What Are the Steps to Selling My House? A Realtor’s Guide

Are you a homeowner who thought, “This is my forever home. I will never move again”? Or are you one of those people who loves to own a home for 5-7 years and then move on to something newer, nicer or just different?

Is now the time to sell your home?

Selling your home can be stressful, especially when you don’t know where to start. So let’s go over the steps you can take to prepare for selling your home.

Number 1. Find your why.

I know, cheesy, but seriously, you need to decide why it is you’re moving.

Is it for work or because you’re upsizing? Do you need less space or more acreage? Is there a school district you’d prefer to be in? Or maybe you just don’t like your neighbors and you’ve decided you’d rather not live next door to someone who doesn’t like that you play music in your backyard at 7 p.m.

Whatever your reason is, find it, stick to it and remember it.

Number 2. Start interviewing Realtors.

Talk to 2, 3, 4, even 8 Realtors and read their Google and Facebook reviews. Read reviews about their brokerage and broker too.

Ask your potential Realtors to put together a proposal for your home. Find out what they recommend listing your home at and what their marketing strategy is.

Pricing your home correctly is one of the most important parts of getting it sold, and a good Realtor should be able to explain how they came up with their recommended price.

You also need to make sure the Realtor you’re working with has YOUR best interest at heart, not their commission. Make sure they’re communicative, morally sound and straightforward with you.

Choosing the right agent is just as important as pricing your home correctly when it comes to getting your home sold quickly and efficiently.

Number 3. Prepare your home.

I know your home hasn’t sold yet, but you’re about to have any number of buyers walking through it, and pictures are going to be posted on the internet for the entire world to see. And yes, Becky from 3 cubicles over will absolutely be going through your online listing and looking at your home.

Now is the time to start boxing up items you don’t need. Pack up that off-season wardrobe, box up your extra dishes and get rid of some of the clutter that doesn’t have a home. Put away your family pictures or replace them with blank paper for now. Some of this is for your privacy, and some of it is so potential buyers are looking at the home instead of looking at you.

When people tour your home, they want to be able to envision what THEIR furniture and belongings will look like in your home.

Mow and weed eat your entire property and take care of any minor or major issues that could prevent your home from selling or cause problems once you’re under contract.

And before you start spending thousands of dollars updating things you think buyers won’t like, talk to your Realtor. You may be surprised by what is actually worth fixing before you list and what isn’t worth spending your money on. Peeling paint and replacing missing light bulbs? Absolutely! Painting a white room blue or re-carpeting the house? Probably not.

A good Realtor will go over all of this with you during their initial appointment and walk-through.

Number 4. Begin your home-buying process.

Contact your bank, lender or financial guru and start figuring out what you want in your next home.

See my previous post, “How to Figure Out What You Want in Your Next Home,” for more on that process.

Number 5. Your home is listed. Now what?

Now you can start to relax a little.

Do remember that you’ll have people coming in to look at your home, so keep it tidy. Switch to a capsule wardrobe for the entire family and paper plates if that’s what makes this waiting period easier for you!

Continue packing items you don’t need and storing them in your garage, shed or storage unit. You can shove things into a closet, but just remember that buyers tend to open those too!

Don’t overhaul your entire house because you do still live there. But you’ll probably find that having fewer things in the house makes it a whole lot easier to rush out the door when you get one hour of notice before your next showing.

And now you get to start the fun part: touring houses yourself!

This is when you can really start actively looking for your next home. Your Realtor can work with everyone involved to try to coordinate the closing on your current home with the closing on your new home, ideally even on the same day.

There are a lot of moving pieces when you’re selling one house and buying another, but that’s exactly why having someone coordinating the process for you matters.

Selling your home does not have to be difficult. Sometimes situations will come up that can be stressful, BUT if you have the right Realtor on your team, he or she will guide you every step of the way.

Your Realtor will work directly with your lender and closing company, meet with contractors and inspectors when needed, communicate with the other parties and handle a lot of the tension that can come with working with buyers.

From preparing your home, to listing it, to finding your next home, negotiating contracts and finally making it to closing day, the right Realtor will be there to guide you through the entire process.