A Step-by-Step Guide to Selling your Home
Putting your home on the market can be a stressful and complex process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, when you work with a professional like me, I can expertly guide you through the process and take a lot of the heavy lifting away from your shoulders!
When you choose to list your home with Advisors Living, you are partnering with a trusted and skilled Residential Advisor who is committed to netting you the highest proceeds within your timetable. Below is a basic outline of the steps involved. Please reach out today to schedule a personalized seller consultation so I can better understand your goals and timing, learn about your home, and get to know you.
What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Do you want to make a certain amount of money that you can put toward a larger or nicer home? Do you need to sell it as soon as possible to facilitate a move to a new city or area? Once we both understand your needs, we can better craft a sale strategy. For example, if you need to sell quickly, you might want to price your home lower than if your goal is to make a certain profit margin. Make sure you convey these goals and needs to me during our initial seller consultation.
Knowing how to price your home is one of the most important parts of the selling process. When you set a fair price in the beginning, you’ll get the most interest from prospective buyers. Overpricing your home could lead to reduced interest, and underpricing leads to receiving less than what your home is worth. Working with a skilled Residential Advisor is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a pre-sale home appraisal. I am well-equipped in this work and have taken my dedication to fair and accurate pricing by earning the Pricing Strategy Advisor (PSA) certification by the National Association of REALTORS®.
If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. The next most important phase of the selling process is getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing so that buyers can envision themselves in the space, making any small repairs, and doing a deep clean to make sure your home is in pristine condition. As part of my standard service to sellers, I hire a third-party staging consultant to prepare a personalized room-by-room to-do list encompassing the above items and additional suggestions for staging your home for success in the marketplace.
I will create a marketing strategy with the goal of exposing your listing to the highest number of potential buyers possible and getting the most traffic possible through the door once your listing is live on the MLS. This marketing encompasses print/traditional media, social media, agent-to-agent connections, single property websites, and SEO advertising. Advisors Living is on the forefront of strategic marketing for residential real estate, utilizing our full scale in-house marketing team comprised of seasoned graphic designers, senior marketing specialists, and public relations experts.
Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. I will help you evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. If the offer isn't acceptable, I will discuss with you possible negotiations and handle those negotiations on your behalf.
Once we deem an offer is acceptable, I will review the proposed contract to make sure it’s all in order and includes the necessary components such as deposit amount, down payment, financing, inspection rights and repair allowances, contingencies, settlement date, and a list of fees and who will pay them. When both parties have agreed to the term, a final contract will be prepared by the buyers agent.
You have accepted an offer and are now very close to the end of your selling journey. But first, you and the buyer must make a list of what needs to be done before closing. In some cases, your home may need to be formally inspected, surveyed, and appraised. In other cases, major or minor repairs will need to be made before the house can close. I will head up efforts to develop and execute this list, get each action item paid for by the correct party, and make sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before the closing date, we will call the company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession.
You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a home you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer. The evening before or morning of closing I will meet with the buyer and their agent for the final walk-through to confirm that the property is in the expected condition and that all of your personal belongings have been moved out. Froom there, the buyers head to closing where they will sign paperwork to close the deal. Once the paperwork has been signed, the closing attorney records the paperwork with the county's registry of deeds. Once on record, the home is sold, and you can either pick up a check for the sale proceeds or the funds can be wired to you (often there is a fee).
Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.
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Please reach out today to schedule a personalized seller consultation so I can better understand your goals and timing, learn about your home, and get to know you. I look forward to connecting!
Annie Pfaff
Vice President & Residential Advisor
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Annie Pfaff
Advisors Living
526B Boston Post Road
Sudbury, MA 01776
