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 team of Real Estate Agent once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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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 team of Real Estate Agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of Real Estate Agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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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.

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Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

We 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. Our 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.

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Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. We 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.

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Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once we deem the offer is acceptable, we 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 team of Real Estate Agents.

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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. We 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.

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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. We 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 team of 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

Jen S.

Jen S.

Jessica Crowell was AWESOME to work with! She was so knowledgeable, friendly, and responsive throughout the process and kept us informed and calm for the stressful parts. She conducts herself professionally and is an extremely ...
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Buyer

Buyer

Cindy Ryan is a fantastic realtor. During our experience with Cindy we found she was very responsive to our every need. She worked closely with us every step of the way and always provided answers no matter what questions were ...
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Sheena H.

Sheena H.

I have worked with Lisa for years, and both my parents and brother have as well. She's awesome to work with, very flexible, gives great feedback and I always feel she's got my best interest at heart. Highly recommend!
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Rifat U.

Rifat U.

We are pleased to give Lisa Gordon, a realtor who has earned our trust over the years, the highest rating since my wife and I have been extremely pleased by several of our home acquisition facilitated by her. Our experience wit...
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Nima

Nima

This was my third experience with Lisa, in the past two years both on the sales side twice, and purchase once … Nothing but good things to say. She knows her region well, has been helpful in giving recommendations for sub-cont...
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Alan S.

Alan S.

We can't give enough praise to Lisa Gordon, our real-estate agent, who handled the sale of our home. She came in with a fantastic plan and it worked perfectly. We had multiple offers and were quickly under contract. She, her...
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Heidi E.

Heidi E.

Lisa is a great combination of detail and flexibility. She is very responsive and articulate in her communication. As a seller, she was very organized and helped us identify a reasonable schedule as well as walking us through ...
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Christina R.

Christina R.

Lisa has spent 2 years with us helping in search of the perfect home that would fit our needs of having a disabled child. So much of her time has been spent showing us the market… we finally have found the perfect home for our...
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Emily O.

Emily O.

Lisa really listened to what I wanted and needed in a first home. She took the time to show me properties I was interested in, and she suggested listings she thought I should see. Lisa returned my calls and texts promptly, she ...
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Rob B.

Rob B.

Best realtor in the area as far as I’m concerned. She will go above and beyond in every aspect of the process. She is very down to earth and communicative. She knows what to look for and how to get you the best deal, buying or ...
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Heidi C.

Heidi C.

Lisa is a great combination of detail and flexibility. She is very responsive and articulates in her communication. As a seller, she was very organized and helped us identify a reasonable schedule as well as walked us through e...
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Seller

Seller

Cindy was very confident and knowledgeable at the initial interview for listing our property. We started with having a "staging" professional audit our house and property for what needed to be changed, repaired, and positioned ...
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Seller

Seller

We can't give enough praise to Lisa Gordon, our real estate agent, who handled the sale of our home. She came in with a fantastic plan and it worked perfectly. We had multiple offers and were quickly under contract. She, her st...
Read More
Buyer

Buyer

Working with Cindy has been a great experience. She was quick to reply to all of my requests/messages, and very easy to schedule showings with. As a first-time home buyer, I didn't know much about the home buying process or wha...
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Buyer & Seller

Buyer & Seller

Kathy helped me through the process of selling my home in 2022 and purchasing my current home recently. I chose her to assist me based on the high recommendation of other family members and friends and have since recommended he...
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Halene F.

Halene F.

From start to finish, it was a delight to work with Kathy and Natalie, and the Coldwell Banker team. We trusted Kathy's knowledge of the area and the market and it paid off. Her guidance and that of her team were what pushed us...
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Robert M.

Robert M.

We loved working with Lisa. As first-time home buyers, she made our experience as easy and smooth as it could be in a crazy seller's market. Lisa was always very quick to respond to any questions that we had and helped us throu...
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Buyer & Seller

Buyer & Seller

Quite the adventure and Kathy and Nat navigated a purchase and a sale with little to no issues to address. The team worked with me, the seller, the buyer, lawyers, appraisers, inspectors, and other agents to exceptional closure...
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Buyer

Buyer

Cindy Ryan is a fantastic Realtor®. During our experience with Cindy, we found she was very responsive to our every need. She worked closely with us every step of the way and always provided answers to buyers matter what questi...
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Emily O.

Emily O.

Lisa listened to what they wanted and needed in a first home. She took the time to show me properties I was interested in, and she suggested listings she thought I should see. Lisa returned my calls and texts promptly, she was ...
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