VALLEY PARTNERS REAL ESTATE SERVICES
TARA WILLS (559) 304-4578* FAX (559)326-4040 * EMAIL: tcwills7@aol.com
CA DRE Lic# 01768633
Seller's Info
Whether you’re planning to sell your home in the next few months or just studying up for that eventuality, there’s no time like now to prepare. Here are some common steps to selling your home: 1. Prepare Your Home for Sale Well before you’re ready to plant that “For Sale” sign in your front yard, there is work to be done to prepare your home for sale. - Remember how keen your eye was to every small detail and defect in the houses you saw as a buyer? Now that door to your bedroom that never quite closed properly or that leaky faucet that you never got around to fixing will be seen by a potential buyer with that same keen eye. Start making the obvious repairs today – even if you don’t plan to sell until a year from now. Fixing problems now may cost you less because you won't be under pressure, plus this will allow you to enjoy the results before it’s time to move out. - The best place to start is where the buyers start: at your curb. That means a tidy front yard, colorful flowers, a house with well-painted trim, and a clear, welcoming entryway. Inside, the biggest return on your investment continues to be improvements to the kitchen. And consider painting and decorating the rooms in neutral colors to appeal to the largest number of buyers. Start reducing the clutter. - We all love our pets, but try to clean your carpets and eliminate pet odors. If your potential buyers have allergies, pet odors could ruin the deal. - After you have put your home on the market and it is being shown by real estate agents to prospective buyers, try to make your presence scarce while buyers are there. It’s easier for a buyer to picture himself or herself living in the house when you’re not there. If you happen to be home when potential buyers arrive, greet them at the door then politely excuse yourself. This is your home’s time to shine. 2. Find a Real Estate Professional If you’ve been through the home-buying process, you already know how complicated the real estate business can be. While you can opt to sell your home yourself, it can be time-consuming and often not worth the money saved on commissions. - Ask friends and family for recommendations and interview several candidates. I look forward to meeting you and explaining exactly what I will do to market your home, as well as what I will do for you during and after the sale. My goal is to net you the highest price in the quickest, most convenient time line. TRU- - And finally, are you comfortable with this Realtor and feel they will handle your transaction with maturity and dedication? When we meet, I hope you will feel confident that I am the best Realtor for the job of selling your property. 3. Price Your Home There are a number of factors that will affect the success of your home sale. They include location of your home, interest rates, economic conditions, condition of your home, curb appeal of your neighbors' homes, time of year, marketing of your home, terms of the sale and accessibility to your home. Some of the above are not within your control. We can work together to create a gameplan for the things that we can control. Pricing your home properly will make the difference in whether your house is snapped up within the first several weeks of listing or languishes on the market for more than a year. Obviously you wouldn't want to inadvertently set too low a price. On the other hand, pricing your home too high will cause it to sit unsold on the market for months on end, thus losing perceived value. Even if you're lucky enough to get a buyer to pay an inflated price, when the buyer's bank's appraiser comes in to verify the value, if he or she cannot justify the higher value to make the loan, then your sale falls apart. To price the home properly, you and I will study the local market, research comparable properties and consider current market conditions. I will bring comparable information with me when we meet. Based on what homes like yours are selling for, I have I have the experience to help you price your property at the highest possible price for a sale that benefits you. 4. Market Your Home Products that sell well usually have a good marketing strategy. The same holds true in real estate sales. My marketing plan only begins with entering your property into the MLS. Some of my other strategies include top agent e-mails, open houses, direct mailing, reverse prospecting, newspaper and magazine ads, and VP office incentives. 5. Respond to an Offer Depending on market conditions, you may receive one or more offers for your property from interested buyers. Each offer will include the proposed offer price, closing date, move-in date, financing, and contingencies that may include the sale of the buyers’ current home. Buyers may ask you to help pay their loan fees costs or ask you to include personal property, such as a refrigerator, in the sales price. Or they may offer you full price, but when we closely examine the offer, we see that there is a catch. Let me help you sort through the variables to determine whether you should accept, reject, or counter the offer. 6. Complete the Settlement Once you have accepted an offer to buy your house; expect to make your house available to a housing inspector, a termite inspector, an appraiser and other inspectors. After seeing the results of the inspections, the buyer may request additional work is completed before purchase, such as repairing a damaged roof or fixing a leaky faucet. You should consult with me to determine which of the buyer's requests, if any, to comply with or risk losing this buyer. During this flurry of activity, try to keep your home in show condition. The deal has not closed and still may fall through, which may mean showing your home to more potential buyers. In the meantime, the buyer is working with a lender to secure a loan for the purchase. When the buyer has written loan approval and has removed all his contingencies in writing, the odds go way, way up that the sale will close smoothly because at that point, the buyer is in danger of losing his deposit money should he decide to cancel. There will be a final walk-through about 5 days before you close escrow. The buyer will go room by room to check that everything is in working condition and, if you had agreed to do so, any additional work requested after inspection is completed. Now you can prepare for your own move, notify your utility companies of the date to transfer your account to a new address and start packing. Congratulations, you’ve sold your home! |
