How Do I Sell My House Without A Realtor in Calgary?

How Do I Sell My House Without A Realtor in Calgary?

There are a few ways to avoid paying high commissions in your Alberta sale. First, it is important to understand that in most sales in Calgary, the seller pays the total commission. This is then split between seller’s agent (listing agent) and the buyers agent. The percentage of commission that goes to the buyers agent can vary, but it is common for roughly half of the commission you pay as the seller goes to pay for the buyer’s agent.

Doesn’t make much sense, right?

Why should you pay for the agent on the other side of the table? Part of the reason it is done this way is to incentivize the realtor who has buyers to show the property you want to sell. If there is no commission in it for the buyers agent, they might skip right over it. Another reason it is done this way is because, well, it’s tradition. Yes, that’s right… it’s just the way the commission structure has always been set up.

Although it isn’t the most logical – it’s just the way it’s always been done.

You can use that to your advantage in a few ways.

When evaluating comparable sales, remember to consider the commissions paid. If the properties similar to yours were sold for prices that included commissions, it’s important to factor that into your analysis.

Avoid underpricing your property – keep in mind that a knowledgeable buyer might anticipate a discount. By handling the work typically done by a real estate agent, you stand to save on those costs.

Buyers in Calgary who are not represented by an agent may overlook negotiating the buyer’s side commission. It’s your choice whether to remind them about this aspect. If you opt not to cover this cost, be prepared for it to potentially arise during negotiations.

Consider providing a competitive 2.5% commission to buyer’s agents bringing clients to view your property. By factoring this into your pricing, you create space for negotiation with buyers lacking representation.

By excluding the buyer’s agent commission from your pricing, you risk alienating a significant portion of the market in Calgary.

Over 90% of transactions occur through the MLS, the Multiple Listing Service utilized by all brokers in Calgary to access property information, including listings and sold prices for houses, condos, land, and investment properties.

Previously, listing on the MLS required paying a full commission. Nowadays in Calgary, some brokers charge a fee solely for listing your property on the MLS. Typically, you pay a nominal fee upfront and only a commission if the sale is finalized.

When compared to the expense of a newspaper advertisement, the MLS offers a cost-effective method to market your property to a broad audience.

Major real estate search platforms such as Realtor.ca, Bode.ca, Honestdoor.com, and others source their data from the MLS. Therefore, by submitting your listing in Calgary to the MLS, your property details are likely to appear on these prominent sites within days.

These platforms offer advertising packages enabling you to enhance your listing, feature it prominently in searches, and utilize various other tools that may attract potential buyers to your property.

Advertising involves risk. Open houses in Calgary Alberta, newspaper ads, Facebook posts, Kijiji listings, and elaborate signs can sometimes be effective in selling a property, while other times they may not yield the desired results.

To effectively sell your property on your own, you have to market it well.

Putting up fliers and signs around your neighborhood can generate some calls, and there’s a lot of free websites where you can post information. But often just putting up flyers and an open house isn’t enough if your house doesn’t appeal to the average home buyer.

In theory, real estate agents charge big commissions because they have to spend a lot of money up front to advertise your property. By advertising lots of properties at once, they expect to get more phone calls – and obviously, they’ll make good profits by selling lots of houses.

Certain properties might require thousands of dollars in advertising expenses before the right buyer happens to see the ad and call. It all depends on market conditions, the location of the property, the time of year sold, and what comparable product sells in that market and for what price. If you are going to take this on yourself, be prepared with significant reserves in order to market more then you have thought necessary.

If you want to avoid paying any commissions, you can also sell your house to investors like us for CASH

We offer fair prices for properties – and we can close fast (in as little as 7 days if you need to). We will lay out exactly how we arrived at the number we offer so that there is full transparency in our offer. There is no obligation, just because we prepare an offer and present it to you does not mean that you must feel obligated to accept it. This is simply another viable option for you to sell your home, for a fair price, with a lot more convenience.

Sometimes we’ll purchase Calgary houses, fix them up, and then rent them out. We love contributing to Calgary’s rental supply and to help fight the shortage of units in our city. In other situations we’ll fix up a home and sell them to other people looking for great place to live in the area. It just depends on the situation and individual property – but we love to hear from people like you who are thinking of selling anywhere in Alberta.

We’re investors who care a lot about Calgary.