Selling your home but don’t know where to start? As your real estate broker, my job (among many others) is to make sure you know the process and understand the complexities of the transaction before you even start. From establishing an all-inclusive selling strategy, to pricing your home to net you the most money, I will be your expert helping you throughout the process. Knowing what to expect is key to avoiding the common frustrations sellers can experience during the process. So I put together this list of my 9 steps of selling your home as an outline to help you understand the process and what to expect.
The 9 Steps of Selling Your Home:
1. Meet with your real estate professional: The first step should be
meeting with me to discuss selling your home and the strategy I will use to bring you top dollar and get it sold FAST! There’s no commitment required on your part for the initial meeting. It will be educational and help you identify your next steps.
2. Establish a price: I will be presenting you with your home’s Comparative Market Analysis, or CMA, which will compare your home to recently sold properties in your neighborhood. It is important to consider your home price objectively and understand the 4 factors that establishes a home’s value: Location, Condition, Comparables, & Updates
** To get started with your home valuation, please fill out this form and I will get started on it right away!
3. Prepare your home: We will then determine the best way to present your home to buyers, as well as determine what fixes or upgrades may be needed to add value or limit the repairs needed once under contract. You should put yourself in a buyer’s shoes and think about how to best present your home. How you present your home can be the difference between tens of thousands of dollars! Check out this helpful guide on prepping your home for sale. Typically the best upgrades you can make is new paint and carpet. Once your home is prepared, I will then hire a top real estate photography studio to take photos which will be used in all marketing materials.
4. List your home: We now present your home to the world though multiple online channels as well as the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Posting your home on our MLS is what will give you maximum exposure and likely multiple offers as it will then get simultaneously broadcast to dozens of other sites such as Zillow and Redfin. I will also be launching ads across multiple platforms and sending out an email blast to our 1,200+ agents in our brokerage.
5. Showings: This is the first impression and many buyers will not do a second! Your only responsibility is ensuring your home is in good condition and ready for buyer showings daily. I will handle all showing requests according to your schedule. We need to keep the home available as much as possible in order to build up interest and number of offers. You never want to miss out on a potential offer!
6. Offers & negotiations: I will be presenting you with all offers in an easy to read spreadsheet and I will advise you to the benefits and risks of each. If needed, I will write up any counter-offers and present them to the buyers agent. I will be guiding you through any and all negotiations and ONLY move forward with changes following your understanding and approval.
7. Under contract or in escrow: You and the buyer have now agreed to the price and terms! This is when my job gets busy! The contract will provide us with a timeline to review buyers financing, home inspection reports, and appraisals. At this time we may need to schedule any repairs we accepted as part of the contract. Don’t worry, I will be handling ALL of this for you!
8. Final details: I will be ensuring all requested repairs were done as specified in the contract, and we will arrange a day and time for the closing. I will also be contacting title and communicating with the buyers agent to ensure all obligations in the contract are met and we are “Clear to close.”
9. Closing: A title company or an attorney will typically act as an independent third party to facilitate the closing. This is the transfer of funds and ownership. YOU WILL GET YOUR CHECK TYPICALLY WITHIN 24 HOURS! CONGRATS!
That is the basic Home Selling Process. However, as we are humans and every property is different, changes or additional services may be required for your specific situation. I’d love to discuss your plans or situation anytime! Please reach out!
