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.

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 Agent once you choose one so they 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 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.

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

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.

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 team of Real Estate Agents.

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.

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 Agent 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.

Testimonials

WHAT CLIENTS HAVE SAID ON WORKING WITH US

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Nora P.

Dan is the best. He gave us the best home buying education possible. Dan patiently guided us as we shifted our strategy and was always supportive and engaged. His expertise and determination make him a great advisor. We strongl...

Eli E.

I was looking at multiple houses every weekend for months. Dan was great about checking in with my on my search. He was helpful with suggestions and always available to show a house during the week. Happy to say that after sear...

L. Ray

It has been a pleasure working with Dan on the purchase of my condo. We were actually the lower offer of the 3 but because Dan had met with the Seller and the agent they had a good feeling that the transaction would go smoothly...

Alicia W.

Dan really is the best in the business for both home buying and selling. He helped us with both this winter and we can't say enough great things about him. What sets Dan apart from the rest was that he goes the extra mile when ...

C. Schilling & B. Everitt

We have known Dan personally and professionally for over 12 years. He is currently assisting us in our search for a property in Piedmont. As we are living in London at the present time, we rely on his expertise regarding the ge...

T. Duncan

I had known Dan through our daughter's school, but really got to know him much better after this process. My wife had passed away and I needed to put our house on the market. After meeting with him, I knew he would give it his ...

Michael C.

Dan is the man. Sorry, had to say that Seriously though, Dan is as good as it gets. My wife and I were looking to sell our home in the Berkeley Hills. So that we could make our big move (hopefully our last) to the the Big Islan...

Rific S.

After watching Dan prepare and sell three homes on our street, we were convinced that he would be our realtor. He shattered records on our street with his artistic ability to make homes appeal to a broad audience. His professio...

Leslie W.

Dan is the man. We could not have done it without him. It was time to sell the family home, the house I had grown up in and raised my children in. Emotional to say the least, and full of 50+ years of stuff! There were times I a...

David A.

My wife and I had been looking for a house for the past 2 years, only to have our bids repeatedly ignored. Perhaps our expectations were too high and we were a bit intimidated to take on a "fixer upper". We had gone through sev...

A Hey.

We were first time homebuyers in the daunting bay area market and we now are very pleased homeowners thanks to the guidance of our realtor Dan Clark. Prior to meeting Dan, we had talked to a couple of realtors at open houses bu...

Greg B.

Over the past 30 or so years I've worked with numerous relators as I've purchased several homes and apartment buildings during that time. Until now, I've never been motivated to post a review. My experience with Dan and Ellis...

Eric S.

When I sent out a batch of emails to agents recommended to me by friends, the Clark Group was the first to reply. Working as a team, Dan and Ellis continued to demonstrate that same initiative and impetus throughout my home-buy...

Peter M.

We needed to help our mom sell her condo in Berkeley after moving her into assisted living, and it was badly out of date and needed quite a bit of work. Dan and Ellis know exactly what the market is looking for. They worked wit...

Leigh W.

Dan and Ellis made selling my Oakland/Piedmont condo so easy! Throughout the process I knew I could trust them to look out for my best interests, doing everything they could to get the most favorable outcome for me. In this up...

Oscar A.

Hands down the best agents in the business. Ellis and Dan both went beyond their duties to ensure that we had great and stress free experience buying our first home. True masters of their domain, there was no question they coul...

Carrie L.

Who knew house hunting within a during the holidays could be so much fun?!! If you’re looking for professionalism, great advice, extensive knowledge of East Bay neighborhoods (schools, restaurants, vibe, etc…) and LOTS of laugh...

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Educating our clients on all facets of East Bay real estate, The Clark Group is direct and transparent, sometimes telling clients what not to buy.