You’ve decided it’s time to sell your house. Now, you need to understand what happens next. The first step is finding a real estate agent. While it is possible for you to go it alone by putting your house up for sale without an agent, you’ll find it’s a whole lot more difficult and it not worth the hassle.

🙋 Find the Right Real Estate Agent

Take the time to speak with different real estate agents in your area. Don’t feel obligated to go with someone just because someone you know used them or even because someone you know knows them. You want to find someone you’re comfortable with who knows what they’re doing when it comes to the market and your specific area.

🏡 Staging Your Home for Buyers

Your home already has stuff in it that buyers are going to need, right? So maybe you’re thinking about just leaving the items you already have in your home and letting buyers see it that way. Well, the truth is that buyers don’t really want to think about someone else living in that house. They want to think about them living in that house. What that means is staging is going to be very important.

Now, you can stage your home with your own furniture and accessories, but you’re going to need to remove a large amount of your personal effects. The extra clutter, the kids’ toys, most of the furniture, and just about everything that you don’t absolutely need should be removed.

If you don’t feel confident using the furniture you have right now, you may want to hire a professional stager. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a professional come in and bring their items to make your house look good to potential buyers.

💲 Set the Right Asking Price

The price you set for your home is crucial because if you price it too high it could spend more time on the market. If you set it too low you’re not going to get what your home is worth and risk losing out on a lot of money. A good real estate agent is going to make sure you set your price in an acceptable range, where it fits in with similar homes and will be priced adequately for the type of people who are looking for that house.

A real estate agent is going to take a very close look at your home, including the rooms, the size, upgrades, and more. They will also look at the location of your home and the current market trends. They can provide you with a fair selling price (what you should put it up for) and a fair price that you may want to accept (which may be higher or lower depending on the type of market).

📝 Accepting an Offer

When people start coming to see your house you’ll start getting offers, and you’ll have to take a closer look at each of them. Whether those asking prices are higher or lower than asking price are going to be based on the type of market you’re in, so make sure you understand your competition. Also, make sure you evaluate your offers and talk with your agent about them.

🔎 What Happens After You Accept an Offer

Once you’ve accepted an offer it’s time to start planning your closing. Any offer is going to be conditional on an inspection and there may be other conditions included when you accept the offer. All of those conditions are going to be the first thing. For example, if you are required to make certain repairs or if the inspection needs to be done you’ll have to get started on those immediately after you accept an offer.

You and the other party need to be present on closing day to sign all of the paperwork and start the final steps to turn over your house.

📆 What to Expect on Closing Day

On closing day you’re going to meet with the buyer and the real estate agents to sign all the paperwork. At this time, you’ll sign over all of your rights and the title to the home and the buyer will take on the responsibility of that home. They will also provide you with a check for the purchase price of the home.

Your real estate agent is the best source of information about the local community and real estate topics. Give The Ingram Group a call today at 720-644-9164 to learn more about local areas, discuss selling a house, or tour available homes for sale.