Timeline for Selling

Find an experienced local agent

This is a crucial first step, we even recommend interviewing a few agents before deciding. You want to make sure you’re working with someone you can trust and feel comfortable with, if you establish a connection with the right real estate agent this makes the entire process more enjoyable and easy!

Consider updates and small repairs

To get the most for your home most likely your agent will advise you on improvements you can do to boost its value. This doesn’t mean taking on a major renovation, those usually won’t net you a greater profit. Rather, we would put our focus on smaller details, like painting walls in neutral tones, refinishing your floors, pressure washing your exterior, or refreshing landscaping. These simple things can do a lot for your homes first impressions.

Pricing

Next will be talking with your agent to determine a competitive price for your home. We will pull comparable homes in your area to be able to calculate a number that will attract buyers, all without sacrificing your equity.

We discourage using automatic estimator to price your home, due to these tools being off by potentially 10+%. To put that into perspective, on a $300,000 home that would be a $30,000 difference! Which is a significant range to be off, this could result in over pricing and it sitting on the market or under pricing and you lose money that should be in your pocket.

Prepare for Photos & Video

Photos and online marketing is your homes first impression, and you need to make it count so it draws in buyers. Declutter each and every room and depersonalize your home by packing up any family photos. Flowers, greenery, neutral artwork, or candles can serve as the perfect neutral accents your home needs to allow buyers to envision themselves living in the home as oppose to feeling like its someone else’s. Plus this helps with getting a jump start with moving packing up! You want to pack away as much stuff as possible to leave your home organized and uncluttered. Make sure you also spend time in the yard/exterior, curb appeal is another key factor as people pull up to your home for showings.

We love providing our sellers with an easy checklist to help you with understanding what to do exactly to help accomplish this. Additionally, Beth herself as well as a few assistants are certified as staging experts, so if you need further help we got you!

Online Marketing

Your realtor will be responsible for marketing your home. They will be listing your home on the MLS, promoting it on social media, creating printed brochures, flyers or other advertisements, and hosting open houses (with your permission). The Beth Hines Team also offers “Coming Soon” marketing, which allows other agents to see that your home will be coming on the market on a certain date and share it with potential buyers to preview all before it’s listed or even entering the home. This can be a helpful tool while you’re getting your home ready to list so you can take your time and not feel rushed.

Showings

Although buyers usually look for homes online initially, they probably will want to see your home in-person before submitting an offer (though some don’t, like military who is moving to the area – for these we offer 3D Walkthroughs). We recommend keeping your home ready for showings all day, we ask for a heads up and your approval before a showing happens but the more buyers walk the home the more chances for an offer you get. We all know our homes get messy and we understand you’re still living in them, so establishing a regular cleaning schedule during the time your home is listed can be a big help with this. Our top priorities are: no dishes in the sink, beds are made, and trash is taken out before buyers show up. Showings tend to be anywhere between 30 minutes to and hour long, so be prepared to leave the house during this time to give the buyers and their agent privacy while they view and talk about the home.

**Do NOT record audio of showings, this includes baby monitors, we ask our sellers to please do not listen in– for our buyers we ask you not say anything confidential until we are off of the property**

Offers

If a buyer is interested in your property then they will submit an offer, which will detail how much they’ll pay for the home, their financing type, a closing date and any contingencies or additional requests. You may accept the offer directly, decide to negotiate different terms, or simply decline. It’s not uncommon for buyers and sellers to go back and forth to hammer out a contract/offer that works for both of you. Your agent will be there to talk to you through the process but ultimately what you’re comfortable accepting is up to you.

Due Diligence

Home inspections and appraisals are done before closing. What you should expect from a home inspection is, a qualified inspector will come look at the roof, basement, heating, cooling, structure, plumbing, electrical and check for any major/minor issues in any of these areas. From there they will make a report and share it with the buyers, you are not required to fix anything but the buyers most likely will as for some or any/all repairs to be done. Their lender may also request an appraisal. This involves an appraiser also coming and inspecting your home to confirm its market value meets what the purchase price is set for, this allows the lenders to make sure the buyer doesn’t buy the home for more than it is worth. This is an important process, and why we want to make sure homes are priced appropriately so that there are no hiccups and appraisals come back with a green light!

More Paperwork

We know this has been a long process and at this stage you might have seen a lot of paperwork but we promise this is the home stretch. This next period is when the home is in escrow, this is when the buyer officially obtains their mortgage and you and your agent settle any remaining documents before closing.

Closing Time!

The long awaited day is finally here! On your closing date you will sit down with your agent and sign just a few more documents related to the sale. Once all fees have been paid, you relinquish your keys and transfer the title of your home to the new buyers. And then you have officially closed on your home! You will not receive the monies until everything is recorded, which may take a couple hours or potentially all day. But there you have it! You are done with the home selling process.

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Has this been helpful?

We are alway eager to help sellers understand better the process and feel more empowered and knowledgeable throughout the selling process. It is our hope that this gives a little insight as to what expect. If you’re looking to find out more details or want to talk to Beth Hines or a listing agent on the team fill out the form below and we will be in contact shortly. We look forward to hearing from you.