Tips for First Time Home Sellers

Buying a home for the first time is generally an experience that is both monumentally exciting and agonizingly stressful at the same time. If you have made it through that process and are now enjoying the pride and benefits of owning your own home, you have successfully jumped one of life’s major hurdles. However, if you are like most first time homeowners, you did not buy your dream house – you are more likely living in a great starter home that is hopefully going to enable you to build equity and move up to a bigger and better home. In order to do that, you have to jump another hurdle and become a first time home seller. Selling a house is a very different process than buying, and it’s helpful for you to know what you are getting into before you decide to put that sign in your yard. Here is a brief overview of the four main steps in the selling process:

Preparation

Before you list your house, you need to put some careful thought into what your goals are and whether selling your home will actually help you achieve them. If you determine that the numbers are right for selling, then the next step is to partner with a Realtor to list your home. Your Realtor will give you detailed information about the comparable sales in the neighborhood and will talk through a pricing strategy with you. Once you have decided on a list price and have signed a listing agreement with your Realtor, it is time to prepare your home to go on the market. This is the part of the process that generally creates the most work for you. Your Realtor will help you clean, de-clutter, and stage your home to prepare for photos. In today’s Internet market, professional photos are absolutely necessary to best showcase your home.

Marketing

Once your photos are taken, your home can be entered into the MLS, or “Multiple Listing Service”. The MLS is your number one marketing tool, as it automatically aggregates to dozens of other real estate sites and makes your home available for the public to view online. In addition to marketing online, your Realtor will typically advertise in your area with mailed brochures, newspaper ads, and open houses. You and your agent will come up with a plan for showings and your agent will coordinate all showing appointments on your behalf.

Reviewing Offers

If you have priced your home correctly, staged it to show well, and made it accessible for easy showings, then there is a great chance that you may get multiple offers in today’s market. Your agent will work to organize all the offers and break them down to easily explain to you the strengths and weaknesses of each offer. You may choose to accept an offer outright, or you may decide to counter multiple offers to get a better price or more favorable terms. This step in the process can sometimes take as long as a week to complete, depending on the number of offers and counter rounds. Once you have accepted a final offer, you can move forward with opening escrow.

Escrow and Negotiating Credits/Repairs

It’s common that the seller is able to choose which escrow and title company will handle the sale – your Realtor can help you to choose reputable and professional options. Once escrow has opened, you are required to allow the buyers to perform inspections of their choosing at your home. During this time, you are also required to provide seller disclosures to the buyers. These are detailed forms that give you an opportunity to disclose any salient information that you know about the property. Once the buyers have reviewed your disclosures and completed their inspections, they will submit to you a request for either repairs or credits (or a combination of both). Your Realtor will work with you to negotiate a response to the buyers’ request and you can go back and forth with the buyers until you come upon an agreement that is acceptable for both parties. The last hurdle in the process is generally confirming that the buyers’ appraisal has come back at value and that their loan has been given final approval. Once that has been completed, the buyers will remove all contingencies and you can start packing up in preparation for your closing.

There is a lot that goes into selling a house, especially if you are also buying a new home at the same time! If you would like more detailed information about how the selling process works and the best way to start researching whether selling is a good option for you, feel free to contact me at any time. I can get you information about what you would net for your house at different possible price points and whether that profit would allow you to get into a larger home in this market. I’m also happy to provide you with a more detailed look at each step in the process and common roadblocks that sellers encounter. It may not be a simple process, but if you are well informed, you can greatly increase your chances of having a smooth and quick sale.