When is the Best Time to Sale Your Home?

Assuming yours is a single family unit: House or Condo…

You often read that in the spring is the best time to sell a home. I strongly disagree.

In today’s market, the average home in Montreal takes around 2 to 3 months to sell- if priced according to the current market. You want to be closing in the spring, not listing it. By the time spring comes, you want your home SOLD – and not still for sale, otherwise you’ll be missing the boat.

When should you list it then? In the winter: end of January, beginning of February. Your home will have enough time to be well marketed, have serious buyers to visit it and get an offer in the table- hopefully a good one- and be sold by the spring.

Of course, you will need a good agent that knows how to market your property.
Contact us for all you Real Estate needs. Free appraisal, no hassle, no obligations.

2009 December’s Market: Looking Good

December’s market seem to be very active this year. No need for the monthly sales stats to confirm that. Normally it is a slow month, because of the Holidays. Most people are into Christmas shopping, Christmas dinner parties, and little time to seriously visit homes. But there are still buyers calling for information and getting their finances ready for the next year – which is only a few weeks away. Many people are waiting for the new year to seriously start looking at homes.

There are still plenty of agents working over the holidays, as most take their vacation in the summer. I skipped my summer vacation this year (well, partially), and decided to go away for the holidays instead – Don’t hate me for it. Sheila is staying to cover for me while I’m away, and several blog posts have been schedule for when I’m gone.

Back to this month’s market…

There should be activity right after Christmas Day. I find it amazing how people can be so dedicated to finding a home right after the customary family and social (and/or religious) responsibilities such as Christmas. From the 26th on, the phones shall be constantly ringing.

If you’re selling your home, that is good news. Although you will not get the same amount of prospective buyers as, say for example in February. But you can rest assure that those few people who are visiting during the holidays are seriously looking to buy a home. Otherwise, they’ll be staying in, eating the leftover turkey and drinking eggnog.

A Staged house that sold in 3 hours

I wanted to share this recent story with you – a Staged house sells in 3 hours! Of course it’s exceptional but it does happen inspite of a slower real estate market.

I was recently asked to help a lady prepare her home for sale. The house is small (2 bedrooms only and a very small office), but very well located and well maintained. The paint was recent and the color neutral enough on the main floor but needed to be refreshed in a couple of rooms on the upper floor.

The problem? Old and outdated furniture, outdated and darkish curtains, some clutter and several personal items, such as the owner’s artwork displayed everywhere in the house (pretty but not to everyone’s taste).

We worked on a very limited budget (approximately $700). I made a list of accessories to purchase and we split the tasks – I went off to IKEA and the owner shopped in smaller local stores to locate items such as decorative pillows, a vase, branches, a mirror and some fabric. She repainted her old dining room table a dark brown (instead of a previous blue color) and recovered the chairs with dark brown microsuede fabric. She also repainted a small office and a bathroom over a weekend. The seller also worked very hard to declutter and put some of her furniture in storage.

Last, but not least, we rented two small white chairs and we reorganized her furniture to optimize the spaces, changed the curtains on the living room and set up the accessories.

Before

After

As soon as the photographs appeared on the Internet, the phone started to ring. Three appointments were set up for the evening. The second visitors made and offer to purchase on the spot and it was accepted. The house sold the same day for %96 of the asking price. End of story!

The Comparative Market Analysis: CMA

A comparative market analysis (CMA) is an evaluation tool used by real estate agent’s, based on local listing and sales data, to determine the probable sale price of a property in the current market.

Who can use this information?

Both sellers and buyers alike.
Home sellers can use a CMA to help determine a list price. Buyers can use it to help them determine the offer price on a property they want to buy.

How accurate is this analysis?

Depending on the quality of the data; the listings used for comparison should ideally be located in the neighborhood, and they should be as similar as possible to the subject property.

Comparative elements:

• Property Type (condo, two storey houses, split level,etc);
• Numbers of rooms;
• Size of the living area and/or building size;
• Year built;
• Garage or parking spaces;
• Basement: finished, semi-finished or unfinished;
• Other similar features such as: fireplaces, inground pool, air conditioning, etc.

To determine the probable sale price of a property, the CMA will use the recent sales from the last 6 months. If the current market is changing rapidly, six months may be too long a time frame, in this case, 3 to 4 month sales records will be used as a reference.

The CMA should also include information about currently available comparable listings, as well as information about properties that did not sell during their listing period. These are called expired listings.

For sellers, active listings would be your competition once your home is on the market. How you price your property relative to the competition is critical to your home-selling success.

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So, you think you don’t need Home Staging?

You have decided to sell your property. You love the home decorating shows on TV. You have good taste and you house is well decorated. You are ready to put the property on the market. But, are you really?

I often hear this kind of thinking from certain home sellers, especially women. It’s perfectly normal, as home decorating is becoming an established hobby and is well represented all over the media (on TV, magazines, books, Internet, etc). That’s great!

But, please remember that Home Staging is a set of specific and very efficient techniques. The goal of Staging a home is not at all the same either; we decorate our house for ourselves, in accordance with our personal taste whether the Home Staging is decorating for others, namely the potential buyers! The point of view is completely the opposite – instead of personalizing, we actually depersonalize the property for sale!

And, another important point: it’s very difficult to be objective about your own home. As long as you look at it as a “home” and not as a real estate investment, you won’t be able to present it at its best FOR SALE.

A professional and impartial Home Stager will execute an assessment of your property and will provide you with recommendations to make the property irresistible to buyers. The assessment may show more or less changes to be made to the property but, believe me, in three years, I have still to see a “PERFECT” house!

Written by Sveta Melchuk from www.Home-Staging-Montreal.com.
A Montreal firm specializing in Home Staging and Interior Re-design services.

When NOT to hold an Open House

If your property is fresh in the market, an open house can be very important. You never know whom in your neighbourhood is looking to buy a home like yours.
There has been some instances where the actual buyer came from a Open House visit. Although this isn’t always the case.

In fact, most visitors who come to open houses rarely buy the house. A lot of them don’t even know the price of your home when they stop by to visit; they probably just followed an “Open House” sign, got curious and came in. It will be the agent’s job to quickly screen the visitors and to identify them as “Potential buyers” or “Lookers”. (Your listing agent should know how to do that)

You might be wondering:
what is the purpose of holding an open house? Read more