Sell With Confidence

A seller in Burnaby or Greater Vancouver should understand the sequence before a sign goes up. The useful early work is usually reason, timing, the property’s current market position, an asking-price strategy, and a first look at the costs that can reduce what you receive at completion.

This written guide is public. You do not need to register for the seminar to read it. The on-demand seminar can add examples and current context. It is optional.

The notes below are general real-estate education. Transaction terms, seller costs, tax treatment, and contract language depend on the property and the people in the deal. Alex can help organize a sale through real estate services. This page is not legal, tax, mortgage, accounting, or appraisal advice.

Strategy changes with the reason for the move. A job relocation, a downsize, an estate sale, a purchase that depends on this sale, and a tenanted investment each raise different date and condition questions. Occupied homes, vacant homes, and tenanted homes also change how showings and possession can work.

Write down the date you need to be out, whether another property is being purchased, and what would make a later completion acceptable. There is no universally best sequence of selling first or buying first. Those are trade-offs for your household, not a script on this page.

Market position is a comparison, not a prediction. Recent comparable sales, current competing listings, property type, location, condition, size, lot characteristics, and — for a strata lot — the building’s documents and fees all sit beside any asking price. Property-specific features can matter. Neighbourhood averages do not replace that file.

A BC Assessment value is an assessed value for taxation. It is not the same as a sale price, an asking price, or a formal appraisal. This page does not forecast appreciation or invent market statistics.

Pricing may consider recent sales, competing listings, and the property itself. BCFSA notes that buyers typically look first at what similar homes have sold for, then at neighbourhood and property differences. An asking price is the number you publish. Market value is what a willing buyer and seller may later agree. Those are not the same thing.

An asking price does not guarantee a sale price. A conversation about home value, including the home-value inquiry on this site, is not a formal appraisal and is not a certified valuation. Alex does not publish automatic valuations or a promised range for a property he has not reviewed.

Before you lock an asking price, BCFSA suggests asking for an estimate of net cash proceeds based on that price and the financing currently in place. That estimate is a planning tool. It is not a guarantee.

Presentation usually includes decluttering, cleaning, fixing obvious defects, and making rooms easy to walk through. Access matters as much as cosmetics: keys, parking, lockboxes, and a plan for pets or occupants during showings.

Spending on repairs or staging does not come with a promised return on this page. The useful test is whether a buyer can see the home clearly, not whether a dollar of work produces a stated dollar of sale price.

Useful information often includes property details, renovation history, permits where work was done, warranties or manuals, and any property disclosure the seller chooses to complete. Title-related questions belong with a lawyer or notary once a contract is in view. This page does not decide what every seller must disclose.

If the home is a strata lot, buyers typically review corporation documents as part of their offer. The provincial buying and selling strata page is the official overview. For a Burnaby strata lot that a buyer will review, the Burnaby strata document review guide is the buyer-oriented resource. This seller page is not a second strata manual.

If the home is tenanted, selling does not automatically end the tenancy. Current B.C. tenancy rules matter. See selling a rental property, the sell a tenanted home in B.C. guide, and the property management guide rather than treating vacant possession as automatic.

A typical launch starts with photos and a written listing, then exposure through the listing brokerage — including MLS® distribution where a multiple listing is used — plus showing coordination and feedback. The existing seminar also covers professional photography, social media, and video as presentation choices when they fit the property.

Marketing does not promise a number of showings, a social-reach figure, a sale speed, or a sale price. Current listings on this site are on Homes for Sale. Those pages are inventory, not a forecast for your address.

Showings work better when the home is ready, access is arranged, and occupants know when people will be inside. Feedback after a showing is information. It is not a score that tells you to cut the price.

A tenanted sale adds notice and access questions that sit under provincial tenancy law. This page does not quote entry rules or notice periods. Use the landlord guide and the official tenancy pages for that detail.

BCFSA describes an offer as a contract to read line by line. Price is one term. Deposit, subjects, completion date, possession date, included or excluded items, financing-related conditions, inspection conditions, a buyer’s own sale condition, and other written terms can all change the risk and the timeline.

You may accept, decline, ignore until it expires, or counter. A counteroffer replaces the offer you changed. This page does not tell you which offer to accept and does not rank offers.

A higher price with fragile financing, a long subject period, a weak deposit arrangement, or dates that do not fit your next move can be less useful than a cleaner offer at a lower number. Certainty, dates, and conditions belong in the comparison.

There is no best-offer score, good-offer label, or closing-probability rating on this page. Those judgments stay with you, your licensee, and — where the contract needs it — a lawyer.

Subjects, also called conditions, are terms that let a buyer complete defined work — such as financing, inspection, strata-document review, title review, insurance, or the sale of their own property — before the contract becomes unconditional. BCFSA treats subject clauses as conditions that have to be fulfilled for that sale to proceed as written.

There is no required list that every buyer must use. This guide does not draft clauses, interpret contract language, or tell sellers to pressure buyers to remove conditions. The useful set depends on the offer in front of you.

A deposit is typically a good-faith sum named in the offer. Amount, timing, and who holds it are negotiated. This page does not publish a standard percentage, a mandatory amount, or a deadline.

If a transaction does not complete, BCFSA explains that a deposit held by a brokerage is not automatically released to either side without the process that applies to that deposit. A seller does not automatically keep a deposit because a deal failed. Read the official page and ask a lawyer when a release is in dispute.

When more than one offer is in play, the same comparison still applies: price, conditions, dates, deposit, and how certain the rest of the terms look. Some sellers review offers as they arrive. Others name a time to look at several together. Neither approach guarantees a higher price.

This page does not invent bidding-war tactics or rank competing buyers. BCFSA’s offers guidance is the official consumer overview.

Signing an offer without changes creates a contract. Both sides are expected to follow the written terms. Subjects may still be open. Some residential purchases also have a statutory buyer rescission right with its own timing, fee, and exemptions. This page does not state those figures. Use the current BCFSA offers page rather than treating this paragraph as the rule for your contract.

An accepted offer is not immediately a firm sale. Next steps depend on the contract: deposit delivery, subject work, and instructing a lawyer or notary. This page does not interpret a specific agreement or tell a seller they can walk away after acceptance.

Subject removal or satisfaction depends on the actual contract. Until those conditions are dealt with as written, the sale is not the same as an unconditional, firm sale. This page does not give deadlines from memory or advice about forcing removal or ending a contract.

After subjects are removed, the work shifts to completion: mortgage payout figures, adjustments, strata certificates where they apply, and the dates already written. If a living subject cannot be met, parties typically need professional advice. None of those outcomes is recommended here for a specific property.

BCFSA describes completion as the day legal ownership transfers in exchange for the purchase price, and possession as the day the buyer is entitled to occupy or take control under the contract. Those dates can be the same day or different days. There is no universal number of days between them.

A lawyer or notary typically prepares the transfer, reviews title, handles the mortgage discharge where required, and issues a statement of adjustments. Keys and access are a possession-day item, not a substitute for registered title. This page is not conveyancing advice.

Estimated net proceeds are the amount that may remain after the sale price is reduced by transaction costs, any mortgage or other secured payout, and property-specific adjustments. In concept:

Expected sale proceeds, minus transaction costs, minus mortgage or secured-debt payout where it applies, minus property-specific adjustments, leaves an estimated amount before any other personal tax or financial obligations.

That relationship is not an accounting statement and not a calculator. This page does not invent a default commission, legal fee, tax amount, or mortgage penalty, and it does not produce your proceeds. Actual net proceeds depend on the final price, the contract, the mortgage payout, professional fees, adjustments, and tax circumstances. Estimated net proceeds are not guaranteed before completion.

Tax treatment depends on the seller and the property. A principal residence is not automatically tax-free in every circumstance. This page does not calculate capital gains, flipping tax, or GST on a disposition. If tax is in question, use the Canada Revenue Agency principal-residence page and a qualified tax adviser.