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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 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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Step 1: 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 agents once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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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 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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Step 3: 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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Step 4: 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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Step 5: 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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Step 6: 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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Step 7: 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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Step 8: 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 agents 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.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Evan is a unique agent, his common sense approach to finding the right home. Evan works well with people and enjoys his work. He always goes above and beyond the rest!

— Dianna H.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We would highly recommend Evan to any of our friends looking for their first home! He was extremely responsive, always able to answer any of our questions, and always gave us his honest opinion. We chose a difficult area to purchase a home and Evan made it easier, even getting the deal done in a pandemic!

— Andrea R.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

After having met with a handful of agents prior, we went with Evan as he had a good knowledge of the areas we were shopping in. As a first-time buyer, Evan was very knowledgeable and helpful during the entire transaction. This was especially appreciated as a pandemic hit right as we were getting started. He was proactive, very responsive, and patient. Highly recommended!

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

It had been more than 35 years since I had last purchased a home. Needless to say, things have changed. Evan was with me every step of the way. Never pressuring me and always willing and available to answer my questions. He made me feel I was the only client he had. I would recommend Evan to anyone looking for a knowledgeable, considerate, compassionate real estate agent. Thank you, Evan!

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We only gave Evan 5 stars because we couldn't give him more. As first-time home buyers, Evan's knowledge and advice were greatly appreciated. We always felt that Evan had our best interests in mind. We toured almost 50 homes and Evan was available for evenings and weekends since that is what our schedule permitted. I would absolutely recommend Evan to all those looking to buy or sell a home.

— Buyer

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Evan was very professional. He assisted us in many ways in selling our mother's home. He communicated with us often. Whenever a problem arose, Evan promptly took care of remediating and mitigating the situation. He was knowledgeable in all aspects of selling the house and was a pleasure to work with. He took all the stress out of selling a home. We highly recommend him to anyone who is looking to sell th...

— Seller

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

As a first-time home buyer, I was overwhelmed with realtor choices. Selecting Evan was absolutely the best decision I could have made. He showed me countless homes to help me focus on what I wanted. Within 30 days of starting, he helped me find exactly what I was looking for. Evan also took the time to walk me through each step and assured me that I never felt overwhelmed with the process. A+ service, wi...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We used Evan to both buy and sell a home and had a fantastic experience both times. He was always available, represented our best interests, and had the experience to quickly offer recommendations to help us make decisions. When buying, he helped us angle our offer on a popular house that got the seller's attention (it was not the highest) and when listing our former house he had a solid plan that genera...

— Chris T.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We met Evan via Zillow at a home we were interested in. Evan was a pleasure to work with as both our seller's agent and our buyer's agent. He is extremely knowledgeable and super responsive to texts, calls, and emails. Our home sold quickly but then Covid hit. Despite the lack of inventory and new protocols, he went beyond to help us find our perfect home. His strong interpersonal skills, knowledge, and ...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Evan was fantastic to work with. We started looking for a house over 2 years ago, and Evan hung with us through the ups and downs. We had to stop looking because of having a baby, then COVID-19, then a house we loved that got pulled off the market, and then busy season with our business. It didn't matter. Whenever we were ready to start again, Evan was ready to go. Through the process, he was patient, fl...

— Matthew R.

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Evan is utilizing his skills, knowledge and expertise in residential real estate to help others find their dream home on the Suncoast. Get assistance in determining current property value, crafting a competitive offer, writing and negotiating a contract, and much more. Contact him today.