In a perfect world, selling a home would be as simple as taking a “for sale” sign in your front yard. However, conducting a sale requires time, effort, connections, and money. There’s no formula to follow when it comes to selling a house because the market varies depending on the season.
However, there are some fundamental steps every seller should follow. Find out more about the process of selling your home.
Understand Your Responsibilities and Costs
Generally, sellers pay for the following:
- Listing the property on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) site for maximum exposure in your local market. Some MLS sites allow you to list your property on a national database.
- Making repairs, which include those requested by the buyer.
- Hiring the ideal real estate agent and paying commission.
- Costs agreed upon between you and the buyer, which may include closing costs.
As you prepare for your sale, consider staging your house. Staging is an effective sales technique that combines decorating and marketing to make your open houses look professional. Additionally, you may want to boost your property’s curb appeal. Curb appeal is a term used to describe the attractiveness of a home from the sidewalk.
If you don’t know much about home staging and curb appeal, you can always follow tutorials from the internet. Consider hiring a professional stager who can help you flip your house.
Be Willing to Negotiate
As the seller, you have the freedom to accept or deny an offer. If you think an offer has potential, but you aren’t ready to accept it, you can make a counteroffer to the buyer outlining the changes you’d like to see before taking it.
The buyer can accept or refuse your counteroffer. Sometimes, a seller and a buyer must be willing to make sacrifices to agree. Remember, an offer isn’t binding until both parties agree to the terms.
Prepare for Closing
Once you find a buyer who makes an offer you can’t refuse, you’ll need to close the sale of your home. Closing is when you and the buyer fulfill all of the agreements made in the sales contract. The end goal is to transfer ownership of your property to the new owner.
Closing steps usually include:
- A title search to verify this property is yours, and there are no other claims to it.
- A home inspection where an inspector will do a thorough examination of your home’s structure and its systems.
- A septic certification and well testing, which is required if your property has a septic tank or a well
- A property survey, which is a technical sketch of a property and its structures
- Disclosing your home’s imperfections to the buyer.
A final walk-through where the buyer inspects the home and asks final questions one day before closing
Contact Local Home Buyers
Selling a home is only easy if you’re a real estate agent who’s well-versed in the market, but if you don’t work in the industry, you may feel lost. If you live in Huntsville, Alabama, you can sell your property to Local Home Buyers for an all-cash offer. Best of all, you won’t have to worry about paying an agent’s commission. Contact us today.