What happens once your house is listed
By Dan Jones ·
Bottom line: an offer is four things, and price is only the first. The deposit, the conditions and the dates matter as much, which is why the highest offer is often not the best one. Until subjects are removed you do not have a sale, you have a buyer who intends to have one. In BC a buyer can also cancel within three business days of acceptance for 0.25% of the purchase price, and that right cannot be waived. If showings are happening but no offers arrive, the house shows worse than it prices, and if no showings arrive at all, the problem is price.
I am Dan Jones, a REALTOR with Royal LePage Locations West in Penticton, licence number 1118346, licensed since 2004.
The listing goes live and then it goes quiet for a bit. Here is what is actually happening, and the decisions that come at you.
Showings while you still live there
Most of my sellers are living in the house the whole time it is listed. It is manageable, and it goes better when the rules are decided up front.
Set showing windows that a working buyer can actually use. Reasonable limits cost almost nothing, and narrow ones quietly remove buyers. Leave for every showing, because buyers do not talk honestly in front of the owner. Take pets with you if you possibly can.
Full detail, including what to put away and the question of cameras: showings while you still live in the house.
Reading an offer
An offer is not a number. It is four things: price, deposit, conditions and dates, and price is only the first.
A large deposit delivered quickly says a buyer is serious. Every condition is a way the deal can end. Dates that match when you actually want to move are worth real money. So a lower offer with a firm buyer, a large deposit and the right dates often beats a higher one that may not close.
Full detail, including how multiple offers are handled under BC rules: how to read an offer on your house.
Subject removal
Most accepted offers are conditional. The buyer gets an agreed number of days to satisfy conditions and remove the subjects in writing.
Until subjects are removed, you do not have a sale. You have a buyer who intends to have one. Keep that clear in your head, especially if you are writing offers on your next place.
The common conditions and what can go wrong:
- Financing. The lender’s appraisal comes in under the sale price and the buyer has to make up the difference.
- Inspection. Something real turns up, or the buyer uses it to renegotiate. Both happen. A pre-listing inspection is the cheapest way to see it coming.
- Strata documents. Minutes revealing an upcoming special levy, or a depreciation report nobody has acted on.
The three-day rescission period
Since 2023, most residential buyers in BC can cancel within three business days of acceptance, for any reason or none, by paying you 0.25% of the purchase price. That is $2,000 on an $800,000 sale. It cannot be waived.
In practice it is used rarely. But it means the first three business days after you accept are not certain, and you should not be firming up your own purchase on the strength of an offer that is one day old.
Full detail, including how the clock runs over weekends and holidays, and why leasehold properties are exempt: the BC home buyer rescission period.
If it is not selling
After a few weeks with showings but no offers, there is usually one answer and it is not the one people want.
Showings but no offers means the house is showing worse than it prices. Something they see in person contradicts the photos. A smell, a layout, deferred maintenance, a neighbour.
No showings at all means price. Buyers filter by price before they ever look. If nobody is filtering you in, you are not in their search.
Photos are a real factor, and worth saying plainly: a buyer decides whether to book a showing from a phone screen. Bad photos do not just undersell a house, they stop the viewing from happening. But photos are a cause of no showings, not of no offers. If people are coming and not writing, the photos were fine and something else is wrong.
Before changing agents, be honest about which of those it is. Changing the person does not fix a price problem, and you lose your best weeks doing it. Your listing contract runs for an agreed term. Talk to the managing broker about what is possible.
What I would tell you
I would rather walk your property before we price it than adjust afterward. Twenty-four years of building houses means I can usually see what a buyer’s inspector is going to find, and it is cheaper to know that before we list than to renegotiate during subject removal.
If your house is on the market now and not moving, what I look at first covers what I would be checking.