, central air and any appliances, any keys for doors or cabinets, perhaps even any leftover renovation material like paint cans and flooring. The actual keys for the home should be left with your lawyer, to be passed along to the buyer.
When or if you are ready, contact ThunderBayHouses.com to best showcase your home and to the largest buyer audience: 807-344-9393 or info@ThunderBayHouses.com.
As well, we partner and work with many great professionals who are ready to assist, click or tap to check them out: De Bakker Law, Jessica Coley, RBC Senior Mortgage Specialist, Hawkeye Home Inspection, and see their advertisements below.
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