Congratulations on making the decision to sell your house, but if you’re like most normal people you are probably wondering… “Where do I start?” Hi, I’m Adam D. with KW Realty and The Local Connect on this video, I’m going to walk you through the 3 stages of how to sell your home so you can get an idea on the timeline and know what to expect.
If you’re anything like most people the thought of moving is daunting. You have to think about physically moving as well all of the steps involved with getting from point A to point B. The good news is and I’m going to simplify how to sell your home and what to expect so you can start planning now!
Pre-listing
Before we can begin marketing your house, we need to make it look good. Oftentimes this is going to involve preparing your home for sale by doing things such as decluttering and rearranging your home to show in the best light.
It is during your pre-listing stage that you begin preparing the house for sale.
This is a crucial step to handle BEFORE you take the pictures and video as the way it shows online will be EVERYTHING. Your first showing will take place online, so it’s essential to make a good first impression with potential buyers so they are more motivated to schedule a showing.
You might also want to look for areas in your home that you may be able to improve and get a positive ROI with. There are many simple tricks you can use to improve your property and sell it faster and for more money.
One of the first things we will do together is have a walk through of your home to point out anything that might need to be improved upon to help the house sell better. Next, we may even want to do a preliminary inspection to see if there are any improvements that need to be disclosed or any easy improvements that can be made up front before you bring the house on the market.
Lastly, when the team of professional photographers and videographers show up, they will make any last minute suggestions to help make your house show better before we actually capture it in photo and video!
Active Process
Once the house is ready to be shown, it’s time to get it listed. Your home’s first showing is taking place online so it’s crucial that we create the buzz right away to take advantage of being a newly listed property.
It is essential that we are most aggressive in the first 2 weeks your home is listed. This is your best chance to sell you home for top dollar. It’s crucial that during these two weeks that several events are held around the house. This is your best timeframe to sell your home for the most amount of money. Not only is it necessary to get the property in the MLS properly, we also need to engage in marketing tactics such as ads on Facebook, Youtube, Google, Bing, Zillow, Realtor.com, AND all other agents who may have buyers looking in your neighborhood!
It’s during this time that the house is actively being shown so you need to be ready to allow showings. We don’t control when a buyer wants to see your home, but can only be ready to show it once they request.
Pending
Eventually your property will retrieve an offer that we’ll accept. It’s once this process is complete that you are officially under contract, but we still have a lot of work to do. This is the part of the process where the deal gets solidified and heads to closing, but not too many people know what goes on at this point.
The first thing that happens is your buyer will conduct an inspection and start lining up financing to get their loan going if they are getting financing. We will coordinate all inspections and processes with the buyer’s lender for you! Here in NJ, buyers have about 2 weeks to have all of their inspections done so you should know within those first 2 weeks if the buyer is satisfied with the home’s condition.
After the buyer has completed the inspections, we will be on the lookout for their mortgage commitment letter or their full mortgage approval. This is going to be the final hurtle before we are ready for closing and it is something you should wait for before preparing for your move. Depending on where your property is located, the city might require a CO inspection or a fire safety inspection that must get completed. We know all the local areas and will alert you about all necessary inspections!
I really hope this video showed you a glimpse of what goes on during the home selling process. Of course there are many details here we have not covered the specifics, but I can answer any further questions you may have.
Every home sale is different and there are no two deals done alike so if you would like to receive a customized plan or you are just curious what your home is worth please feel free to contact me.