Selling your home for the 1st time? What to know from costs to staging

Gearing up to sell your home in the spring market? Here are the costs and staging tips that first-time sellers ought to keep in mind.

This article is part of Global News’ Home School series, which provides Canadians the basics they need to know about the housing market that were not taught in school.

Hope for interest rate cuts on the horizon has some real estate forecasters predicting a busier spring housing market as Canadians prepare to either buy or sell a home.

While buying a home in Canada can come with a wave of emotions and costs that can overwhelm first-time buyers, the same goes for sellers.

Beyond just setting a price and negotiating with buyers, Global News spoke to real estate agents in Canada to get their best tips for first-time sellers to navigate the process as smoothly as possible.

The first question Ottawa-based real estate agent Nick Kyte asks his clients when they approach him about selling is whether it’s a planned move or an unplanned one.

If it’s the former, he recommends starting the selling process as early as possible, which “eases the pressure” on the buyer.

Kyte then recommends getting a budget in order.

That should include reaching out to your lender to inquire about the costs involved to break your mortgage, if necessary. These costs can vary depending on whether you’re on a variable or fixed-rate mortgage, and whether interest rates have risen or fallen since you last renewed your term.