Click through the 11 steps below to understand the home selling process from start to finish. Remember, our team is here every step of way to ensure you are informed, represented, and pleased with your home sale!
1. Hire A Real Estate Agent
Questions about what us agents do? Check out our blog post!
- At the first appointment with your agent, they should ideally meet you at your property, prepared with a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis). A CMA will show you what similar properties are for sale or have recently sold in your area, and help you come to a competitive price for your own house.
- After deciding on a ballpark price point (the exact list price will likely change if you plan to wait a month or more to officially list your property) and going over the process with your agent, you can decide on the date you officially want to list!
2. Make Necessary Repairs & Updates
-You’ve signed with your agent, and now you need to prepare your home to be listed.
- One of these preparations may include repairing and/or updating your property. This can be done even prior to hiring an agent, but your agent can guide you in where to devote your budget if necessary.
3. Declutter & Stage Your Home
Decluttering (yes even the Live-Laugh-Love sign your 7 year old made) is essential!
Staging is optional, but homes that are staged on average sell faster and for more.
4. Professional Photos
Your agent will bring in a professional photographer after your home is all cleaned up and staged, and use these photos to advertise your home on the MLS, search engines like Zillow, Redfin, realtor.com, etc. and social media.
Hiring a professional is important because the majority of today’s buyers find their home searching online, which means they are basing their decision heavily on the photos.
5. Your Listing Goes Live on MLS
This means your home is officially on the market!
Your listing will also automatically show up in searches on websites like Redfin and Zillow.
6. Open Houses & Tours
Your agent will do open-house showings, especially the first weekend your house goes on the market. This will typically be 2-3 hours on a weekend afternoon.
Buyers may also ask their agents to do a private showing for them. If you’re still living in the home you’re trying to sell, you can specify what times other agents can show your home.
7. Receive Offers & Accept One!
Your agent will go over all offers you receive with you, and you will have all the tools you need to make the best decision based on your timeline, finances, etc.
With each offer that comes in, you have three options: accept, reject or counter.
- If all looks good, you can sign the buyer’s offer and you will be under mutual agreement, at which point your listing will go from active to pending.
- Some offers may not be acceptable to you or meet your financial needs, and in this case you can reject offers.
- If you receive an offer you’re mostly happy with, but would like to negotiate a higher purchase price, shorter closing window, etc., you can counter the buyer’s offer with a replacement offer.
This puts the ball in the buyer’s court, in which case they can accept, reject or counter back.
You can only counter one offer at a time - if you counter two offers at once, two different buyers may accept and now you’re under contract to sell your home to two different people!
8. Buyer Schedules An Inspection
Most deals are contingent upon a Home Inspection. The buyer will have an inspector go through the house and take note of any physical issues with the house, from major problems such as roof leaks all the way down to minor issues like improperly spaced fencing.
If there are major issues that will cost the buyer a large sum to fix, they have the ability to renegotiate the terms of the contract, or back out altogether. The buyer may ask for money to repair, a lower purchase price or for the seller to hire a professional to fix the issue.
This is why it’s beneficial to discuss any known issues with your agent prior to listing and take care of what you can beforehand!
9. Buyer's Lender Orders An Appraisal
After the Inspection, your buyer will be working behind the scenes to secure their loan. Part of this includes an official appraisal on the house to protect the lender’s investment. A licensed appraiser will come to the house and assess the fair market value of the home.
Banks can only lend up to the appraised value of the home, so if you are under contract to sell your home for $500,000, but the appraisal comes back at $490,000, the bank can only lend your buyer up to $490,000. If the opposite situation happens where you’re under contract for $490,000 but the home appraises for $500,000, the bank will always choose the lower of the two amounts.
The vast majority of the time, homes appraise at the purchase price. In the case that it doesn’t and your buyer needs to come up with extra money to make up the difference, this is where the appraisal contingency can kick in; the contract can be renegotiated to lower the purchase price, or the buyer may have to terminate the deal.
10. Prior To Close
It can take some time to get from a mutually signed contract to closing, typically about a month or so.
This is because the buyer is waiting on inspections, appraisals and final approval from their lender. Once all that comes through, you’ll receive a Closing Disclosure, which will detail your net gain of your home sale, and a breakdown of your closing costs.
For sellers, this tends to be 8-10% of the purchase price.
At This Point You Can:
- Cancel or transfer your homeowners insurance to your new house if you purchase one
- Prepare a cashiers check or bank wire for your closing costs.
- Attend the final walkthrough the day before closing.
11. The Close...Finally
This is hardly ever the case in Washington.
Typically, as a seller, you will meet with the escrow agent on your own time and sign documents needed, or this may even be done remotely.
Your agent will have met with the buyer’s agent to give them your keys, and your house will officially be sold!
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