Edmonton Home Sellers who don’t take the time to properly prepare their home for sale are throwing money down the drain. Appearances do matter, and it’s often the small things that make the biggest difference.

Before you even put your home on the Edmonton MLS system, you should give it a good spring cleaning. Clean everything, make small repairs, and get rid of all clutter. You’re moving anyway — pack the things you don’t use very often and put them in storage.

Home buyers react to what they see, hear, feel and smell, and small things like broken doorknobs make them uneasy: if these simple repairs haven’t been completed, what larger issues might be lurking? Have your Edmonton Realtor point out the quick fixes that can make a big difference, and consider putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Scrub, scour, declare war on dust, repair squeaks, replace light switches that don’t work.

Also be aware of any odors you may have gotten used to: it’s helpful to bring in a friend or Realtor for a “smell check”. Odd smells like traces of food, pet doors, or cigarette smoke can kill a deal quickly.

Remember: you’re not just competing with other resale homes, but with brand new ones as well!

Smart Edmonton Home Sellers are proactive and will disclose everything, including any and all known defects to potential buyers, especially if these problems are big. Almost every buyer will make their offer conditional on a home inspection, and professional home inspectors are trained to look for things you try to hide.

The best plan of attack if your home has a major flaw is to try and repair it before you sell, or to lower the price of your home to reflect the problem. Buyers appreciate the honesty, and you’re much more likely to negotiate a fair price for both parties if you are up front about the status of your home from the beginning.

A proper home inspection, performed by a qualified Edmonton Home Inspector, will provide you with important information you will need to make decisions about the home you are considering purchasing. When you walk away from the inspection, you should understand what if any major issues the home has and what repairs might be required. This information should be shared with your Edmonton Realtor, who can advise you on whether or not to renegotiate the price to accommodate major repairs.

3 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Home Inspection

1. Prepare Questions
   Before you meet with the inspector for the inspection appointment, make a list of any questions or concerns you have about the house, based on your initial viewing. Add questions about any particular appliance or system that are new to you, and ask about any renovation or remodelling plans you might be considering. A qualified home inspector should be able to answer most, if not all, of these questions. The purpose of the inspection isn’t just to ascertain whether or not the home is in good working order, but also to give you a chance to ask questions about the operation and maintenance of the house.
2. Take Notes
   Bring a pad of paper and a pen with you to your inspection appointment, and take as many notes as you need. You will likely be learning quite a lot of new information about your home, and it’s a good idea to jot this down to make sure you remember it, especially when it comes to maintenance, how things operate, and renovation insights. The home inspection is also a good opportunity for you to measure the size of rooms.
3. Attend the Inspection
   If at all possible, the best option is always to attend the inspection and walk through the house with your inspector. This will give you the very best opportunity to ask questions that may make or break your decision to buy the home, so even though it seems like a pain to set aside the time, we always recommend it. If you can’t attend, think about sending a trusted friend or relative, your Edmonton Realtor, or contact your inspector by phone after the inspection to review the details of the report.

Remember that no home is perfect, not even newly built ones. Every home will have flaws uncovered during the inspection processes. Be prepared to review these issues with your seller and negotiate, but also be prepared to walk away if the inspection uncovers major issues you’re not willing to take on.

Everyone starts their search for a new home on the Internet today, and the very first impression your home makes online is important. It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words, and it’s a good idea to provide lots of photos rather than not enough. Get photos of all the major rooms, including kitchens and bathrooms, and for large rooms or combined open-concept spaces, get a few different angles. Provide photos of both the front and back yards, as well as a good front exterior shot of your house. Don’t skimp on the size, either: the Edmonton MLS system can handle HD photos, and most people have large monitors, so provide your Realtor with the largest, highest quality photographs you can get.

It’s not just the quantity of photos that can make a difference, but also the quality. If the only camera you have is the one on your phone, then it’s time to buy or borrow a real camera. High quality, crisp images can make a huge difference: nobody wants to look at blurry, pixilated pictures.

This is your home’s first impression to potential buyers, and you want to leave them itching to book a viewing. That means before you get behind the camera, you should make sure your home is clean and tidy. If you’re planning on having your home staged, wait to take your photos until after your staging has been completed.

Talk to the Terry Paranych Team to discuss our home marketing techniques, including professional quality photographs.

The reality of selling a home includes negotiation, and like any negotiation, the final result is usually somewhere between the ideal of the seller and the ideal of the buyer.

The best price to list your home at is one that will attract buyers, but also leave you some breathing room for negotiating later on. This will let you get the best possible price, and leave the buyer feel like they are getting good value for the home.

There are a lot of factors that impact the price you’ll ultimately get for your Edmonton Home. For example, home inspections can reveal major problems that may require you to lower your price: it’s always a good idea to have a home inspection done on your home prior to putting it on the market so there are no unexpected surprises later on.

Some markets are kinder to sellers (a “seller’s market”, where many buyers are looking at fewer properties), while other times there could be an overabundance of real estate available for sale that will make it more of a buyer’s market. The current supply and demand will also impact the final sale price of your home.

An offer has been made on your Edmonton home for sale by a prospective buyer, and now it’s time for the home inspection. You want this process to go as smoothly as possible, and there are some things you can do to help the Home Inspector and buyer perform their inspection efficiently. Leaving your home ready for an inspection will help show your confidence in your home, and leave a positive impression with the buyer. A professional home inspection is part of the Edmonton Real Estate selling process: if you’re ready for it, and already know what the home inspector will find, then there’s no reason to sweat the inspection.

Before Your Home Inspection

Clean Your Home
A simple yet extremely effective way of preparing for your home inspection. Home Inspectors are people too, and everyone assumes that a clean home is also a well taken care of home, so make sure you take the extra time to clean and tidy prior to the inspector’s arrival.

Leave All Utilities Connected
If the home you are selling is vacant, it’s important to leave all the utilities on and functioning, including water, power and gas. Make sure your pilot light is left on so that a proper and full inspection can be done on your furnace, water heater and gas stove.

Remove Clutter From Workspaces
The Home Inspector will need to be able to access circuit boxes, air conditioning units, water heaters and furnaces. Since these are often in storage areas, take the time to remove any boxes or clutter from around them and leave the Home Inspector four or five feet of working space.

Attic, Garage & Shed Access
Make sure the inspector can access your attic, and leave keys or auto-openers for your garage and shed. Make sure your garage and shed spaces are tidy. If there are any other outboxes or electrical boxes that require keyed access, leave those as well. Condo sellers should leave both interior and exterior door keys for their building.

Clear Access for Exterior Inspection Points
In Edmonton especially, the winter snow can pile up around the house, so before your inspection make sure you’ve kept a path cleared around the perimeter of your home. Pull trash cans and barbecues away from the house.

Provide Repair Documentation
If you’ve recently remodelled, renovated or recently done major repairs, leave these receipts and documents. The same goes for any newly purchased appliances, electrical boxes or landscaping. Your buyer will be extra confident in the quality of these repairs if they have documentation and an inspection.

Leave For a While
Prepare to be away from your home for at least three hours. The prospective buyer will likely accompany the home inspector, and will want to ask them questions as they go through your home, but many buyers will feel uncomfortable doing so if you are hovering. It’s best to be out of the house and allow the inspector to do his work and the buyer to feel confident. If you have pets, it is best to take them with you or crate them so they are not in the way or underfoot.

The single biggest fact that will affect the sale of your home is the price you set, so determining what that price will be is no small decision.

By setting your price too high, you run the risk of not being taken seriously by prospective Edmonton Home Buyers, and your home will waste away on the market: every week your home is listed, it becomes less and less attractive. You will ultimately need to go through price reductions to bring in buyers, and may end up selling for less than if you’d set the right, lower price in the first place.

If you set the price too low, you risk selling your home for much, much less than it’s really worth. Undervaluing your home could send a message that you think it’s inferior, or that you’re in a hurry to sell, which puts you at a serious disadvantage. Though if your primary concern is selling your home fast, a price under the market value of the home can accelerate a sale.

There are lots of factors that contribute to setting the correct price for your Edmonton home for sale. From current market trends to the specific market value of homes in your specific neighbourhood, these external factors must be weighed along with any renovations or improvements you’ve done that increase the value of your home in particular.

It takes a trained, experienced Edmonton real estate agent to sort through all the data and pinpoint the best selling price for your home during an Edmonton Home Evaluation process.

For those do-it-yourself fans, the idea of hiring someone to sell your home might be easy to dismiss, but you should know that selling a home is not as easy as it looks. It may be tempting to try being an Edmonton For Sale By Owner seller, but the reality of selling a home is much more complicated, time consuming and expensive than you may think.

Professional Edmonton Realtors are trained and have a wealth of real estate experience to lean on. They have marketing experience, understand the tactics and strategies of selling a home, are practiced negotiators, and understand how to set the best price for the current Edmonton real estate market trends. They are available to show your home at any time, can assist with getting all the paperwork done right the first time, and can be an invaluable “second opinion”.

Learn more about the difference between the For Sale By Owner process and having a professional Edmonton real estate agent sell your home on Paranych TV.

Once you’ve decided to sell your home it’s important to start looking at it as a product for sale rather than as a loving homeowner. It can be difficult to separate the house itself from the memories you’ve made their with your friends and family, but being able to look at the sale of your home like a businessperson from a purely financial perspective will make tough decisions easier.

The process of staging your home for sale can help distance you, and establish a line between the warm home you know and remember and the house you are trying to sell. By removing all the personal touches and photographs that are your imprint on your home, you also make it easier for prospective buyers to envision their own lives taking place in your rooms.

Detaching from the emotional investment will also help you make the best financial choices, especially when it comes to pricing your home. Home prices are determined primarily by the current Edmonton real estate market conditions, and if you’re too attached to your house it may be difficult for you price it realistically.

Recently on Inside Real Estate, Michael Kryton and Terry Paranych sat down to discuss how to market and sell Edmonton Luxury Homes successfully.

Anyone who has ever looked at buying or selling luxury property knows it can be very different from the typical process of selling Edmonton real estate, and the key takeaway is to be sure you’re working with a top Edmonton Luxury Realtor that specializes in executive homes in your area. Each market is different, and matching the right buyer to the right luxury property can be a challenge.

You can learn more about how to market and sell Edmonton luxury property effectively on the Paranych Luxury Homes blog, and browse the RE/MAX Collection and other local Edmonton Luxury and Executive Homes on our exclusive Luxury Homes website.

If you enjoyed this episode of Inside Real Estate with Terry Paranych, you can watch past episodes or check back every Wednesday and Thursday at 3:00pm to watch the show live right on Paranych.com!