Tips for Selling Real Estate in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
Selling real estate in a hot and tight real estate market that is Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) can feel intimidating. But with the support of a great real estate agent or broker and if you follow these tips selling your home will make the process of selling real estate feel easier and go more smoothly.
Tips for Selling Real Estate in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
Consider the Time of Year When You Would be Selling Real Estate
You might be reading this first tip and wondering how it relates to selling your home? You might be surprised to learn but the time of year when you would be selling real estate can influence how much money you could potentially get for your home. And the time of year can impact the types of buyers that you might encounter.
If you absolutely must, sell your home during the winter, especially during December and January. But keep in mind you will probably not be getting the best price for your home if you sell during the end of year holidays and during January. If you are able to wait to sell your home closer to the spring months you might be able to get a better price for your home.
Something for sellers to consider is potential buyers who are looking to buy during December and January are typically people who know that you might be able to find sellers who are willing to negotiate in order to sell their homes. These types of buyers tend to know that bargains can be found if you are looking to buy during this time of year. On average you could potentially save a significant amount of money if you are buying during January.
In 2016, TheRedPin a now-defunct Toronto based real estate brokerage published their findings from their six-year analysis of more than 530,000 home sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from (2010-2015). They argued that they saw a trend that buyers who bought homes during January spent anywhere from $43,000 to $60,000 less on average than people who bought their homes during the rest of the calendar year and especially during busy spring real estate season.
Time the Sale of Your Home When Prices are Higher
If you are able to wait and sell your home during the late spring and early summer specifically during May and June, you might be able to get more money for your home. Home sales data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) compiled from 2007 to 2016, indicate that May, followed by June were the months with the highest average number of new residential listings. Therefore, it should surprise no one that the months of May and June on average had the highest number of sales.
Get Your Property Ready to Sell
No matter the time of year that you are looking to sell your home, you need to get your home ready to sell. This means that you will be doing things to ensure that your home will show and photograph well. If you are unsure about what repairs or things you might prioritize with getting your home ready to sell, you might consider bringing in a real estate agent or broker who has experience with selling homes in your neighbourhood to visit your home and give you their opinion on your home. You might consider asking them which repairs and updates you might consider making that would have the best return on your investment (ROI).
Additionally, there are other things you will need to do that are related to getting your home ready to sell such as the following:
Deep Clean and Sanitize Your Home
This should hopefully go without saying but you would probably benefit from bringing in professional cleaners to come and clean your home before you photograph or show it. They should do a deep clean and sanitize your home.
By deep clean, we mean, they should be cleaning your house from top to bottom. Whoever is deep cleaning your home should be cleaning from the ceilings and fixtures down the mouldings, the walls all the way down to the baseboards and to the floor. Your home should be spotlessly clean no dishes in the sink, with minimal clutter, etc.
Declutter Your Home and Maximize the Available Space
Before having potential buyers come to visit your home or having your home photographed you need to declutter your home. Consider removing at least 50% of the contents from drawers and cupboards and removing miscellaneous knick-knacks that you might love but that might be distracting for others coming to see your home and imagine themselves living there. This will also help to maximize the available space in our home.
Depersonalize Your Property
You will need to remove a lot of the evidence that shows that you live in this home before having it photographed or showing it. This means removing and storing family photos and/or photos of loved ones, clearing, closets, and drawers and anything more generally that could be considered unnecessary clutter. This is to help ensure that buyers will have an easy time imagining for themselves what it would be like to live in your home.
Stage Your Home to Sell
You might even beyond making minor repairs and cleaning, you might even consider hiring a professional stager to come to stage your home to sell. Home Staging Resource reports that people who spent 1% of their home’s value on staging their home, saw on average a one thousand percent return on their investment (ROI). Staging your home will also help to decrease the amount of time your home is on the market.
Related article: Home Staging: An Essential Step In Real Estate Sales
Price Your Home Appropriately
Pricing your home appropriately will go a long way to helping ensure that you are able to sell your home quickly and hopefully without too much fuss. Or if you are lucky, you might even have a bidding war if you stage your home well, it photographs well and generates a lot of excitement for potential buyers.
Pick an Excellent Real Estate Agent or Broker to Represent You as the Seller
Selecting an excellent real estate agent or real estate broker to represent you as the seller will go a long way in helping to ensure that you have a great experience when selling real estate. A great real estate agent or broker will be there to provide you with advice on what you can do to ensure that your home will show beautifully, and how to price your home to sell. They will also be negotiating on your behalf, interacting with potential buyers and the agents and/or brokers representing them
A great real estate agent or broker can also recommend professionals who can help you to get your home ready to sell, cleaners, handy people, painters, home stagers, etc. And they can recommend professionals such as lawyers to represent you in this transaction.
If you are looking to sell your property now, Brewing Brokers is at your service! Contact us today and let our real estate agents help you!