9 Steps in Selling A Home

Selling your home can be a pretty daunting undertaking if you have never done it before. However, with the help of a reliable real estate agent, you can avoid the mistakes that most first-time sellers make and ensure that the transaction is as smooth as possible.

Here are the steps and tips to help you in selling your home.

1. Initial Consultation - Meet with your real estate agent and establish your real estate sales goal. Your real estate agent will then provide you with an orientation and market education. Moreover, you should be able to receive a comparable market analysis to give you an idea of what your house is worth and the number of days your house needs to be marketed for to sell for fair market value.

1. Prepare your Property - Schedule and complete any necessary repair work. The house needs to be clean and appealing to your prospective buyers. Create a space that will allow your buyers to view the property without any interruptions so they may envision a life in it.

1. Market your Property - The agent will promote the property on different platforms including the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), real estate websites, social media, signs, mailers, etc. Prospective buyers will reach out to your agent or cooperating agents and arrange a tour of the house. Your agent may also hold broker opens and open houses to further help market the property.

1. Getting an Offer - You should get an offer after the house has been sufficiently marketed. Your agent will present to you all the available offers and help you in discerning which one best fits your real estate sales goal. Remember, the offer with the highest sales price is not always the strongest offer. There are more than a dozen other negotiating points in a standard agreement of sale that affects the strength of the offer.

1. Negotiations and Acceptance - Your agent will negotiate on your behalf with your goals in mind. Once you and the buyer have agreed on the terms, you will finalize an Agreement of Sale, which you will both sign. The contract is executed once both parties have signed and received copies. The buyer will then deliver the earnest money to either your listing broker or the title company.

1. Buyer Due Diligence - The buyers will perform any inspections they elected in the Agreement of Sale. In most cases, the lender will also perform an appraisal to determine the value of the property and/or any lender-required repairs.

1. Title Work - The buyer will order a title search through their title company of choice. The title company will search for mortgages, judgments, liens, and any clouds on title that need to be cleared before they will issue title insurance to the buyer.

1. Renegotiation – If needed, your agent will guide you through any renegotiations resulting from the inspections, appraisal, or title work.

1. Settlement - At settlement, you will meet with the closing agent, your listing agent, the buyer, their agent, and sometimes the buyer’s lender. The closing agent will make sure all closing documents are properly signed and all the funds are properly allocated. The main document you are signing at settlement is the deed that you will grant to the buyer. You will deliver the deed and keys to the buyer and in exchange, you will get the proceeds from the sale of your home.

Though there are only 9 Steps, the selling process is not simple, so make sure you have an experienced real estate professional on your team to guide you through it!

About the Author - Tim Cao is a real estate investor and broker helping people in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.