My number one priority is making my clients happy with their sale.

I work very hard to make sure that every property I list is listed at exactly the right price, is professionally photographed, and gets marketed to buyers through various outlets. Then, I negotiate every dollar your home deserves.

Full Service Real Estate

Over the past decade, there has been a noticeable surge in the popularity of this term, highlighting a clear distinction between real estate agents. This separation is drawn between those who merely execute the basic requirements and those who leverage an extensive array of tools to ensure you not only meet but exceed your expectations in terms of property value.

Pricing & Initial Assessment 

Ensuring that your property is valued at the right price is essential for generating interest. Pricing it either too high or too low could result in leaving money on the table at the end of negotiations. The internet plays a significant role in determining the value of a given property. How it is marketed online is much more crucial than physical print because most other Realtors® and buyers search for properties online.

I work diligently to determine the appropriate price range at which a property is likely to sell and should be listed. To establish these values, I conduct extensive online research into prices of similar properties in the area and past sales. A substantial part of my experience before entering real estate involves business plan writing and market research. Market research remains equally important when valuing your property for sale. When we discuss the pricing of your property, I present you with hard facts regarding what the market is doing in your area, rather than just an off-the-cuff guess.

Feel free to contact me for a no-obligation market assessment.

Preparation For Viewings & Staging

One of the key differentiators between new agents and experienced ones is how a property is presented to the public – leading to wildly different sales prices in nearly identical properties. Much of this comes down to preparation. Don’t get me wrong, spending money on a property you’re going to sell may seem pointless, though you will recoup every dollar spent at a ratio of about 5:1 on the sale price (yes, you read that right). It generally also translates into a quicker sale.

The Basics (Cleaning, Painting, and Landscaping)

When selling detached properties, it makes sense to have a good landscaper or gardener come through before listing. Painting makes a world of difference as well, especially with outdated colours or damaged walls. Needless to say, cleaning up before showings is essential.

Furniture Staging

Staging helps buyers visualize a home. Many times I’ve walked into a vacant property with Buyer clients and they simply cannot visualize how furniture would look to make a space feel homely.

Hiring a staging company nearly always pays off (especially with luxury properties). I have seen countless listings sell for 5-10% more than they otherwise should simply because the owner spent 0.5-1% of the properties’ value on staging.

One of the best things about staging companies is that they typically use smaller furniture, making space appear larger to potential buyers. Even if you decide against a staging company, it makes sense to majorly declutter and put unnecessary items in storage. A staging consultation from a respected staging company is offered free of charge as part of my services if you’d like to think about your options.

Virtual Staging

One of the coolest new features in the real estate world is known as virtual staging. Using computer-generated imagery (CGI), it is easy to make your home look staged in real estate photos, without actually being staged (as sometimes physical staging simply doesn’t make sense). Virtual staging can even be done for cluttered homes, such as tenant-occupied homes, by taking away furniture and items to make the images look nicer. Please see the two images below (from a past listing of mine), which are of a condo that has been virtually staged.

Amazing Photos & Drone Videos

Fantastic photos and videos can make the difference between having no offers versus multiple offers. I almost always include drone footage (on occasion transport Canada regulations prevent drone use in an area). This comes at no additional cost to you.

Matterport Virtual Tours

I get a Matterport Virtual Tour whenever it adds value to your home. The reason I don’t always include them is that tenanted homes frequently are messy and so it actually detracts from my ability to sell your home in these instances. I include Matterport for nearly all vacant homes, all staged homes, and most tidy homes.

"New Listing" Mailouts In Suburban Areas

For suburban, single-family homes, I send out roughly 1000 "New Listing" postcards to the surrounding homes in the area.
Why not condos too? These are ineffective with condos as generally the mailings are simply left in a stack in a condo mailroom rather than reach individual mailboxes.

The Engel & Völkers’ Edge for high-Value properties

When dealing with high-value properties, it is critical to advertize globally rather than only focus on the local market. Even though most purchasers do come through local sources, especially with foreign buyer ban in many areas, the global market should not be ignored. Through the worldwide reach of Engel & Völkers, I have access to all of the following websites and publications. In particular, the Engel & Völkers Worldwide site/GG Magazine, James Edition, ListHub, and Juwai.com (not listed below, though I have access).

EV Exclusive

For unique, luxury properties Engel & Völkers Vancouver has a YouTube Channel (EV Exclusive) with 30,000+ subscribers. I also work with colleagues at Engel & Völkers to make sure your listing gets the greatest exposure on all platforms.
Link to @EVExclusive on YouTube.

GG Magazine

The Engel & Völkers toolbox includes GG Magazine, which targets affluent buyers for ultra-luxury listings (unique listings ~$10M plus). GG Magazine gets distributed quarterly to a global audience with an average publication run per issue of 279,000 plus widespread online viewership.

Click here to view the latest issue

Brochures Printed on Thick Cardstock

(images below from a past brochure)

Open Houses, Agent Opens, and Private Tours

Saturday and/or Sunday open houses will be held every week a property is listed (unless you request otherwise or tenants prevent that). I also hold an "Agent Open" once a month to advertise your property to other real estate agents, during agent tours.

For island & recreational properties, rather than hold open houses, I take any prospective buyers out based on their schedules. Private tours for select potential buyers, especially in the luxury market, is also necessary. 

planning your listing to coincide with a relaxing vacation

I recommend going somewhere you’ve already been and truly enjoy – just make sure it has wifi or cell reception.

No one wants to take time away from a vacation thinking about real estate, though I highly recommend doing just that. Doing so will significantly lower your stress level around the sale, especially when you’re otherwise living in the property full-time. You only have to clean up once, and it also allows me to show your property to prospective buyers anytime they request without disrupting you.

Thorough Contract & Document Review

Whether you are a first time seller, or a experienced investor, I review the contract and supplementary documents with you via your preference of phone call or video call. This tiny step is so easy to skip with the prevalence of online signatures, though is more important than ever. A few minutes reviewing a contract can easily avoid complications and misunderstanding down the road.

Prefer to meet in person? No problem, I’m also happy to meet in person to review the contract presuming there is enough time prior to offer expiry to do so. I make in person meetings a priority in all circumstances where clients are not computer literate, or I believe there may be a heightened risk of misunderstanding.

Negotiation

The most surprising thing I've found in the real estate industry is that some agents do not know how to negotiate. Before real estate, I sold Mazdas for 3-years, and also settled contracts while writing business plans for 5-years. Negotiating on behalf of my clients is one of the most valuable services I offer and one of my best skills.

Bonus: Listing Lead time

Listing lead time varies depending on your property. While I can usually work with listings timelines as minimal as about 10-days (even less for small condos), more preparation time is always better. If you’re thinking about listing sometime in the future, 2 to 4 months prior is ideal, though I certainly appreciate even more heads up if you’ve got it.

A longer lead time means lower stress for you, and results in a perfectly polished listing. It also allows you to list at a time of the year that I will get you top dollar. Plus it helps me with my own planning, particularly around any other listings I take on and scheduling time-off that won’t interfere with your property sale.

There’s additional background work I do in relation to many listings as well, which you don’t directly see. There are typically between 1700 to 2500 open houses that occur every weekend within the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, needless to say, I can’t see them all. When I have a new listing that is coming up in say $3m range in Central Lonsdale, I focus extra attention on all the $2.5m-$3.5m homes in that sub-area, and neighbouring sub-areas for the months proceeding. That way, I am insanely up-to-date on the exact price range in the exact sub-area your listing is in. It’s one thing to search past sales, it’s another to know why a particular sale went for 10% under general market value for a reason not evident in the photos.

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