I’m thinking about selling my home? What sort of things do I need to consider?

The first place to start is with your motivations. Why do you intend to sell your home? Is it a financial decisions? Do you need a bigger or smaller home? Is it a job relocation forcing the sale? Consider your primary reasons for the sale of your home and then you can focus on the goals of the sale. Do you want to sell by a certain date? Do you want to get a certain amount of profit out of the sale? Having your motivations and goals figured out before hand will really help clarify what you do next and how you sell your home.

Once you’ve decided you want to sell your home its a good idea to give a Realtor a call to discuss the costs associated with selling the home and to talk about what sort of things you need to do to prepare your home for a sale. We have provided a couple handy resources on this website that should help you get started with both of these items:

THE COST TO SELL

PREPARE YOUR HOME FOR A SALE

Watching those HGTV shows and reading all you want can be helpful in preparing your home for a sale, but the most effective thing to do is call us and we’ll come visit the home and give you free advice on what to do to get your home ready. We work with buyers all the time and know exactly what sort of things they like and dislike. Having us walk through the home we can give you our honest feedback. Obviously your motivations play a big role in what we’ll suggest and what you decide you want to do to get your home ready for a sale. If you aren’t prepared to spend much money we’ll focus on the simple inexpensive ways to improve the sellability of your home by recommending such inexpensive updates like landscaping, cleaning or painting. For those sellers who are trying to optimize their profit and have some money to spend, we can give recommendations for remodel work. Don’t worry you don’t need to spend much money if any to get your home ready for a sale. The inexpensive fixes can do a lot to make your home stand out! If you do make fixes to your home keep those receipts! Buyers often time want to see what has been done to the home. Oh, and don’t for get to get your home permitted when remodeling your home! Buyers are usually a little concerned when they find out your added that bathroom without getting a single permit.

Pricing Your Home

All your cosmetic fixes are done and now its time to get your home on the market! The big question is going to be “what can I sell my home for?” A little research on your part is not a bad idea. Get an idea as to the home values in your neighborhood. A rough estimate is just fine to start with. You might go pull the “For Sale” flyers from your neighbors home or just on the internet for some resent comps. Zillow.com isn’t a bad place to find out what “neighborhood” values are. I strongly recommend you don’t pay much attention to the actual value given to your home because often times its off. Nonetheless, you can look at a neighborhood and see what Zillow values homes in the neighborhood.

Pricing your home is key to the sale of your home. Generally home owners think their homes are worth more than they really are. Shoot, even a Realtor thinks their own home is worth more than it really is. Truth be told, pricing your home too high is a big mistake! Price the home in a conservative range and you will find the results to be much more attractive for you. Pricing in a conservative price range will drive traffic to the home and give you much more visibility. You cant sell a home if no one wants to look at it. We will work with you to set a competitive sales price.

My Home is On the Market, Now What Can I Expect?

Showings and lots of them! Realtors will either contact you or your agent to set up a time to view the property. A Realtor, either the buyer’s agent or your listing agent, will be present for the showing. In Oregon we use secure lockboxes to store your homes key on site. This lockbox can only be assessed through licensed Realtor’s lockbox key.

When you know your home is going to be viewed by a potential buyer you are going to want to do these easy things to help make that showing the best one possible:

1. Clean! Don’t leave the counters dirty and the floors messy! Clean up!
2. Open the windows to allow in as much natural light – no one likes a home that feels like a cave.
3. Turn on the lights if you can – don’t worry about this if you are going to be away from your home all day.
4. Have it smell good. Keep an air freshener on site, but be careful not to have the smells too overbearing though.
5. Lock up pets.
6. Leave your home. Being at the home during a showing is a big no-no! Buyer are not comfortable when you are there.

The Offer Comes Through

Your Realtor will handle walking your through the offer. Key items in an offer are:

1. Purchase price
2. Down payment amount
3. How the buyer will finance the home
4. Closing date
5. Personal property included in the sale (ie: refrigerator, washer & dryer)
6. Contingencies such as the inspection period
7. Earnest money

We’ll walk you through all these items and provide you will a net proceeds sheet that will help you analyze the offer from a financial perspective. We will help advise you to make sure you get the best possible deal out there.

Repairs?

With your offer there will usually be an “inspection contingency” which will lead the buyer to hire an inspector to inspect your home. To find out more about the inspection go to the home inspection page. In some cases you will have some repairs that will need to be made before the home can sell.

Sit. Wait. Sign. Close.

Now its the waiting game as the buyer completes all their necessary financing tasks. Once you get close to the closing date you should start packing and preparing for your move. I will always advise a seller to be careful not to hire a moving company too early as the closing dates can be somewhat flexible with all the changes in the mortgage industry. Once the documents are finished the title company will set up a time for you to come into their office to sign documents. Signing should take anywhere from 20-60 minutes depending on the complexity of the transaction and number of parties involved. Once all the documents are signed by the buyer and the seller it gets recorded with the county and the net proceeds of the sale deposited into your account!