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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.

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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 REALTORS® once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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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 agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 REALTORS® 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.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Charlotte is friendly and professional. She quickly answered all of my texts, emails, and phone calls. She made my first-time home-buying experience easy for me.

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Christine was awesome to work with. Very knowledgeable of the home we were purchasing. She was available for us 24/7 without a question. Very nice as well. As a realtor, I knew she had our best interest.

— Decarlos D.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Cristine was literally perfect. She was very knowledgeable, personable, and kind throughout the entire process. We are very fortunate to have her as our realtor. Every call was answered with enthusiasm. We recommend 100%.

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Charlotte is a consummate professional with all the skills, plus a big heart for her clients. She truly understands how hard selling can be and walked me through it with a steady hand. She was endlessly patient and always on the job at every step. It was a joy to partner with her.

— Seller

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Carol was fantastic from start to finish in the home-buying process. Her local expertise came in handy multiple times and she has a wide array of great connections in the area. The process was quick and easy once I made the decision to place an offer. Carol is great and I’d recommend her to all looking for a home in the Triangle!

— Greg V.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Carol has been an absolute blessing to me and my wife, as well as the multiple couples we've recommended to her. She is great at understanding your needs/desires and helping formulate a plan to achieve them. I also love how Carol is fast to pivot if needed. When my wife and I fell in love with some property, it was under contract within a few hours.

— Collin C.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I cannot stress enough how amazing my experience working with Jonathan has been. Incredibly knowledgeable, patient, kind, and always asking what more he can do. Discussing everything I wanted in my new home and getting to the perfect one was such a wonderful experience; he understood my vision precisely as we looked at houses. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Jonathan as both a buyer and a seller...

— Shannon W.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Carol Dunn is the most amazing realtor in the business. We moved from out of state and the service, professionalism, support and overall knowledge of the area and industry was/is far superior to anything I have ever experienced previously. My husband and I had a number of musts and were lost on many other considerations to make a house a home. Carol helped educate us and navigate the biggest investment o...

— Ana Y.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I had the pleasure of working with Jonathan, and I couldn't be happier with the experience. Jonathan's attentiveness and dedication were truly remarkable. He went above and beyond to understand our needs and preferences. One aspect that stood out was how beautifully he staged our listing. His attention to detail was impeccable, and our home sold for top dollar even beating a neighborhood record. Througho...

— Kristen

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Carol has been an absolute blessing to me and my wife, as well as the multiple couples we've recommended to her. She is great at understanding your needs/desires and helping formulate a plan to achieve them. I also my partner and I have nothing but amazing things to say about Carol Dunn. Carol Dunn is special and truly such a kind and caring person. From day 1, she worked relentlessly and tirelessly to h...

— Rajah N.

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