Step by step: Selling a Home
Step 1: The Why
Figuring out why you want to sell your home will help you determine if you even need to sell in the first place. Are you moving for a job? Do you want your kids to go to a new school? Do you want to tap into your home’s equity? The selling process can be long and expensive for some, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before you get too far into it.
Step 2: The Costs
The main costs you’ll have to think about when selling your home are: real estate commissions, settlement fees, county/state taxes, ordering HOA/condo documents, home warranties (optional), and termite inspections (optional). Real estate commissions are your highest expense in a home sale. However, with Homesavey, you will save half the normal cost. For example, if your home is worth $700,000, you will be paying 6% or $42,000 in real estate commissions. With Homesavey, you’ll pay 3% or $21,000.
Step 3: The When
Timing your home sale to go on the market is key. It will make all the difference for getting top dollar on your home. Questions to ask yourself are:
- Are there a lot of homes for sale in my neighborhood?
- Are there not that many homes on the market in my neighborhood?
- How much is the value of my home?
Step 4: The How
Have you sold a home in the past? If so, you may be familiar enough to try selling your home on your own to avoid the real estate commission costs. If you haven’t or don’t have the time for it, a service like Homesavey can help you navigate through the process with a fair price. To learn more about what’s included in Homesavey’s selling service, please visit www.homesavey.com.
Step 5: Get your home ready to show
Putting yourself in a home buyer’s shoes is the best way to prepare your home to be shown to others. There’s a reason why new home builders spend lots of money on interior designers to appeal to home buyers. Homes that have been touched up with necessary improvements, decluttered, cleaned and new paint tend to sell a lot faster because they’re move-in ready. To get suggestions on what improvements you should make, please send an email to: hello@homesavey.com
Step 6: Pricing
There’s definitely a sweet spot for pricing your home. Preparing yourself to be competitively priced is probably the most important part of a home sale. If you price your home too low, you may not get top dollar for your home. Pricing it too high will keep you on the market for weeks because it gives the impression that you’re not a serious seller. Checking comparable homes in your neighborhood and surrounding areas will give you a good idea of what your home should be priced at. Need some help? Get a free, no-obligation home value estimate by signing up here: homesavey.com/contact
Step 7: Marketing
You may have seen a number of home listings if you’ve been in search of a home. There are vast differences with how real estate agents and companies market a home. Let’s just say a professional photographer makes a world of a difference and will capture your home’s best angles. In today’s world, listing videos and 3D walkthroughs help those buyers who are still uncomfortable touring homes in person. It gives them a sense of what the home feels like without having to physically be there. Then there’s getting this content out in front of millions of buyers. Make sure that your listing appears on all the top real estate search sites like Zillow, Trulia, and realtor.com.
Step 8: Showings
It’s showtime! If you’ve taken the above steps into consideration, there should be buyers lined up at your door when you’re on the market. Staying flexible with your schedule helps get your home sold that much quicker. Keeping your home tidy and clean will give buyer’s the sense that you’ve maintained your home well over time.
Step 9: Negotiations
Negotiations are a tricky part in the home sale process. Be prepared for things you will negotiate on and figure out beforehand what is non-negotiable. Negotiations can be easy if it is a seller’s market (less inventory, more buyers) because you can dictate what you will accept or not. A few things that buyers will negotiate on is the home price, home furnishings, contingencies (home inspection and appraisal), close date, and closing costs.
Step 10: Contingencies
Savvy buyers will place contingencies on buying your home. A few important ones to know are the home inspection and appraisal. If a buyer has a home inspection contingency in place, this means that they can negotiate for repairs that were found in a home inspection report or void the contract. Same goes with the appraisal; if the appraisal value of your home comes in low, a home buyer will be able to negotiate the sales price based on the appraised value or void the contract.
Step 11: Closing
When you’ve gotten through getting rid of all the contingencies (if any), what’s left is signing the home over to the new homebuyer and handing over the keys. Based on when your closing date is, you should prepare for your move, having the home ready for the new buyers. Buyers will most likely do a final walkthrough just to make sure that everything is in place from when they submitted their offer or if any repairs were agreed upon after a home inspection.
If you have any questions with any stage of home selling, please reach out to us and we'd be glad to help!
