I don’t believe in gatekeeping information. If you are selling your home for the first time or after 25 years you may feel oh so lost in the process.
This post is going to go over the beginning steps. These are the steps you will take before you think about going on the market. Yep, its not just take photos, post it and sell. Especially if you want to sell in a reasonable time for a reasonable amount.
Selling Your Home – First Steps
When selling your home the first stop is a realtor. I am not just saying that because I am a realtor. But, if you talk to a realtor first they should know the local market. Knowing this will help them help you make the updates, refreshes, changes in your home that need to be made before you go on the market. They can also give you a idea on price and cost, read more below about this.
You should interview a couple of realtors. See what information they give you, what feel you get from them and how helpful they are before you choose just one to work with.
Pricing Your Home and The Cost to Sell
Once you choose a realtor they will help you price your home. If you trust this realtor, listen to them, if you don’t trust them then please don’t hire them.
A realtor should provide you with a price range for selling your home. The range will depend on how fast or slow the market is. It will look at sold comparisons in your neighborhood. It will take into consideration if you have updates, more land, more square footage, your floor plan and how you plan to present your home. Because if you won’t make any changes to the home you may get less, if you choose to do all changes suggested you may get more or you may land in the middle doing some things but not everything.
Your chosen realtor should also provide you with a net sheet. This should spell out the cost of listing your home and include the following at the very least.
- The price you have agreed upon to list your home at.
- Your Mortgage or any outstanding debts on the property.
- The realtors commission cost or percentage.
- Closing Cost/Title Fees.
- Water Hold (In Colorado they hold a certain amount to pay off the last water bill).
- Property Taxes Owed.
- HOA transfer fees.
- If you have a lawyer involved legal fees known about.
- Any other costs the realtor will charge you during the transaction.
Your realtor may have other things they add. Like I have a line for inspection and this is just a estimate of what you may need to pay out in inspections repair costs during the process. Either way you should know the costs of selling and An ESTIMATE on how much you will get at closing. You need this information so you know if you can actually sell or not at this time.
A Plan to Get Your Home Ready to List
Once you know pricing and costs and what work may need to be done, now you can make a real decision on whether selling right now is a good idea or not.
If you decide “yep this works, lets sell”, then your realtor should work with you on a plan.
This plan should include timing on when to go on the market, work or updates to be done on the home prior to selling, photography once the work is done.
Once you get closer to going on market, your realtor can give you a marketing plan too so you know what they will be doing to market your home.
A plan is important. Without a plan everyone is just floundering and the process will either take a lot longer or not help your home sell for the best price in the best time.
Selling Your Home – The Next Steps
In next week’s post we will talk more about marketing your home, listing contracts and what happens as you go on the market.
If you are looking to sell your home in the North Denver to Northern Colorado area, contact me! I would love to help info@haleybartlett.com. You can also check out more about my listing style and services here.
