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: Make Preparation to Show Your Home

Showing Your Home
After we’ve prepped your house for sale, taken photos, and set a price, we’re ready for the public to see your home.
 
What is a showing?
A showing takes place either at an open house, which is a scheduled session when anyone can come by without an appointment, or during an appointment scheduled with me.

What can I expect when showing my house?
Three important things you can do to help get your house sold are:
  •  Leave when your house is being shown. Buyers prefer to look at homes when they can move around freely and the owners aren’t there.
  • Make your house as available as possible. While it may be inconvenient to show your home at certain times, buyers who can’t see a property when they’re eager may cross it off their list.
  • Listen to any feedback from buyers or their agents about ways you can make your home more appealing.

We’ll work together to ensure maximum exposure and a faster sale.

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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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An 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: Open House / Marketing Strategy

Market and host open house to create buzz around listing. Open house brings in more traffic if home is priced and marketed correctly.

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Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I 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. My 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: Appraisal

As you near the end of your home sale journey, one of the last remaining steps is getting your home appraised. I’ll help you gather the necessary materials and prepare for the appraiser’s visit.

What is an appraisal?
An appraisal is an objective valuation of your property that serves as a safeguard for the buyer and the buyer’s lender. While the buyer pays for an appraisal, the appraiser actually works for the lender. While an appraiser may look at some of the same things as a home inspector, the result is an appraised value of your property rather than a condition report.
 
How can an appraisal affect my home sale?
An appraisal could require a renegotiation if the property value comes in lower than the sales price. The appraised value dictates the maximum amount the lender will allow the buyers to borrow, minus their down payment. Depending on how the contract was written, if the appraisal is low, we can:
  • Ask the buyer to come up with extra cash to make up the difference between the loan amount and the purchase price.
  • Reduce your price to the appraised value.
  • Split the difference with the buyer.
  • Cancel the contract.

Should this happen, we’ll explore all available options in the context of the contract and market conditions.

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Step 6: Smoke Inspection

In order to be able to sell your home we must provide a smoke and carbon monoxide certificate.

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Step 7: Final Water Meter Read

A final water meter read is required prior to closing.

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Step 8: Close

We’re nearly there! There are a few remaining steps to close on the sale of your house...

What should I do before the closing?
Before closing day, you’ll need to:
  • Take care of repairs required by the contract.
  • Keep all receipts and invoices and before-and-after photos of repairs.
  • Gather all appliance manuals and warranties for your buyers.
  • Hire a mover.
  • Cancel all utilities for the day after you move.
  • Cancel newspaper subscriptions.
  • Change your address.
  • Review all settlement documents, especially the settlement statement.
  • Check the property survey to be sure it’s correct.
  • Clean the house.
  • Prepare for the buyers’ final walk-through.
What’s next?
After the closing, you’ll:
  • Receive the proceeds from the sale, usually by wire transfer.
  • Cancel your homeowners insurance “post-close” – to make sure you’re covered on that day.
  • Save your closing documents and home improvement records for taxes.

Congratulations!

You’ve successfully sold your home. After close, make sure to keep in touch with me for all of your future real estate or home ownership needs. Further down the road, should you ever want to buy or sell, I’ll be here. You’ll always have my number, and I’ll always be ready to spring into action.

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Work With Debbie

My extensive knowledge of Boston's investment real estate market is unparalleled. My clients have consistently sought my advice and trusted my judgement on multi-million dollar deals.

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