6 Steps to Selling a Home

Selling your house is a huge undertaking. You’ve got to focus on your upcoming move, all while trying to price, stage, show, and sell your current house. Here’s what you need to know about the six steps to selling your home.

Step One: Hire the Best Seller’s Agent

You need the right seller’s real estate agent to help you make the most of your experience. He or she will help you with pricing, staging, and showing your property. They’ll also help you review and negotiate contracts and guide you through the complicated closing process.

Step Two: Price Your House to Sell

It’s hard to know what price tag to put on your house. Nobody, not even your agent, can tell you what to do; it’s your decision. However, there are tools you can use and advice you can take to help you hone in on the perfect price.

Use a comparative market analysis, which your agent will provide. This data shows you information about recently sold homes in your area that are like yours in size, age, style, and location. This helps you realize what buyers are currently willing to pay for a house in the current market.

In a buyer’s market, you’ll be forced to list at a lower price because there aren’t enough buyers, so there’s no competitiveness to drive up home values. However, in a seller’s market, when there aren’t enough available homes, prices rise drastically.

Most importantly, listen to the advice of your real estate agent who is fully experienced in assessing home values in your area.

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Step Three: Stage Your House for Showings

To stage your house means that you clean, pack, organize, and accessorize your home, so it’s in its best shape for showings.

Staging is done, essentially, in four steps. 

First, you declutter, meaning get rid of anything you don’t plan on taking with you to your new place. Donate, have a yard sale, give things away. 

Next, depersonalize, which is to pack up the rest of your personal items, particularly personal photographs, refrigerator art, knick-knack collections, books and magazines, and anything that makes a statement about religion, politics, or sports.

Third, clean like crazy. Check ceiling fans, baseboards, and everything in between. Bleach the bathtubs, sinks, and toilets. Mop or vacuum all the floors. Wipe the windows and clean windowsills. Check the walls, too, and if they can’t be cleaned, then paint them. The same is true with the floors. If the carpet is damaged, it’s best to replace it before you list it.

Fourth, accentuate with things like live plants, potted flowers, bowls of fruit, candles, and other accessories that give the house a bit of inviting charm.

Don’t forget the curb appeal!

Step Four: Showing the Home

There are lots of ways to show a home today. There’s the traditional method of private, in-person showings. You can host an open house to draw a larger pool of buyers, but you can also show your home digitally via several means.

Virtual tours are extremely valuable since most house hunts start online. Use professional photographs and high-end video, present 3D tours and dollhouse views – all without having a stranger enter your home for a look around.

Your agent can also host YouTube Live or Facebook Live events to show your home to groups of people online. They can also schedule private online tours where the agent can answer questions live.

For in-person showings, make arrangements for any animals you have. Potential buyers may be frightened of animals, allergic to them, be annoyed by them, and the animals likely get stressed, too. You won’t want to be home during in-person showings either, so be prepared to leave home for about an hour when someone schedules a showing.

Step Five: Reviewing and Negotiating Contracts

Don’t get too distracted by the amount of money the buyer offers. Instead, look carefully into the type of loan the buyer has, if they’re pre-approved, whether they have to sell a current house first or if they’re tied to a specific timeline that might not align with yours. Then look at the money.

Your agent will help you inspect each offer. You have the right to counteroffer and negotiate if the market allows.

Step Six: The Closing Process

The closing process is both exciting and stressful. By now, most of your things are packed, stored, and ready to move. This is when the title is checked for any liens or tax holds and is prepared for transfer.

The lender sends an appraiser to assess the value of your home in the current market. The house must appraise for at least the amount of the sales price. If it doesn’t appraise for the full amount, the buyer has to bring cash to the table, or you may find yourself negotiating the price.

An inspector is also sent to satisfy the lender that the property and structure are in good standing. He or she checks things like electrical, plumbing, HVAC, cracks in the foundation or structure, and pests like termites that threaten the integrity of the house.

If the inspection doesn’t pass, you’ll either have to make repairs before closing day, reduce your sales price so the buyer can afford to make changes after they move in, or, in the worst-case scenario, if the problems are insurmountable, the buyer can terminate the contract, sending you back to square one.

On closing day, all of the final documents are signed, the buyer and seller both pay closing costs, and then you turn over the keys. As of the end of this meeting, you no longer own the home, and the buyer is clear to take possession.

Conclusion

Find the best seller’s agent. Price your house to sell. Take care in staging your house for showings, make arrangements for yourself and your animals during showings. Review offers carefully, looking for contingencies and timelines as much as the monetary amount.

Make sure your house is in good condition and well maintained so it will easily pass inspection and appraisal.

Talk with your agent about more ways to plan and prepare to sell your home.