Thinking of selling your home?

Any one of a thousand things could make you think of selling your home. Do you go online several times a month looking for your dream home? Well maybe it's time to start turning your dreams into a reality. It can be an emotional time making the choice to sell and either trade up or make the transition to a smaller home if you are an empty nester. Either way, it is not an impossible journey.

	One of the first things you need to do, if you have a mortgage you should contact your broker or banker and find out if it's portable, assumable, or if you can pay it off early if you are downsizing. Another thing you should be discussing is if you qualify for more financing if you are considering a larger and more expensive home. Once you have figured that part out, it is time to start working on your wish list. I would recommend doing this together, don't get too crazy but do list several things that you would like to have in your next home. It is not always simple to get everything, but if you know what you want the chances go up! For example, do you need a bigger garage, more bedrooms, even more room for the teenagers; is your storage at a premium? Do you bump into each other in the bathroom? What ever your reasons for deciding to move, there are always options. Once you have made the wish list, then you need to get together and have a planning session with your realtor. I call this a plan and assess day. I will come to your home and give you a market evaluation, then we can sit down and discuss what it is you really need and get to work. After that we can get your home listed and go shopping for what's on your wish list.

Buying a home anywhere, but particularly in the Fraser Valley with the many different communities, can be a very difficult and challenging experience for the Buyer, especially if you don't know the real estate business and the area and you don't really know where to start. There are two ways of going about the job:

• The first one and often the one that a lot of buyers try first is to try and do the job entirely on your own. But when you get in the car and start driving around the valley looking for "your home", you will find that the area covers many different communities and there are many thousands of homes to select from. Before long, what looked like fun to start with, turns out to be a bewildering experience that starts to put a strain on your family life and it cuts into the little bit of leisure time that you may have left.

• The second choice is to work with a reliable, experienced Real Estate Professional, who is knowledgeable in the area and has the expertise, patience and dedication to assist you in finding your home in the Fraser Valley.

Has your listing expired?

Realtors specialize in either commercial or residential real estate. As in all professions our clients sometimes come to us as past clients of other realtors. This is actually a very common result in the real estate business. Sometimes we acquire listings that other realtors have had expire. There may be several reasons why this has happened. Some homeowners are frustrated, upset and have had an unpleasant experience in their attempt to sell their home.

After some investigating, there are generally four reasons why a home doesn't sell:

1. PRICED TOO HIGH: If you price your home too high at the time you initially list, the consequences can be that your home may take longer to sell or may not sell at all. If your home is priced higher in comparison to similar homes in your area, then it may get over looked and you loose out on buyers who may have come to see if it had been priced lower to start with. The longer your home is on the market, the more frustrated you will become.

   

2. MARKETING IS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT: Marketing your home to buyers is the top priority. You want your home to get maximum exposure from the very beginning. Here in B.C. we have a great service with the mls.ca website, when a home is listed for sale on mls.ca you immediately expose your listing to thousands of potential buyers. The next best advertising is to have a high profile for sale sign placed on your property. Another option although statistically less effective is advertising through newspapers. Alternatively, sending out flyers into the surrounding neighborhoods has proven to be effective. Your neighbors may know of people who might be interested in moving to the area.

3. CONDITION OF YOUR HOME: On occasion, your home may need a small amount of work to get it into selling shape. Sometimes your home may actually need to be depersonalized in some cases. All that this means is that we sometimes get very comfortable in our homes and we don't notice things that others may when they arrive in ours for the first time. It may be that you need to start packing and move some extra furniture to a storage locker or other location. This prevents people from thinking the home is too small. If one of the reasons you are selling is because your have out grown your home, others may feel that they won't fit either! Some homes may be in need of renovations or in some cases are former rental properties that have fallen into disrepair. If your home is in need of some minor repairs, I would suggest that you do them or hire someone to touch up a few things. If you are looking at major repairs, and that is part of the reason for your move then make sure you price your home accordingly.

4. INTERVIEWING REALTORS: Did you interview more than one realtor? If you didn't that's ok, now you have another chance! Go ahead and search until you find one that is a good fit with you and your family. Realtor's are different kinds of people too, with different expectations, experiences, and ideas.