Seller's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide

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 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.

Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Do you want to make a certain amount of money that you can put toward a larger or nicer home? Do you need to sell it as soon as possible to facilitate a move to a new city or area? It's important for us to be on the same page with what your goal is in selling. Your motivations in selling can affect your negotiating power and can help me with pricing your home correctly to ensure you get the highest offer for your home in the timeline that works best for you.

Step 2: Determine Selling Price

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 underpricing leads to receiving less than what your home is worth. Working with a real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

Step 3: Start Preparations

If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. Once you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing the space so that buyers can envision themselves in the space, making any small repairs, and doing a deep clean to make sure your home is in pristine condition.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect 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 week after going on the market.

Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. We will evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. I will help to point out the differences between offers and how those differences could affect the closing process. There are many things to look at in an offer starting with total purchase price, due diligence money, earnest money, loan type, closing date, closing costs, and more. This is where having an experienced agent comes into play to negotiate on your behalf.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once you deem the offer is acceptable, I will send the signed contract over to the buyer's agent. At this point you are officially under contract. Now the buyer has 3 business days to get you their due diligence money and I will help ensure it is received on time. Next, the buyer will schedule their home inspection and appraisal and we sit tight to hear back on those. The buyer's agent will schedule closing and will confirm the date, time, and location with me. If no issues arise after inspection and appraisal then we move forward to closing. If there are issues with either then I would help negotiate on your behalf to get to an agreement with the buyers.

Step 7: Get Ready to Close

You are now very close to the end of your selling journey. If you agreed to any repair requests from the buyer then this is the time to get those arranged. I have a contact list full of handyman, electricians, plumbers, contractors, and more to get any job done. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession after closing. Unless a seller possession after closing agreement was made, you would be expected to bring the keys to your home to closing to give to the buyer. This means you should be planning your move at least a week prior to closing.

Step 8: Close

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. We will attend closing together where you will sign the final paperwork and give your keys over to the new buyers. Don't forget to schedule to have utilities turned off beginning on your closing date!

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.

What Emily's Clients Have to Say

Devon P.

We met Emily Stoots at an open house and gave her a call when we saw our dream home hit the market. She got our first offer accepted, and was there throughout the entire home buying process to answer our never ending questions....

Kimberley R.

My husband Rick and I highly recommend Emily Stoots for any real estate needs. This summer we listed our home with Emily. She went beyond our expectations with her communication, she was always available to answer questions and...

Jack M.

My wife and I are so thankful for Emily Stoots. We hired her to sell our home and guide us to a new purchase, and thought we were getting a realtor but we got a friend. She was very kind and patient, as well as very responsive ...

Candy W.

Emily is very professional and knowledgeable. She goes above what you expect in a Realtor®. She explained each step and process and kept us informed on the showing schedule. She is very quick to respond to calls or texts to que...

David W.

I am highly satisfied with the services received with searching and purchasing our new house. Plus, Emily setup our former house that it sold during the first weekend. She kept us informed through the buying and selling process.

Jedadiah C.

Emily Stoots was a great agent. You couldn't ask for someone to work harder to sell your home or help you find a dream home. I recommend her and Realty Executives 100%.

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