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

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

B

Buyer

Melissa was nothing short of amazing. She is knowledgeable but very patient and comforting throughout the whole process. She was in contact with me every single day, multiple times a day until I found my dream home. There is no...
Read More

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

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

S

Seller

Very knowledgeable and thoughtful in doing things in order for us to sell the house quickly. She even talked us into offering the house for more money than we wanted to initially list for. She said it would sell quickly. It did...
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

B

Buyer

Melissa is top of the line and knows the business extremely well. She was fantastic, informative and patient. She was keen in negotiating and always talked me through my options and her thoughts surrounding same. I would recomm...
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

Buyer

Whether you are buying or selling Mellisa Campobasso is the perfect realtor for you! Her progressional guidance and personal care throughout the entire process is unmatched.
Read More

S

Seller

Melissa helped us sell our house, which she helped us purchase back in 2013. She worked with us every step of the way and kept us informed through out the selling process. We love her, she’s the best in the business
Read More

B

Buyer

Melissa is top notch at what she does!! Not only is she knowledgeable about the industry, she is extremely personable and gets to know her clients on a personal level. One thing that really stood out with her is that she always...
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

B

Buyer

Melissa is wonderful! She is friendly yet professional and extremely knowledgeable about the current market. I loved that she always made time for us, either by phone or to show us yet another house. What could have been a very...
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

G

Gregory W.

We have now sold and purchased 5 homes in our lifetime and Melissa was by far the best agent we have ever had. Her ability to know the market and research for price point were the most accurate. She was also willing to make us ...
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

A

Ariel A.

Working with Melissa was great! As first time buyers we weren't sure of what we wanted or where. Melissa was great at taking into consideration our wants and needs to help us find the perfect home. She was very patient, underst...
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

B

Buyer

Melissa is awsome to work with always had answers to our questions. Helped us find the right home for us in short notice. I look forward to working with her in the future.
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

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