Seller's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced agent and this easy to follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible.

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Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

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 you understand your needs, you can better craft your offer. 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 needs to your Real Estate Agent once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.

Step 2: Determine Selling Price

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 other real estate agents and 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 real estate agent 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 home appraisal.

Step 3: Start Preparations

If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. Once you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing the space 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.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. My team creates a marketing campaign that aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing in the first three weeks after becoming a client

Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. I will 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 is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other ways to bridge the gap, such as covering some or all of the closing costs, making repairs, adjusting the move-in date, or leaving some appliances or fixtures for the new buyer.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once I deem the 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 your agent.

Step 7: Get Ready to Close

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, I 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.

Step 8: Close

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. I will meet with the company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork and go over any issues that have not yet been taken care of. During this time, you can also make plans with your Real Estate Agent to handle final details such as canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances that will remain in the home.

Congratulations!

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.

Testimonials

See what our happy clients have to say about their successful real estate journeys with us

Lucy embodies everything you could ask for in a REALTOR®. She helped us with so many aspects of selling our home that seemed overwhelming, such as: figuring out the best time to list our home for sale in a challenging market, finding reasonably-priced contractors for repairs and upgrades, scheduling inspections and home staging, and determining a strategy for our listing price. She assisted us with all of this (and more) on a very tight timeline. Throughout the entire process, she was very communicative and easy to work with. All of our interactions with her were positive, personal, and professional. She was always accessible, answered our numerous questions, and helped us through a stressful time with selling our primary residence.
Ted M.

We bought a home in a very difficult seller's market and I strongly believe we couldn't have done it without the advice and dedication of Lucy Armentrout. I would recommend her services in a heartbeat. Lucy is very knowledgeable about the structural characteristics of homes and where the market is going. She also has a great reputation in the real estate community and every time we were in contact with a seller's agent, they would always smile and nod when we told them we worked with Lucy. Finally, when the stressful escrow period came, she was with us 120%, responding to our questions at all hours, always very quickly and with abundant research/detail to allow us to not miss a beat in this fast-paced process.
Ariane Z.

I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Lucy! We shared a year-long journey involving many open houses, multiple offers, and my eventual purchase of a home that was an amazing find and a rare gem in a competitive market. Lucy was extremely knowledgeable and provided a great experience for me as a first-time home buyer. She explained everything from sewer lateral replacement to some of the effects of purchasing properties with tenants. She was always willing to schedule time for me to see homes that didn't have open houses available, and when it came time for offers she explained some of the decisions I'd need to make with regards to contingency dates. Lucy was never pushy and didn't ever complain about my slow pace.
Jhon F.

We are so happy we found Lucy. We interviewed several agents and we went with Lucy due to a personal referral and her experience in the East Bay, along with her preparedness for our initial meeting. Along the way, Lucy was on top of every little detail which led to an extremely positive outcome and sales price for our home well above expectations. On top of that, she got the deal done as the covid 19 outbreak escalated. She got us great stagers and vendors and managed them effortlessly. She understood also the big macro picture and suggested open house timing that ended up being favorable. Lucy also was a skilled negotiator and closed the deal. Call Lucy she's the closer!
Tina U.

Work With Lucy

I support my clients with regular and detailed communications for the time we work together (and beyond). I provide clear explanations of the process and options available to you at every step of your real estate journey, and offer recommendations you can trust and rely on.