Seller's Guide

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.​​​​​​​

main

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.

main

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 Agents is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of Real Estate Agents with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

Our Testimonials

See why our clients love working with us

W

Wioletta D.

We recently purchased a home for my parents in Crystal Lake with Michele F. This was by far the best experience ever purchasing any property! Not only did we meet her by circumstance when we were looking at a property she was t...
Read More

M

Maddy H.

We worked with William to purchase our first home and had a great experience—we highly recommend him and plan to refer him to all our friends when they make the move from the city to the suburbs. As first-time home buyers, he h...
Read More

V

Vy Tran

I had the pleasure of working with Vito during the process of purchasing my first home, and I couldn't have asked for a better realtor. From the initial inquiry to the closing, Vito was consistently attentive, responsive, and h...
Read More

J

Jill G.

David has great expertise and people skills. He made an excellent video presentation of our property and an equally excellent and accurate written listing. He always had our best interests in mind and priced our home accordingl...
Read More

B

Bineesh M.

Working with William was a great experience. He helped us find our dream home in this challenging housing market. William quickly identified what we were looking for and he was willing to go above and beyond in making sure we a...
Read More

J

Jennie F.

I would give this company 10 stars if I could. I found this company on Google. Since I wanted to find a full-time realtor, not a realtor that claims they work full-time. I decided to call and see who picks up and who lets it go...
Read More

W

Wilbur

Great advice and service from William. Great advice and prompt response when questions were asked. Would recommend it as the #1 Realty Services in the Suburbs.
Read More

P

Pashmina M.

It was a pleasure to work with William Squires. He is very professional, responsive, and understands his clients' needs. He connected us to a great team of people and made our home-buying process very smooth! I highly recommend...
Read More

E

Elisabeth M.

William helped me and my husband find a home in Palatine, and we were 100% pleased with our experience. As first-time homebuyers, the process of searching for a house can be overwhelming and stressful, but we truly felt that we...
Read More

M

Monica A.

I am beyond thankful and grateful for finding William. To find him through a Google search for short sales and have it go extremely well, is just amazing to me. He truly makes himself available to you. If you have any questions...
Read More

D

Debbie K.

Selling a home can be stressful but we were very fortunate to contract with Real 1 Realty. Our agent, William was professional, personal, accessible, and considerate. Whenever we had questions he always took the time to thoroug...
Read More

V

Valerie F.

It was a pleasure working with William. As a first-time home buyer, I had a lot of questions - William was very knowledgeable and made sure to answer all of my questions in the simplest way. William was very prompt at returning...
Read More

H

Headlee B.

I was no longer able to work due to a medical condition. My mortgage holder was understanding to a point. Served foreclosure papers. I called William at Real 1 Realty. He fully explained all my options and recommended a short s...
Read More

S

Suesan W.

We used William for the sale of a house in Hoffman Estates. We had him come in December to evaluate our home and advise what we might change to get the most for it. We had him list the house on March 3rd and by the 7th we had 6...
Read More

Work With Us

Real 1 Realty was created to empower ALL agents to grow their businesses more quickly by keeping higher profits so they have more money for retirement or personal marketing to grow their business. Combining this with several company policies that keep the focus on the hard-working agent.

Follow Me on Instagram