Plan ahead for a winter listing

If you are thinking of selling within the next 6-12 months but expect it to be more likely in the winter than before the snow sets in or even the leaves fall, the folks at [Venturehomes.ca] suggest you might want to plan ahead for this and do some pictures of your yard and garden now. 

The reason being that a yard looks very different in the winter than it does in the spring or summer.  While the real thing is always better, some well done photographs of the yard in summer can be put together in marketing materials to give an illustration of the landscaping in greener season. 

I would only say that you might want to to be careful not to use them exclusively in the listing because this may give buyers the false impression that the property has been listed longer than it has.  This can affect their impression of the property, in that they may unfairly expect a bargain, thinking the property has been 'lingering' on market.

But certainly on a feature sheet or virtual listing, green photographs can be an effective addition to the gallery.  If you're not much of a photographer, maybe contact a professional service (like Venturehomes.ca) to do some outdoor photography for you now.

Who cares if it is a private sale, right?

Well, for one thing, the bank or mortgage company does.  They actually don't like private sales. 

If a sale is being made privately rather than through a licensed real estate professional, the level of scrutiny the deal gets will probably be higher.  I've been told this by numerous mortgage brokers over the last few years, and the reason for it is simple: mortgage fraud.

If a sale is through a licensed real estate professional, the chance of it being a case of mortgage fraud are smaller.  Not gone perhaps, but much smaller, because the long-term value of keeping one's real estate license is more than any short-term gain from a few fraudulent deals.  A licensed professional is more likely to do their due diligence and less likely to be tempted by short-term gain.

As a result, banks and mortgage companies may require a higher level of appraisal and almost certainly give the deal significantly more scrutiny when the purchase is a private sale. 

And some won't even touch them.  As a buyer, that might limit your financing options.  As a seller, your buyer might run into an unexpected brick wall and get cold feet for no good reason. 

But don't just take my word for it.  Here's a data sheet from one lender whose policy is simply not lending on private sales.