Services
Selling well is mostly preparation. Here is how a home goes from a first conversation to a firm sale, and what each stage is actually for.
An online estimate is a computer model. It reads whatever public information it can reach and returns one confident figure. It has never stood in your kitchen, does not know the furnace was replaced, cannot tell a ravine lot from one backing onto a parking lot, and has no idea which buyers walked away or why.
A comparative market analysis is done by a licensed person with access to the sold data. I pull homes genuinely comparable to yours — same pocket, similar size, age and condition — that actually closed, not ones merely listed and hoping. A list price is an ask. A sold price is an agreement two parties reached.
Then I adjust between those sales and your home for what differs: a finished basement, a garage, exposure, what has been renovated and what has not. The result is a supported range with the reasoning attached, so you can push back on any part of it. You can argue with a comparative market analysis. There is no arguing with an algorithm.
None of this should be a surprise. If you have never sold before, this is the whole shape of it.
Free, and nothing to sign. I walk the house, note condition and layout, and ask what your timing really is. Selling to move up, to downsize, or to relocate for work are three different problems.
I come back with sold comparables and a supported range, plus a plain accounting of what reaches you after commission, legal fees, mortgage discharge and adjustments. Your net is the number that matters.
A written agreement with the brokerage sets the term, the commission and what is included. Expect a clear conversation about representation and what it obligates me to do. Read it before you sign, and ask what happens if you want out.
Where most of the value is created, and the stage sellers most often rush. Declutter, depersonalize, deep clean, repair the small visible defects. I will tell you what is worth doing and, more usefully, what is not.
Staging arranges what is already there so rooms read at their true scale. Photography happens after preparation, never before. Buyers meet your home as images on a phone first, and a dark photo of a cluttered room is expensive.
The listing goes onto the MLS® system and syndicates out from there. We agree in advance how showings are booked, whether there is a lockbox, and how much notice you need. Feedback reaches you as it was given to me.
An offer carries a price, a deposit, a closing date, conditions and an irrevocable deadline after which it expires. I walk you through all of it, not just the price. A shaky financing condition can make the higher offer the weaker one.
Once conditions are waived the deal is firm and the deposit sits in the brokerage's real estate trust account. Your lawyer handles title, discharge and adjustments. I stay in it until the keys change hands.
These are the parts that catch sellers out. None are dramatic. All are easier to handle before they arrive.
An agent who opens with the most generous figure is competing for your signature, not your outcome. Ask any agent, me included, to show the sold comparables behind the range. Reasoning you are not shown is not reasoning.
It is negotiated, and part of it is offered to the brokerage that brings the buyer. Ask how it divides and what marketing it actually pays for, then get the answer in writing.
Listing agreements have a term and usually a holdover period after it. If a buyer introduced during the term buys later, commission can still be owed. Learn that before you sign, not after.
A buyer is expected to notice what is in plain sight. Concealed defects that make a home unsafe or unfit are a different category, and burying one brings the problem back after closing. Tell me early.
A handshake at the door or an eager text from another agent holds nothing. The deal exists once it is in writing and signed by both sides. And if you are selling a condominium, order the status certificate early — it takes time to produce.
The process above is the same everywhere I work, but the buyer a home attracts is not. Pick the market closest to yours, read how the other side of the transaction works on the buying side, or start back at the homepage.
It is free, there is no obligation, and it costs you one conversation. If the answer is that this is not the right moment to sell, that is a perfectly good outcome and I will tell you so.
Farhan Amdani (Samiullah)
Realtor® · Durrani Real Estate Group
Century 21 Property Zone Realty Inc.
Serving Milton, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Toronto & GTA.