Selling your home can seem like a daunting task, but having a professional by your side will ease any tension.
1. Find An Agent
The majority of sellers call or research an agent once they are fully ready to put their house on the market for purchase. However, choosing an agent should be done weeks to months before putting the For Sale sign in the yard. A good agent will have different connections for companies that could help fix small issues or help stage the home prior to photos being taken. My goal is to ensure the transaction goes smoothly along with getting the largest possible profit for your home.
2. Preparing Your Home
Sellers and other agents may think pricing your home is the second step, they would be WRONG. The reason is, different sellers have different goals or ideas of fixes they would want to do to their homes. If one home has done small repairs along with larger repairs, such as updated bathrooms, it will garner a higher price point than an as-is home would. Click on Pre-Listing Checklist for a list of various small steps to get a home ready for sale. I will also do a free walkthrough of your property to give recommendations for necessary or optional repairs to your home.
The most comprehensive analysis of one’s home should be done by a licensed home inspector. I am not a licensed home inspector and my walkthroughs focus primarily on cosmetics and what buyers would want to see.
3. Staging Your Home
Staging a home is crucial for the buyer to have the comfortability with your home, if they don’t have that, they won’t write an offer. The National Association of Realtors® stated that “Eighty-two percent of buyer’s agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.” I can recommend highly professional stagers to evaluate your home and get the perfect setting to attract the largest population of buyers.
4. Marketing Your Home
Once your home is both prepped and staged, it is time for the first step of marketing, photos. I personally hire a home photographer who also does drone photos of not only selling your home but selling the area around your home. Marketing strategies can vary on the home and the seller’s wishes. My typical marketing strategy contains both an Old School method vs. New School method. Old school is boots on the ground with fliers, door-knocking the neighborhood, and open houses. The new school method includes multiple forms of social media marketing within real estate groups, paid ads, and contacting buyer’s agents in the surrounding area.
5. Showing Your Home
Once your home is officially for sale, it’s time to invite buyers to tour the home. I set up a program so only licensed agents can view the property with their buyers. Necessary documentation/marketing will be displayed in your home for ease and interest for all buyers. Buyer’s agents are required to provide the feedback of their buyers. Any and all feedback can be helpful regarding adjusting the price point, marketing strategy, or how the home is shown. Important to note that not all feedback will be helpful.
6. Offers and Negotiations
Congratulations, you have received one or more offers on your home. Don’t celebrate too much as you still have to determine which is the right offer for you. I will help decipher what the offer contains and the pros and cons of each offer. There may be some counteroffers between you and different buyers. Once you have chosen which offer is best for you, you’ll sign the documents and officially go under contract.
7. Under Contract Next Steps
Once you’re under contract, it is the buyer’s turn to do their due diligence. The due diligence will be different with every offer, the steps can contain inspections, mortgage applications, title searches, and an appraisal. Depending on the location of your home, one of your seller’s responsibilities may be to get a Use & Occupancy inspection from the municipality.
8. Final Negotiations & Steps
Once inspections and appraisals are finished the buyers may ask for repairs to be done or price negotiations to occur. We will work through those negotiations. Once things are agreed upon, settlement is right around the corner. You will make final arrangements for moving, transferring utilities, and making your peace with leaving.
9. SOLD!
Buyer chooses the title company where settlement will occur. On settlement day, your house should be fully empty and clean. The buyers and their agent will perform a pre-settlement walk-through to ensure that the property is empty, clean, and in the condition of the house when the offer was made. Be sure to leave the items at home that were stated in the “inclusions” section of the agreement. At settlement, you will sign over the rights of your home to the buyer and give them the keys. Profits from the sale of your home can either be wired or given to you via check. Congratulations! You are now officially entering a stage of your life happy and with thousands in your bank account.