How to sell a house in Burnaby

A listing starts when you choose a licensed REALTOR® and read what representation means in the written agreement.

A listing agreement sets the term, the services, and how commission is set. Commission is negotiable, agreed in writing. There is no figure on this page. The agreement is the place the number lives, for that property and that term. Ask what preparation, presentation, and marketing are included before you sign. Those three are the service: how the home will be got ready, how it will be shown, and how buyers and their agents will be reached.

Sellers also see disclosure forms. BCFSA’s public real estate resources are the consumer pages for buyers and sellers, including disclosure and representation. Read those pages for the consumer-protection frame. This guide does not replace them.

The person-and-service page for this work in Burnaby is Burnaby realtor. That page is about working with Alex Lam PREC through Coldwell Banker Prestige Realty. This page is the order of the sale.

Price the home from recent comparable sales of similar Burnaby properties, not from a promised result.

A comparative market analysis is that comparison. It looks at homes that sold, and at homes that are listed, with a similar form, size, age, and location. Condition changes the comparison. A strata home also needs the strata context: monthly contributions, bylaws, and what the documents say about the building. Zoning changes what a buyer can do with the lot, so it belongs in the same conversation as the sales.

BC Assessment publishes the assessment used for property taxes. Use that site for the assessment record. Do not treat the assessment notice as the listing price. Recent sales are the pricing evidence. The assessment is a different record.

Some Burnaby lots may draw interest from builders under provincial small-scale multi-unit housing rules, which can require zoning to allow more than one home on certain residential lots. That is context for who might ask about the property. It is not a statement of what the lot is worth, and the zoning on the specific lot still has to be checked.

Preparation is the work done before photography and showings: repairs, decluttering, staging, photography, and floor plans.

The sequence is practical. Fix what a buyer will see and what an inspector is likely to flag, within the budget you actually set. Declutter so the rooms read as space, not as storage. Staging is how the home is presented for photos and for the first walk-through. Photography and a floor plan are how that presentation travels to people who have not visited yet.

This is the service edge on a Burnaby listing: a defined process for preparation, presentation, and marketing. The process is the offer. It is not a claim about days on market, a sale-price result, or a percentage difference versus an unprepared home. Those outcomes are not promised here.

Gather the paper the buyer, the buyer’s agent, and your lawyer or notary will ask for before the home is marketed.

For any home, that file usually includes title, a property disclosure statement, and mortgage payout information from your lender. Title shows how the property is registered. The disclosure statement is the seller’s account of the property. The payout figure is what the lender says is owing, including any penalty the lender calculates. Ask the lender for that figure. This page does not state a penalty.

A strata condo or townhouse adds corporation documents. Buyers expect a Form B information certificate, minutes, bylaws, and the depreciation report when the strata has one. The Strata Property Act is the statute. B.C. strata housing is the Province’s overview, including bylaws. The reading guide on this site is strata document review. Use that page for the document-by-document pass. This page only names the file.

If a tenant lives in the home, gather the tenancy agreement and read the notice rules before you promise vacant possession. The Province’s landlord notice page lists a “Three month notice for purchaser occupancy of the rental unit.” For a notice generated on or after August 21, 2024, the landlord must give three months’ notice. Last verified: 13 October 2026 PT. Confirm the live page before anyone serves a notice. The listing side of a tenanted sale is how to sell a tenanted home in BC.

Listing is placing the home on MLS® and marketing it so qualified buyers and their agents can find it.

The marketing work that follows preparation is photography already in hand, showings, open houses when they fit the property, and outreach to buyer agents who are active with that housing form. A condo in a town centre and a detached house on a lot are marketed to different buyer pools. The plan names the pool. It does not invent a reach number, an ad impression, or a count of agents contacted.

Showings on a tenanted home still follow tenancy rules. Marketing does not override the tenant’s right to notice. That constraint belongs in the listing plan, not in a footnote after the photos are booked.

Review the whole offer: price, deposit, subjects, completion date, and possession date, then decide whether to accept, counter, or wait.

Price is one term. A higher price with a long subject list or a completion date that misses your next home can be a weaker offer than a cleaner one. The deposit, the subjects, and the dates are part of the comparison. A counter-offer changes the terms you will actually accept. If more than one offer arrives, the same comparison applies to each: price and terms together, not price alone.

The buyer may have a home buyer rescission period. BCFSA states that a buyer has the right to rescind a home offer within three business days after the offer is accepted, and that the three-day rescission period excludes weekends and holidays. The rescission fee is 0.25% of the offer price. The right to rescission cannot be waived by the buyer or the seller. The seller will receive a disclosure of the buyer’s right of rescission when an offer is made. For the seller, an accepted offer on a property covered by those rules is still inside that buyer right until the period ends. Not every property is included. Read the BCFSA page for the property types. Last verified: 13 October 2026 PT.

After the buyer removes subjects, the deposit stays in trust and your lawyer or notary carries the file through completion and possession.

Subject removal is the buyer taking the conditions off the contract. The deposit is held in trust. BCFSA’s rescission page refers to the buyer’s brokerage holding the deposit. The contract on your file names who holds it. Your lawyer or notary then handles completion: the mortgage discharge, the statement of adjustments, and the application to register the transfer. The Land Title and Survey Authority is where ownership changes and a paid-off mortgage are registered. Completion day is when the transfer is completed. Possession day is when the buyer is entitled to the keys. They are often the same day. They are not the same event, and the contract sets each one.

Annual property taxes are adjusted between seller and buyer on that statement of adjustments. The City of Burnaby property tax pages explain how the City bills the tax. You can estimate a bill on the BC property tax calculator. The calculator is an estimate. The adjustment on your statement is the lawyer or notary’s figure.

The seller’s costs are the items in the listing agreement and the closing file, and property transfer tax is not one of them.

• Commission, which is negotiable, agreed in writing, plus GST. Model your own numbers on the realtor commission calculator. This page does not publish a rate.
• Legal or notary services, billed by that professional.
• Mortgage payout or a lender penalty. Ask your lender. No amount is stated here.
• Moving.

Property transfer tax is paid by the person who purchases or gains an interest when that interest is registered at the Land Title Office, unless an exemption applies. The Province’s property transfer tax page is the source. If you are also buying, estimate that separate bill on the BC property transfer tax calculator. Last verified: 13 October 2026 PT.

Check two tax questions with an accountant before you rely on an exemption: how the sale is reported to the Canada Revenue Agency, and whether the BC home flipping tax can apply.

For a principal residence, report the sale on Schedule 3 and designate the property on Form T2091(IND), even when no tax is owed. The CRA principal residence page says the CRA will accept a late designation in certain circumstances, but a penalty may apply. The form is T2091(IND). This page does not calculate the exemption.

The BC home flipping tax applies to the profit from selling a residential property in British Columbia, including a presale contract, if you owned the property for less than 730 days. The tax took effect on January 1, 2025. You must file a return within 90 days of disposing of a taxable property if you have owned that property for less than 730 days. A primary residence deduction of up to $20,000 may be available if you owned the home for at least 365 consecutive days and lived in it as your primary residence. Read the conditions on the Province’s page, the exemptions page, and the file-a-return page. Last verified: 13 October 2026 PT. Speak with an accountant. This is not tax advice.

If the home was a rental, speculation and vacancy tax is a separate annual tax on how the property is used. The speculation and vacancy tax page is the Province’s overview. The BC speculation and vacancy tax landlord guide is context only. It is not a tax result on the sale.

Last verified: 13 October 2026 PT. Official pages linked in this guide were re-read that day. Figures above are quoted from those pages. General information, not legal or tax advice.

• BCFSA — public real estate resources
• BCFSA — home buyer rescission period
• Property transfer tax
• Canada Revenue Agency — principal residence and other real estate
• Canada Revenue Agency — Form T2091(IND)
• BC home flipping tax
• Exemptions from the BC home flipping tax
• File a return for the BC home flipping tax
• Ending a tenancy — landlord notice
• Strata Property Act
• B.C. strata housing
• BC Assessment
• City of Burnaby — property taxes
• Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia
• B.C. speculation and vacancy tax

A strata sale turns on corporation documents and bylaws. A detached sale turns on the land, the zoning, and what an inspection will show.

For a condo or townhouse, the buyer’s subjects usually include the Form B, minutes, bylaws, and the depreciation report. Parking, storage, and what the bylaws allow are part of that read. Do not repeat the strata guide here. Use strata document review for that depth.

For a detached house, the questions are the lot, the zoning, the systems, and the inspection. Builder interest under small-scale multi-unit housing rules, when it exists, is a zoning question about that lot. It is not a price. The Burnaby real estate guide is the place context for housing forms in the city. This page stays on the order of the sale.