Tag Archives: vancouver

Realtor, Uncategorized

Why you should pick a realtor who will give you an unconditional release?

August 30, 2016

It’s been two months with your real estate agent and you’re not happy with their work. You still have one more month to go as the you have signed a three month listing contract. You would like to leave this agent but how do you go about terminating the contract? Cancelling your contract can only be done with the consent of both the seller and the real estate agent and there are two types of cancellations: conditional release and unconditional release.

If you were to sign a conditional release, you would have to wait until the end of the existing contract (so another month), before listing it again with another broker unless you want to run the risk having to pay two commissions. Why is this? The conditional release is structured so that the broker retains the right to be paid a commission up until the existing contract’s expiry date. This is why there’s a possibility of paying two commissions if you relist within this time after signing a conditional release.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have an unconditional release. This is considered the ‘no strings attached’ option which gives the property owner the ability to sell, relist, do anything they want free of the former agent and without a penalty. More often than not, agents will just let you go, but some will charge you a cancellation fee. We believe that any real estate agent who is confident in themselves and their work will always give you and unconditional release if it comes down to parting ways.

At Residencity, you will always get an unconditional release if you decide not to sell your home or are unhappy with our services. We are confident in our team and do not believe in the system of conditional release. Interested in more of what we do at Residencity? Give us a call at 604.288.9166 or email us to see what we’re all about.

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Realtor

Should you choose the Realtor who suggests the highest listing price?

August 25, 2016

The value of your house is not determined by your real estate agent. Factors such as the economy, location, quality of build, the current state of competition, etc. play a larger role in deciding the listing value on your house than what your agent says. In the end, it also depends on how many buyers you can get and all of that comes down to marketing.  

Your goal should not be to simply choose the realtor who provides the highest listing price, but to choose one who is honest with you and comfortable with discussing the realistic value of your property.

The key to getting the highest price for your property is to list with someone that knows how to market your house. With Residencity, our marketing team will ensure that your property is marketed well with tools such as professional photos, video tours and open houses to name a few. Call us at 604.288.9166 for your free home inspection and to see what we can do for you.

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Uncategorized

Don’t Be Fooled – Agent recommendations by family and friends may not be the best for you

August 23, 2016

A large part of business in real estate is driven by referrals so don’t get yourself caught in one just because it is your relative or a friend. Your friend from Coquitlam may be an excellent agent when buying properties in Coquitlam but he may not be the best agent to buy with in Vancouver as he will not have the area expertise that a local agent would have.

You will not know if you had a bad referral until it’s too late which is usually after the sale.  Here’s what to do if you are recommended a real estate agent

  1. Make sure to compare at least two other local real estate agents to the one recommended to you before you hire them as your agent.
    Your friends and family might have had a positive experience working with that realtor but you want to make sure that they have your best interest at heart rather than someone who just wants to close a deal. You want to pick a realtor agent who can create the most opportunities for you in the market.
  2. What kind of marketing skills do they have and what are they going to do for you?
    Another thing to consider is how will they present and advertise your property? Are they going to be present at open houses answering questions? Will they present themselves or your property? How the agent presents and markets your property impacts how others view your house and the potential of the amount of offers you receive in return.
  3. What is their level of knowledge of the area you are planning to buy in?
    Hiring an agent based in Richmond that your friends recommended when you are looking to buy in Kitsilano may not be the best idea. Unless the agent has had at least 10 transactions in that area in last 2 years, it would be wiser to seek out an agent who primarily deals with properties in that area.

Hiring a friend or a family member might save you on commission, but there is a high chance that you will miss out on maximizing the value of your house due to inexperience.

Looking to sell your property? Call Residencity at 604.288.9166 or email to set up a consultation and we’ll start with a free pre-inspection of your home.

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Uncategorized

11 mistakes sellers make when choosing a real estate agent

August 18, 2016

Selecting a real estate agent is a task that should be performed with the utmost care. Many sellers are persuaded by factors that aren’t essential to getting their house sold and are not evaluating agents on essential skills such as marketing and knowledge of the area. Here are some things to look out for when selecting an agent:

1.Choosing an agent based on the number of lawn signs they have in the area – “This person has 5 listings in the area, we should list with him.” Listing with an agent due to the number of lawn signs they have is not a good verification of whether the agent has the skills to market, present and negotiate your home.

 

2.An agent that says “Yes” to everything – Agents don’t want to lose your property as a listing as their pay cheque depends on the sale of your property. To get and keep your listing, everything will be a “yes”.  You need an agent that will be honest enough and tell you if the price you want is unrealistic, or if your house smells of pet odour, or if your peach coloured wall need to be neutralized.  You do not want a push-over agent representing your house.

 

3.Choosing an agent who will list your house tomorrow – It may sound like the agent is ultra-organized if they are able to list it so quickly, but that might not be the case. An agent who is able to list your house tomorrow may skip on essential marketing steps required to get the maximum value for your home.

 

4.Skip on the Marketing – The primary skill an agent needs to benefit you is marketing but interestingly enough, it is not part of their real estate education.  The most common excuse that agents use for not marketing a property is “the market is super hot and your house will sell with multiple offers.”  You can never have enough offers. If you are going to get 10 offers without marketing, you should get 15 offers with proper marketing.

 

5.Choosing a Realtor based on Language or Ethnicity – It is very common in Vancouver for people to go for ethnic real estate agents because the buyers are likely to offshore ethnicity. The buyer has their own agent so you do not need to worry about the buyer; he is covered. What you need is an agent who you can communicate with. As real estate is one of your life’s most important decisions, and you want someone that understands you when negotiating.

 

6.Choosing a Buyer’s Agent – Selling your house requires top-notch presentation.  From the outside, it may look like selling and buying are the same thing, but they are not. The primary skill set for a seller’s agent is presentation and marketing; on the other hand, a buyer’s agent needs intimate knowledge of their specific area.

 

7.Choosing a New Agent – The real estate licensing course teaches an agent about the legal side of real estate and how to do the paperwork. Unless the agent has experience in marketing or presentation, you might as well fill out your own paperwork. Marketing is the number one skill that you need your agent to have because that is what will bring you potential offers.

 

8.Choosing a part-time agent – If the agent has another job, they will have other priorities. Their top priority may not be selling your home and won’t be able to answer phone calls or messages as they come. You need an agent that works for you.

 

9.Choosing an agent based on highest listing price – Your real estate agent does not determine the value of your house. The value of your house is determined by factors such as the location, year, land, quality of build, economy, etc. You need to find an agent who is honest with you and comfortable with discussing the real value of your property.

 

10.House knowledge – We have been to countless of open houses and when we ask a question about the condition of the boiler or furnace, the agent often goes “I don’t know.”  If your agent is selling your home, he or she should know everything about the house from windows, doors, appliances, mechanical to foundation and everything in between.

 

11.Listing with Discount Brokerages – Buyers come through other agents. Agents will take prospective buyers where they get the most money. Most, if not all, homes get sold by buyers’ agents, and if you chop their paycheque in half, they often won’t want to show your house. More often than not, whatever “discount” you’re getting will end up being more of a headache than it’s worth.

Selling your home with Residencity means that you will be working with a team who will provide you with a free pre-inspection of your home, enhanced MLS listings, professional grade photography, videography, 3D tours and more. Call us at 604.288.9166 or email us to set up a consultation to see what we’re all about

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Uncategorized

Low commissions & discount brokerages: you get what you pay for

August 16, 2016

In BC, the most commonly used commission rate is 7% of the first $100,000, then 3-3.5% on the rest of the amount. Real estate agents have full control over their commission rate, regardless of who they are working for and some brokerages will go even as low as 1%.

  1. Lets talk about how commission works
    Real Estate Agents get paid to work and having a standard commission always helps. To agents, a 3% commission is a lot more attractive than 1% and if anything, is more of an incentive to show your property to their buyer. Although the Real Estate Council prohibits real estate agents to from doing this, some agents would rather show properties with standard commissions as this directly affects their paycheque.
  2. The resources available & marketing power of these agents are usually a lot less smaller. Less commission typically results in less resources for marketing and sometimes you as a seller may be asked to pay for marketing when is the real estate agent’s responsibility.

At Residencity, we offer a full commission to the selling agent ensuring that we do not deter other Real Estate Agents as they are the ones with majority of the buyers

We differ by utilizing a standardized 6 step process that we follow for every listing we receive regardless of marketing conditions, property size or location. 

With service from all of our agents, top of the line marketing from professional staging to enhanced MLS listings to professional photography and videography, all of this should automatically lead selling your home for a higher price. Give us a call at 604.288.9166 or email us to set up a consultation and see what we can do for you.

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Uncategorized

1 of the solutions to getting your home sold (and you don’t even need to do anything)

August 09, 2016

Imagine blow drying your hair in your new home and having the circuit breaker trip: you’re in the dark and you have no idea where the breaker box is, and often it’s tucked away in a dark corner in the basement. Everything you buy nowadays comes with an instruction manual- the drawer set from Ikea, the blender from The Bay and even the second hand car comes with a manual in the glove box. Buying a new home, probably the most expensive thing you will ever own, does not come with a manual.

Whenever someone buys a house, they should always receive a specification sheet. Residencity will provide you with both a specification sheet and a manual. The manual will provide details such as location of breaker boxes, water shut off, instructions for sprinklers. The specification sheet will contain details of the appliances and materials used in the house.

We believe that it is essential to have a specification sheet when selling a home and to find a realtor who will make you one when listing your home. Not only does it contain important notes for the new homeowner, but it can also be used as a marketing piece. Additionally, a manual should be provided upon closing with the rest of the details. The more information you present, the more familiarized potential buyers are with the property, the more likely they are to take interest and present you with an offer.

Specification lists and home manuals are a standard here at Residencity, unlike other real estate brokerages and teams where they are not required and it is up to the realtor if they want to prepare one for their client. As a result, we prepare one for every property that lists with us no matter the price of the home. Call us at 604.288.9166 or email us for a consultation to see what our agents can do to get your property sold.

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Uncategorized

Decrypting real estate marketing plans

August 04, 2016

You’ve agreed to list with an agent and their next step is presenting you with their “tried and true marketing plan” that is “guaranteed” to sell your home. It appears that the more there is on the plan, the better the agent is, but not everything listed may be for your benefit. Here are some common methods we see and what they really mean:

 

1. “Your listing will be posted on a ‘Multiple Listing Service (MLS®)’ or ‘REALTOR.ca'”. This is good, although not the greatest incentive to hire a real estate agent as every agent lists here and it should be expected that your agent will do so.

 

2.“Your property will be promoted on our social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram. How many likes, followers and subscribers do the channels have and how active are they?

 

3.“Distribution of marketing materials with your home listed around your neighbourhood and at open houses” Ask your agent what type of marketing materials they will be creating and when they will be printed and distributed. To give you a guideline, creating a flyer and sending it off to a printer and courier takes at least 5 days if done diligently.

 

4.”Professional Photos” This phrase is open to many different interpretations especially in the real estate world. What does “professional” mean to the agent? It can be anywhere from a dated point and shoot camera to smartphone photos. Always ensure that the photographer is a professional real estate photographer. Not a wedding photographer, not someone who photographs headshots, not someone who does sport photography. You want someone who specializes in making your home look good in photographs. At Residencity, we believe that having professional photos is a required component when listing a home.

 

5.”‘In-office’ marketing’: sending an email to all the real estate agents within their brokerage” The reality is, real estate agents receive countless of emails each and every day and your property will not be a priority. On top of that, agents and their clients already have a specific type of property they are looking for. This really only targets a small niche of buyers and will not add much value or have a great impact on you selling your home.

 

6.“Additional advertising on websites such as Kijiji and Craigslist to increase exposure on your property” People go on these websites to find pets, free or second hand things and not a house. They may be looking at a house to rent- but these people are not your target audience and therefore this does not hold much value.

 

7.“We advertise regularly on magazines and newspapers” Again, it is important to think about what they are advertising and the amount of exposure you will get. How often is this publication published? Which publications do you advertise in? How is it distributed?

 

8.“I am on X buses, X bus benches and X bus stops throughout the lower mainland and people frequently call for neighbourhood listings” What this tells you is that the agents are advertising themselves and not your property. Have you ever seen a bus ad where a property took precedence over the agent? Chances are, most of the calls they will receive are potential clients rather than potential buyers who are interested in your listing.

 

9.“Your property will be advertised on your agent’s personal website” How effective is it to actually have your listing on your agent’s personal website? How many unique visitors does the site receive and how many page views does it get? Unless the buyer has a relationship with the agent, chances are, their first searches will go to realtor.ca or other MLS pages.

 

At Residencity, we believe in only doing things that hold a significant value when it comes to selling your home. By that we mean focusing on photography, videography, proper staging, floor plans, feature sheets, aerial/drone imagery and 360 tours- things that will maximize your selling price. If you’re interested in listing with Residencity, give us a call at 604.288.9166 to see what we can do for you.

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Uncategorized

“It’s about the sale, not the amount it sells for”

August 02, 2016

The real estate industry is designed to focus on increasing the volume of transactions rather than delivering a quality product. A real estate agent is only invested in 3% of your property (the commission you are paying them) and they are focused on speeding up that process in order to get their 3% as soon as possible.

Here are some examples of how real estate agents have done so:

  1. Nike would never sell a $100 pair of shoes without a professional images but houses which are worth millions get posted on MLS® with poor quality images or none at all.
  2. When buying a car, it is expected that it will have a mechanical and/or accident report (if second hand). Properties get put on the market everyday without having passed any inspections or reports. The buyer is supposed to do the due diligence.
  3. Properties are sold in days and sometimes even on same day the listing goes live. The seller believes they got a good deal but the truth is, they may have been able to get an even better deal, had the property been on MLS for a week.

As you can see, the real estate industry is is designed to move houses as quickly as possible and for agents to earn commission. Things that will maximize your selling price such as taking the time to get professional photos done, providing a pre-inspection report and letting the property sit on MLS for a few days, often slows down the process. A top Realtor understands the importance of taking a bit of extra time marketing the home properly. 

At Residencity, we believe that it’s about the amount that your property is going to make you, and not so much about closing the sale so that another notch can be added to our belt. This matters to us because it can mean the difference of adding or missing out on several thousand- even hundred thousand dollars to your property.

This is why we have come up with a standardized 6 step process which we use for every listing that we acquire. We start with a consultation, then a home inspection, home preparation (photography, videography, staging, aerial, 360 tours etc.), open houses, offer presentations and finally, closing. We want to ensure that the price you sell for is the price you deserve. Call us at 604.288.9166 or send us an email to see what we can do for you.

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Uncategorized

How do real estate agents get away with crappy photos?

July 28, 2016

Have you ever found it unusual that in the age of digital imagery, many properties are still presented online with a meagre handful of photos, if any at all? Our lives are entwined with photos and imagery; smartphones are everywhere, and social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have become ubiquitous, multi-billion-dollar companies. Yet somehow, the real estate industry tends to lag in grasping the full importance of quality photography for listing a property.

So how is it exactly, that a real estate agent might get by without so much as a single photograph for something as big as the sale of your home?

  1. Agents are freelancers and can choose to do as little or as much as they see fit when listing a property. It is critically important to find an agent that believes in the importance of listing photography.
  2. Brokerages have zero control over agents’ marketing efforts when listing a property, or on behalf of a seller. They do offer incentives to promote an agent to get more photos but cannot force a set standard.
  3. The only entity that can mandates a requirement is the local real estate board, and their base requirement is: a minimum of 1 photo of the property

At Team Residencity, we believe that professional photos are key to marketing your property and we have listed photography standard practice. Our marketing team will evaluate your property, and choose the number of images that is right for your listing. 15 images is the bare minimum but some properties may warrant as many as 40 images. Additionally, we utilize cutting-edge Matterport 3D scanning technology to further enhance the buyer’s experience online. Call Residencity at 604.288.9166 or email to list your home with us.

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Uncategorized

The #1 Problem With Home Inspections

July 26, 2016

In real estate, home inspections occur after an offer is accepted. This means that when you buy a property, you essentially have to make an offer first and then find out what is wrong with it.  

This doesn’t sit well with us.

It’s a little like going to a car dealership where they don’t let you test-drive the vehicles until you’ve made them a formal offer.  Car dealerships obviously can’t get away with this, but somehow it’s the way of the world in the real estate industry

Let’s take a closer look at how this affects you when selling your home.

You want to sell your home, and you choose a real estate agent who puts your property on the market without an inspection. Just like all everyone else.

You get tons of viewings, you get an offer and everybody is happy.

Then the buyer does an inspection and finds out that your furnace needs replacement and he wants you to pay for it by discounting the offer by $7000. You want to sell the house so you take the hit and you lose $7000.

Meanwhile, your agent only loses $210 off of his commission (3%).

Now if you knew there was an issue with the furnace beforehand, and it was spelled out as part of your property information, you could have saved yourself thousands.

Not to mention, what if you don’t choose to purchase the home in the end? You would have to repeat the whole process of conducting a home inspection again.

In the current real estate industry, home inspections happen after a deal has been made. At Residencity, we include a pre-inspection with every property we list as we want to know your home inside out.

Call us at 604.288.9166 or email us for a consultation to see what else we can do for you.

tags:

You might also like:

What Your Real Estate Agent Should be Doing to Sell Your Home

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