How I List a Home: My Listing Process, Step by Step

01It starts with listening

The first meeting isn't about my marketing. It's about your family. Before I talk about price or photos, I want to understand where you're going and what this home has meant to you. These are the questions I ask:

• Where are you moving to, and when do you need to be there? A move-up purchase, a downsize and a job move each need a different plan, and the dates often matter as much as the price.
• What made you buy this home? The reasons you said yes are usually the reasons the next buyer will say yes.
• What have you loved about living here? The morning light in the kitchen, the walk to school, the trail at the end of the street, the neighbours. Buyers can't see these in the MLS® data, so I have to tell them.
• What does daily life look like right now? Kids, pets, work-from-home, and how much disruption you can live with while the home is on the market.

A lot of the time, I'm selling your home to the same couple you were five years ago.

They have the same young family, the same commute and the same reasons. So I don't just market square footage. I market the neighbourhood and the lifestyle: the park, the school, the trail, the view, the coffee shop you walk to on a Saturday. Then I build a plan around your goals and your timing, and we go to work.

02Clean, declutter, and a stager's eye

If there's one thing I always insist on, it's this: clean the house and declutter it. It costs the least of anything we'll do, and it changes how every photo and every showing feels.

On every listing, my stager comes through the home. She's my wife, Malika, a professional home stager with Stagemasters Home Decor. A lot of homes don't need staging at all. Sometimes she suggests moving a few pieces, editing a shelf or swapping a lamp, and that's it. If a home does need staging, I've got you covered: the staging consultation is on me, and you get discounted staging accessories and access to a large warehouse of staging furniture. You can see her approach in how to stage a Coquitlam home.

For the deep clean, I often recommend Obsession Cleaning Services, which also covers Coquitlam and Port Moody. I get no referral fee or any other benefit from them. I just like their work.

A typical prep list, adjusted for each home:

• A deep clean, inside and out, including windows
• Decluttering counters, closets and storage, so every room shows its purpose
• Small repairs and touch-ups: paint scuffs, burnt-out bulbs, sticking doors, dripping taps
• Tidy landscaping and a clean entry. The front door is the first photo many buyers remember.
• Depersonalizing where it helps, so buyers can picture themselves living there
• A list of recent big-ticket work (roof, windows, furnace, hot water tank), because it answers buyers' questions before they're asked

If an older home might raise inspection questions, we talk about whether a pre-listing inspection makes sense.

03Price it from proof

I don't pick a number to win the listing. I show you two sets of homes:

Then we talk about direction. Where is the market heading over the next few weeks? Are more listings coming on? Are prices firming or softening? The goal is to price smart without leaving equity on the table. If the market is shifting, we don't want a price that looks fine today and is out of step two weeks from now. Chasing the market down with reductions is a harder road than pricing right at launch, and I explain why in price reductions: strategy and timing.

If you'd like a higher number than the evidence supports, I'll show you exactly what we'd be competing against and what the sold homes tell us. It's your home and your decision. My job is to give you the clearest picture I can before you make it. If you want to test a price yourself first, use the seller's pricing worksheet or read how buyers tell a home is overpriced.

04A shared vision, or I won't list it

This might sound strange coming from a REALTOR®, but I won't list a home if the seller and I see it differently. If we don't agree on how to prepare it, how to present it or how to price it, the listing becomes a tug-of-war, and buyers can feel that.

So before you sign anything, I'll tell you plainly what I think the home needs and what I think it's worth. If we're on the same page, we go to work. If we're not, I'd rather say so up front than take the listing and disappoint you later.

05Photos, video and drone, timed for the light

Every listing I take, condos and smaller homes included, gets professional photography, video with drone footage, measured 2D and 3D floor plans and its own property website. I pay for all of it.

Timing is strategic. Light, weather and season change how a home looks. In November, I'm already photographing homes we plan to list in March. That way we have the right light, green gardens and no snow, and the photos are ready the day we launch. A home with a view always gets a twilight shoot, because the hour after sunset is when city lights and mountains look their best. If a shot isn't right, we reshoot it. Whatever I believe will show your home at its best gets done.

The drone reel at the top of this page is made from my own listings. On every listing where the setting adds to the story, the drone shows the street, the lot, the view and how close the parks, trails and water really are. I often mark the home on the aerial so buyers know exactly where it sits.

Then there's the video tour. It's a branded walkthrough, so out-of-town buyers, parents and the partner who couldn't make the showing can walk through the home too. Here's the one from Bowen Island:

Play the video tour

06Floor plans: interactive, 2D and 3D

Every home gets measured floor plans. Buyers use them two ways: to explore the home on their phone, and to plan furniture before they write an offer.

The interactive floor plan

On your home's website, buyers tap any room on the plan and see its photos and its size. Press "Walk me through it" and it starts at the front door and moves room by room: foyer, living room, kitchen, and on through the home, with a "Next" button for each room.

Buyers understand the flow of the home before they arrive, so the people who book a showing already like the layout. At an open house, guests use the same walk-through on their phone while they're standing in each room.

2D and 3D floor plans

Every level is drawn in 3D with the square footage by floor, plus a measured 2D plan with room sizes.

07Your home's own website, and I write every word

I write the listing copy and the REALTOR.ca remarks myself, every time. Nobody knows your home's story better than you, and after our first conversation, I know it too. A template can't tell a buyer about the afternoon sun on the deck or the five-minute walk to the elementary school.

That story lives on your home's own property website. MLS® and REALTOR.ca are where buyers find your home. Your property page is where they fall for it. Try the one below. It's a real listing page, and it works the way it does for buyers.

Who pays for what

For the full picture of selling costs, including commission, GST on commission, legal fees and the mortgage payout, see what it costs to sell in Coquitlam.

08Launch week: Friday sign, Tuesday noon

Launch timing is part of the plan. Nothing goes live half-finished.

1. Before launchEverything is readyPhotos, video, drone, floor plans, the listing copy and the property website, all finished and checked.
2. FridayThe sign goes upNeighbours and weekend drivers start talking. Anticipation builds before a single photo is online.
3. Tuesday, around noonThe listing goes liveRight when a lot of people check new listings on their lunch break. I load it myself, with my brokerage's approval.
4. Thursday, 6 PMA one-hour sneak peekIf early activity calls for it, serious buyers get a first look before the weekend.
5. The weekendOpen housesGuests sign in with a QR code, take the guided tour and send me their questions directly (step 09).

Once it's live, it goes out through MLS® and REALTOR.ca, social media reels and my monthly email to Tri-Cities homeowners and buyers. The Thursday sneak peek only happens when the early interest is there: that's how Cougar Court had 15 groups through in one hour. Because I load the listing myself instead of handing it off to be entered for me, I control exactly what goes live and when. Buyers' first look is the complete picture, not a placeholder. For how timing works across the year, see the best time to sell in Coquitlam.

09Open houses and showings: always me, with a QR sign-in

At an open house, guests scan a QR code at the door. Here's what happens on their phone, using the system I built for my own listings. They can also use the floor plan walk-through from step 06 as they move through the home.

Guests choose whether to join my newsletter. The box is never pre-ticked. Concentrating showings into well-run open houses also means your family only has to get the home ready a few times, not every day. More on that in do you always need an open house? and how showings work.

As for keeping you in the loop, here's how two sellers described it:

“We were kept informed daily sometimes multiple times a day as to what was happening… Our home sold in only 6 days with multiple offers.”

Gerry & Aline Howitson, sellers · Google review

10Offers: understand the people, hold firm on what matters

I'm a negotiator at heart, and the work starts before the paperwork arrives. I talk directly with each buyer's agent to understand the offer and the people writing it. What matters most to them? Is it the dates, the deposit, the subjects or the appliances? I keep that line of communication open from the first call to completion. Small misunderstandings shouldn't sink a good deal.

When there's strong interest, we may set an offer date. In a perfect world, sellers take offers about 5 to 10 days after listing. That gives buyers time to see the home, line up financing and put their best foot forward. And when a first offer is accepted, I keep talking with the other buyers. A signed backup offer has saved more than one of my sales. More on how this works in multiple-offer strategy in BC.

11Three listings, three lessons

Glenwood, Port Coquitlam · October 2026

102E–3655 Shaughnessy Street: a plan built around a young family

$865,000sold (asking $849,900)40buyer groups5offers9days

Play the video tour

A family with two young children, selling while living in the home. We staged it with their own furniture and a few accents, so daily life wasn't turned upside down. Professional cleaners came in on the Friday so the family only had to get ready once, and every showing happened in two weekend open houses. Forty groups came through and we had five offers. The day after accepting the best one, I secured a backup offer. Four days later, the first buyer's financing fell through, and the sale moved straight to the backup buyer instead of going back on the market.

The lesson: plan for the deal falling apart. A backup offer costs little to arrange and can save weeks.

Read the full sale story →

More sales and the decisions behind them are on my signature sales page.

Your pre-listing checklist

If you're thinking about selling in the next few months, here's what to start on now:

• Write down why you bought the home and what you've loved about it. It becomes the listing story.
• Decide where you're going next and the dates that work for your family.
• Start decluttering one room at a time: closets, garage and storage first.
• Gather receipts and dates for big-ticket work: roof, windows, furnace, hot water tank and renovations.
• If you're in a strata, find your recent strata documents. Buyers will ask for them.
• Note anything that needs fixing. Small repairs are cheaper before listing than as a negotiation point later.
• Book a pricing conversation early. If your home has a view or a garden, we can photograph it in the right season, even months before listing.

Want it all in one place? The free seller's starter kit and the seller timeline walk you through each stage.

Frequently asked questions