Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced premium agent and this easy-to-follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible in an always shifting market.
Knowing how to price your home is one of the most important parts of the selling process. When you set a fair price in the beginning, you’ll get the most interest from other real estate agents and prospective buyers. Overpricing your home could lead to reduced interest, and in a market where most properties sell quickly, this can cause you to chase the price down – especially in the slow season.
Working with an experienced real estate agent and discussing your needs is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. I can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and use my experience to get you the most money possible in today's market. We will discuss all available options so that you can choose what’s best for you and your family.
If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. After you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers.
Getting rid of clutter and/or staging the property with a professional can often result in a price that is 2-5% higher than a messy home. Buyers have a hard time imagining what to do with a room if it is filled with clutter.
Depersonalizing. Buyers want to envision what their lives will look like in your home. Most people can’t imagine the space with themselves in it when they see things that remind them of who lives there now.
Making small repairs to health and/or addressing safety issues with the home upfront can prevent a buyer from requesting a huge amount of credits because, naturally, they do not understand what the actual costs of the repairs are. I will advise on what is worth fixing and what won’t get you a return on your money.
Now is the perfect time to hire a professional cleaning company to get your home in show condition. This should be done right before showings start.
I will develop a marketing strategy that is specific for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising.
I will create a marketing campaign that aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing in the first two weeks after I list your home on the market. At that time, we will know whether we missed the mark or not on pricing strategy and be able to shift to current market conditions. Remember, the market we are in often shifts month to month if not week to week so adjusting to unexpected changes quickly will save you money. The goal is to sell your home for the most money with the least amount of stress, time, and cost to you. I will be adjusting the marketing weekly to make sure we are hitting every note that buyers are responding to right now.
After we list your home on the market, I will take the initiative and work with you to get our seller disclosures filled out. This way we gain three benefits: first, we can review and answer any questions you have about them in advance. Second, you can fill them out over a few days as your schedule allows without having to rush. Lastly, when we enter escrow, we can send them to the buyer right away, encouraging a release of contingencies sooner rather than later. It can only help our transaction when our side moves quickly, so I will make sure we’re on the ball at every moment.
Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it does not matter until we have a fully signed agreement from both sides. The next step is to evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender. We will also make sure that their offer is acceptable to you. If the offer is too low, we can craft a carefully considered counter-offer. I will provide suggestions as well as risk assessments of the offers and all terms in it before you accept, so you can go into it fully confident and comfortable.
After we deem the offer is acceptable, we will review the escrow process, making sure you understand and have a plan for the coming weeks.
Congratulations, you have accepted an offer! Now, the buyer will be doing appraisals, inspections, and getting ready to ask for any credits or repairs that they feel are necessary. I will be there to help you negotiate on these items, as well as advise which are appropriate and which are not. Our goal is to get through contingencies so that you know the sale is definitely going through and can start working on what comes after.
Every week of escrow, my team and I go through the file to make sure we are on track. As soon as we get all of the required deeds and paperwork to escrow there is very little for you as the seller to do.
That being said, a few days before the closing date, we will again call the escrow company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. We double-check the closing date and get all keys in order to turn them over to the buyers. After that, we need only be out of the home by the required date, which is typically 30 days from the date escrow opened.
Congratulations! You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a home you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer.
During the last day of escrow, title will record in the buyer’s name and we will turn over the keys. Then you are free to take the next step on your journey knowing all your selling responsibilities are complete.
As your agent, I will have already started working on a plan with you prior to listing your home to make sure everything is set regarding future plans. Whether you will be renting, buying, investing in a new property, or leaving the area I will be there to help with everything.