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 team of real estate agents 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.

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What's your home really worth?

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Sheila
What our clients say about working with us
I am not even sure where to begin. Kimberly was so much more than a realtor to us. We found her through a recommendation from a friend who recently bought a home. We were super hesitant to meet with her as we weren't even sure we wanted to buy a home and we did not want to feel any pressure. We had no clue what to expect. Kimberly agreed to meet with us and throughout the entire journey put absolutely no...

— Buyer

What our clients say about working with us
We were referred to Kimberly by a coworker, and immediately upon our first meeting with her, we felt at ease. She arrived prepared to help us sell our first home, including research, comparables, and clearly identified timelines and steps. We walked away from that first meeting ready to get started and she continued to excel throughout the process - she handled everything from preparation advice, staging...

— Buyer & Seller

What our clients say about working with us
The journey was a long and grueling one for us. Over the course of 5 months, we looked at countless homes in the middle of a global pandemic in one of the craziest housing markets in the country. Within the first few homes we saw together, Kimberly had an idea for our taste and could identify homes that met our needs as well as provide a good investment to us as first-time homebuyers. Not only did we tou...

— Buyer

What our clients say about working with us
What can be said other than Kimberly absolutely knocked this home-buying process out of the park? From the initial conversations to the closing, she made the entire home-buying process as smooth and convenient as could be. Our first bid was accepted! She negotiated several favors from the seller who was not in any way obligated to make these concessions, but Kimberly somehow got it done. She has tremendo...

— Buyer

What our clients say about working with us
As we simultaneously moved into looking for our next home to buy, she handled that part of the process in exactly the same professional manner. She worked with us to ensure that we truly understood what we were seeking, that we compromised where we could but stood fast with the things that she heard were important to us, and never pressured us or put us in a compromising position. We came up with the per...

— Buyer

What our clients say about working with us
I purchased my home with Kimberly. Her knowledge of the housing market enabled me to get the home I wanted. She negotiated a reduction in price once some small issues came up in the inspection. Also, her knowledge of general appliance life, electrical and heating and cooling systems was tremendous through the whole purchase process. She looks out for her clients.

— Sheila

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Our mission is to help others build wealth through real estate. With us as your loyal advocate, we'll show you how to assemble an abundant life through the unique wealth-building opportunities that only owning real estate can provide. Our trusted client approach is an unyielding commitment to honesty, backed with integrity, while assisting you in executing your own path toward financial freedom. Let's begin your journey together.