THE SELLING PROCESS

Find a Realtor

The first decision you will make will be to choose a real estate professional to represent your best interests in the transaction. The ability to easily communicate with your real estate professional and to feel a sense of trust and comfort is very important. A real estate transaction is usually one of the most important transactions that anyone can make, and it is important that you trust and respect the agent you choose to help you with the transaction.

Define your goals

You need to think about why you are selling your property and what you expect to accomplish. Some of the more common reasons maybe that you need to downsize, you may not be using that vacation condo as much as you hoped, you are a growing family and need a larger home or you are cashing out of that headache rental property.

Pricing your property

This is the most important part of selling a home. You need to take into account the current market conditions, the overall condition of your home or condo, recently sold comparable properties in your area and what is currently on the market. Your Realtor has thorough understanding of the real estate market and will provide you with a comparable market analysis of your property.

Make Necessary Repairs

Make all needed repairs unless you want the house to be regarded as a fixer-upper. We are not referring to cosmetic updates, just items in need of repair. Anything that is obviously broken gives potential buyers a reason to offer you a lower price, especially if it is one of several repair hot spots that worry buyers the most.

Staging your home

This is also a very important part of the selling process. How your home looks will have a tremendous impact on how quickly it sells and whether or not you get full market value for it. Builders typically do a wonderful job of staging their models. Try to get your home as close to model condition as possible. We can have an interior design consultant visit your home to make sure it is staged properly.

Marketing your home

Now that your home shows well and you have determined a fair market value, it is time to put it up for sale and to start marketing it. Our marketing plan will get your home sold for top dollar. Our goal is to expose your home to the most potential buyers possible using a marketing plan that will have the highest possibility of bringing not only the most buyers, but also the most qualified buyers, to your doorstep.

Receiving an offer

When a buyer decides to purchase your property they will present a purchase offer to you. We will advise you on whether the potential buyer is qualified to purchase your home. The last thing you want to do is take your home off the market for weeks or months only to find out later that the potential purchaser was not qualified.

This is where experience is most valuable. An agent needs to know the ins and outs of the purchase offer. Once all parties have agreed and signed the offer it becomes an executed contract. The legalities of this phase are very important.

Negotiating to sell

Most offers to purchase your home will require some level of negotiation to come to a win-win agreement. Currently, in the Santa Clara County it is a buyers market. Buyers have more leverage than sellers and this comes into play with the negotiations. Your Realtor will represent you and will be responsible for protecting your interests.

Some of the items typically negotiated are:

• Price
• Closing date
• Financing terms
• Repairs
• Closing costs
• Occupancy
• Furniture

Inspections

This is where the buyers do all necessary inspections that they choose. Most buyers use a general home inspector to inspect the property. The buyer typically pays for all inspections. Responsibility of repairs was previously negotiated in the real estate contract. Buyers can accept the home in current condition, and ask the seller to make repairs or cancel the contract if that is spelled out in the agreement.

Closing

"Closing" refers to the meeting where ownership of the property is legally transferred to the buyer. Your agent will be present at closing to make sure everything goes according to plan. Occasionally, a last minute issue may arise. By being present your agent can usually take care of most problems.

As the seller, you will need to turn over any necessary documentation regarding the property and, depending on the contract, you may be required to have done something specific in order to close.

After Closing

Congratulations on the successful sale of your home! Hopefully, everything went smoothly with no aggravations and you vacated the property. We will provide a list of everything needed to turn the property over to the new owners.

USEFUL SELLER TOOLS AND RESOURCES