1. Prepare Your Home.

Take a walk through your home and list any repairs and/or upgrades that will increase your home’s value and start tackling it.

Arrange a yard sale to liquidate any items that are in storage and no longer useful, but are taking up precious space. Facebook Marketplace, or Kijiji are also great options for selling privately.

2. Fix It - Or Upgrade It.

Consider small upgrades, such as adding a backsplash in the kitchen, or replacing dated cabinet pulls to bring your home’s appeal back to life.

Repair cosmetic scuffs, scratches, cracks and damage to walls, trim, tiles and any other small areas that would otherwise become a detractor to a potential buyer, improving their impression of the home.

3. Set the Stage.

Curb appeal is everything - someone will fall in love with your house before they even step through the front doors. Keep tasteful decorative items and seasonal planters in mind when dressing your porch and entryway. Don’t forget to cut your grass and weed your garden!

Remove and/or move furniture around to open up a space, even if it does not seem to make sense functionally. Your potential buyer will see the room’s full potential.

Declutter and depersonalize your home, removing personal belongings, family photos and trinkets to give the potential buyer an opportunity to see themselves in the space.

Consider staging services if you’re feeling out of your element and need the help of a professional.

4. Find A Good Real Estate Lawyer.

Speaking to a real estate lawyer will help you to determine and understand which clauses and conditions would be most suitable for your situation, when the time comes to put together an offer.

A real estate lawyer should also break down your closing costs to help you plan effectively for the closing date.
Things like lawyer’s fees, land transfer tax, first time buyer rebates, document registration fees, title search fees, title insurance, and any prepaid utility bills or taxes should all be discussed and further outlined in a statement of adjustments when you and your lawyer sign documents before close.

The lawyer is also responsible for ensuring that you have good title to the property, meaning that you really own the property, and that no one else has a right to claim or lien on it, such as a mortgage lender, a contractor, or the spouse or an associate of the seller. The lawyer does this by doing a title search on the property.

The lawyer should contact the utility companies and municipality to to have utility meters read on the date of closing and arrange for future bills to be received by you.

The lawyer arranges title insurance, which is a premium that protects you from the following:

• title issues that prevent you from having clear ownership of of your property.

• any existing liens on the property that were not uncovered before closing.

• encroachment issues.

• title fraud.

• errors in surveys and public records.

• any other title related issues that may affect your ability to sell the home in the future.

The lawyer holds your closing funds, along with funds provided by the mortgage lender in trust to transfer them to the seller, ensuring the home purchase transaction is complete

Finally, the lawyer arranges for you to receive the keys to your home as soon as possible after closing.

Our Recommendation:

Robert Korzecki
King Law Professional Corporation

5. Connect With a Reliable Home Inspector.

When it comes time to start looking at homes, it’s also a good idea to consider who you will use to inspect your chosen property, confirming its worthiness as a place to move in to.

A condition is inserted into your offer with an expiration date, to arrange for an inspection by a predetermined time.

A professional inspector will come equipped with a host of tools to check major systems of the home, such as:

• Heating and/or cooling system (HVAC - heat, ventilation and air conditioning)

• Structural system and foundation

• Electrical system

• Plumbing system

• Exterior cladding and fascia

• Roof structure and shingles

An inspection can take anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours, depending on the size of the home, complexity of systems, and amount of findings.

A report is prepared and provided to you for review and assists with making important decisions about the home.

At this point, should anything major be uncovered, you may request that the seller address the repairs and/or damage by means of repairing or replacing components via a professional contractor by a predetermined date before closing, and requesting a walk-through to confirm the work done.

You may instead renegotiate the established price to account for addressing the issues yourself, reducing the initial amount you were willing to pay for the home by the amount you will be paying to have the work done by hiring your own professional contractor.

In a competitive market, sometimes offers with the fewest conditions are the most desirable by the seller, specifically when in a multiple offer situation.

A walk-through inspection may be considered, before you put an offer on your chosen home.

The purpose of the walk-through inspection is to highlight any potential defects in the home’s major components and systems.

A visual inspection is performed on the roof, furnace, water heater, air conditioning, and foundation using an infrared camera.

You are welcome to take photos to document any findings to help decide if this truly is the home for you, as no report is generated at this time.

Our Recommendation:

Oscar Verduga
Trusted Realty Inspections