Selling Process

Step 1 – Hiring an Agent

If you want to sell your home quickly, put an agent to work for you.  Over 85 percent of homes for sale in the United States are represented by agents.  An agent who takes information about your home, packages it as a “listing” for their brokerage, and also enters it into the MLS and in advertising media to home buyers is committed to getting you the best price and terms possible.

Step 2 – Preparing and Pricing your Home

Ideally, you want to be sure that your property is competitive with other homes available in the community.  Real Estate agents see numerous homes and can provide suggestions that are consistent with your marketplace.

Pricing your home to sell is one of your agent’s greatest areas of expertise and an important reason why sellers benefit from professional assistance

Step 3 – Staging Your Home

Staging is designed to decorate rooms to make them look larger and warmer, and thus increase the value of the home, by preparing your house as if your buyers are welcome guests.  It can be as dimple of as major as you can afford, but staging should include a decorating allowance as well as some tough love toward furniture or accessories that needs to be shown the door.

Step 4 – Understanding Market Realities

Housing markets are in a constant state of flux.  They’re impacted by a wide range of factors including economic and housing development, business growth, opportunity, availability, and mortgage interest rates and products.

However, while real estate can be affected by national events, it is impacted by your local market much more.  What matters to you is what’s happening in your particular market.  No matter what the market is like, there’s a strategy for you that will help you sell your home for the highest price and best terms possible.

Step 5 – Security and Other Issues

One of the most important reasons you hire a real estate agent is to protect your interests while marketing your home.  That includes demonstrating care, common sense, and caution with regard to letting strangers into your home.

Step 6 – Listing the Property

Sellers and their agents are obligated to disclose known material defects in a property to all potential purchasers.  Sellers are in a better position to be aware of information about the condition of the property, and seller disclosure forms convey this knowledge to the purchaser.  Use of seller disclosures can result in fewer surprises to purchasers after the closing, thereby reducing the likelihood of a lawsuit if something goes wrong with the home.

Step 7 – Accepting the Buyer’s Offer

The sale agreement, or purchase offer, will be presented to your agent either by the buyer’s agent or directly from the buyer if she is unrepresented.

The offer will include a price and the terms and conditions of the sale.  Keep in mind that the offer is a firm contract when you agree to the price, terms, and conditions.  If you don’t agree and would like to negotiate, your agent will likely call the buyer’s agent and let them know the sticking point.  They may reach a verbal agreement over the phone or by fax, but it isn’t a firm contract until all parties have signed and are in receipt of the signed copies.

Step 8 – Preparing for Closing

The terms of your contract will outline which events will take place and when.  While your buyer is working on finalizing financing, inspection, and closing issues, you are working on cleaning out the house, attending to any final requests by the buyer that you’ve agreed to, and making sure your title is in clear order by getting together your papers such as divorce documents, wills, or shared ownership titles.

You and your agent should make sure you have a few items nailed down that will make the transaction go more smoothly.  In addition , your agent should give you some idea if you will have any costs at closing.  While it’s possible to close a transaction quickly, it’s sensible to give both parties enough time to complete what they need to.

Step 9 – The Closing

Closing or "settlement" or "escrow" as it is known in some areas is essentially a meeting where the closing agent (the party who conducts settlement) takes in money from the buyer, pays out money to the seller, and makes sure that the purchaser’s title is properly recorded in local records along with any mortgage liens.
The closing agent review the sale agreement to determine what payments and credits the seller should receive and what amounts are due from the buyer.  The clsing agent also assures that certain transaction costs are paid (taxes and title searches).

Step 10 – Planning a Stress-Free Move

Moving ranks as one of the most stressful events in anyone’s life.  Not only is the planning and preparation time-consuming and labor-intensive, but moving also takes an emotional toll on family members and even on pets.
There are many strategies you can follow to make moving as pleasant as possible for your family, the most important of which is to get started early, particularly if you are moving at a high-volume time like summer.  Do a little each day, even if it’s only to pack and mark one box and throw out one garbage bag of junk.  You’ll be surprised how quickly your efforts will add up.

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