REALTORS® Help You Avoid Emotional Situations | Face it, selling your home is typically an emotional process. Having an agent keeps you one step removed from the process. How do you price your home? How would you counter a low offer? What if you are under a time crunch to sell? A REALTOR® can follow up with potential buyers without communicating a sense of eagerness or desperation. Also, how will you deal directly with rejection when the buyer’s agent tells you that their client is not interested? It can be quite upsetting to hear comments made by buyers and their agents regarding your home. An agent can put a positive spin on negative feedback.

Real Estate is a Full-time Job | Can you rush home from work for a showing? Can you excuse yourself from a meeting every time your phone rings? Are you an expert in marketing homes? Do you have any experience? An agent will place a lockbox on your home allowing it to be shown when you are not there.

REALTORS® Have Large Networks | You can list your home yourself on Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Craigslist, and even the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that agents use. Is that enough? Do you have a professional network? Are they interested in spreading the word that your home is for sale? Probably not. A smaller pool of potential buyers leads to less demand, waiting longer to sell, and possibly a lower sales price. Good agents have distribution lists that they announce your home listing to, they promote your home within their company, they canvas your neighborhood asking neighbors if they know anyone who wants to live there, they promote your home on their social media platforms, and their website. 

REALTORS® Can Help You Avoid Unqualified Buyers | They can determine whether someone who wants to view your home is a qualified buyer, a dreamer, or a curious neighbor. It is a lot of work and a major interruption every time you have to make your home look perfect and have it shown. You want to limit showings to those that can result in a sale. REALTORS® are trained to ask qualifying questions. Having the homeowner present when showing a home is very uncomfortable for the potential buyer. In this situation, most buyers will rush through the tour and not notice or remember what they saw.

REALTORS® Are Trained in Price Negotiations | Most of us do not have any specialized experience in negotiating a home sale. The buyer’s agent does and most likely will succeed in an FSBO sale, meaning less money in your pocket. Do you understand how to counteroffer? In today’s market, sellers are often looking at bidding wars and multiple offers. How do you leverage and time responses to your greatest advantage? Hint. It’s not as easy as it seems. Agents know the market and what is driving current demand, giving them an advantage by knowing the items worth negotiating and those worth letting the other party win.

You May Ignore Your Home’s Flaws | Agents are experts in what makes homes sell. They will walk through your home and recommend changes that need to be made to attract buyers and get the best offers. Agents can see flaws that you don’t notice because you see them every day. Agents will also determine what feedback from potential buyers should be acted upon to improve the chances of selling your home for the best price. Agents can determine the best way to stage your home and suggest cleaning and repairs. Sometimes the things that will determine how your home sells and for how much vary wildly by neighborhood. Agents are continually touring homes around yours and know what makes homes desirable by area.

Limit Your Exposure to Legal Risks | Do you understand the real estate contract? There is myriad paperwork involved in the sale of a home. One of the most important is the Seller’s Disclosures – “A seller of real estate has an affirmative duty to disclose any fact that materially affects the value or desirability of the property”. The seller can be held liable for fraud, negligence, or breach of contract if they do not disclose properly. Agents are trained and experienced with these disclosures. And, if an agent does make a mistake, they have professional errors-and-omissions insurance to protect themselves and to give the buyer recourse without the need to pursue the seller for legal damages.

Hiring an agent has many advantages in the sale of one of the biggest transactions of your life. Agents can offer broader exposure, provide negotiating experience, dedicate time to your home sale, and bring expertise to a complex transaction.

Buying Your First Home in Canada Checklist - RBC

The thought of buying your first home can be daunting and scary! It doesn’t have to be, especially if you have an experienced local Realtor® that will walk you through every step along your real estate journey.

1. Start saving early! There are always more costs involved in closing on a home than most people would expect. Some of the most common closing costs include:

1. ● A deposit is required to accompany your offer to purchase
2. ● Your down payment; 5%-20%+ of your purchase price
3. ● Inspection fees such as home inspection, water testing, furnace expectations, etc
4. ● Land transfer taxes in Manitoba are approximately 2% of your purchase price
5. ● Legal fees
6. ● Moving expenses such as hiring movers, a U-Haul, boxes and packing tape
7. ● Furniture, appliances, home decor and all the fun things that make your house feel like a home

2. Contact your lender and get Pre-Approved. For many first-time home buyers, this is where you may realize how much financing you will qualify for and what you can afford. This can be an eye-opening experience for some but do know that you can shop around for the best mortgage rates and lenders.

If you are unsure, ask your Crocus Real Estate agent and they can provide a list of local lenders that we have worked with and had great success with over the years.

3. Find a Realtor® that will work with you to find your first home. Let’s face it, there are lots of agents out there that will be willing to work with you but you need to find one that YOU feel comfortable working with. Your agent should be:

• ● Knowledgeable in the current market
• ● Be able to communicate well
• ● Be patient as you may need to see a lot of houses to determine what you are looking for
• ● Guide you through every step of your real estate journey

It’s a lot to know, and they must be able to teach you throughout the process and negotiate the best deal possible.

Did you also know that your Realtor® can show you any home for sale in Manitoba? It’s true, including homes found on www.realtor.ca (MLS Listings) and homes for sale by owner (FSBO).

4. Now the fun part begins…showing homes! Schedule some time to see some properties with your agent and let the process begin. Most people get a sense of what they are looking for pretty quickly. Not every home that you see online will look the same in person and is the reason you should, when at all possible, see a property in person.

If you are in the market to buy your first home here in the Pembina Valley and would like to hear more information from a lender’s perspective, our friends Holly and Brad from RBC will be hosting a FREE live webinar on this topic. For your personal invite, sign up here.

Event Info: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9 7 pm CST What you need to know to buy your first home

Discover whether you are ready for homeownership, including your ability to put a good down payment together and manage the ongoing costs of owning a home.