Frequently Asked Questions

Our real estate services include everything you will need to sell or buy a property. 

Highlights include: 

* Professional photography and videography

* Room staging

* Pre-sale home inspection

* Drone video

* Dedicated website

* Establishing market value

* integrated marketing plan

As a home buyer, our services to you are paid for by the seller once a deal has been closed.  Rarely, they may be a scenario when purchasing a private sale where the buyer is required to pay our service fees. This is very unusual and case dependent.

As a seller, the service fees are negotiable. They are usually based on a percentage of the final sale amount.  Every case is different.  Remember that there is a portion of real estate fees that will go to the buyer's agent's brokerage and a portion to the seller's agent's brokerage.  

There are a lot of agents in the city. Choosing the right one for you should come down to how well you communicate with each other, how much time the agent will commit to you and how confident you are in their negotiating abilities. 

My brokerage is a very large and successful company.  We have access to the best in class marketing tools and the experience to ensure a safe and easy purchase and/or sale.  But guess what?  Many of the others also work for respected companies and have great marketing tools too.

The main difference between myself and the other agents out there is the relationship that we will create together. My goal is to have you so pleased with my efforts to help you that you will be completely satisfied and would want to work with me again in the future and recommend me to all of your friends.  It is not about making the sale for me.  It is about saving you money, guiding you through all of the steps of a transaction and making sure the sale or purchase is the right one for you.

Well...in short I'll help you by selling it for the most money, in the least amount of time with the least inconvenience. 

 

In a bit more detail, we will meet and discuss all of the steps involved so you know what is happening and when it will be completed.  There is a lot that goes into selling a house from getting the yard cleaned up to managing appointments and completing contracts and paperwork.  I will explain everything and meet with you regularly keeping you informed on the progress.  As your agent, I have a fiduciary duty to properly guide you and protect your interests

As a buyer, not right away.  If you are told by another agent that you MUST sign a buyer representation agreement right away, then I suggest you look elsewhere.   

Eventually, yes, it is a good thing to have the agreement signed.  I recommend signing an agreement prior to going out and viewing homes with your agent.  This protects you in case an accident happens during the showing.  A buyer agreement also ensures that the agent is officially working for you and not for the seller.  If you run into a disagreement with your agent, you can always change to another within that brokerage.  

As a seller, yes, you will need to sign what is known as a listing agreement.  This is the document that outlines the fact that the brokerage is going to list your house and explains what the fees are and how long the agreement is in place for.  

It is tempting to sell your house yourself or use an online service to do so.  In some cases, selling your home yourself works out just fine.  There are many downsides to taking that project on yourself.  

The MLS system is used as the primary tool of all of the agents in your city.  When you sell by yourself, you are limited to using tools like facebook, kijiji and similar systems to advertise your house.  Your reach will be less than 5% of the possible buyers in your area. Agents won't know your house is even on the market so will not bring their buyers to your table.  The more buyers, the better your chances are at selling your place for the most money and the best terms.  An agent will almost always bring more money to your sale then if you were to sell it yourself, saving you time and giving you peace of mind that it will be done correctly. 

A licensed real estate agent is able to assist you with both buying and selling real estate.  Some agents like to emphasize there services for helping you to sell your home and identify themselves as listing agents.  

I identify myself as your real estate partner.  My listing services here in Sudbury are second to none, offering all of the best services to get your home sold fast and for top dollar. As a partner, I make sure that your experience selling and buying homes, cottages or an investment property and moving and everything else associated with real estate is well explained and executed professionally.

Because it doesn't cost you anything, you have an expert working for you, they will give you lots of critical information about the property and in many cases will help you find homes that you would never have found on your own.  You want to have someone in your corner, working for you and not working for the seller.

The market right now is very much a seller's market.  Not many homes for sale and lots of buyers wanting to buy.  This leads to competition and bidding wars.  Not in every case, but there certainly are a lot of them going on right now.

What happens with a competition scenario is there are usually multiple offers presented to the seller at the same time.  They review them and pick the best one to work with.  All of the others are not accepted.  

For a seller, they want to sell their home as quickly as possible and with as few as possible ways for the deal to fall apart.   When a buyer submits an offer with conditions, it is possible for that buyer to walk away from the deal if a condition is not met.  If an offer is received by the seller with no conditions, then that is a much more secure deal in the eyes of the seller than one with conditions.

It is never recommended to submit an offer with no conditions. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to ask for a home inspection and ensure that the buyer's financing is going to be available come closing time.  A pre-approval does not guarantee the buyer that the underwriters will approve the mortgage as credit activity can and often does change rapidly.  

If the buyer has the funds available and does not need financing, has seen the property or has done a pre-inspection and there are no other complications or concerns, then yes, a no condition offer is fairly safe to submit.  

Some people are rolling the dice with no condition offers in their attempts to win the competition only to have the deal fall apart later when the financing doesn't come through.  This is a dangerous game as the seller may sue you for damages and the difference in sale price from your offer to the one they eventually end up accepting.