You might be surprised to know that selling a house is not as difficult as some real estate agents make it out to be. Many homeowners often sell their houses themselves directly to the buyer.
So, once you take this step, it might be a bit of a learning curve, but it is nothing that you can’t do.
In Alberta, the real estate agents can often charge pretty high commissions, which fetche a lesser amount to your pockets than the total deal amount. For instance, a realtor in Alberta can charge 7% for the first 100,000 and 3% for the remaining balance. Since an average house in Alberta is $300,000, you would end up paying $13,000 in commission. However, the commission is split into 50/50 between the buyer and seller.
So, if you are selling your house privately in Alberta, you would end up saving a lot of money and would get to take complete charge of the deal.
Here are some steps you can follow to sell your property by yourself.
1. Set a Fair Price
Determining an accurate price of the property is extremely important since it is the number one criterion of any home buyer.
The best way to check your price is to go through any of the recent real estate transactions in your neighborhood to get an idea.
However, if you are having trouble setting an appropriate price for the property, then you must consider hiring a professional appraiser.
2. Prepare Your Home to Sell
When visitors come to take a look at the house, it is important that the property makes a good first impression. So, you might have to stage the home, put on a fresh coat of paint, and fix any visible damages. You should also consider decluttering your property to make it look more big and clean.
3. Show Your Home
After listing your home, you will start getting calls, and people will start making inquiries.
Schedule an appointment with an interested buyer and prepare the house for the showing.
It is best that you keep any confidential or valuable items tucked away to give the potential buyers their space to explore the house.
4. Negotiation
Once you have started showing your house to potential buyers, there are high chances that you would start receiving offers. Since you are selling your house by yourself, you’ll have to negotiate directly with any buying prospects. It is certain that buyers will always offer you below your asking price. You have to decide yourself exactly how much low you are willing to go.
So, selling a house privately in Alberta may sometimes include a tough condition to deal with.
5. Reaching an Agreement
It is entirely a legal affair to close your agreement. Once you have reached an agreement with the potential buyer, then you can involve the lawyers a little bit more to handle the deal. Ensure that you exchange the details of the lawyers, and you should urge the buyer to send a draft of the purchase agreement.
Asking the buyer to send the purchase agreement first ensures that they are interested in the deal.
If, after all the amendments to the agreement if any, you feel comfortable, then you can close the deal.
So, these are some of the steps that you can follow to sell a home privately without the help of a real estate agent.
