Are you currently located in Canada and are looking to sell your home? Are you overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin? Selling a home may sound like a complicated process; however, the aid of a real estate agent can make everything run a lot more smoothly.
What is a Real Estate Agent?
Believe it or not, according to the Statistics Canada website, the Canadian real estate agents and brokers industry rose by 11.4% in 2020. If you want to sell your home, you will more than likely have an easier time with the help of a real estate agent. But, what exactly is a real estate agent?
A real estate agent acts as a point of liaison between the buyers and sellers in real estate transactions. They must be licensed to practice and they earn money through commissions. This means that their income depends solely on their ability to close the deals. This is good news for you since they will most likely do everything in their power to close the sales. It also means that your real estate agent will earn a percentage of the closing price.
What Does a Real Estate Agent Do?
The role of a real estate agent is to serve as a representative of you during negotiations with the buyer. However, they have many other responsibilities, such as:
- Planning and attending open houses
- Setting up appointments with potential buyers
- Listing homes to buy
- Researching sale prices of similar properties
- Scheduling home inspections and appraisals
- Completing paperwork for offers and purchasing agreements
- Sending information to the lender for the mortgage
Now, that you have a better idea of what a real estate is and what they do, let’s go over the process of selling your home with them.
Be Prepared for Costs
According to Canada.ca, the standard costs that sellers can expect to pay will include:
- Legal costs for services and this will include a statement of adjustment
- A mortgage discharge fee to remove the collateral hold on your home (this is known as a “release” in Quebec)
While other potential costs may include:
- Real estate agent fees
- Moving costs and staging fees
- Cleaning fees
- Mortgage prepayment penalties may also come into play if you sell your home before the end of your mortgage term
When a Real Estate Agent Comes In
Since you are reading this article, it is more than likely that you are opting for a hiring a real estate agent, instead of selling your home alone. If that is the case, you must be aware of the commission fees. You will be expected to pay a commission based on your home’s sale price. These rates can be negotiable, but they typically fall into the range of 2% to 6% and this does depend on your location and a services provided by the real estate agent.
Other things that a real estate can help you decide on are:
- Choosing the right time to sell
- Which sites to list your home on
- Finding ways to help increase the value of your home before you sell
- Determining the most accurate and best possible sales price
Considering a Conditional Home Sale
There is also the question of whether or not you want to consider a conditional home sale. A conditional home sale is when a potential buyer makes an offer to buy your home with the condition that they can withdraw the offer if certain conditions aren’t met. These conditions can include:
- The buyer not being satisfied with the home inspection
- If the buyer can’t get mortgage approval
- If the buyer isn’t able to sell their current property
Conditional home sales may depend heavily on the first, home inspections. That is why it is extremely important to take care of the home prior to the sale. Make sure that your home has “curb appeal.” That just means that the outside of the home appears sellable, but don’t neglect the inside either.
If you want to sell your home, don’t panic. The process isn’t painful with the right real estate agent. There are lots of ways to find a good match. Just keep in mind to be thorough about the process and get all of your questions answered.
Author bio- Meryll Russell has been a Realtor since 2004 and got her Broker’s license in 2019. She has sold homes all over Southern California. Meryll received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from USC. She loves handling the internet marketing & social media aspects of our business. Her first job out of college was working for IBM selling personal computers. She has over 20 years of sales and negotiation experience.