When it comes time to sell your house, you want the process to be quick and easy. The hope is that you just simply list your house, find a qualified buyer, collect the cash, and hand over the keys.
However, the home-selling process can take 60 to 120 days start to finish with a lot of heavy lifting from both the buyer and seller. Of course, it isn't just the timeline that matters -- you also want a financially rewarding sales process, aka you want a great selling price and you want to save money on closing costs.
In order to achieve a successful sale, you need to move quickly and effectively. Here are the 15 steps you need to follow.
The 15 Steps of the Home-Selling Process
- Find a real estate agent
- Fix any deferred maintenance and make repairs
- Get a pre-sale inspection
- Stage your house
- Take professional photos and videos
- List your house on MLS
- Host open houses
- Review offers
- Counter offers
- Accept offer
- Open escrow
- Allow home inspections
- Once buyer has removed all contingencies and money is wired to escrow
- Close escrow
- Receive funds
Find a Real Estate Agent
Find an agent that will overdeliver for you. This person will list the property, market the house, guide you through the entire real estate transaction, handle the paperwork, and much more. Some owners prefer to sell their house on their own, but they're likely leaving money on the table.
The internet makes it simple to delve into real estate agents' sales history and professional designations, so you can choose the right person to work with. Look up agents' online profiles to learn how long they've been in the industry, how many sales they've done and what awards they may have earned. Pay attention to how and where they market their listings, and whether or not they use high quality photos.
“Any designation they've earned is a huge plus, because it's a sign they've taken the time to learn about a particular niche,” says Jorge Guerra, Global Liaison for the National Association of Realtors.
Some homeowners might be tempted to save on paying a commission and instead sell their home themselves. This is known as “for sale by owner,” or FSBO. The amount sellers stand to save on those fees can be thousands of dollars, usually 5 percent or 6 percent of the total sale price.
However, a great real estate agent does a lot to earn their fee. For example, they can expose your house to the broadest audience and negotiate on your behalf to garner the best offers possible. If you go it alone, you'll have to personally manage prepping your home, marketing it, reviewing potential buyers' offers, and handling all the negotiations and closing details. Worse, you may end up requiring help from a real estate attorney (and those attorney fees!) to make sure you're fully compliant with all the formal paperwork.
When working with an agent and negotiating a commission, keep this in mind: Real estate fees have fallen to all-time lows. So you might be able to get a break at the closing table.
1b. Determine The Value Of Your Home
One of the important aspects of finding a seller's agent is valuing your property so you can have an idea of a fair asking price. You can do this by comparing the prices of comparable homes in your area that have recently sold, or by hiring a professional appraiser. However, an awesome agent will be able to tell you their proposed listing price as part of their overall selling strategy.
PRO TIP: If you want to find the best agents in your local market, run a quick check (for free) on TrueParity's platform.
Fix Any Deferred Maintenance and Make Repairs
This may include making any necessary repairs or decluttering. Some owners prefer to sell their house ‘as is' making no repairs. This is a fine way to save a few hundred dollars but prospective buyers will likely discount their valuation of the property because they will need to invest more money to improve the property. So you're only hurting your home's sale price if you don't make your property shine.
Get a Pre-Sale Inspection
It's generally a sound idea to get a pre-sale home inspection to identify any problem areas, especially structural or mechanical issues that might need addressing to facilitate a sale. Leave enough time to schedule necessary repairs that may have originally missed in the previous step.
Stage Your House
If you're currently living in the house you want to sell, then you need to de-personalize it. Staging your home to make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers is highly recommended. A few tasks worth doing are: removing personal belongings, bringing in accent furniture and artwork, and introducing more neutral colors to make your house as presentable to any new buyer. You may consider hiring a professional stager to assist, but your real estate agent can help you decide if that's necessary.
Take Professional Photos and Videos
The goal of formal photos is to maximize your home's online appeal. High quality images that are framed nicely really sell the experience of living in your home. Take professional photos, video walk throughs, and drone shots. Especially in a slower market, you don't want a potential buyer to be turned off by the presentation of your house.
List Your House on MLS
Your listing agent will help you market your home to potential buyers, usually by putting it on the MLS (multiple listing service). That's the easiest way to get your property on the radar of a a prospective buyer's agent.
Of course, you can also take steps to get the word out in other ways, such as through social media or by hosting open houses.
Host Open Houses
Your agent should lead multiple open houses and broker caravans to attract potential buyers. Real estate is obviously a very unique industry, but at the end of the day an experienced listing agent is still a business broker. They need to be meeting and talking to buyers, buyers' agents, and other parties throughout the entire process.
Review Offers
When you receive an offer, your agent will help you review it and negotiate if necessary. Many sellers mistakenly think a buyer's offer is "take it or leave it," when in truth there are many points of negotiation that can help achieve a purchase agreement.
Counter Offers
Don't be afraid to counter a written offer. Work with your real estate agent to maintain a realistic price for your home, and be prepared to justify your asking price. The goal is to arrive at a mutually acceptable price with a reasonable closing date.
Accept Offer
If you and your agent have done your homework properly, then you'll know when it's time to accept an offer. However, that isn't the end of the sales process.
Once you have accepted an offer on your home, there are a number of tasks that need to be completed before the sale can be finalized. These may include ordering a 3rd party home inspection, completing any contingencies of the agreement, and transferring ownership of the property to make the sale official.
Open Escrow
Once you have accepted an offer and the buyer has secured financing (if applicable), you will work with both real estate agents to finalize the sale and transfer ownership of the property. Make sure your agent has the pertinent details about your existing mortgage balance so that doesn't hold up the closing process.
Allow Home Inspection(S)
If there is a home inspection contingency, then this step is mandatory. Once the buyer has cleared all contingencies all the money is wired to escrow.
Close Escrow
In the closing process the seller signs the final paperwork and transfers ownership of the property to the buyer. This typically takes place at a title company or attorney's office.
Receive Funds!
The moment you've been waiting for finally arrives. The money is yours, less closing costs and the buying agent's and listing agent's commission.
Looking for the perfect real estate agent to make the selling process flawless?
Before you sign any listing agreement, see who are the top producers in your local market, on TrueParity.
