British Columbia · Seller Report
Most of the work that decides your sale happens before anyone can see the listing.
A home that goes live properly prepared — documents in hand, priced on evidence, photographed well — sells faster and for more than the same home listed in a hurry.
This is the whole pre-listing sequence, in the order that actually works.
Step one
Get your numbers straight
Before anything else, find out what selling actually leaves you with.
- Get your mortgage payout figure — in writingNot the balance on your statement. The payout, including the prepayment penalty if you break the term early. On a fixed mortgage that is the greater of three months’ interest or the interest rate differential, and it can be five figures. Also ask whether the mortgage is portable, because that can eliminate the penalty entirely.
- Get a realistic valueBased on recent sold comparables for your property type and street, not an online estimate and not your assessment.
- Work out the netSale price, less commission, less GST on the commission, less legal or notary fees, less the mortgage payout and penalty, less any costs of preparation. That number is the one that matters for your next move.
- Check the tax positionIf the home has been your principal residence for every year you owned it, the gain is normally exempt. If you have owned it for less than two years, look at BC’s home flipping tax — and note that it has exemptions for life circumstances including separation, death, illness, job relocation and job loss.
Step two
Gather the documents
Having these ready shortens your timeline and makes your listing easier for a buyer to say yes to.
Every property
Find these now, not during subject removal
- Title search and any registered charges
- Property tax notice and current assessment
- Survey certificate, if you have one
- Permits for any work done, and warranties
- Recent utility bills — buyers ask
- Age and service records for roof, furnace, hot water tank
Missing permits for past work is one of the most common late-stage problems in a sale. Find out now, while there is time to deal with it.
Strata properties, additionally
Order these early — they take time
- Form B information certificate
- Two years of minutes — council and general meetings
- Bylaws and rules, including pet and rental restrictions
- Depreciation report
- Budget and financial statements
- Details of any special levy, current or proposed
Buyers will review all of it. Knowing what it says before they do means you are never caught out by your own documents.
Step three
Deal with disclosure honestly
The Property Disclosure Statement. A voluntary form in BC on which you answer questions about the property to the best of your knowledge. Most sellers complete one; most buyers expect it. Answer carefully and accurately — “I do not know” is a legitimate answer where it is true, and a far better one than a guess.
Material latent defects are different, and not optional. These are serious problems a reasonable inspection would not reveal — something dangerous, something that makes the property unfit for the buyer’s known purpose, something requiring great expense to fix, an outstanding remediation notice, or missing permits. There are obligations on you and on your licensee regarding these. Tell your agent everything and let them advise.
Being upfront is also the cheaper strategy. A problem disclosed at listing is a negotiation. The same problem discovered at inspection is a renegotiation from a much weaker position — and discovered after completion, it is a lawsuit.
Step four
Prepare the house
- Declutter by roughly a third. Free, and the highest-return thing you can do.
- Deep clean, including windows and grout. A few hundred dollars, and it shows in the photographs.
- Fix the small broken things. Collectively they signal neglect, and buyers price that in.
- Neutral paint where the colours are strong. The best return per dollar available to you.
- Sort the entrance and the front of the house. It is the first photograph and the first impression.
- Then photograph it — professionally, in good light, after everything above, never before.
Photographs are not the last step. They are the product. The overwhelming majority of buyers see your home on a screen first and decide there whether to visit. Everything in this section exists to make those twenty images work.
Questions we get asked
How long does preparation take?
Two to four weeks is typical for a home that needs cleaning, decluttering, minor repairs and some paint. Strata document orders can take a week or more on their own, so start those first. Rushing this stage is consistently the most expensive corner sellers cut.
Should I sell before I buy?
Selling first means you know your budget exactly and are a stronger buyer. Buying first means you are never homeless but risk carrying two homes. Bridge financing covers the gap — but lenders almost always want a firm sale first, which is the fact that decides most of these cases.
Do I need to be out before listing?
No, and vacant is not automatically better. An occupied, well-presented home often shows more warmly than an empty one. What matters is that it is tidy, depersonalised and easy to show at short notice.
What if I still have a tenant?
Then there are notice requirements and showing access rules under BC’s residential tenancy legislation, and they are specific. Get advice before you list — this is an area where getting the process wrong causes real delays and real liability.
Start with a pre-listing walkthrough
We will go room by room, tell you what is worth doing, give you the sold comparables and put a realistic net-proceeds figure in front of you. It costs nothing and it does not commit you to listing.
Call 778‑234‑2000 Prefer to write? Send a message insteadPlease note: Tenancy, disclosure and tax obligations depend on your circumstances; get professional advice on your own situation. This page is general information about British Columbia and Canadian rules, current at the time of writing, and is not legal, tax, financial or mortgage advice. Figures and programs change — confirm anything you intend to rely on with the relevant authority or a qualified professional. Sonny Bhinder is a licensed REALTOR®, not a lawyer, accountant or mortgage broker. Not intended to solicit properties currently listed for sale, or to cause a breach of an existing agency relationship.