Coldwell Banker - Westburn Realty

When the market soften a little bit, there are home owners would like to save some commission & try to sell their property by themselves. I don't blame them, it does takes up a good chunk of money from your sales proceed. However, here's the reality check when you try to sell the property by yourself.

It is NOT always about the money. There are many legal aspects you have to consider. Also, the bank lending policy is changing all the time. How do you know for sure the buyer is qualified to buy your property? Those are just the technical stuff. The emotional part is when seller shows their property to prospective buyer. Most sellers think their property is the best on the block or in the complex, therefore, when the buyer start criticising the property, very often seller will take it very personal & start to defend their property. Buyer who comes thru the For Sale By Owner listing wants to save commission too, therefore, they will use all kind of method to bargain even more. Then comes the Buyer wants to see the property in different time of the day. In most cases, we have to work, therefore, you will eliminate the showing frequency. Also, how do you know if they are real buyer. From the security point of view, would you let a stranger in just because you try to save some commission?

Commission: Everybody try to save some commission regardless what nationality. However Asians love to ask for commission rebate way more often than other nationality. I was trying to refer a listing to my Toronto colleague. Seller is Chinese but speaks good English. My non Asian colleague decline my referral because the image we have in Toronto is we only pays cheap commission so they don't want our business. It is very sad that it is true story.

A full time professional agent has to do a lot of work:

1) We are not supposed to just take a listing at whatever price our seller told us. We need to do a full CMA (Comparable Market Analysis). Our job is to sell the property at the highest price as possible for our seller. Most For Sale By Owners Seller only set their asking price based on other listings asking price because that's all they can see on the public website.

2) understand why the seller wants to sell. Do they just want to test the market? or do they really have a reason to sell?

3) set up a marketing plan for them & most importantly, a strategy how to sell the property.

4) qualify the buyer or the buyer's agent to make sure they have pre-approved mortgage so they can buy. A pre-approved buyer might still get declined by the bank these days.

5) If the property hasn't sold within the expected time, we should re-evaluate the property value with the Seller.

I've been selling Richmond & Vancouver West lately. I've noticed most of the Richmond listings sold below the current assessment value. Vancouver West is very close to assessment value, some higher, some lower. Why do we have more inventories than sold on the market? It is due to most sellers still live in 2011 peak period.

Should you wish to have more detail info, please feel free to call Tina at 604-412-5860 or tinamak@tinamak.com