Ready to get your home on the market?
Here are 8 tips to sell your Vancouver home
1. Know your market
When selling your home, understanding what is happening in the market in your local area is crucial. Utilizing Bōde’s Market data, Sold data, and Comparables tools will enable you to be fully informed about the current real estate market trends. Having this information will help you set the right price based on comparable sold and currently listed homes in your neighbourhood, and sell your home faster and for the highest value.
2. Start with the right price
Selling your home quickly often depends on having it listed at the right price. If your home is overpriced, it will likely stay on the market longer. An important consideration when determining the initial list price of your home is that overpricing your home from the get-go typically leads to underselling in the end. This is due to successive price drops which ultimately brings the home under market value by the time it sells. Time on market makes an impact on buyer offers so it is always best to start with the most accurate price possible.
3. Highlight the best features of your home
A great aspect of Bōde is the ability to create your own listing, including the description. As the homeowner, you know the home better than anyone else and are the best person to showcase all it’s amazing features. Use the ‘owner’s highlight’ and ‘description’ sections to really make your home stand out to potential buyers. Ensuring your home is portrayed in the most positive light can definitely have an impact on how fast it sells.
4. Schedule professional photos
Highlighting your home’s best features also goes beyond your listing page. Make a great impression to buyers viewing your listing online with the interior and exterior photos of your home. According to studies, homes with high quality professional photographs may sell up to 32% faster! When you list with Bōde we are currently covering the costs of professional photos and measurements.
5. Share your listing
It’s time to ramp up your social media game! Sharing your listing across your network and asking your friends, family, and neighbours to share increases the exposure it gets and the chance that the right buyer(s) will see it. At Bōde, we ensure your listing gets on our home site, realtor.ca, Zillow, and 30+ other listing pages, and we also create a unique digital marketing campaign on social media for your listing. The combination of our marketing efforts, and you sharing to your friends and family (and by extension their friends and family, and so on) can greatly increase your likelihood to sell your home faster.
Share your home directly from your listing page, or visit our listing social media channels to re-share our post about your home.
6. Be flexible & ready for showings
First – make sure you are always ready for showing. Keep your home looking it’s best, organized, and clean so that you can show it at a moment’s notice.
Flexibility is key when working with buyers. Luckily, as a self-represented seller you only have to work around your own schedule. Be as flexible as possible with home showing dates and times to accommodate potential buyers. To some degree, consider being flexible with your terms and conditions (such as closing date) during the negotiation process if closing the deal faster is more important to you than those conditions.
There is also sometimes a tendency for sellers to receive an offer very quickly on their home and the speed this happens creates a desire to hold out for something better – because surely if an offer came in this fast a better one will probably come along. While this is entirely your choice, remember that often the first offer is the best offer. If you are priced correctly, an offer within the first few days of listing will likely be reasonably priced and working with those buyers could help you to sell your home faster for the most value.
7. Fix up the little things
Spending a small amount on fixing up little defects can make a big difference. Filling dings and applying a fresh coat of paint is an inexpensive way to renew your space. Find local painters here. Make sure everything around the home is in working order and looking its best, check that handles are well attached and replace any burned out light bulbs.
8. Stage your space
Give each room a purpose. Stage empty spaces, such as extra bedrooms, into a space that the buyer can picture a purpose for – this for example a home office. If you’re not sure how to make your home the most presentable you can always hire a professional stager. We have highly recommended local home service professionals in our Prō Marketplace. A tip we often hear from stagers is to remove personal items and clutter. An open space without personal attachment (such as family photographs) allows a buyer to more easily picture themselves living in the home.
With these 8 tips you’re ready to get started! And if you have additional questions, you can schedule a call with one of our experts. Click below to start the quick and easy listing process. At Bōde we believe that you are the best agent to sell your own home.
Have more questions? Visit our Resource Centre for instant answers.
Want to Buy or Sell Your Home Without an Agent?
Welcome to Bōde
Bōde has created a marketplace to allow you to get transparent home data, set your price, and list your home on MLS (and 30+ more sites). We will advertise your home and walk you through the whole sale process for 1% up to a ceiling of $10K, only when the home sells.
Looking to buy? Bōde allows users to purchase any home listed on MLS in Alberta – at completely no charge.
With your free Bōde account, you don’t need an agent – you are completely in charge of your home sale or purchase and get to keep more of the money you invested in your home!
