Anshu Arora LLM, MSc, PMP

There’s no online calculator for setting the perfect listing price for your home. It takes experience, market savvy, and even a bit of psychology. A strong listing agent can help you set the right, most competitive price for your home. Here are a few things they might look at:

1. The competition
Your agent will look at the prices of similar homes in your area that either are currently listed or sold during the past few months. They’ll take into account how many days the properties were on the market, and how the listing prices for those homes differed from the final sale prices.

2. Market trends
What’s affecting the market in your neighborhood, and your region? Your agent will consider national factors that shape the real estate market, such as possible rising interest rates, as well as local factors, like whether the average home price in your neighborhood has been rising or falling. They’ll also think about things such as new companies moving to the area in the near future, or plans for improving local amenities, like parks and shopping districts. All can increase the value of your home to a buyer.

3. Your neighbors
Although a home the same size and age recently sold for a high price, your own place might not fetch the exact same fortune if, say, junky cars continue to proliferate in your neighbor’s driveway. On the flipside, if the grass is in fact greener on the other side of the fence, your home’s value may be higher due to your neighbors’ curb appeal.

4. The Goldilocks price
Listing your home at a price that’s “just right” from the start is critical to selling it quickly, for the best price. Overpricing your home, and then dropping the price a few times while it sits on the market, could lead to a lower final sales price than if the home was priced appropriately from the beginning. And, of course, setting a price that’s too low leaves money on the table.

Wondering how much your home might be worth in today’s market? I Can Help

The Market is Great if you are a Seller and if you are a Buyer – Prices are steadily going up. As a Seller you can get top dollar for your house and as a Buyer you can rest assured that over the next 3-5 years prices will continue to rise and you’ll get a great return on your investment.

I've bought and sold properties for clients in Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, White Rock, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, Coquitlam, Kelowna, Osoyoos and Burnaby. 

If you have questions about Buying and Selling, contact me! I’ll be glad to help (or you can contact someone else who can talk to you about a slow, gloomy market instead)

Give your home an advantage by taking the time to spruce it up before you list, and whatever you do, don’t forget to stage this important space.

Don’t Neglect the Basement

A basement chock full of your disorganized piles of junk is a major turnoff to potential buyers. Even if the basement is unfinished, it should be clean, as bright as possible and dry. A quick coat of paint on a concrete floor can make the world of difference, as can neatly organized boxes.

Rearrange the Living Room

If you’ve got all your furniture pushed up against the walls to make the most of the space, it’s not doing much to help sell your home. Instead, try arranging the furniture in your living room in a fashion that encourages conversations rather than just as a place to store the kids’ toys or watch television. If you have a fireplace or a big window, make that the focal point and place the couch, a coffee table and a pair of chairs in an intimate setting.

Declutter the Kitchen

It goes without saying that a kitchen can sell a home, but a messy, cluttered kitchen can also make your home much harder to sell. Emphasize the size of your kitchen by clearing the counters of any small appliances and personal items such as mail and phone chargers. This will make even the smallest countertops and prep areas seem that much bigger.

Scrub the Bathroom

Sleek and modern bathrooms can help sell a home, but even a dated bathroom can show its best face with a little elbow grease. Get a big box and remove everything from the counters, shower and bathtub before scrubbing the bathroom from top to bottom. Only put back a few essential items like hand soap and some fluffy towels. To help brighten the whole space, consider getting a new, high-quality shower curtain to pull the look together.

Need help Staging and Selling - I can Assist

The first step to making a space feel more luxurious is to clear it out. While it may seem counterintuitive to remove things from a space rather than add them, clutter is a killer when trying to create a luxe décor aesthetic. Clearing off countertops, windowsills, shelves and tabletops opens up sight lines throughout the house, making it the focal point rather than knickknacks, piles of papers and abandoned crafting projects.

Keeping the interior paint palette neutral is an easy way to make a home feel more high-end, almost like a gallery. If your walls are a mishmash of trendy shades or four different variations of off-white, it’s time to head to the paint store to stock up on rollers, trays, painters tape and a few gallons of a single hue. While painting the space yourself may seem like a major undertaking, with a bit of careful planning, you’ll save yourself thousands of dollars and still get fabulous results.

What covers the windows in a room can have a major effect on the feel of the space as a whole — mismatched blinds, sun-bleached curtains and wonky rods will stick out like a sore thumb. Each room should have a unified window treatment, be it customized chintz drapes or made-to-measure roll blinds from Home Depot, what’s important is that each window has a matching cover. Also, making sure the glass is sparkling clean…dirty windows are a real downer. The more natural light in your home, the more uplifting it’ll feel.

From sprawling English manor houses to the sleek penthouses of New York, chances are you’ll spy a Persian kilim rug somewhere in there. Available in every shade, pattern and price point, picking up one of these mulitcoloured rugs adds instant cache to a cash-strapped space. Not to mention, it covers up cheaper flooring treatments or floorboard imperfections perfectly.

If the first stage was to declutter, the last step is to add in super-luxurious materials such as velvet, cashmere and faux fur — and the easiest way to do this is with throw pillows and blankets. Rather than replace your existing set of couch cushions, seek out a new set of velvet covers in a single, rich hue. A faux fur blanket draped over the edge of a worn-out couch creates a cosy vignette. Or tap into the Scandinavian aesthetic and throw sheepskins over everything from bar stools to office chairs.

Need help getting your home ready for the market - I can help