When You're Selling

When you’re selling your home, you deserve special treatment. The following is a description of the special treatment you’ll receive from Advocate Realty. If you’re interested in finding out the approximate fair market value of your home, don’t forget to click on Find Out the Approximate Fair Market Value of Your Home at the end of this section.

The selling process is comprised of three basic steps. The Preparation step, which involves preparing your home for market and selecting the right list price. The Marketing step, which involves marketing your home to other real estate agents and to potential buyers who are not working with agents. And the Negotiation step, which involves understanding the agreement of purchase and sale and negotiating the best deal possible. Each step is crucial to ensure that your home sells for the highest possible price, as quickly as possible and with as little inconvenience to you as possible.

Throughout the selling process, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that you’ve hired a true professional to help you. Everything you say will be listened to very carefully because I’m in business to serve you. You’ll be treated with the same care that I would give to my mother if she were my client. Your best interests will be put above all else at all times. And you’ll always receive honest answers to your questions.

Preparing your Home for Market and Selecting the Proper List Price

Putting your home on the market is like putting on a show. Everything must be in place when the curtain goes up because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. To help you prepare your home for market, I’ll walk through your home with you and provide you with detailed suggestions as to how you can make your home as appealing as possible to potential buyers. I’ll also provide you with a copy of my free report entitled:The Complete Guide To Preparing Your Home For Market.

Selecting the proper list price is probably the single most important factor in the sale of your home. It will influence how many buyers come to see your home, how quickly your home sells and how much money you receive for your home. I spend a great deal of time viewing almost every home which comes on the market in central Toronto so that I’m always completely up to date with market prices and trends. This allows me to provide you with accurate advice regarding the correct list price for your home and helps me to negotiate the highest possible price for you.

Marketing Your Home

The next step in the selling process involves the marketing of your home.

MLS listing

It’s likely that the ultimate buyer of your home will be represented by an agent other than me. That’s because there are approximately 28,000 other agents in Toronto, any one of whom might be representing the ultimate buyer of your home. The best way to market your home to these other agents is through the MLS listing which appears in the Toronto Real Estate Board’s database. The MLS listing is the first thing agents look at when selecting homes to show clients. If a home sounds good from the listing, it will be shown. If it doesn’t sound good, it won’t be shown. That’s why I spend so much time drafting and composing your listing. I want to make sure that your listing makes your home sound great! The ability to write persuasively, which I learned as a lawyer, is very helpful when it comes to preparing your listing.

Feature Sheets

A second component to the marketing step is the feature sheet. Most buyers visit between 2 and 10 homes at a time. At the end of the day, they usually review the feature sheets which they received to help them remember and compare the homes which they visited. Since most buying decisions are based on emotions, the feature sheet for your home will be designed to evoke the emotions which will hopefully make buyers want your home. Once again, the ability to write persuasively comes in handy. If you’d like to see a sample feature sheet, please don’t hesitate to ask me.

Agents’ Open House

Another component of the marketing step is the agents’ open house. This is a time during the week when I conduct an open house for agents. The agents’ open house makes it convenient for all agents to come and see your home so they can tell their clients and fellow agents about it. Word of mouth advertising amongst agents is an extremely effective marketing tool.

Infobox, 1-800 Number and For Sale Sign

While most serious buyers will be working with agents, some buyers are hesitant to call an agent because they’re concerned about being subjected to a hard sell approach. To reach these buyers as they drive through your neighbourhood, a For Sale sign will be placed on your lawn, an infobox with flyers describing your home will be attached to the For Sale sign and my 1-800 number will be prominently displayed on the sign. With the infobox and 1-800 number, buyers can receive information about your home in a non-threatening way and can then contact me directly if they’d like to view the inside of your home.

Internet

Your home will be advertised on the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at realtor.ca (the Canadian Real Estate Association’s site which is where most serious buyers go to view homes). Click on Search MLS Listings to go to this site.

Negotiating the Offer

Once the marketing of your home convinces a buyer to make you an offer, we enter the Negotiation step. This step is my specialty. As a lawyer, a great deal of my time was spent reviewing agreements of purchase and sale and negotiating offers. I’ll be able to explain your offer to you in detail and will make sure that there’s nothing in the final agreement that can come back to haunt you. Most importantly, my professional experience and training as a negotiator will help you sell your home for the highest possible price. (On average, over the past eleven years my clients have sold their homes for 4.96% more than other sellers in central Toronto, according to Toronto Real Estate Board statistics.)

Don’t think that my work is done when the negotiations are completed. I’m with you every step of the way. After all, I consider you to be a client for life, not just when you’re buying or selling your home. I'm always available to help you in any way possible. Even after you move!

Find Out the Approximate Fair Market Value of Your Home