Keyology Realty
Selling Your Home?
Extensive market knowledge, cutting edge marketing, and negotiation expertise will net the highest profit for your home. From preparation to moving day, we have you covered!
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Home Selling Guide

When selling your home, it’s important to consider your motivations for the move. What are your goals? Timeline? Putting your home on the market and getting it sold is quite the process and it has a lot of fast moving components. Based on how desirable your home is, a sale can happen the moment your house goes on the market. If you are just in the beginning stages of consideration, just let us know! We can provide information that can help in your decision, like comparable market statistics, conditions and trends.

If you are ready to move forward you’ll need all of that, plus a home valuation consultation. Below you will find our Home Selling Guide outlining the selling process and explaining what to expect. We also offer strategies for selling and buying at the same time, help finding another home locally or an introduction to an amazing agent in a different state/country for relocation. Click below for a home valuation consultation!

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Listing Agent Role

  • Share market knowledge
  • Evaluate your home and determine key selling points
  • Provide preparation advice
  • Present pricing strategies
  • Develop and initiate comprehensive marketing plan 
  • Install quality lock boxes & signs
  • Qualify and schedule showings
  • Have follow up systems for feedback and questions
  • Provide continuous updates on progress
  • Maintain legal documentation for listings and offers
  • Help evaluate the intricacies of offers
  • Negotiate on your behalf
  • Coordinate Inspections and appraisal
  • Responsive communication between all parties
  • Coordinate closing tasks

The Selling Process

Understanding the Market

There are many aspects that affect the real estate market. Is it a strong seller’s market or do buyers have the leverage? Even within these perimeters, demand based on area and price range may vary. Your home’s location, condition, and how it shows also contribute. What price have homes similar to yours sold for recently and what is your current competition? What do offers in your area look like at the time you are selling? What terms and conditions are trending? What are the current expectations of buyers? We can provide a crystal clear analysis of the current market in your area so that you can make the best choices for your selling goals.

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Preparing to Sell

When selling your home there are adjustments that require a slightly different mindset. Consider your home through a different lens, that of a buyer’s eye. How can your home be represented to highlight its strengths and downplay its weaknesses? What updates, cleaning, repairs need to be made to present it at its best. Which improvements will bring the most return for your time and cost? We provide a comprehensive evaluation of your home and provide a detailed checklist of solutions for your home sale preparation, as well as, recommendations for vendors should you need them.

Repairs will be a part of selling your home, period. They may be minor, such as updating some electrical outlets or require more extensive work. 

Repairs that the seller must make will be included in the purchase contract once you’ve accepted an offer. These can include structural issues, code violations or safety issues. Get ahead by addressing them before your home is on the market if at all possible.

Repairs that the seller should make are part of enhancing the appeal of your home. Be objective when you’re viewing your home and fix things that would discourage a buyer. Sticky doors? Missing fence panels? These all create negative feelings for potential buyers.

Repairs that the seller can negotiate with the buyer are one of the reasons you need a good agent! Whether they’re obvious from the outset or arise during offers discuss these with your realtor. 

Curb appeal is all about putting your home’s best foot forward. Those first impressions of your house’s exterior are crucial! Be ready to invest in paint for your front door, some landscaping touch-ups, and other niceties that make your home desirable during that all-important first walk-up.

Deep cleaning will ensure that every nook and cranny is ready for buyer inspection. Afterward, if you don’t have a regular cleaning service, it’s beneficial to hire one while your home is on the market. You’ll always be spic and span and ready for a showing – and it’s a little less stressful for you, in the process.

Depersonalize by removing personal items for all family members. It’s easier for potential buyers to imagine themselves living in your home with a blank slate. Go ahead and pack up as many photos and other accessories as possible. (You’ll also be ahead when moving day arrives!)

Fresh paint in a neutral color is another part of creating a blank slate for buyers. It’s also an easy way to freshen up the whole house as it covers up the marks of a life lived fully!

Staging by removing excess furniture and other items is yet another step in showing off your home as an appealing new place for buyers. Get ready to remove everything from countertops, stash towels, and put some pieces in storage. The goal is to make your home look as spacious, light, and bright as possible. (It’s also easier to move items out of a storage unit on moving day, to be honest!)

Don’t be nose-blind! Odd smells from cooking, pets, trash bins, and more can be a deal-breaker. Once you’ve gone through all the previous steps, including deep cleaning, get an impartial third-party opinion. If they smell anything, go after the source of the odor, rather than just lighting candles or installing air-fresheners. 

Determining Price

The next objective is to determine the best possible selling price for your house. You will need to take into account the state of the local market, the condition of your home, and sales of comparable homes in your neighborhood. It is often hard to maintain a non-biased view of your property, so we will do a thorough evaluation of your home and prepare comparable sales for you to evaluate.

Be reasonable about the price you set. You will always be better off setting a fair market value price than setting your price too high. If your home stays on the market too long because it is overpriced, potential buyers may think that something is wrong with it and you may end up selling it for less than what you could have gotten if you had started out with a realistic asking price.

Marketing Your Home

How your home is marketed can make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in profit. 90% of buyers shop for homes online, so that first impression must be extraordinary. Too many agents hire mediocre photographers that have no formal photography education or worse yet, take their own photos. We invest in the very best photographers/videographers in the industry for every single home we sell, no matter the price point. This includes:

  • Professional real estate photography
  • Matterport 3D tours (allowing buyers to maneuver through the home online)
  • Video tour
  • Drone photography and video (if appropriate)
  • Detailed floor plans

 

Once we receive those products we go to work getting your property seen by prospective buyers. Our efforts include, but are not limited to:

  • Listing presented on over 100+ online home buying sites, like Zillow, Realtor & Trulia
  • Targeted paid advertising on Facebook & Instagram
  • Email blasts to thousands of potential buyers
  • Listing landing webpage
  • Easy & convenient scheduling options for buyer agents
  • Printed flyers & information sheets for buyers viewing your home
  • High end yard sign/s
  • Custom signage if appropriate. Ex: large acreage & water features

Evaluating Offers

Getting an offer can be an exciting experience! Depending on the price point and location of your home, you can have a multiple offer situation or it may take a couple of weeks to see one come through. With luxury properties, it can take extra time to find the perfect buyer for the home. On some occasion, buyers will submit low offers in hopes to get a deal on the home; so long as the home is priced correctly, this isn’t a negative reflection of your property, simply an attempt by buyers to save some money. 

If you get a strong offer that is for full price or over asking, that’s great! If you get an offer slightly lower, your agent will be able to advise you, based on market conditions, how best to proceed. In some scenarios, if your home is still brand new on the market, you can hold out for a new offer. If your home has been sitting on the market for a while, it would be best to counter the offer, but we will review the information with you to ensure you are making the best decision.

An offer is more than just a price. The terms and conditions are equally important. Will they be buying with cash or applying for a loan? How soon can they close? Do they want any repairs or any additional items to remain? What type of lending do they have? We will review the contracts in their entirety and help you choose one that makes the best sense for you, so you get more than just a good sales price, but also a deal that makes it to the closing table.

Contract Period

Once you’ve signed off on the right buyer’s offer, you can move forward with the sale. Generally the period of waiting to close can last between 20 to 60 days. This is dependent on the buyer’s lender and how soon they can close. If they are a cash buyer, they will generally be able to close in a couple of weeks. But the details of this are outlined in the contract. This waiting period is also when the Title company can ensure the transfer of the title on the property to the buyers without any complications. 

During this period, buyers will generally conduct inspections. A home inspection for their own benefit and an appraisal required by the lender. It’s important to be open to making repairs if a repair request is sent in after the home inspection, to keep the deal in place. This step will be something you can discuss with your agent, so you aren’t being taken advantage of. If an appraiser comes back and requests repairs, these will need to be completed in order for the loan to be approved. Once the inspections and appraisal clear, and any requests are agreed upon, you will be closer to closing on your property. 

The clear to close will come a few days prior to closing, after the buyer has fully been approved by the bank for the mortgage. Then you will meet with your agent at the attorney’s office, sign the documents transferring the property to the buyers, and hand over the keys. 

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