Listing your house soon?  Follow these tips to ensure a quick and successful sale

1. Hire a local experienced agent who is professional and has a good reputation in your neighbourhood. The only person who knows your home as well as you do is your local realtor!  
    
2. Don’t overprice your home. This one is important! We all want to squeeze a little extra out of the sale, it’s natural. But resist the urge to list higher than your realtor recommends.  It will turn away the most likely buyers for your home and will mean you sit on the market longer, and maybe in the end get less than you could have for the home by the time the right buyer comes along.
    
3. When it comes to negotiating commission expect to compensate a good realtor fairly. Don’t get hung up on commission, instead focus on what services they are offering you and how they will help you quickly NET the most money from the sale. In the end they will put more money in your pocket and walk you through the process from start to finish taking many headaches and stressors off your shoulders. It has been said “When you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys”. This can be very true in many service based industries, but particularly so in Real Estate.
    
4. Freshen up paint on walls and trim. Don’t be offended if your realtor suggests a stager to assist with preparing your home for sale. It isn’t personal, it’s strictly business. If you knew you could sell for more by updating the furniture and decor temporarily wouldn’t that just make good business sense?
    
5. Don’t overlook the details. Your realtor, if a good one, will provide you with plenty of advice to make your home show amazing, and ensure a quick profitable sale. Write down the advice and suggestions they give you, follow through on all of them if you can. Commit to being an active participant in the sale of your home.  
    
6. Keep the home clean. Hire cleaners if you need extra help during the listing period.  Pick up kids toys, make all beds, clean toilets and sinks.  It is a lot of work, but the payoff could be huge.  The better your home shows, the more people will pay for it and the quicker it will sell.  A clean home give buyers the confidence that the home has been well maintained and thus they may be willing to pay a little more than the house that doesn’t show so well down the road.
    
7. Put your personal photos, knickknacks, and clutter in storage. And by storage I don’t mean in a back room of your basement.  People look inside closets and in storage rooms. You want them to know there is ample space in these areas!  Put the extra stuff into storage, outside of your house.
    
8. Maintain the outside of your house by making sure clutter outside the house and in the garage is cleaned up. Ensure gardens are weeded and freshly topped with mulch in the summer, and that driveways, walkways and decks are shoveled in the winter.  
    
9. DO NOT stay in the house during showings. I could elaborate on this, but I won’t. Just DON’T do it!
    
10. Try not to refuse showings unless absolutely necessary. People who want to come see your house have most likely booked 3 or 4 other showings for neighboring properties the same day. If they can’t get in to see yours there is a 100% chance they will not buy your home.
     
11. Do expect your agent to keep you in the loop on a regular basis and to provide you with honest feedback. If they have further suggestions to help with the sale, listen to what they are saying and consider making those changes sooner rather than later. Don’t blame them for the honest feedback, it is their job to let you know everything about the sale process of your home, good or bad.