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10 Steps To Selling Your Home
Needs Analysis
Pricing Strategy
Property Preparation
Marketing Strategy
Receiving an Offer
Negotiating to Sell
Sell
Pre-Close Preparation
Closing
Post Closing
Needs Analysis
It is important to set out in writing the reasons
that are motivating you to sell your current home. You might
ask yourself, "Why am I selling my home and what do I expect
to accomplish?" If you have a growing family and you need
more space you may be under less pressure to get your house
ready to sell than if you were, let's say, moving to a new city
due to a career opportunity. Explore your short and long term
goals and decide how selling your house fits into those goals.
Doing this will help you to establish a time management path
for selling your home.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by
applying their expert knowledge to your particular needs and
setting a realistic time frame for the process to proceed. They
can explore all of the variables within your individual goals
and how best to achieve them in your local real estate market.
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Pricing Strategy
Your next objective should be to determine the
best possible selling price for your house. You will need to
take into account the state of the local market, the condition
of your home, and sales of comparable homes in your neighborhood.
It is often hard to maintain an non-biased view of your property,
so you will want to gather the necessary information in the
most objective way possible. If you want a truly objective opinion
about the price of your home you could have an appraisal done.
This will need to be paid for up front, in cash, and may cost
between three and five hundred dollars.
Be reasonable about the price you set. You will
always be better off setting a fair market value price than
setting your price high expecting that someone will come along
and be willing to pay it. If your home stays on the market too
long because it is overpriced potential buyers may think that
something is wrong with it and you may end up selling it for
less than what you could have gotten if you had started out
with a realistic asking price.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by educating
you on how to set the asking price for your home. They will
create a comparative market analysis by taking into consideration
the type of market you are in and recent sales of comparable
properties. They will then guide you to the best fair market
price that will help sell your house within the desired time
frame. Usually, real estate agents have a better sense of market
value than anyone else- including appraisers!
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Property Preparation
It's time to get your house into "showing
and selling" condition. Most of us don't keep our homes
in the condition it would need to be in to sell. Over the years
those boxes in the corner of the garage just seem to multiply
on their own. Things have broken that we just never get around
to fixing and some things have just worn out. We just accept
the fact that they will always be this way. It is this frame
of mind that you have to break out of in order to get your house
ready to show. How your house looks will have an immense impact
on how quickly it sells and whether or not you get full market
value for it.
First impressions are very important and you only
get to make one. Approach your property from the buyer's standpoint.
What needs to be changed to make a good first impression? This
may mean that all you do is prune the trees and shrubs. On the
other hand, it may mean that you completely repaint the house,
inside and out. Do a "curb to door" check. Give the
potential buyers a clear path to enter the home. The fewer obstacles
between the buyer and the true appeal of your house the better.
Keep in mind that over time we become accustomed to our surroundings.
What's normal for you may be detrimental to the buyer. To find
out more about your options when it comes to home improvement
projects, visit our Home Services section.
Make your house look as spacious as possible.
Organize your closets and kitchen cabinets, and if you have
things stored in the attic or basement, make sure they are presentable.
If you are showing during the day, pull back your curtains and
drapes to show how bright and cheery your home is. If you are
showing at night, turn on all of the lights to create a warm
and welcoming environment for the prospective buyers.
A house that is marked with your personality
and style may be harder to sell. You might even consider such
things as removing obvious clues to your political affiliation
and tucking away any biased literature that may be visible.
This will reduce distractions and help the buyers to visualize
the home as their own.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by
providing an objective and expert opinion on what needs to be
changed or improved. They know what the buyers are looking for
because they are in the marketplace everyday. They will perform
an analysis of the entire property and, taking into account
the state of the market in which you are selling your house,
point you to the changes that need to be made in order to sell
it for the most amount of money and as quickly as possible.
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Marketing Strategy
Now that your house is ready, it's time to put
it up for sale and market it. Establishing a marketing strategy
is a must. You will have to decide how you want to get the word
out there that your house is for sale. There are many different
ways to advertise your property. A yard sign, flyers, and direct
marketing are just a few of the many options you have. The path
you choose will depend on the money you have to invest, which
program will bring the most potential buyers, and your comfort
and experience level with each of your options. If you are in
a buyer's market you will have to be extra careful when choosing
a plan. You don't want your house to sit with no one showing
interest. The first 3-6 weeks should be the busiest. If you
don't get any traffic within that time frame, you may want to
reconsider your approach.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by exposing
your house to the most potential buyers possible. They will
present to you the best marketing plan that will have the highest
possibility of bringing not only the most buyers, but the most
qualified buyers, to your doorstep.
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Receiving an Offer
Once a buyer decides they would like to buy your
house, an offer will be presented. Review the written document
taking care to note what needs to be done by both parties to
execute the transaction. The contract should protect the best
interests of all parties involved and should be comprehensive
in nature. Once you accept the contract, it may be too late
to make any changes. The contract, though not limited to this
list, should include the following:
- A legal description of the property
- The offering price
- The down payment
- Financing arrangements
- A list of fees and who will pay them
- Amount of the deposit
- Inspection rights and possible repair allowances
- The method of conveying the title and who will
handle the closing
- A list of appliances and furnishings which
will stay with the home
- The settlement date
- Any relevant contingencies
- Remember that the legalities of this phase
are very important. If you have any questions or concerns,
they need to be addressed right away.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by making
sure that the offer is presented to you by a qualified buyer.
There is no reason to review an offer if the person(s) making
it will not be able to actually buy your home. They will also
be available to review the written offer to make sure that it
is written in a proper way and covers the necessary areas.
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Negotiating to Sell
Most offers to purchase your house will require
some level of negotiating to come to a win-win agreement. It
is critical that you be well versed on the legalities of the
real estate contract used in your area. In addition to legal
issues, you will need to understand contract basics, including
what each contract clause means to you and your buyer, what
you will net from the sale of your home, and what areas in the
contract lend themselves easiest to negotiation. Some of the
things that you may have to negotiate on are:
- The price
- Financing
- Closing costs
- Repairs that need to be done
- Appliances and fixtures
- Landscaping
- Painting
- Occupancy time frame
To really gain some insight into why potential buyers are
pursuing the purchase of your house and how they might proceed
in the negotiations, it is important to know as much about
the buyer as possible, especially their motivation for buying.
Once both parties have reached a point where the deal is acceptable,
you must be certain that you have a legally executable contract.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by representing
you through the offer, negotiation, and acceptance process.
They will review the written offer with you to make sure that
you thoroughly understand what the buyers are offering and what
they are asking in return. They will be able to help you understand
the issues and how they will effect you. It is your agents primary
responsibility to protect your best interest throughout these
negotiations.
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Sell
Once you have accepted an offer to sell your house
you will need to make a list of all the things you must do,
and a list of all the things the buyer must do, in order to
proceed successfully to closing. The property may need to be
formally appraised, surveyed, inspected or repaired. Depending
on the specifics reached during the negotiations, you may pay
for all, some, or none of these items. If each procedure returns
acceptable results as defined by the contract, then the sale
may continue. If there are problems with the property the terms
set forth in the contract will dictate your next step. Depending
on the contract, you or the buyer may decide to walk away, open
a new round of negotiations, or close.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by coordinating
all the necessary items that must be done to finalize the sale.
They will be directly involved and keep you informed as to the
results of each action and what effect, if any, it will have
on the sale of the property. He or she will also help you coordinate
any actions you must take to keep the sale moving forward. There
are some sales that go smoothly and some that require a lot
of work to get to the closing table. Until you get into it,
you won't know which one you have on your hands. Either way,
Greg and Marisa will prove to be a valuable resource to you.
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Pre-Close Preparation
A few days before the closing you will want to
contact whichever entity that is closing the transaction and
make sure that all of the necessary forms and documents have
been prepared and are going to be available to sign on the appropriate
date. It would be a shame to get this close to selling and have
the deal fall through because of a document not being at the
right place at the right time. You should also begin to make
arrangements for your upcoming move if you have not done so.
Check out our Relocation Service to get started.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by making
sure that all of the necessary documentation is prepared for
closing. They will also make sure that all parties have done
what they need to do so that the closing can proceed at the
date and time planned.
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Closing
This is where ownership is legally transferred to the buyer. As
the seller you will need to be prepared to give over any necessary
documentation regarding the property and, depending on the arrangements
made during negotiations, you may be required to have done something
specific in order to close. Be sure and read all the documents.
Mistakes are more common than you might think.
Greg and Marisa can save you time and money by being
present during the closing to help explain the process and forms
to you and make sure everything goes as planned. By being present
during the closing, they mediate any last minute issues that
may arise. Something always seems to come up!
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Post Closing
Congratulations on the successful
sale of your home. Hopefully, everything went smoothly and you
will be vacating your house in the time frame that you had anticipated.
You should make a list of all the items you will need to do
to turn the property over to the new owners. You will need to
do such things as make sure that all of the local services (i.e.
electricity, gas, lawn care, cable, etc.) have been canceled
or, if the new owner is going to retain some of the services,
the name for the account should be changed. The property and
anything assigned to the buyer according to the contract, should
be prepared appropriately for the new owners.
Greg and Marisa will save you time and money by
helping you coordinate your move. They can help you develop
checklists that you can use to make sure that everything is
done so that your move goes as smoothly as possible.
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