Recently, Straight Goods featured When to roam from the homestead, an excerpt from PJ Wade's book, Have Your Home and Money Too (John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.), in which the author offers important tips on how to decide whether to sell your home or age in place. In this second installment, Wade tells us how to get the most out of selling your house.
 

This excerpt of PJ Wade's book, Have Your Home and Money Too appears courtesy of the author and the publisher, John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd

WHAT TO DO IF YOU DECIDE TO SELL YOUR HOME.

Step one: Develop an attitude Getting the most out of the sale of your home is important, especially when the property is your major asset. However, there is a lot more to selling your home successfully that simply putting a For Sale sign on the front lawn. Selling your home does not mean sitting down to wait for buyers to appear. To sell successfully you should do everything you can do attract buyers to your home.

THE ELEMENTS OF AN OFFER

• The best price Yes, the sale price is a consideration, but what you net from the sale is even more important. After all the costs and expenses of selling are deducted, how much is left to you? An offer where you are asked to take an inconvenient moving date, leave all the appliances you had hoped to take with you, and discharge your existing mortgage may not net you as much as a lower-priced offer with a compatible closing date, no request for appliances, and agreement to assume your existing mortgage and save you the discharge fee.
• Buyer commitment A great selling price is nice, but if the buyers are overextending themselves or are buying as an investment, they may not be committed to the transaction if the real estate market has a downturn before the deal closes.
• Closing date If a buyer offers a good price but requests a closing date that does not match your needs, complying with their request may cost you money and cause great inconvenience. If they want to move sooner than you expected, you may have to put everything in storage and bunk in with relatives. If they want to move in later than you had planned, you may end up owning two houses for a while.
• It's the package that counts Keep in mind that any change to an offer to purchase makes the offer null and void and releases the buyer from the obligation to repeated any aspect of the offer. An accomplished real estate professional should be able to help you determine the net proceeds of the transactions and evaluate all of the elements of the buyer's offer.

FINDING A REAL ESTATE PERSON YOU CAN TRUST

Some professionals and salespeople answer consumers' questions and concerns with "Just trust me." Turn the tables and ask the housing or financial adviser or salesperson why you should trust them. Do it when you meet them and before you enter into each transaction. Their response will genuinely create trust or it will ring alarm bells for you. Try a few variations too.

What has their industry or profession done to earn consumers' trust? What are they planning for this year? What recourse do you have if they make a mistake? What will the adviser's or the salesperson's corporation do? What consumer protection and consumer education services and products do trade associations and regulatory bodies offer?