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From the time you think of selling your house to closing the sale, the journey can be an emotional roller coaster ride. You may feel nostalgic about the precious time you had there and also feel the stress of finding out how to sell a house, selling the house quickly, what to fix and what not to fix when selling the house and so on. However, we came up with 6 easy steps that may act as your guideline and reduce the stress of how to sell your house.
Step One: Finding Desired Way of Selling House
At first you need to decide “how to sell the house”; on your own or with the help of a real estate agent. Although people are tempted to choose the “For Sell by Owner (FSBO)” process, there are pros and cons of selling a house with or without a realtor.
FSBO or With Real Estate Agent
If you sell on your own, you can avoid the agent’s commission fee which is around 5-6% of the selling price; have flexibility of the time of showing your house to the potential customers but this process can be very time consuming and you may not find a wide pool of potential buyers.
On the contrary, hiring a real estate agent has several benefits such as-
- They have in-depth knowledge about the market.
- Licensed agents have access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
- They are skilled in negotiating and have knowledge to sell houses profitably and quickly using industry connections and brand name recognition.
How to Find a Real Estate Agent
If you decide to list a house through a realtor, research for finding a realtor who knows about the market of your area, take their previous clients’ testimonials, prepare questions to interview the potential realtors and select the one that falls into your desired criteria.
Step Two: Prepare and Stage the House
When you start thinking of selling a house, you should opt for a pre house inspection. Here you should analyze what to fix and what not to fix when selling a house. You need to calculate the Return on Investment of fixing any bigger stuff and see if that is cost effective. But there are certain fixes you must complete which are- structural and mechanical, floorings, bathrooms, kitchen, roof, cosmetic and exterior. You can also sell your house as it is but then you have to consider how much you lose because the buyer will pay a much lower price in that case.
How to make your house look appealing
To stage your house- declutter extra stuff, clean the house, move or rearrange the furniture in a way so that the house looks larger and appealing to the buyers. The real estate agent will guide you the right way of staging.
The buyers may be attracted by the curb appeal and online appeal. For curb appeal, maintain landscaping, clean outside walls. And for online appeal, the agents will find a professional photographer to click enticing photos and make a 3D virtual tour of the house.
Step Three: List Your House
In this step, select the best listing price with your agent according to the market price and cost of selling the house. Remember that you may lose potential buyers if you set a much higher price. Consider the peak demand season of your location to get the best price. Then the agent will list the house for sale on MLS with necessary details and photos.
Step Four: Review Offers, Negotiate and Finalize Buyer
Once you start getting offers, the negotiation skill of your agent realtor will play a vital role. Buyers tend to offer lower prices than the listing price so your agent will send counter offers and negotiate. You can also accept the buyer’s price as it is or reject it in the beginning. The buyers may accept your listing price if the listing will be made during the peak period.
Factors to analyze before finalizing the buyer
- Contingencies (appraisal and home inspection fails)
- Form of payment (cash or financing)
- Type of financing
- Down payment amount
- Closing date
And then you will finalize the buyer after discussing all the aspects.
Step Five: Execute Closing Obligations
In this stage, the contingencies stated in the offer will take place. The buyer will hire a home inspector and check the condition of the house. And for appraisal contingency, the lender of the buyer will analyze the current market value of the house through an appraisal.
What are the Closing Costs
You will have to pay some closing costs such as- repairing cost after the home inspection, transfer tax, title insurance and most importantly your real estate agent’s commission fee.
Step Six: Close the Deal
After fulfilling all the obligations, you can proceed to close the deal and plan to move out. For closing the deal, many documents need to be prepared. Some essential documents needed to sell house
- Deed
- Original sales contract
- Property disclosure
- Tax record
- Homeowners insurance record
- Home appraisal report
- Home inspection report
- Property survey
- Certificate of occupancy
- Compliance with local codes
- Homeowners association documents
- Maintenance record
- Manuals and warranties.
And finally, you will sign the documents, close any necessary transaction, hand over the key and move out!
