The power in any home sale is in your position. My job is to put you in it.
The number that matters isn’t the list price — it’s your net walk-away after commission, mortgage payout, legal and GST. Comp-backed for your specific submarket and catchment. Returned within one business day.
Sell from the strongest position you can build — before the sign goes up. Three things matter most: price from a hyper-local comp set, prepare the home for the buyer pool touring this season, and launch in a deliberate week with a written negotiation plan. The seven-step method below is exactly how every sale in this practice gets sequenced.
Before you trust anyone with the biggest financial decision your family will make this year, you should know how I work. Short version: I share the plan with you in real time. The pricing logic, the marketing moves, the negotiation calls — you see the reasoning as it happens, not after the deal is done. That’s what turns a sale into a story you can tell.
Real outcomes from recent Coquitlam transactions — Burke Mountain, Westwood Plateau, Eagle Ridge, Burquitlam, Austin Heights, and central Coquitlam.
Most Coquitlam listings get the same four assets: MLS®, sign, social post, open house. That’s a checklist — not a launch. Every home in my practice gets a full presentation system: cinematic photography, drone footage where the lot or view earns it, walking-tour video on detached homes, and targeted digital distribution to the buyer pools most likely to compete for your home.
Drone in particular shows scale, approach, streetscape and neighbourhood context that still photos can’t. Used properly, it raises perceived value, strengthens the first impression, and makes your launch feel intentional from day one. This is the marketing I love and it’s the marketing that helps a launch feel premium before the first open house.
Nine of the most recent Google reviews — Coquitlam sellers, move-up families, downsizers, and multi-transaction clients.
“We received seven offers, and Craig held firm on our priorities: no subject to sale and achieving our price. We took the home off the market over Christmas, but behind the scenes Craig continued working. When we re-listed in January, it sold in just three days to buyers he had been nurturing — at the price we wanted.”
“Craig worked with my wife and me for over 3 years to find the perfect home. He was endlessly patient with us through the process. Eventually, we found our perfect home and he moved fast to execute on our behalf. He negotiated fairly and thoroughly with the sellers and was our advocate all throughout our first home purchase.”
“After searching for several years, I knew exactly what I was looking for — and Craig delivered. We viewed a handful of properties, and the home he ultimately found was exactly what I had been searching for. I couldn’t believe how quickly he nailed it.”
“Craig was there with us everyday. Guiding us to our next step 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.”
“Craig is a true professional and I would highly recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell their home. His approach is clear, data-driven and resulted in multiple offers for our sale.”
“Craig sold my property in just 6 days, which is an incredible feat. After receiving one offer, he quickly reconnected with all the other realtors who had viewed the property, and before I knew it, we had multiple offers — all over asking price!”
“One of the sales was my Mom’s home. She is 97 and so this was a very emotional issue to be leaving her beloved home of so many years… Craig was extremely patient in explaining the market and was very sensitive to her concerns. We can’t thank him enough for his empathy and understanding in working with an elderly person through a difficult time in a very caring manner!”
“Craig Johnston recently sold my townhouse in West Vancouver in less than 6 days for over asking price. Craig is one of the most prolific and highly motivated realtors I have seen in the Realty business, and I have extensive experience buying and selling properties of all sorts.”
“My West Vancouver home was staged to sell, and it did indeed sell in 14 days in a declining seller’s market. Craig’s marketing tools are amazing… Craig assisted in every aspect of the purchase of my Bowen Island home, including arranging for the building inspection, the follow up building inspection, and ensuring that all deficiencies were repaired.”
Net sale value. True available equity. Real next-home ceiling. Delivered same-day. No commitment.
Every Coquitlam home I list — Burke Mountain, Westwood Plateau, Eagle Ridge, Burquitlam, Austin Heights, Coquitlam Centre — moves through the same sequence. Nothing slips. The negotiation plan exists before the photographer arrives. The bridge call happens before the listing goes live.
Same-day net-sale value, true available equity, real next-home ceiling. Commission, legal, mortgage payout, GST — modeled to the dollar before any pricing conversation starts.
Catchment-specific comps, layout-class match, last 60–90 days, current active inventory re-confirmed by drive-by. Three-tier range — high case, mid case, low case — written and dated.
Pre-listing inspection, three-to-five item repair short-list, staging brief, contractor coordination if needed. Surfacing problems before buyers do.
Styling pass, professional photography with a written style guide, drone & twilight where it pays back, walking-tour video for detached homes, room-by-room MLS® copy review.
Coming-soon pre-marketing, deliberate launch day, broker tour, the first weekend’s open-house schedule, social and email pushes, offer-deadline strategy if conditions warrant.
This is the lever I love most. Quick-witted, calm under pressure, defensible math behind every counter — and a record of fighting for the seller’s price, proven time and time again.
Possession, key handover, utility transfers, contractor coordination, mover hand-off. Scheduled 30-day, 90-day, and one-year follow-up after close.
If you’re also buying, every step above runs in parallel with the buy-side hunt under the Move-Up Protocol — one file, one plan, one set of dates.
There are real trade-offs between hiring a discount-fee agent, a general full-service agent, and a process-driven move-up specialist. None is universally right — but they produce meaningfully different outcomes.
| What you should expect | Discount-fee listing | General full-service agent | Craig Johnston (specialist) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing method | One CMA pull; often algorithm-anchored. | Three or four nearest comps; reviewed once. | Catchment-specific comp set, layout-class match, last 60–90 days, current active competition re-confirmed by drive-by, written three-tier range. |
| Pre-listing prep | “Declutter and we’ll go live.” | Generic prep checklist emailed. | Pre-listing inspection, three-to-five item repair short-list, staging brief, contractor coordination, showing-ready checklist. |
| Photography | Phone photos or budget photographer. | Professional photographer, generic shoot. | Professional photographer with a written style guide; drone & twilight where they pay back; walking-tour video on detached homes. |
| Launch & marketing | MLS® + sign + maybe one social post. | MLS®, sign, open house, basic social. | Coming-soon pre-marketing, deliberate launch week, broker tour, targeted digital, open houses run as research events, daily feedback synthesis. |
| Communication cadence | Reactive — calls when an offer arrives. | Weekly check-in; reactive in between. | Pre-listing weekly cadence, daily during launch week, scheduled 30/90/365-day post-close follow-up. |
| Negotiation | Pass-through offers, minimal counter strategy. | Standard negotiation; gut-driven counters. | Every counter run through a defensible math model against your written equity floor, with documented showing-feedback context. |
| Sell-and-buy coordination | Not offered — refer out. | Two separate engagements. | Equity Map first, written sequence decision (sell first / buy first), bridge plan priced before listing goes live, parallel buy-side search. |
| After close | File closed, cheque cashed. | Holiday card list. | Soft Landing: possession, utilities, contractor coordination, scheduled 30/90/365-day follow-up. |
For sellers comparing realtors directly, the companion piece is how to choose a Coquitlam realtor — four questions to ask before you sign. Most of the trade-offs in the table above become visible in the first 20 minutes of an interview, if you ask the right questions.
Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam are not interchangeable. The submarket your home sits in changes the comp set, the buyer pool, the launch-week strategy, and the marketing emphasis. I work all of them — here are the deeper neighbourhood pages.
Other Tri-Cities submarkets I sell into regularly: Eagle Ridge, Austin Heights, Burquitlam, Port Moody (incl. Klahanie and Port Moody Centre), Anmore, and Belcarra. Each has its own price logic, buyer profile, and seasonal rhythm. The where-to-buy guide is the master overview if you want to see them all in one place.
Tell me where you live and what you're thinking. I'll send back a same-day Equity Map: net sale value, true available equity, real next-home ceiling — with the comp set behind every number.
Coquitlam’s average days-on-market across all property types runs roughly 28–55 days in 2026, with significant submarket variance. A correctly priced, well-presented home that launches on the right week often sells in 7–21 days. A mispriced or poorly prepared home can sit 90+ days and absorb price reductions.
From a hyper-local comparative market analysis: recent sold comps within your submarket and SD43 catchment from the last 60–90 days, layout-class matched, current active inventory you’re competing against, and a three-tier range (high case / mid case / low case). Algorithm estimates are starting points — not pricing.
Typical BC seller costs: commission (negotiable; commonly 5–7% on the first $100K + ~2–2.5% on the balance, split between listing and buyer’s agent), legal fees ($1,200–$2,000), mortgage discharge or porting fees, GST on commission, and any pre-listing repairs/staging. A net-sale Equity Map gives you the real walk-away number before you list.
Yes — and most Tri-Cities move-up families do. The decision that matters is sell first or buy first. Every move-up file in my practice runs through the five-step Move-Up Protocol so the sale and the next purchase coordinate as one event.
Three things matter: catchment match (Smiling Creek, Leigh, Hazel Trembath, Pinetree Way pull different premiums), presentation discipline (newer-build buyer pool expects move-in-ready), and launch timing (March–April and late September). The deepest mistake Burke Mountain sellers make is comparing their home to the wrong build year or floor plan. Deeper: Burke Mountain Homes.
Different buyer pools, different playbooks. Burke Mountain sellers compete on construction tier (~38% of activity is new construction); pricing has to be tier-matched, not generic. Westwood Plateau sellers compete on lot tier and golf-course exposure (hole 4/7/14 vs 11/16 changes the premium materially). Eagle Ridge sellers compete on character + lot — many homes are 80s/90s builds where presentation and reno history move the needle. Burquitlam condo and townhome sellers compete on SkyTrain corridor pricing and TOD-driven supply (which is rising). I treat each as its own market with its own comp set.
Almost always — the question is how much. For most Coquitlam detached and townhome sales: a soft stage of the main floor + primary suite + curated soft goods is typically the highest-ROI move. For higher-tier Coquitlam listings (Burke estate, Westwood Plateau premier), full staging is part of the package. For tenanted condos with mismatched furnishings, even a partial stage can shift offers $20K–$50K. The exact recommendation comes out of the strategy call — not a generic “always stage” pitch.
The two strongest windows in Coquitlam are typically mid-March to early June (spring family-buyer surge) and mid-September to mid-October (late-fall second wave from families targeting January moves). The weakest windows are mid-December through mid-January and mid-July through August. But these are seasonality averages — a great home priced well sells year-round, and timing a launch around your specific catchment’s peak buyer activity matters more than the calendar.
For most detached Coquitlam homes built before 2015 — yes. The pre-listing inspection costs $400–$700, identifies the 3–5 items most likely to come up in a buyer’s subject removal, and lets you address them on your terms (not under offer-deadline pressure). For newer Burke / Plateau builds still under New Home Warranty, it’s less critical but still useful for the “perceived flaws” (cracked driveway, deck stain, fence repair) that buyers visually fixate on. For acreage in Anmore/Belcarra — non-negotiable, because septic, well, and tree-health add complexity.
With a written negotiation plan that exists before the offers come in. We set a clear offer-review date in the listing, communicate it transparently to every showing agent, screen buyer financing depth before review (pre-approval letter, deposit readiness, subject-free vs subject-removal timing), and walk you through every offer side-by-side. The goal is the best net outcome — which is rarely just “the highest number.” Subject conditions, deposit size, completion-date flexibility, and the buyer’s ability to actually close all matter.
Three scenarios, three responses. Priced too high: the comp data didn’t support the list price — a meaningful reduction (not a token one) re-engages the buyer pool. Wrong launch week: presentation is right but the market timing missed; relist with refreshed photography and a fresh DOM clock. Presentation gap: the home shows below its potential — targeted staging, photography, or repair refresh changes the perception. The diagnosis matters more than the response. The good news: nothing about a Coquitlam sale is unrecoverable if the listing strategy is honestly reassessed.
Completely different markets. Burquitlam condos are competing against TOD-rezoning supply, presale completions, and a younger / first-time-buyer or investor pool that’s comparing your unit to dozens of similar floor plans in the corridor — the marketing has to differentiate fast (renovation quality, view, parking, storage). Burke Mountain detached is a slower-DOM family-buyer market where buyers tour 8–15 homes over weeks before writing, and presentation + catchment fit matter more than splashy marketing. I run both submarkets as part of one Coquitlam practice but the playbooks are intentionally different.
A home evaluation gets you a same-day Equity Map — net sale value, true available equity, and a real next-home ceiling. A strategy call gets you a 20-minute read on your sequence, your timeline, and whether your move suits the way I work. Either one is free, and neither commits you to anything.
Or call direct: 604-202-6092
