Seller's Guide
Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.
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 agent 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.
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 realtor once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.
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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.
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.
STEP 4:
Develop a Marketing Strategy
I 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. My 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.
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.
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 agent.
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. I 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.
STEP 8:
Close on Your Home
Closing is the legal transfer of ownership to the buyer. We meet with the lawyer or closing officer to sign the final paperwork, confirm outstanding items are complete, and hand over keys, garage remotes, and appliance manuals. You can also cancel utilities in your name and update accounts the new owner will keep.
Congratulations!
After signing the final paperwork, ownership of your home transfers to the buyer. Cancel utilities in your name, leave appliance instructions, and keep keys and garage remotes ready for closing day.
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Please complete the following form to download our Home Seller's Guide.
FROM MY CLIENTELE
WORK WITH ASHVAK
Serving the Greater Toronto Area, including Peel, Durham, Halton, York, and surrounding areas.
Ashvak Sheik
GTA
REAL
ESTATE
PHONE NUMBER
647-890-0982ADDRESS
155 Salvation Rd, Brampton, ON L7A 0W7
All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed and should be independently reviewed and verified.
