Welcome! I’d like to assume you’re reading this because you want to learn more about selling a home. Excellent!

Let’s go over some things you’ll want to think about before making the move.

What is your motivation? Really. We’ll probably have to come back to this motivating force a few times in the process. Are you selling because you’re tired of home maintenance? Time to upgrade? Time to downsize? Time to relocate to another area? Just don’t like the style of your home anymore and renovation feels to costly and time-consuming? Do you actually want to sell, or could you financially hold it as a rental property? It’s really helpful to know why you’re selling so that we can better strategize for you.

What is your timeline? Are we chatting with enough time to make plans? Or do we need to have it sold, like, yesterday? This can tell us if we have time for proper listing and marketing, or if we need to call an investor, or work with an iBuyer. If you don’t have an exact timeline, I can help you determine what would make the most sense based on your goals.

Do you want to make a few improvements prior to listing? Only if it could increase your net proceeds and made sense, of course. Even if you don’t personally have the funds, I have access to make that happen if it interests you. I will pull and show you data for homes that look like yours as it is, and for homes that have had improvements so that you can see what, if any, improvements could be valuable.

What is your end goal? Do you need to buy another home? Do you need the proceeds from this sale to do so? Do you just plan to rent for a while? Do you need the cash out of your equity to do something else (have you looked into a refinance?)?

What upgrades or replacements have you made in your home since you’ve owned it? I LOVE a list. I usually recommend to my buyer clients to start a Google Sheet as soon as they move in and document changes they make as they make them. If you don’t have an ongoing list, that’s okay! Start making that list. It can be helpful to also gather the list of vendors who have worked on things at your home before.

What made you buy this home in the first place? Make a list, write a story, tell me what made you love it. Tell me what you have enjoyed about living there and what you haven’t liked. We don’t need to tell others what you haven’t liked, but if it bothered you, it could bother others and we’ll want to be aware of that. If there are things attached to the home or property that are sentimental for you, let’s see what we can do to keep those things for you.

Are you open to showings? Open houses? I know that the most inconvenient thing about selling a home are the showings if you’re still living in your home. I’ll need you to work with me, but we can also set some boundaries. We want the most eyes on your home, but we also don’t need unserious buyers. We can set time limits, hours/days of advance notice, hold open different times to accommodate yourself and the buyers, etc. There are options.

So, now that you’ve been gathering information and thinking about what you want…now we do some work.

Declutter: If our timeline is coming up in the next 6 months, then I recommend starting the decluttering process now. Most people, including myself, don’t realize how much stuff we have until we start pulling things out of closets, drawers and cabinets. Keep in mind that potential buyers could open EVERYTHING. They’re trying to decide if they could live there (unless they’re in an investor), so they will look at things in ways that you may not have looked at them in a while. And don’t forget to put your valuables and prescriptions in safe storage.

Make improvements, if any: If you have decided that you’ll want to make some improvements (some can be paid at the closing out of the proceeds from the sale, ask me!), do those before we get photos. Sometimes it just needs a fresh coat of paint. We’ll let data tell us what sells for the best price in the fastest time in your neighborhood. You may not need to do anything at all.

Stage, if needed: This is a conversation we have after seeing the home. Sometimes the decluttering is all that is needed if you’re still living in the home. Sometimes it’s valuable to change out the decor. Sometimes we need to bring in a few pieces of furniture. Sometimes we need to furnish and style the whole house (especially when vacant).

Photo Day: I always hire a professional photographer to capture your home in its best light. We want it clean and decluttered first so that the photos show a buyer what it could be like for them to move in. I will be there with the photographer to help the home look its best. I always love to hear from a homeowner if there are any special features that should make the photo set. Remember, I’m the expert on the market and homes, in general, but YOU are the expert on YOUR home. You know it best, so we want to make sure we capture it so that potential buyers can know it well too.

Now you can wait for me to do my work…

I’m going to list your home in two multiple listing services. One of those also shares to other databases across the country to make your listing visible to more people. I’m going to market your home using my available resources (we’ll go into detail about the ones that make sense for your home). We’re going to get buyers in the door, and then get a contract signed.

So, while I am marketing and speaking with other agents and buyers, you just need to pay attention to when I contact you about showings and open houses. I’ll send you market updates and we’ll have a strategy for making sure your home sells when you need it to. We’re a team in this, so I will listen to you if you also agree to listen to me.

We’ll get a contract (possibly multiple contracts) to review. We will review them together. Once you select one to move forward with, you’ll sign and we’ll send it back to the buyer to officially start the day count.

Your next thing will be to provide the selected attorney with any information they ask for because they will be making sure that anyone who needs to get paid from the sale gets paid, and the title company will be verifying that you have the right to sell the home in the first place (also something I tend to check up front before we list).

This is when you need to be the most flexible. When we have a buyer under contract, we want to ensure that they have access to complete all inspections they would like to complete. Sometimes that means working with large time frames or little notice, and we want to prepare for that if we can. We can push for times that work for you, but we will not be stopping them from having their vendors come in.

This is another opportunity the buyer may take to negotiate. We will discuss what is likely to be negotiated about your home and in regards to the market at the time, but ultimately it is up to the buyer what they want to present as an amendment. You can then choose to agree, disagree, or present a new version of the amendment.

Should we continue through Due Diligence, we will usually then be waiting for the appraisal to come in. You’re still probably submitting documents to the attorneys’ office, but other than that we’re mostly just waiting. The appraisal is not something you pay for, so you do not have any right to know the value from it. UNLESS the value comes in lower than our contract price and the buyer requests the price to be lowered to match the appraisal. We won’t know until we get there. Ideally, we will have priced your home properly for the neighborhood and its condition so that the appraiser agrees with our contract price. That’s why we look at all the data beforehand.

Now is the time you should probably start packing if you weren’t already. There could be other contingencies to surpass, but the most common are the financing contingency and the appraisal contingency. If we’re past the appraisal, you are probably within a few weeks of the closing date. I wouldn’t wait until the last second to move out. That’s stressful.

The next thing to happen will be some numbers we’ll all verify for closing, and then closing day itself! The exciting time where you get paid, I get paid, the lender and buyer send money and the buyer gets keys! It can be a hard day for you if you have a lot of memories in your home. I understand that. That’s why sometimes it’s best to have a house-cooling party before you go (I’ll help with this!). Hopefully, then, we can all celebrate together. If we did it all right, then we’re meeting your desired goals and I always hope that is the case.