With the recent decision for us to retire, we were faced with the reality of needing to move for various reasons. Prior to choosing an agent, some of our concerns were as follows: Does our place show well? Is the agent truly representing us and our goals? Will the agent actively market and ‘sell’ our place or try to dump it quickly at the lowest price? How much information can we confide in our agent? What is the best course of action to maximize our equity?
We set out to hire an agent. We interviewed a couple; one of which was Mark Douglas. We felt him to be very personable and immediately felt comfortable with him. It was the intangibles. Hard to explain, but we felt Mark was focused on representing our best interests. He quickly eased any and all concerns we had. We both trusted Mark right from the beginning. He spent time with us going through comparable homes for sale, reviewing the market conditions when we interviewed Mark as well again just prior to going live on the MLS.
From the beginning, Mark was punctual, kept all appointments and was on time. Just once delayed, he let us know ahead of time he would be 5 or 10 minutes late. We never worried about Mark showing up when he said he would, he always kept his commitments.
Without a doubt, we decided to hire Mark as our agent to list our home. We now had a lot of other things to do to get it ready. Mark prepared a physical “Work-Back Calendar” which laid out a timeline of the various aspects of preparation all parties had to do before going on the MLS. This broke it down and took away the anxieties we had to complete a lot of work in a shorter amount of time. We knew that de-cluttering excess furniture and belongings were key to fulfill Mark’s promise to have our home “Magazine Ready”. Mark, with the aide of a stager, identified what items of furniture could stay and what needed to leave so that they could stage our home to maximize the selling price. We were resistant to painting our living & dining room, but Mark arranged to have those rooms repainted at no cost to us. The repainting made a huge difference in the brightness of our main living area and suited the look the stager was trying to attain. Mark personally helped move furniture out of our home when the stager brought in her furniture. Mark also helped hang a mirror, install a towel bar, change a faucet and Install a Dining Room light, all to help get our home ready for sale. We cannot emphasize enough, the amount of work Mark did to help us prepare to list and show our home for sale.
In preparing our home for the market, two other identical homes to ours were listed. Both of these homes had updated kitchens and bathrooms, which we hadn’t yet. However, when it came to deciding list price the day before going live on the MLS, Mark focused on the advantages our home had as selling points to justify asking the same price as the two homes that had just sold.
Mark embarked on multiple marketing campaigns in our area, calling to advise them that a 3 bedroom home would be coming onto the market shortly and invite them to the open house on Saturday and Sunday. He made up flyers which he personally deposited at each door promoting the two open houses.
Of 4 comparable homes sold within the last three months, the other 3 had updated kitchens and bathrooms. We hadn’t updated ours as yet. So on the surface, most would believe that the selling price for our home would be considerably lower. However, Mark sold our home based on the advantages of our home. As to our selling price, it was the second highest of the four homes sold within the past 90 days.
Prior to receiving an offer for our unit, Mark was strategic with his plan and conversations with the buying agent in order to best represent us. The offer came in and although in our range, Mark advised us it wasn’t close enough to what we should accept. Many real estate agents would have recommended a counter offer closer to the buyer’s offer, but Mark was acting on our behalf to ensure the most for our home. Through negotiation, Mark was able to negotiate 99.4% of asking price in a tougher market and on the 1st day of showings! Our neighbour’s home was priced the same as ours but took 26 days and a price reduction to get it to sell after ours.
We would definitely recommend Mark Douglas to represent them. He delivered on everything in his Listing Presentation and promises made from the time we met until after the sale of our home. He is diligent and completely trustworthy.
Sincerely,
John & Kathy, Mississauga
