Greater Vancouver market continues to be very active late into the fall of 2015. Metro Vancouver has a very strong sellers market, for the most part . That’s great news if you are planning to sell your house or a condo.
To find out if your neighbourhood and a property are in a sellers’ market you can contact me (or your real estate agent) directly or check the statistics here – the latest real estate market statistics for September 2015 from the Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board. If your home is in fact in a “HOT” sellers’ market what is the best way of selling it and making sure that you don’t leave any money on the table?
- Price is everything. One of the main services that your real estate agent provides is figuring out the exact value of your property. To figure out the value (price) of the property recent sales, available inventory and even tax assessments are all taken into account. Every agent has a different strategy to find the value of the property. I will share mine in another blog post. After the value of your property is established; take away 3-5% and that should be your listing price. Listing your property 3-5% below market value is very important step. This will generate a lot of buyer interest.
- “Hold” your property for at least 5-7 days on the market. In a hot sellers’ market you will be receiving offers on the very first day your property is being listed. Accepting an offer on the first or second day of your property being listed is a mistake and will most likely cost you thousands of dollars. It is very important to hold off all offers for at least 5-7 days. This way your property will get appropriate market exposure. Set a date for the offer presentation. More often than not your will have a bidding war. Buyers will be lining up to present their offers.
- Do Friday showings and an open house on the weekend. There are circumstances where open houses are not an option. For example it’s against the strata bylaws. In these instances regular showings should be scheduled for the weekend. Assuming you are able to host an open house you should definitely do it. Friday showings will be mostly for the agents and for the buyers who can’t make it to the open houses on the weekend. The weekend open houses are what really sells the property. If you followed tip #1. You will have people lining up outside of your front door to view the property. More people = urgency = higher offers.
Ideally, you would want to follow this timeline in listing and selling your property for best results in a sellers’ market. Monday or Tuesday your property is live on MLS (with pictures and full description). Make sure that it’s priced 3-5% under the “market value”. No showings throughout the week until Friday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday showings and an open house. Create urgency and drive as many people to the open house as possible. Monday or Tuesday evening offers presentation. Have at least 3 offers and accept the most favorable one. Sounds easy right? The whole process is of course a little bit more complicated but this should give you a pretty good idea.
Make sure to consult with your real estate professional or call me directly 604-565-7052 before implementing any of the steps. Happy selling:)