There’s more than one way to sell a house. Montreal real estate buyers have different needs. Therefore, adapting your sales strategies to your target buyer will help you increase your number of visits and sell faster. Here are 4 ways to attract real estate buyers to Montreal.
4 ways to attract real estate buyers to Montréal
1. Declutter, inside and out
De-cluttering a home can seem like a daunting task, especially if you and your family have been living there for several years. Items piled up in closets, on shelves and on kitchen counters. Then the mess spread to the garage and bathrooms. A cluttered home is anything but attractive. What’s more, a muddy area tends to look smaller.
If you want to sell, that means you also want to move. So take this opportunity to start throwing away and giving away those things you no longer want anyway. Pack what you won’t be needing for the next few months, and rent a storage unit if your garage isn’t big enough to accommodate those boxes without looking cluttered.
Once you’ve tidied up, you can clean the house from top to bottom. Once counters, shelves and floors have been cleared, mop and disinfect everything you can. This major clean-up will give your potential buyers an improved first impression of your property.
2. Make the necessary repairs
If you know something should be fixed, fix it. For some, it’s just common sense, but many homeowners decide to wait and see what happens when buyers visit. Of course, sooner or later your potential buyers will notice the non-working appliances, leaky roof and plumbing problems.
How? First of all, you are required by law to declare any defects of which you are aware. Then, if you’re not aware of a certain problem, the inspector hired by your buyer will certainly find it. Once the buyer is aware of the property’s defects, they’ll ask you to take care of the work or offer them a loan. One way or another, you’ll have to pay for what needs to be fixed.
It’s so much easier to talk about repairs, maintenance and improvements to your potential buyers as they tour your home. Doing the work ahead of time will speed up the process and reassure potential buyers that you are a responsible owner who has taken good care of the place that could well become their new home.
3. Do a good job of home staging
Every day, customers turn down a home staging offer from their real estate agent. Unless you have a home worth over a million dollars, most customers simply don’t see the need to spend the extra money on home staging.
However, home staging doesn’t always mean turning everything upside down and renting new furniture. On the contrary, it’s often just a matter of rearranging. Replace a few pieces of furniture, remove family photos and artwork, add a few splashes of color, and you’re done!
Decluttering is a good start. Then you have to make the house a place where everyone can imagine living. This will multiply the number of potential buyers who will make an offer on your property.
4. Set a selling price slightly below actual value
Advertising your home for sale at a price below its market value can seem counterproductive.
When a potential buyer looks at the different properties available on the market, he indicates specific information, such as the number of rooms, the location, the condition of the property and the selling price. If the first three criteria are equivalent for two properties, the buyer will use price to build a ranking. In a market where there are many potential buyers looking for a property, a lower price brings more visitors.
If you’ve hired a good agent, he or she will then hold open house days where potential buyers will be pleasantly surprised since you’ve taken the time to thoroughly clean, de-clutter and stage the property. In most cases, this combination leads to multiple offers. The owner then has the opportunity to hold a kind of auction, where several buyers agree to offer a little more money than the others, until the market value is reached. Often, this means that owners receive even more than they would have if they had advertised at the market price.
