Selling a home is a huge decision and the reasons for selling can be wide-ranging. When someone contacts me regarding selling their home my first question is always, “Do you WANT to sell your home?”. I emphasize “want” because I’ve found some people are selling out a necessity that may not be a necessity.
So what’s the process to selling a home?
I always start with a listing intake meeting where we decide together what the next steps might be and if we want to work together or not. Like I said above, I always start by finding out if they want to sell or just feel like they have no other options. If someone feels like they have to sell but don’t want to, I connect them with one of my preferred lenders so they can look into refinancing. I’ve helped a lot of people keep the home they love this way.
If selling is the right for the homeowner we need to discuss the property itself, listing strategies, costs of selling, and timeframes. Once we both know what exactly what we are dealing with, we each have a decision to make about whether we want to work together or not. When I don’t feel I’m the right broker for a listing, I politely decline the listing and recommend another agent who I believe will be the right fit. The fact is, there are many great agents out there, and not one of us is the right person for every listing.
Once we decided to work together it’s time for my team to kick into high gear. This starts when I order the title report and make sure everything is good to go. Now it’s time to get one of my professional photographers out to take pictures, the sign post installed, pre-inspection done (if selected by the client), the home staged (when appropriate), and the marketing plan in swing. It’s a very busy time that requires a lot of attention to detail. All of this activity usually takes place in under a week.
Once the house is listed on the NWMLS, my marketing gets released and I start calling my extensive network of agents to make sure they don’t miss the listing and get a personal invite to the opening weekend open houses.
Open houses are one of my favorite parts of my job. A typical open house for me lasts 4-6 hours and has some sort of food. Sometimes it’s as simple as snacks and other times it might be hamburgers and hotdogs or a catered meal. In the warner months for homes with a large enough yard I offer my clients the opportunity to have a bounce house and snow kids as a part of their open house experience. Adding these features showcase how usable the yard is and attracts even more people. Also, they are just fun!
After opening weekend it is usually time to sit down and review multiple offers. Before sitting down with my clients, I always verify the strength of funding of all the potential buyers. I present all offers to my clients in full and we discuss the positives and negatives of each. There is often some negotiation that needs to happen with the buyers agents to ensure my sellers are getting top dollar and the best overall offer for their home.
Once we’ve selected, negotiated, and fully agreed to an offer I become a project manager of sorts making sure the buyer’s agent, title officer, escrow closer, lender, appraiser, stagers, and any inspectors and/or contractors are all following the proper schedule and we close on time. Throughout the process I’m keeping the sellers advised of exactly where we are at in the process.
A day or two before closing the sellers will sign the final paperwork with the title and escrow office. This largely wraps up the legal parts of the sale. On the day od closing I contact the sellers as soon as the transaction is recorded by the County and let them know the sale is complete. It usually takes 24-48 business hours for the fund from the sale to arrive in their bank account. If the sellers are still local when the sale of their home is complete we usually get together for a celebratory drink in honor of a great experience for us all.
