This is a condition that your lawyer has to approve the deal before it can be finalized. As a ‘for sale by owner’ (FSBO) this clause allows you to work out a deal with a buyer and then have your lawyer make sure that there are no other legal issues you need to be aware of. As a FSBO seller, this a win-win; not only are you possibly saving tens of thousands of dollars, you are also having your lawyer review the deal before it is finalized. A Realtor® cannot provide legal advice, unless they are a licensed with the Law Society of Upper Canada, and they also take a percentage of the sale and a lawyer charges an hourly rate. This is a ‘no brainer.’

There are no additional fees for DIYoffer; DIYoffer is an a la carte service where you decide what extra services you need. We have made it easy for you to connect to these services through the online Service Directory. Some services that are recommended are:

• Home Staging – Staged homes sell faster and for more.
• Property Appraisal – Determines your market value.
• Professional Pictures – Maximize your online presence.
• Rented Sign Post – Better visibility and stands up to the elements.
• Legal Consultation – Puts you in the driver’s seat.

The total of these services is estimated at $1500 + HST.

In the DIYoffer Kit, we have included a Listing Price & Negotiation Tool.  We walk you through the process of:

1. Determine your market value – either hiring a Property Appraiser or doing online research.
2. Determine your List Price
3. Determine your ideal Sale Price

Once you have these figures in front of you, you can negotiate a deal confidently since you know where you want to end up.

There are two very important advantages:

1. Cost – To have your property appraised, for a city/town lot with a house and no outbuildings is on average $300.* To have a Realtor® determine market value, on average the commission fees range from 3% to 6%.
2. Conflict of Interest – The Appraiser is a third-party and removed from the transaction and is ‘truly’ unbiased, whereas the Realtor® is a party in the transaction and there is a potential conflict of interest.

*Our Service Directory will conveniently connect you to a Property Appraiser.

Buyer incentives are ‘bonus’ items for the buyer. DIYoffer makes it easy to offer Buyer incentives by providing a Buyer Incentive Handout; you take the Handout to your lawyer and have him/her fill out the details and then make copies and distribute at property showings and open houses. There are four different incentives that you can offer to the buyer:

1. Pre-Listing Home Inspection – This is ideal to let the buyer know that your home is well maintained and taken care of.
2. Assigning of a current mortgage – This is ideal if you the seller have a mortgage that you will discharge on the day of closing. If you discharge a mortgage before the term, you will be penalized with additional fees. These fees vary if it is a variable rate mortgage or a fixed rate mortgage. If it is a variable rate, the discharge fees usually are three months of mortgage payments as well as additional fees. For a fixed rate mortgage the discharge fees can be substantially more. To help you save these fees, the buyer can take over the mortgage. This is a win-win especially if you have an interest rate that is lower than the current rate.
3. Seller take back mortgage (STBM) – If you own your property outright, then you can offer a STBM. This is ideal if for some reason the buyer comes up short on financing. If you offer the amount that the buyer is short as a STBM, then the deal will not fall through.
4. Lease with purchase option – This is ideal if the market is slow and you would lease the property for a specific time at which point, would then be purchased. This is a win-win for both the buyer and the seller; for the buyer, it allows them to save up either the deposit or a bigger down payment. For the seller, you may get the price you are looking for.

The best time to purchase DIYoffer is when you decide you want to sell. The step-by-step Guide starts with preparing your home and many different tips to help you along the way. There is no set time to list your property so we can assist when you are ready.

Unfortunately, at this time the MLS® package is limited to the areas of: Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, Halton Hills, Erin, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Niagara, Brantford, Haldimand, Norfolk, London, Woodstock, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, New Hamburg, Elmira, Centre Wellington, and Guelph. Since we cannot cover all of Ontario, at this time you won’t be able to upgrade to the MLS® package.

Unfortunately there is no set answer since each property is different; saying that, the answer is a question back to you:

If your employer/boss came to you and indicated there was a big project that needed to be finished, and if you could commit 3 or 4 extra hours a week, for possibly the next 2 or 3 months, if the project was completed you could potentially earn a $20,000 bonus, would you do it?

Food for thought – When you sell with a traditional Realtor®, you are doing 98% of the work to get the house ready, and for the remaining 2%, you are paying 4% to 6% of the sale price. What is wrong with this picture?

DIYoffer has developed an online directory to help you find all the many different professionals to assist in the sale of your home. Wen you are ready, you can find a local photographer in the specialty called Photographers/Marketing Services.

Yes, a lot of the photography companies also provide video or drone photos. In the directory, search for a local Photographers/Marketing Services company.

DIYoffer has developed a very straight-forward method to walk you through this process. The first step is to determine your Market Value; you have two ways to determine this value. 1) Bring in a licensed appraiser, or 2) Research online. The Guide provides you with the websites that you can find out the information, all at your fingertips.

Once you have a Market Value, you use the Listing Price & Negotiation Tool to walk you through setting your 1) Listing Price, and 2) Ideal Sale Price.

We set an Ideal Sale Price and then we develop a chart broken down by a range in pricing. You may be thinking, why would you do that? Well, DIYoffer wants you to be prepared when an offer comes in, and this is done before the property is even listed. So you are confident in negotiations and you have your target price already set for you.

Yes! DIYoffer makes it easy to have a pure private sale. In which case you would use the Offer Agreement to finalize the 10-day preliminary agreement and then proceed to your lawyers to draft the binding Agreement of Purchase and Sale.

If you would like to accept an offer from a Realtor® and pay a commission fee, the Realtor will provide you the offer on an Agreement of Purchase and Sale, which you can take to your lawyer’s office to assist you with any sign-backs to the offer.

But, if you are open to other possibilities:

The NAR (National Association of Realtors®) reports that in 2018, 44% of home buyers looked for properties online first, while 17% contacted a real estate agent first.* If you would like to capture that 44% of the market before they contact an Realtor® and completely save the commission, the only way is with DIYoffer which assists you with a complete private sale.

It comes down to:

If you start with accepting offers from a Realtor®, then you won’t capture this 44% of the market.

*NAR, Real Estate in a Digital Age 2018 Report. https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2018-real-estate-in-a-digital-world-12-12-2018.pdf

Once you have received an offer from a Realtor® you can take it to your lawyer, and you have two options.

1. If you would like some help with sign-backs (changes to the offer) you can ask the Law Clerk to help you. This will only take a few minutes and most law offices will not charge for this time.
2. If you would like your lawyer to review the offer, than you may need to add a new condition to allow sufficient time to meet with your lawyer. There would be a fee for this consultation.

To be listed on Realtor.ca®, the commission fee has to be more than $0. Any amount is to your discretion on how aggressively you want to attract an offer from a Realtor®. The Guide prepares you to set a commission fee that is tailored to your local real estate industry by getting in touch with the local real estate association/board. That way, if you truly want to accept an offer from a Realtor® you won’t be losing out.

Yes! This is when the seller sets a specific date and time and will review all offers together. This is a technique often used to increase the chances of having multiple competitive offers, resulting in higher bids. This is ideal for a brand new listing just on the market. If you want to try this method, keep in mind that you may or may not get multiple offers, in which case you would then accept an individual offer on a first-come-first-served basis. DIYoffer makes it easy for the seller to withhold offers by including a space on the Offer Agreement forms to include your date and time to return the offer back to you.

With the Offer Agreement, it includes a ‘safe-guard’ clause that is conditional on the approval of your lawyer. If there are any further legal issues that your lawyer addresses, additional conditions and terms can be added to the Agreement of Purchase and Sale. This allows both you, the seller, and the buyer to have legal advice during the negotiations so there are no legal complications on closing day.