Imagine you’re viewing a home for sale. You venture to the basement, check out the furnace room, and notice the water heater. Is it owned or rented? As a potential buyer, you’d want to know.Now imagine a property you’re viewing has a brand-new gas fireplace. Nice! Is it under warranty? Is that warranty transferrable to you if you buy the home? Again, you’d want to know.

So, when you’re selling, it’s important to pull together all the necessary records you will need in order to answer these types of buyer questions. After all, if a particular warranty transfers to the new owner, that’s a selling point.

Take the time to find receipts, warranty certificates, and other documents related to:

Renovations (such as a bathroom makeover)
Major repairs or replacements (such as a new air conditioner)
Service prepayments (such as a lawncare service paid annually)
Purchases of major appliances and other items

Keep in mind that you may have purchased extended warranties or maintenance agreements at the time of purchase. Those may transfer to the new owner.

Also note that some guarantees or service agreements transfer automatically while others require the new owner to initiate that transfer.

These documents could potentially add a few more benefits to buying your home. So, it’s worth the time it takes to dig them out!

After your home has been cleaned from top to bottom, it’s natural to want it to stay that way. Don’t you wish you could just wave a magic wand and the place would clean itself? Unfortunately, even Harry Potter can’t manage that!

However, when you’re preparing your property for sale, you really do need to keep it clean and ready for showings. There are several ways you can make doing that a bit easier.

Try these tips:

• The one-minute rule. If a cleaning or tidying task takes you less than a minute, consider doing it right away. For example, keeping the foyer clear of clutter. 
• One room a day. After you’ve cleaned and tidied your home, maintain it by focusing on just one room a day. That’s manageable for most people. 
• Prioritize the floors. If you can keep the floors clean, everything else will tend to fall into place. Consider a routine where you do a quick sweep or vacuum of the floors each evening. 
• Declutter as much as possible. Clutter is the enemy of cleaning! When a room is free of clutter, it’s easier to keep it clean, tidy and looking great. 
• Get extras. Buy an extra mop or broom so other household members can help with the cleaning. Also, be sure to stock up on cleaning supplies so you don’t run short just before a viewing appointment.
• Hire a cleaning service. Having a professional cleaning service come once a week—or twice a week when you’re showing your property frequently—can take a lot off your shoulders. Think of it as an investment in selling your home.

Keeping your home looking “guest-ready” makes your home show better and gets more buyers interested. But, the task doesn’t need to be daunting. Try these tips to make it easier!

As you may know, a fresh coat of paint is an inexpensive way to make your home look great to buyers. But, what if you don’t have time to paint the entire place? Here are three areas you should prioritize—and one you can potentially ignore.

1. Rooms with bold colours

A red bedroom and orange walk-in closet likely won’t appeal to everyone! Replacing personalized colours with a neutral colour scheme will present buyers with a “blank canvas” to which they can add their own personal touch.

2. Kitchen

When buyers view your home they linger in the kitchen, which makes it a key selling point. A new paint job will instantly make the space look cleaner and more inviting.

3. Interior doors

These become worn due to being touched multiple times a day, yet are often overlooked when painting. A new coat of paint on key doors, such as those for bedrooms and washrooms, can make a significant impact on the look of your home.

By the way, you may be able to pass on painting exterior doors. They’re often coated with a durable weather-resistant enamel and don’t usually need more than a good wash.

If you want to sell an item quickly—say, a couch—you can post it online, stick a super-low price tag on it and, chances are, it will be gone by the end of the day.

So it’s understandable that some people think the same thing applies when selling a home. Indeed, if you need to sell your property quickly, you might assume that setting a low listing price is the best way to make that happen.

But that isn’t necessarily true.

The fact is, the list price is only one of many factors that determine how quickly your home will sell—and for how much.

For example, if your home is in high demand at the moment—given its characteristics, neighbourhood, move-in readiness, and overall desirability—then it may sell quickly at its current market value or even a little higher.

On the other hand, if the market is more of a buyer’s market, setting a list price that will attract qualified buyers to your home, and away from comparable listings, may be important. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to low-ball the price.

Keep in mind there are many other things that can help get your property sold quickly, such as how skillfully your listing is promoted and marketed, how well your home shows to buyers, and how flexible you are with your closing date.

There are two trends impacting real estate photography that you should know about if you’re thinking of selling this year.

First, more than ever before, buyers are relying on pictures to decide whether or not to schedule a viewing. They expect to be able to go online and “tour” your home via the photography. If they don’t form a good impression of your home from the pictures, they may quickly lose interest in your listing.

Second, everyone is a photographer these days! Most people have phones with cameras, and many think they can take a decent picture.

Unfortunately, taking a “decent picture” isn’t good enough.

Your listing photos need to accomplish a lot. They must:

• give buyers the information they need: room sizes, layout, views, property details, etc;

• showcase the most enticing features of your home;

• communicate the functionality, spaciousness and style of each room;

• provide a sense of what it’s going to be like to live there; and, much more.

In short, listing photos need to help sell your property. When you consider that these pictures are often the first look-see buyers get of your home, you can appreciate how important they are.

So, don’t leave listing photos to chance. There is an art and science to taking them.

Think of it this way. If better listing photos encourage just five percent more buyers to schedule a viewing, that could result in a faster sale at a higher price.

By the way, I’m well-versed in the best practices of taking great listing photos. Call me for more information.