Sell Your Home. Save Your Sanity.

What is the Home Selling Process?

There are few times in life more stressful than the home selling process with many unknowns, potential pitfalls, and opportunities to consider.

Let our friendly ‘how tos’ guide you through the process to ensure your home sells as fast as possible at a price you can live with (and hopefully buy another home to live in)!

How Long Does It Take to Sell a Home?

Your timeline may vary, but the following is a good guideline:

• Building a Team: 5-7 days
• Listing: 3-5 days
• Obtain an Offer: 6-10 weeks
• Clear to Close: 2-8 weeks
• Turn Over Possession: 0+ days

On average a home seller will spend 8-12 days preparing, 45-70 days waiting on and sifting through offers, and 14-60 days from clear to close. For some sellers, the process can take as little as 30 days total, while for others, the time to a first offer can be several months.

The home selling journey is an emotional one, but does it have to be a long one? Some sellers will be surprised by how quickly the process can go by, and for others, it will be just the opposite. The length of time varies from situation to situation, but here is some additional explanation of the estimates in the home selling timeline that will help you prepare emotionally, and plan financially.

Listing: 3-5 days
The length of this depends mostly on how quickly your agent gathers all the information on the home, and how quickly you can stage and photograph the property.

Obtain an Offer: 60-70 days
Of these steps, this is the one that will vary the most wildly, as well as being is one of the hardest steps because it depends on many external factors. Here, the seller is at the whim of the home buying market. In a seller’s market, this could take a week while in a buyer’s market, it could take months. Make sure you are keeping in touch with your agent to offer your home at a price that is competitive, without giving anything away.

Clear to Close: 14-60 days
Once you have a potential buyer who you feel is a good fit for your home, the first instinct is to rush to close. In this step, however, it’s best to work against your instincts and practice due diligence. A successful close means taking every part of negotiating and finalizing a contract very seriously.

Turn Over Possession: 0+ days!
The homebuyer will want to take possession of their new home as soon as possible, so it’s smart to have a move-out plan already in place. If circumstances require it, part of the closing contract can involve renting the home back for a few weeks from the new buyer. But optimally, you’ll be ready to move from the moment of the close.

The Important Steps in Your Home Selling Journey

While some of the details of the home selling process can vary from state to state (and even county to county), there are some important steps in home selling that will be found pretty much anywhere. If you are thinking of selling your home soon, then review these steps first before beginning your journey.

Learning the Market & Determining Your Home’s Value

Some people recommend contacting a real estate agent first, but knowing a bit about the market on your own can go a long way before you attend that first meeting. Do some homework and find out how the home buying market is performing in general, and how things are shaping up locally.

Are market conditions leaning to sellers? To buyers? Are they neutral? The answers to these questions will heavily influence the pricing of your home. In addition, every home seller should look at comparables – these are homes listed or recently sold with similar features to your home – which may include the total number of bedrooms, square footage, and approximate age. This will give you a baseline against which you can establish a sale price.

Read: Things to know and consider when selling your home

Assembling Your Team
Many people will be involved in the sale of your home: the appraiser, the inspector, the selling agent, the buyer’s agent – and in some cases, at least one real estate lawyer. For the seller, assembling this team begins with finding a good agent.

From the time you begin working with them, your agent will be the point person for drawing all the other professionals involved in your team together. A good agent will know the top real estate professionals in the area, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also do your own homework. Look up the best appraisers in your area and see if the two lists match.

As for the agent themselves, you should meet with at least 3 agents before deciding on who you want to work with. When looking for an agent, hire one that is not only knowledgeable, but also one that listens to you, and really sees what you see in your home.

Thinking of going the “for-sale-by-owner” route? Even if you don’t hire an agent, you will still need a team to help you along the way. Selling a home even with an agent can be a full-time job, so selling the property yourself can be doubly so. But if you love doing things yourself, you’re detail-oriented, and you aren’t afraid of legal documents, then by all means – list the home yourself.

Read: How to build your real estate team to sell your home

Prepping Your Home for Sale
Increase your home’s curb appeal on the outside, and get it ready to be shown on the inside. Paint and trim, declutter and clean, host a garage sale and get ready for staging. Some people attempt the self-staging route, while others hire a professional. Most seller’s agents know a few staging professionals or know something about the process of staging themselves. Many find that paying for a good staging expert is well worth the cost.

Read: How to prepare your home for sale

Listing Your Home
Work with your agent to list your property. Creating a good listing means marketing your home properly, so talk to your agent about how to best bring out the personality of your home. Consider all the different styles of photography out there, and don’t be afraid to explore new technology that may further increase your home’s visibility.

Read: How to list your home for sale

The Open House
With more and more of the home buying process being done online these days, chances are that those who are coming to your house in person have already done some homework on your listing. For these people, the open house serves to confirm that your home looks as good in person as the professional photographs made it look online.

The open house is about more than just confirmation. A well-staged and well-presented house can create word of mouth or a positive and noteworthy impression in an agent’s mind. Remember that when a buyer’s agent brings around a potential buyer, even if that buyer isn’t right for your home, they may know someone else who is.

Read: How to host the perfect open house

Offers on Your Home
When offers begin coming in on your home, you will have several important decisions to make. Are the offers coming in lower than you expected? How do you deal with multiple offers? How much and when do you counter?

Hopefully, you have professionals in your corner to help you through this process, or you have some experience doing it yourself. As the seller, you’re going to have to find an offer that stands out, and be prepared to negotiate the right deal for your home, navigating any possible twists in the journey that the buyer’s appraiser or the home inspector might send your way.

Read: How to handle the home purchase offer process

The Closing (Sale)
From here, it will mostly be your agent dealing with the buyer’s agent on the final details of the contract. This could include a few more repairs to the home, or at the very least, the transfer of utilities. Then, you will need to ensure that all of the paperwork for the real estate attorney is signed, initialized, and notarized. Once the contract is clear to close, you’ll be planning your move!

Read: How to closed on your home sale

The Best Advice for Home Sellers

Homeowners naturally love their homes and want to get the best price for them. But many homeowners make simple mistakes when it comes to selling their property. What are the most important things to keep in mind as you begin your home-selling journey? We’ve broken it down into the top three pieces of advice.

Find a Good Agent

While some homeowners decide to go the “for-sale-by-owner” route, having a good agent can transform your home-selling experience. Interview at least three agents before you settle on one, and make sure you ask them a lot of questions.

Ask them about their track record selling homes, what makes them different from other agents, and how they plan to market your home. You’re going to want to find an agent that not only is knowledgeable but also listens to you – someone with whom you feel you have good communication. Most agents are specialists in either a neighborhood or a type of property, so find one that has a specialty that covers your home.

Read: How to build your real estate team to sell your home

Marketing
Selling a home is like a business, and every business needs good marketing. Clean and declutter your home, tidy up the lawn, and spring for a new coat of paint. Hire a professional photographer so your home sparkles online. A professional stager knows how to make your home look good in photos and in person. You’ll want to strike the right balance of making your home neutral enough to appeal to anyone while highlighting the home’s personality so that it stands out. Finally, make sure the pets have somewhere else to stay before and after the open house.

Read: How to prepare your home for sale

Set a Reasonable Price
Real estate agents say that time and again, homeowners, whether they are first-time sellers or not, overprice their home. Set a reasonable price from the beginning, based on comparables – homes in the same market with same features as yours. An overpriced home may sit idle on the market for a while, and you’ll have to drop the sale price lower than you would have if you had set a more moderate price to begin with. Pay attention to those comparables and be competitive, remembering that they say the most expensive home in the neighborhood sells last.

Read: How to list your home for sale

Home Selling Checklist

Homes.com prepared this checklist to help you keep track of the major process-points in your home selling journey.

Do Your Homework

• Look at your finances and budget out home repairs and other home sale closing costs
• Seek advice from real estate professionals, including legal and tax specialists for your specific situation
• Address any already-known need for repairs on your house
• Do some research to better understand where the real estate market is, and what your sale price might look like
• Seek out a real estate agent, interviewing 3 of them before hiring one

Make Sure Your Home Is in Top Condition

• Roof
• Gutters
• Yard
• Windows and doors
• Floors
• Plumbing
• Electrical
• Heating and cooling
• Paint

Price the House

• Have your home appraised
• Take another look at the market and set a comparable price

Marketing/Prepare for the Open House

• Clean and declutter
• Make a plan for the kids and pets
• Hire a professional stager
• Hire a Professional Photographer

Negotiate the Offer

• Draw up purchase contract, have an attorney review
• Determine contingencies
• Negotiate with buyer through your agent
• Additional home repairs, if necessary
• Make a move-out plan, communicate possession with the buyer
• Sign purchase contract

Closing

• Close the contract through escrow
• Meet final inspections/contingencies
• Arrange transfer of utilities
• Deliver title and other documents to buyer/local government
• Received loan commitment letter from the buyer
• Pay closing fees

As a homeowner, there can be a million reasons to sell your home. The kids could be out of the house and it is time to move onto something smaller. Or just the opposite – you are expecting your family to expand. The reasons can be financial, personal, or professional.

Besides these individual motivations, what considerations go into deciding when the home itself is ready to sell? Even if it’s time for you, it might not be the perfect time for your home. Here are some important considerations for deciding if now is the right time to sell your home.

The Best Time to List, and Sell, Your House

It is important to consider not only if this is the right time for the market, but if it is also the right time of year to sell the house. As a homeowner, you may have heard of the “magic selling window,” from March to May a period of time within which you have to sell your home, and while this is not the only ideal time to sell your home, there is some truth to it.  This is one of the many where areas a local real estate specialist can be crucial. An agent who knows your location can give you the best information on timing.

Read: Is the real estate ‘magic selling window’ real?

The Costs of Selling a Home

There are several upfront costs associated with selling your home. Some of these costs will apply to anyone selling their home, and these include agent’s commission, marketing and staging the home, and home cleaning and repairs. Besides these, there are a few other costs that might come up depending on your situation; these include paying off the mortgage, and closing costs on the home sale. In most cases, the buyer will pay the closing costs, but if the home buyer is struggling to make a down payment or they are a first-time buyer, then your agent may advise you to cover the closing costs for a buyer that is credit rich but cash poor. A good estimate is to expect these costs to add up to 8-12% of the home sale.

If everything goes correctly, home sellers should be seeing a profit at the end of their home selling journey, but no matter what, selling your home will almost definitely cost some investment up front and post-sale from the sales price.

Read: What are some of the closing costs when selling a home?

Why should you know what your house is worth?

Learning the Value of Your Home: How, What, and Why

In the course of selling your home, its value will be estimated several times over. First, you may go online and try to estimate the value based on what else is being sold in your local area, Homes.com offers a home values section that will show you home value estimates of properties in your area. Later in the home selling process, your agent will essentially do the same thing, just with more tools at their disposal, as they look at market comparables (homes of similar size age and type in our area). Then, your home will be appraised, and this will be the final word on the value of your home. Some homeowners who want to jump to the end will hire an appraiser at the beginning of the process, and there are some advantages to this. An appraiser is an impartial state-licensed agent, most often hired by the buyer at the request of the loan company, and the appraiser gives the true market value of the home. Even if you hire an appraiser to learn for certain your home’s value, a buyer may request their own appraisal anyway, so many homeowners choose to save money by waiting for the sale to be in process before getting an appraisal.

Your Real Estate Agent and Comparables (Comps)
Understanding the value of a property is part of the real estate agent’s job, and one of the many things they bring to the table when you hire them. When they help you look into the value of your home, they’ll be looking at a comparable market analysis. Using this method, the agent will look at comparables sold over the last 90 days in your market.

So what are comparables? Also referred to as comps, comparables are homes that share a market and similar features with your home. Ideally, a comp is a home that is physically close to yours, with the same interior square footage, the same lot size, and the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms. It is the real estate agent’s job to find a ‘comp property’ that is closest in all these aspects, and more than one, if and when possible. The more comps you can find, the closer the price estimate can be.

The Other Homes Being Listed
No matter what you think your home should sell for, the price-point on your home is limited by what other homes in your neighborhood are being sold for. This is another thing your real estate agent will help you take a look at. It’s possible to price your home higher than the other homes on the block, but your home should offer more: more yard, more bedrooms, better upkeep.

If there are multiple homes being sold close by, the general idea is to find a price that gets the best value for you, while staying somewhere in the middle of the pack. One wise Real Estate Agent adage says, “The Highest Priced Home on the Street Sells Last.”

Read: What are some factors that affect a home’s value?

How to Get a Home Appraised
Most instances of home appraisal occur because, in the process of selling your home, the buyer is required to have the home appraised by the lender of their mortgage to ascertain the home’s true market value. Home appraisers are objective third-party professionals licensed by state and local government to give fair assessments. In almost all instances, the home buyer pays for the appraisal fees as part of the closing costs.

There are other reasons to have a home appraised, as well. Anytime you are looking to borrow money on your home, such as to pay for an extensive remodel, a lender will ask for an appraisal.

For the most part, the appraiser will be looking at those macro factors in the valuation of your home, but there are a few small things you can do to increase your home’s value:

• Signs of Age: If your home is showing signs of its age, think about ways to make it more contemporary. Carpet, fixtures, and cabinetry should be as new looking as possible.
• Curb Appeal: In a similar way, keep the yard as fresh and welcoming as you can; anything you can do to reduce the overall impression of age will give your home its best chance at a high value.
• Make Improvements and Keep Records: Make sure there is a paper trail of all the home improvements you make; for instance, any fixes on the faucets or the building’s electrical should be recorded.

Finding an appraiser in your area should be easy. If you are selling your home, then the lender will provide a list of approved appraisers for the buyer to hire; if you are looking to appraise your property value for other reasons, then your lender or local real estate agent will have recommendations.

For the most part, appraisers provide a neutral, objective assessment of the value of a home. If you feel something is off, however, it is possible to challenge the appraisal. If you wish to challenge the appraisal, then you must contact the lender who the appraisal report was sent to. The process to get the property re-appraised is lengthy, but if the estimate was off by enough, it may be worth the effort.

Understanding Your Home’s Equity
Your home’s equity is the difference between your home’s value and the debt you owe on it. Knowing your home’s equity can mean knowing if you will make a profit on selling your home or not. If the value of your home’s possible sale is lower than your mortgage, this is called being “underwater.” This may be a reason to reconsider selling the home at the moment, or, if market values are continuing to slide, it may be smart to sell now and get out. If you are still paying off the mortgage on your home, it’s important to consider your home’s equity before selling. Even if your home isn’t underwater, waiting to sell and paying off a bit more of the mortgage could end up making for a much larger profit on the sale of your home.

Value vs. Equity
While connected, your home’s value is not the same as your home’s equity. Equity is the difference between your home’s value and the debt you owe on the property. It is simple enough to think of it as a math equation: Value-Debt=Equity. Knowing the equity of your home is an important part of deciding whether or not to sell it, and your home’s equity will tell you if you are going to make a profit or not when you sell. Homes that are worth less than the amount of their mortgage are considered to have negative equity, and are referred to as being “underwater.” In this case, it might be smart to wait to sell the home or to sell it at a loss if a foreclosure is looming.

To find out how much equity you have in your home, you have to find out both the home’s debt and its value. Knowing how much debt is as easy as reading your last mortgage statement. Knowing your home’s value is more variable. There are tools online that will give you an estimate of your home’s value, which might be enough to give you an idea of what the home is worth. Estimates are useful tools, but they are not absolute. If you need to know the true value of your home, then you have to go to an appraiser, and depending on your situation, paying for the professional appraisal might be worth the cost.

Whether you are a buyer or a seller, it takes an entire team of people to sell your home. As a home seller, who is included on that team looks a lot different than when you bought your home.

The members of your home selling team may include;

• Your selling agent (also sometimes called a listing agent)
• Home stager
• Home photographer
• Contractor for repairs
• Real estate attorney
• Home inspector

Deciding to Use a Listing Agent to Sell Your Home

What is a listing agent?

The listing agent is also sometimes referred to as the seller’s agent, someone who will work with the home seller, often exclusively (although there are certain locations that allow a selling agent to work both sides of a real estate transaction).

Home sellers will research options in a listing agent through personal contacts, local advertising, friend recommendations, social media, home listing portals (like Homes.com), mortgage broker recommendations or other means whereby introductions are made. There may be a period of interviews, meetings, calls or a selection process to decide which listing agent the home seller would like to work with.

The listing agent will then arrange a meeting at the home seller’s property, evaluate the property and then run a comparative market analysis on the home, via commercially available industry software or proprietary location data, and will then provide the seller with a ballpark range of their home’s value. Note: this is a non-binding estimate that the seller should consider. Local market factors can dramatically change the value a house sells at. A great listing agent will factor in these considerations when presenting their estimated home value. The listing agent and the seller will come to an agreement as to how much to list the property for, with an expectation of a time to sell that considers the seller’s need to move, financing and other possible factors influencing the speed with which the seller desires to sell. To become the ‘official’ listing agent who represents the seller in the real estate transaction, the agent will then provide the seller with a contract which the seller must sign.

At this point, the listing agent can begin marketing the property using a variety of techniques and tools such as the Multiple Listing Service toolset, Homes.com (and / or other national portals), local advertising and other promotional platforms to publicize and highlight the home’s features. The listing agent will also organize the listing photos, video or other media and work with the home seller on an attractive and accurate description of the property to accompany the general home’s information. Listing agents will also facilitate open houses and home tours to allow potential buyers to see the house from the inside via appointment or at set times during the week.

What the Listing Agent Will Do For You

Selling a home can be like owning your own small business, and your listing agent is your business partner. In the course of selling your home, your listing agent will be there with you through almost the entire process, from coming up with the sale price to handing over the home’s keys. In a few instances, these jobs are done by multiple people from the agency, each specializing in one particular step of the process. For the most part, though, you will be dealing with one agent that will get to know and trust through the bumps and hiccups of your home selling journey.

Here are just some of the things Listing Agents will do.

Determine Your Home’s Value
Finding the right price to value your home at is an art unto itself. Homeowners often over-price their home, only to find that their home languishes on the market and de-values steeper than what they could have gotten if they had gone with a lower price, to begin with. Your Listing Agent will know your market and know what homes are selling for. They will use Comparables, homes of a similar size and description, to find the right balance on price.

List the Home
One of the tools that a Listing Agent has access to is a Multiple Listing Service (MLS). The agent will use this not only to help price your home, but also to attract other agents and brokers. It’s possible to get on an MLS without an agent, but it will require paying fees.

Marketing
Marketing is an essential aspect of any home sale. An experienced agent will have a list of go-to contractors, home stagers, and photographers in order to make your home shine. When you first meet with your agent, you should ask what kind of marketing plan they employ, and how much they plan to spend. An agent with a marketing plan versus one without is often the difference between a good and bad agent.

Show the Home
An agent’s involvement with the showing of the home can vary depending on the seller, but when it comes to dealing with potential buyers and gauging their worthiness to buy your home, the agent’s experienced selling-eye will be invaluable.

Negotiate With the Buyer
In many home sales, the buyer and the seller never actually meet. While the contract is being worked out, the Listing Agent will meet with the Buyer’s Agent (sometimes called the Selling Agent) to work out the details of the purchase contract. Your Agent will not only have more experience reading these contracts and knowing what is usual or unusual about them, but also will be able to be detached enough to negotiate effectively.

Be There at the Close
An agent, in particular, one with some legal expertise, can be there with you at the close. Along with a Closing Attorney and/or an Escrow Officer, they will help you review the final documents to sign to complete the sale of your home.

Consider More Than the Cost of a Real Estate Agent

If you are thinking of selling your home without an agent just for the savings alone, then you may want to reconsider. In many For-Sale-By-Owner situations, the sellers are greatly disappointed in the amount of money they saved by the end if there were savings at all.

On the other hand, if you are thinking of going the FSBO route because you have a strong personal conviction for doing so, you don’t mind research and legal documents and can keep a cool head during negotiations, then selling your home without an agent might be the right choice for you.

Read: What are the advantages and disadvantages of FSBO vs selling with a real estate agent?
Read: How to find the perfect real estate agent for your home sale
Read: How to understand and negotiate your home listing agreement

How to Find a Home Inspector

In home sales where the buyer is obtaining a mortgage from a loan company, the company will require an appraisal and an inspection, both of which the buyer will pay for. In some instances, the seller might offer to cover these costs. Sometimes a homeowner who truly does not know the condition of their home will hire an inspector before putting it on the market. In many cases, homeowners will wait for the buyer’s inspection, because this inspection will happen whether you hire someone to inspect your home before putting it on the market or not.

Often, the home inspector finds an issue that needs to be addressed about the home’s structure or upkeep, usually minor. It does happen, however, that an inspector will find a big issue with the home – one that can derail an entire sale. To prevent this from happening, some homeowners will pay the cost up front to have the home inspected before it ever goes on the market. If you are thinking of selling your home and are truly in the dark about your home’s condition, then you might consider getting a pre-inspection. This will help you price your home accurately and will give any potential buyers an idea of how much money they might need to invest in the home’s upkeep.

What to Look for in an Inspector
Home inspectors are state/county-licensed contractors whose business success depends upon their reputation for being objective and accurate in their assessments. Failure to do their job in a professional way can mean that they can lose their business, so most home inspectors are trustworthy. When hiring a home inspector, make sure they are licensed, bonded, and insured. If they are not, then they are not actually a home inspector. In addition, ask about the home inspector’s experience. Most home inspectors come from a lengthy background in construction or have worked before as an electrician, and will have specialties that they can bring to your home.

What Home Inspectors Do / Don’t Do
Home inspectors will do a top-to-bottom evaluation of the physical condition of your home, inside and out. They will look at insulation, electrical wiring, plumbing, and any other areas of potential damage. They will also look for spots where gathering moisture is an issue, mold is present, or any trouble spots in the yard.  Things they might not cover are problems with sewage or pests; in particular, termites. Depending on your state or county, a separate termite inspection might be required, and otherwise could be a good idea.

Home Inspector Industry Associations / Affiliations
Many agents will have a recommendation for a home inspection company or individual, though there are also industry associations that offer training and membership generally denote higher levels of training and expertise. Look for members of ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) and INTERNACHI (International Association of Certified Home Inspectors).

Using a Home Stager / Home Photographer

Good marketing is key to keeping your home from spending too much time on the market, and hiring professionals to stage and photograph your home can be key to good marketing. Many homeowners try to save money by cutting these professionals from the process, but considering the amount of money in play in the sale of your home, the up-front costs of having the marketing done right are negligible.

How to Find a Contractor

If you already know what needs to be fixed around your home, you can get started with your contractor before your home ever goes up for sale. In some cases, your agent might make some suggestions of what could be worked on to give your home a boost in market value. This could be as simple new window screens or a coat of paint for the exterior. During the negotiation process, the buyer will ask for some repairs, however small. If you do not already have a contractor you work with and trust, your agent can be a valuable resource for choosing one.

There are many national websites for finding reliable contractors and tradesmen, although we don’t recommend anyone over another, some of the more popular sites are; Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and Contractor Connection.

How to Find a Real Estate Attorney

An attorney’s role in the home sale can vary. There will be multiple legal contracts for the home seller to go over, not just the final purchase contract. In some cases, your agent will act as an attorney in reviewing the closing paperwork, but other times it is worth it to have an attorney review in addition to the agent. There is also your agent’s contract, which you might consider showing to an attorney. Generally, your agent will recommend an office or personal connection. Do your research; it’s your choice whether to use their preferred attorney or your own.

What to Expect

Now that you’ve made the decision to sell and have met with a real estate to discuss current market conditions, it’s time to prep your home to be on the market. What sort of repairs and renovations should you focus on to get the most for your money? How should you clean and stage your home to get it looking its best? And what type of marketing should you employ to get your home out there? While every home is different, there are a few tried and true tips for prepping a home to be sold.

Cleaning
There a few shortcuts when it comes to cleaning your home before putting it up for sale: walls re-painted, floors waxed, windows wiped. Every inch of your home will have to be attended to, and there are no crawl spaces or closets where you can hide your stuff. A potential buyer will want to see every inch of the home, and storage space can be a real attraction for buyers. In the time that you have to live in your home while it’s on the market, you are going to have to live with a bare minimum of your possessions, and you might want to consider renting a storage space.

Read: Cleaning up and cleaning out your home ready for sale

Staging
It’s important to clean every inch of your home before you put it on the market, but don’t make the mistake of making your home so clean that it’s actually empty. One or two key pieces of furniture will help give potential buyers a frame of reference for a room’s size, and it will help buyers picture themselves in the home. The key to this balance is to de-personalize. Keep the just the essential, universal items on display.

Hiring a professional stager to make your home look its best is a minimal expense, considering how much faster it will help get your home off the market. A professional stager will not only know these basic tips but also how to best implement them in your home. A stager will often have a photographer they work with or can recommend one to use to help with your marketing materials. Your real estate agent most likely has a stager or two that they can connect you with.

Read: Why hiring a professional home stager sometimes makes sense
Read: How to de-personalize your home for sale

Repairs/Renovations
If you have been in your home for a long time, haven’t kept up with repairs over the years, or are otherwise in the dark about the condition of your home, it might be a smart idea to get a pre-inspection. While the buyer may inspect again during the negotiation process, at least this way there will be no surprises.

Once you know what needs to be fixed, consider how much of the sale price the work involved actually is. When it comes doing repairs before the home goes on the market, the two types you want to take care of yourself are small ones and really really big ones.

If a repair is less than 5% of the price of the home, it is a good idea to get it done before an inspector catches it. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if there is a problem big enough, like a roof or foundation problem, you might have to take care of it before it prohibits the sale of the home at all. There is a sweet spot in there, between 10-20% of the home’s value where the repair might be best left to the next owner.

Read: What repairs should be completed prior to selling a home?

Read: How to boost your curb appeal to sell your home quicker!

Marketing
One of the first questions you should ask your real estate agent is about their marketing plan. All agents should have a solid plan in place, including social media, and a concrete amount of money they are willing to spend on advertising. Part of that marketing budget is for your Stager and Photographer, who will help get your home out there. There are always new ways and methods of photographing homes, so make sure your marketing team is utilizing not just photos, but drone video and 360-degree images. 

Preplanning For the Sale

Home Selling: How to Prepare in Advance & Avoid Surprises

In the home-selling journey, small but important parts of the process can end up piling up on the seller. If these things aren’t taken care of along the way, they can surprise the seller, who then has to do it all at once at the end. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, here a few things you can do in advance to make the sale of your home that much smoother.

Work Out the Details of the Move, Including Insurance

In the terminology of real estate, when the previous owners move out of a property and the new owner moves in, this is called possession. When a home sale is closed, the buyers want to take possession as soon as possible. To this end, there are a number of things to work out between the buyer and the seller, including utilities.

Often, sellers vacate the property before the contract is completed. If you are making one of these types of moves, then make sure your insurance company doesn’t have any provisions about leaving a home vacant. Insurance companies don’t like homes to be left vacant, so if you are going to vacate, make sure there aren’t any penalties in store for you.

On the topic of insurance, you should check in with your insurance company about insuring any big-ticket items you own in the course of the move. For these more expensive items, it might be a good idea to have them appraised, in order to make sure the insurance covers them correctly.

Sorting Out Your Own Mortgage 

In the course of your home’s sale, the buyer will be furiously getting together their paperwork in order to obtain a loan. Make sure everything is sorted out on your side of things, as well. If you have recently refinanced, then make sure you have all of that paperwork recorded. If you are selling and buying at the same time, then make sure your mortgage company knows about it so they can time it out to work for you. It is possible to borrow against the money you will receive at the close of the sale.

Documents to Have in Hand Before You List

Before you list your home, make sure you have in hand such documents as: the title, deed, and survey of your property. Having this paperwork in hand can save a lot of time later. The title and the deed are the documents that make you the legal owner of the property, while the survey is what legally determines the property’s size.

If you are still paying your mortgage, then the company who owns the lien has these documents. If you paid your mortgage off, they sent them to you. If you have lost them, there are most likely copies at your county records office. If you cannot obtain the documents through any of these ways, you might be in trouble.

Title officers exist for this very reason, and it is their job to make sure no one else has a claim on your title. If you bought your home a number of years ago, and never received a deed or title from the seller, chances are someone else has a claim on your home; instances of this are very rare, though.

Making Sure You Have Some Contingency Plans!

Selling a home is always more complicated than we expect, and it is smart to have a Plan B, Plan C, and a Plan D in place. Sometimes we are faced with an embarrassment of good luck, and a home sells much faster than we expect. In this case, you should have a plan for where to stay if your new home isn’t available yet.

In some cases, a buyer that isn’t ready to move in yet will rent the home to the old owner as part of the purchase agreement. If you haven’t already, you should look into a storage space to hold some of your possessions while in transit. Many home sellers get a unit as soon as they start cleaning house. It can come in handy if plans change, or for just holding onto your personal belongings while you show your home.

What to Expect When Listing Your Home

After meeting with your agent, you will have to schedule a time for them to come in and take a look at you home. At this point, you will have already begun some of the preparation to sell, the cleaning, decluttering, and de-personalizing of your home. Your agent will get a sense of your home and outline some important next steps in your home-selling journey. Here are what some of those next steps will look like.

Working With Your Agent / Marketing Collaboratively

You should work with your agent to market your home. The agent brings a lot to the table when it comes to home marketing, in particular, their access to a Multiple Listing Service (MLS). But, your agent cannot market the home alone.

In many ways, selling a home is like running a small business, and your agent is your business partner. Bring your personality and ideas to the market table. Look into marketing online, and don’t forget about physical ads and signs. Word of mouth also goes a long way in the home selling process. During the time your home is on the market, if anyone asks you how you are doing, you’ll know what to say.

Pricing Considerations

Pricing your home properly can be a difficult proposition for many homeowners, whether they are experienced in home selling or not. Many homeowners end up overpricing their home, only to see the property sit on the market. Your agent will use comparables – homes of the same size, number of beds and baths – that sold in your market recently. Comparables help zero in on a home true value. If you want to get even closer to that number, ask your agent for a free market analysis. The agent should price your house in line with your neighborhood, and they’ll do this for free because they want you to list your house with them.

Creating the Listing Assets

With the marketing and the price point in mind, the listing itself needs to be crafted. The listing includes a detailed description of the home, and photographs of the home, inside and out. How extensive you get with developing your assets is up to you and your agent.

How to Create a Great Home Listing Description

The home description should be detailed but concise. Experts recommend that 250 words are a good target for most homes. Avoid subjective language and stick to the concrete; for instance, “lovely exterior” isn’t as useful as “wrap-around porch.”

Employ Advertising Language:
Certain words have power no matter where they’re used. Experts say “beautiful” is always an important word to use. “Open” is also a key descriptor, whether it refers to the house’s flow, a bedroom, or the yard. Another useful phrase is “well-maintained.” If there are parts of the house that have been well-maintained the implication is that the entire house has.

List Your Home’s Major Selling Points:
Separate from the home description should be a bulleted list of the home’s major selling points. These could include the school district, eco-friendly features of the home, recent renovations, new brand-name appliances, and local amenities like parks, restaurants, and shopping. Remember, location sells homes.

Photography & Visual Assets: 
When it comes to selling your home, hiring a professional stager and having the home professionally photographed is typically well worth the expense. Professional photographs look great online and in print, but there are much more options when it comes to the visual marketing of the home.

Virtual tours have been around for some time now, and if you’ve looked at homes online you’ve most likely seen them. Poorly done, a virtual tour can seem more like a slide show, but a properly designed one can give the buyer a real sense of the home’s entirety. Additionally, many photographers today employ the use of drones. Using a drone, a photographer can take aerial stills and video of the home to give buyers a better sense of the surrounding neighborhood.     

 

 

Life During Home Selling

Keeping It Clean, Taking Care of Pets and Keeping a Schedule

If you are in the midst of selling your home, and still living in the home while you sell it, then you probably feel as though you are living in half of a house. If you followed the advice of your agent, you most likely decluttered and de-personalized your home, leaving all but minimal furniture so that potential home buyers will be able to picture themselves in the home. As you continue to live in the home you are trying to sell, here are some tips to keep your home show ready.

Rent a Storage Unit
Don’t try to fit everything you aren’t going to use in the next 120 days into the garage. Homebuyers will want to see the garage, storage space, or basement during their home tour. Items to pack away include any bulky or seldom-used appliances, seasonal clothing, and items related to any hobbies. Consider limiting the amount of kitchenware, leaving out just enough utensils for each person in the house to use. This will not only open up space in kitchen cabinets, but will also help keep the house clean each day.

Clean Every Day
Even though you cleaned the house from top-to-bottom in preparation, you will need to keep cleaning while your home is on the market. Be prepared to wipe down the kitchen and bathrooms every day, and to keep doorways, stairs, and counter-tops free of clutter. If you have carpet, be ready with the vacuum because they get dirty very quickly.

Send the Pets on a Vacation
Pets should spend some time out of the house. How much time is up to you, but the tough truth is the more the better. The less the pets are in the home, the easier it will be to clean and get any smells out. Smell is something many homeowners forget about, or become “nose-blind” to, but it can one of the first things people new to the property notice.

Some home sellers schedule their open houses or showings for the weekend or bunch them together during the week, then send their pets to family or friends just for that time. Others spring for a pet hotel or day spa. Depending on how much the sale of the house is going to be, it might be worth the cost.

Make a Schedule
Selling a home can be like owning a small business, so it’s important to keep a schedule. You know your life and availability, so talk to your agent about when you want to show your home and don’t be afraid to be specific.  Dedicate time during the week to sell your home, and make sure the home looks its best when it happens. If you trust your agent enough to show the space while you aren’t home, the home should look just as good, if not better, than it does when you’re not there. Remember, every showing is a performance.

Protect Your Valuables
Your agent will likely bring multiple interested buyers to your home, and while it’s unlikely an issue could occur, it’s always best to practice safety. While there are strangers in your home, make sure all computers and touchscreen devices are password-locked and keep all valuables locked away safely. Make sure any mail that could have credit card numbers or bank information is out of view.

Day of the Open House

On the day of, turn on all lights and open windows, drapes and blinds. Remember, light is right. Also, make sure your house smells pleasant by removing the trash and cleaning the bin, if needed. Many people are turned off by fragrances, so opt for neutral smells over candles or incense.

Shopper Feedback: Why Don’t They Love My House?

If you are living in your home for sale, and the home is stagnant on the market, it can be important to ask for buyer feedback. If your agent keeps getting similar comments, then pay attention. Many agents report that if they have a client they are having a hard time convincing of something, the buyer feedback allows them to say what they couldn’t say directly.

When it comes to feedback, many homeowners get surprised by the general negativity of the comments. Usually, it’s the natural outcome of the buyers’ eyes being conditioned to spot problems or potential bad buys. Other times, the negativity is used as a tactic. Buyer’s agents will prep their clients to give an unfavorable impression of a house they love in order to give them a jump on negotiation. So, if you are truly puzzled as to why some buyers don’t love your home, keep in mind there’s a chance that they actually do.

The Offer Process Introduction

The challenge to everyone involved in the home-buying and selling process is that not only is the transaction complex, but it is also under a time constraint. Buyers are trying to get into a home before their pre-approval expires, and sellers are trying to get an offer in hand before they have to re-sign with an agent.

As a home seller, each offer you receive is going to be an opportunity to sell your home. Working with your agent, you are going to have to cull the good offers from the bad, discern who will get you the best price, and who will be the right fit for buying your home.

You Got an Offer! Now What?

Assess and Negotiate the Offer

Increasingly in the real estate market, it has become common for counter-offers, counter-counter-offers, and all the way on down. If the buyers are lowballing you, it’s important to strike the right balance of firmness while not frightening the buyers away.

Your agent will have a good idea of the kinds of negotiation tactics that have come into popularity in the market, and can probably make an educated guess as to what the buyer’s agent is coaching them to do. Depending on the market, and what else is being sold in the neighborhood, the price is likely the first thing to budge on. What not to budge on is the buyer’s financial fitness, and it’s important that they send you a pre-approval letter.

Additionally, real estate contracts are seemingly becoming more and more complex, but the parts of any contact to be most wary of is anything non-standard. Watch out for anything handwritten into the contract, or an addendum with a radically different style of language. Remember… your agent is here to help!

Pricing Strategy and Counter-offer Strategy

If you’ve priced your home fairly and you’re in a seller’s market, counter with your original list price, or reject the offer entirely and invite potential buyers to resubmit. They’ll get the idea that you’re pretty firm on price, and if they’re serious about buying your home, they’ll come back with a better bid, allowing you to begin the real negotiations from a more favorable position.

If you do make a counteroffer, make it time-sensitive. That way, you won’t get caught up in a never-ending (and legally binding) negotiation, and you’ll still be free to entertain better offers, should they arise.

As you probably recall, buying a home is an expensive process. Your potential buyers may request that you cover part of their closing costs. Depending on your options, you might want to consider doing so. But if you’re going to make that concession, try to work those closing costs into the overall price of the home.

For example, you might stipulate that you’ll cover closing costs at the time of the sale, but only if the buyers are willing to compensate you with a higher purchase price. The buyers get to conserve cash flow when they need it most, and you’re not losing any money. It’s a win-win.

Be prepared. Ask yourself these questions (and discuss with your agent).

• What is your lowest price for the house you are willing to sell it for to determine how/when to counter?
• Does the market conditions warrant your counter offer?
• Should you make a full price counter offer?
• What are the offers and conditions, contingencies, fixes, closing costs etc. you are willing to negotiate on?

Read: How to deal with multiple offers on your home

How to Negotiate (Tip: Trust Your Agent)

Your agent is a key part of the negotiation process and can guide you to the best decision for your situation and needs. Being informed of the process is key to understanding your options, but ultimately, deciding when to negotiate or accept an offer is up to you.

3 Quick Negotiation Tips For Every Home Seller

Know Your Market
Find out what comparable homes have been selling for in your neighborhood. Some real estate markets are relatively steady, but others may appreciate rapidly, and your home’s market value may surprise you.

Price Your Home Fairly
It may be tempting to go for a pie-in-the-sky price, but that will only hurt your chances of selling, and the longer your home sits on the market, the less interesting it becomes to potential buyers.

Be Patient
Don’t immediately accept an initial offer. The first offer is likely to be well below the buyer’s actual price limit, and some buyers may lowball in an attempt to drive your asking price down. Trust your agent in the negotiation process.

Negotiating with the Appraisal

While separate, both the appraisal and the inspection are points of the home selling journey when price negotiation can radically change. Hopefully, you have a good sense of your home’s value going into the home selling process, and neither the appraisal nor the inspection turns up anything surprising. But if you truly aren’t sure what your home is worth, and/or it’s been many years since your home has seen any repairs, then it might be a good idea to get an appraisal or an inspection before your home even goes on the market.

If your home doesn’t appraise for the agreed-upon price, you still have several options. The first one is the simplest, and the least popular, which is to lower the sale price. Another option is to walk away from the deal. There is also the option of trying the split the difference between the sale price and the appraisal with some of the other costs. Sometimes, a low appraisal is just as bad for the buyer as it is for the seller, and the buyers will be amenable to getting a second opinion, that is, a re-appraisal. No matter what you choose, you are going to have to work with the buyer if the deal is still going to go through.

Negotiating with the Inspection

If the inspection reveals serious problems, the buyer is going to want to negotiate on the sale price. When choosing between fixing the problems yourself or dropping the sale price, consider what percentage of the sale the fix ultimately costs.

If a fix is less than 5% of the sale price, then offer to fix it yourself. If the fix is more serious (let’s say, more than 10% of the sale price), then you might want to lower your offer. This is not only because of the expense of the fix but also because of the time that may be involved. Keep in mind, the higher the price tag on a repair, the longer it will be before you can move out.

Read: 5 tips in the home sale negotiation

Your Home is on the Market with No Offers! Now What?

From the time the contract with your agent is signed, the clock is ticking. The rule of thumb is that the faster a home is sold, the closer to the desired price the homeowner will get, so both you and your agent should work to get your home on and off the market as quickly as possible. But what does a homeowner do if there are no offers forthcoming, and there’s no one to even negotiate a number down with? Fortunately, these problems take one of a few typical forms, and the way the problem presents itself can give you a clue as to how to solve it.

Read: What to do if there are no offers on your home?

Preparing for the Close

As the contract approaches the close, make sure you’re prepared well in advance for the closing. In addition to your agent, talk to your real estate attorney and make sure you understand any fees, taxes, commissions, or points you may have to pay. You don’t want the entire contract to be derailed by any sort of disclosure law or title insurance problems. When it comes to home selling, being ahead of the next step is a crucial part of the process and one you will want to practice every step of the way.

What to Expect in the Closing of Your Home Sale

As part of the purchase agreement, you and the buyer chose a closing date by which all negotiations, repairs, and inspections must be completed. As the closing date approaches, what are the preparations that you as the seller should make? And what are common hiccups that occur in this closing process? Here, we cover a few of the most common issues pertaining to closing.

What is Open Escrow?

From the time that the buyer puts their good faith deposit into escrow until the sale is clear to close, the sale of your home is in a period called “open escrow.” During open escrow, many things can happen. During this time, the buyer is working out their final loan paperwork and forwarding it to the escrow company until the sale is completed. As the seller, it is your responsibility during open escrow to complete any repairs or any other changes to the property negotiated upon during the working out of the sale contract. During this time, you will also work out the transfer of utilities and make other preparations to move. A mistake many first-time home sellers make is to cancel their home insurance too soon. It’s important to remember to not cancel your home insurance until after the sale is completed.

Paperwork

When you are getting ready to close the sale of your home, it’s important to ensure that all the closing documents prepared by the closing attorney, or escrow officer, are signed and notarized. While each transaction is different, and local laws vary, here are some of the documents you are likely to see at the time of close.

• Certificate of Title
  A legal statement that you have the right to sell the property.
• Deed
  The transfer of the title. This document has several names depending on region; warranty deed or grant deed, for example, but they each serve the same function. At the moment when the deed is signed, ownership is transferred.
• The HUD-1 Settlement Statement
  An accounting of all the monetary transactions involved in the sale of the home. This form will be filled out by both the seller and the buyer, with columns for each. Go over this document closely.
• Bill of Sale
  An itemized list of everything that is transferred in ownership, which can include things like furniture. Double check the list to make sure everything is there and listed at the correct price.
• Statement of Closing Costs
  A description of the closing costs and a statement that you are aware and agree to them.
• Statement of Identity/Information
  This document is called Statement of Identity or Statement of Information. This is a statement that declares that you are who you say you are. Valid photo ID will be required.
• Loan Payoff
  If there’s any money still left to be paid off on your loan, this statement says that it will be paid off at time of closing.
• Mechanic’s Lien
  This document isn’t always included, but it is a statement that declares there is no possibility that a sub-contractor could have a lien on the house due to lack of payment. The document states that anyone who was involved with prior repairs or renovations on the home have been paid in full.
• Final Closing Instructions
  Sometimes this document is signed at the opening of the contract, other times, it is signed at the end.

Other Considerations On Closing Day

Both the buyer and the seller will sign a stack of paperwork to complete the sale. While buyers have much more to sign, sellers still have a few important documents to prepare. Ensure all closing documents prepared by the closing attorney (or escrow officer) are signed and initialed and notarized.

The closing attorney will bring most of this paperwork with them, but the seller needs to remember:

• The deed to the home (if the home has been paid off and there are no liens)
• Government-issued photo ID such as driver’s license or passport
• A certified check for the escrow company
• The keys to the home

Make sure you’re aware of the following:

• The date you plan to close
• The date when the buyer’s loan will be funded

Read: Home closing checklist for home sellers
Read: What is a kick-out clause?

Make Sure it All Adds Up

The seller does not have nearly as much paperwork as the buyer in order to close the sale, but each document in the seller’s pile is vital. Make sure all monetary accounting of the transaction adds up. Also, as you prepare to close, make sure the closing date is clear and works for both parties, and double check to make sure the buyer’s loan is funded.

If not, you could be in for some serious complications. After all the work you put into selling your home, make sure you keep up the same dedication right up to the close as you did during the rest of the process.

The Final Walkthrough

The final walkthrough is the buyer’s last chance to have a look at your home before the sale closes. Not quite an official inspection, the walkthrough is a spot check that you’ve done the work agreed upon in the purchase contract. To prepare for the final walkthrough, your home will require one more clean and polish. Making sure all storage spaces, closets, and bedrooms are vacated. In the event that you have worked out with the buyer a move-out date after the transfer of the deed, simply make sure the buyer is able to give the home one more full inspection.

Unless you have worked out a delayed possession of your home with the buyer for after the close of the sale, the final walkthrough will be one of the last times you will be inside of your home. For those planning to promptly vacate the property, here are some good things to keep in mind as you prepare for that final walkthrough.

Schedule
It’s important to schedule some buffer time between the date of your move out and the final walkthrough. You should aim to vacate the property two or three days before the buyer comes to inspect it. This will give plenty of time to make sure absolutely everything is vacated and to deal with any hiccups that come along the way.

Clean, Clean, Clean
If you can afford to have your home professionally cleaned, do it. If you are doing it yourself, make sure you take the cleaning job to the next level. This means vacuuming air vents, scrubbing the inside of the oven, and shampooing the carpets, among other things.

Remove Furniture
The new buyers will expect a vacant home, which is different than when you showed it. Unless the new buyers purchased the show furniture, you will need to make arrangements to sell or otherwise remove it. This is one of the many tasks made easier by the buffer window.

Moving Damage
In the course of moving furniture, home surfaces can get damaged. Inspect floors, door frames, and walls and touch up any scuffs or dents after you complete the move. If there is no time to address issues before the walkthrough (again, this is the reason for the buffer), notify your agent so the damage doesn’t come as a surprise.

Last Trash
It’s best to avoid leaving the last of the trash in the trashcan. If you can, work out something with a neighbor, or spring for the city to make a special pick up.

Home How-To Manuals
It’s a kind gesture to gather appliance manuals and warranty cards all in one place.  Other useful tips to the new owner like trash days, nearby restaurants, and cell phone dead zones are great to pass along.

Read: What are some potential delays and complications in the closing of my home?

Handing Over the Keys

In many home sales, the seller and the buyer never meet. The buyer most often does the final walkthrough with either their agent or your agent and does a sight check to make sure all of the repairs and changes negotiated upon in the contract were addressed.

When it comes time to close, you will bring the keys to the escrow officer/closing attorney’s office on the day of the close, and hand them over once all the paperwork has been signed. The keys will then be delivered to the new owner after the change in deed is registered by the county. After that, your home is sold!