Is Selling a Home Complicated?

Selling an office building is complicated. Selling a home? Not so much. Most real estate transactions complete with few complications, if any. But it’s important to remember that an agreement of purchase and sale is a legally binding document, and should not be signed until all terms have been reviewed in depth by you and your agent as well as by your lawyer.
 
If you would like to take advatange of our For Sale By Owner Program, we also offer additional services at a reasonable fee to help you with part of or all of the offer process, including negotiations, inspections etc. right through to closing day.
 
A lawyer review clause is normally included in the agreement of purchase and sale allowing a few days notice so that your lawyer has time to review the agreement.
 
The importance of engaging a reputable real estate lawyer early in the process cannot be understated when selling privately or if you prefer, you can utilize our low cost addtional services on the For Sale By Owner program, where we look after all of the details of the offer for you.
 

Do Open Houses Work?

The vast, overwhelming majority of open houses held do not result in a sale. Agents still find them useful in hopes that they may meet a new potential buyer or potential seller who may visit the open house.
 
Attendance at open houses has dropped substanially over the past several years mainly due to marketing the property with several high resolution photos, map, street & aerial views so that potential buyers can see the neighbourhood and layout of the home, backyard etc. and make a decision to either proceed to get further information or request a viewing.
 

Can I Sell My Home For More Money Using a Larger Brokerage with a High Profile Agent?

There is absolutely no evidence of any kind suggesting that this is the case. Whether you hire a large, medium or small size brokerage the result will be about the same. The only real difference you will notice is the amount of money each brokerage will charge you for basically the same service and results. All agents would or should do a true, detailed market analysis of your property to give you a good idea as to the market value of your home.
 
A high profile agent is just that: Someone who has a high profile, a recognized name that may advertise heavily for themselves or is well known in certain circles, but the reality is, they cannot achieve any better results on the sale of a property due to their well known name. The days of the high presure sales techniques, coercion or any of the other old school sales techniques are fading fast & the vast majority of people are repulsed by it.
 
As well, buyers today have access to information about similar, recently sold properties in your neighbourhood. The current local market determines the value of your home. All agents have the same tools to sell your home, so it doesn’t make sense to pay thousands of dollars more than you have to for the same result.
 

What am I not getting if I Hire Flat Rate Realty Canada Full Service Program?

The first thing you will not receive from us is aggressive sales agent tactics to get you to list your property. We pride ourselves in just giving you the absolute true facts as to what it takes to sell your property based on current market data.
 
We won’t be giving you outdated or unsubstantiated marketing services that don’t or no longer work to sell a property. We won’t be giving you excuses or stories, only facts. We won’t be charging you any upfront fees of any kind, We only get paid once the property is sold and closed.
 
We also don’t give out lavish gifts when we sell your home, because in the end, it’s really your hard earned money and you should keep it.
 

Should I Hire the Agent that Gives me the Highest Listing Price?

This commonly asked question often leads to a frequent pricing mistake that seller’s often make. Some agents will give a higher than market evauation of your property in hopes that it will sway you into listing with them, but in reality the first 30 – 90 days on the market are the most important. Regardless if you hire the largest brokerage or the smallest brokerage, the market data they give you should all be very similar and no agent can get more money for your property based on current market data.
 
Buyers today don’t care in the least what Brokerage or agent has the property listed, all they want to know is that it’s available and at what price. Buyers are very well educated in relation to current market values and if they and or their agent feels that your property is overpriced based on current market data, they may or may not view it, but chances are that they will not make an offer on it. Which in the end, will lead to disappointment, lost market time and inevitably, price reductions.
 
A well priced home should sell quickly and should sell for close to the listing price. A seller who prices their home too high can actually be costing themselves more time & money than if they price it to reflect the correct market value based on a current, in depth market analysis.
 
An over priced property will only lead to months of stagnation on the market and huge disappointment for the seller who will usually do one of two things when the listing period expires, either take it off the market, or most likely, list with a high commission brokerage who will give the sales pitch that they are a big brokerage with hundreds of agents who will sell the property but inevitably demand that the price be reduced, possibly more than once or even several times.
 
Once the price has been reduced to market value, the property usually sells and they look like marketing wizards when in effect it had nothing to do with them or what they did, but everything to do with the correct market price and you end up paying an unecessary high commision and months if not a year or more of wasted market time.
 
So, in hindsight, it would be better to reduce the price with the low real estate commission brokerage and get the very same results and save yourself the agravation, extra maket time and most importantly, save yourself thousands of your hard earned dollars in real estate commissions.
 

What Am I Getting If I Hire Flat Rate Realty Canada with the Full Service Program?

You’ll receive basically all of the same essential, important features which include, massive marketing exposure on Realtor.ca ( MLS ® ) the DDF which shares your listing with hundreds of participating real estate brokerages from coast to coast. Your listing will also be on Viewpoint locally.
 
When you list your property with us on Realtor.ca and the MLS® we have all of the aproximately 1500 agents in NS working for us as any one of them can bring a buyer for property and recieve a buyers agent commission, the same as all brokerages do, from the smallest to the largest.
 
Complete fudiciary duties & services that are required to list your & sell your property that all full service brokerages offer from the biggest to the smallest, but with a huge, substantial difference, you won’t be paying high commission rates.
 
You will also be receiving the knowledge & experience of 14 years in the real industry as top selling Agents, Brokers and Owners. You’ll receive timely updates on current market conditions, viewing requests & feedback.
 
Once an offer is received, you can feel confident in the knowledge that it will be handled in a timely manner, with full and complete consultation with you utilizing our experience of selling hundreds of homes, with our only priority being to achieve the best solution possible in your best interests.
 

What is the #1 Most Important Aspect of Selling a Property?

The Price of the property ! The price of the property as compared to simiar properties that have sold recently in your area is absolutely the most important aspect of selling a home. If it’s priced correctly, it will have the best chance of selling by any agent or brokerage that you hire.
 
The second most important aspect of selling is to make sure the agent you hire is experienced and preferably, with several years of experience in selling hundreds of homes. An inexperienced agent or one that has not sold many homes could end up costing you money by not having good negotiating skills or having not having dealt with the many aspects of negotiations when it comes to home inspection issues etc.
 
The third important aspect is to make sure that your property is listed on Realtor.ca and that you are offering a competitive buyer agent commision, because remember, when you are listed on the MLS®, any one of the 1500 licensed agents in NS has the ability of bringing the buyer to your property.
 
So, all things being equal, which for the most part they are when selling a home, why pay thiousands of dollars more in high real estate commissions for basically the same services? Contact Flat Rate Realty Canada today to get all the information you need and get started on saving thousands of dollars of your hard earned money!