Selling Process

Selecting a Real Estate Agent

Can you trust the prospective agent to make decisions and influence the transaction with your best interests above all others? Does the prospective agent have the experience necessary to handle the sale of your specific real estate? Certain neighborhoods and types of real estate can require much different marketing campaigns. Be sure your agent is aware of how to correctly market your real estate and attract the right buyers. How comfortable are you with your agent? Selling and buying real estate can be a personal journey for many homeowners. Dealing with your home & often the most valuable investment you own can become a terribly stressful experience. Having an agent that you're comfortable with can alleviate much of the stress and you may even have fun! Don't be afraid to discuss commissions with a prospective agent. It can be a great test to see how well the agent can negotiate. A weak or unsuccessful agent may be more inclined to accept a low commission. Bare in mind that this will be the person representing you. If the agent has difficulty negotiating with his own client, how will they fare with other agents. A superior agent may cost 1-2% more. However, you're more then likely to financially gain from their skills once the smoke clears.

Its on the Market

Your agent will begin to market your real estate in order to attract potential buyers. You may be required or desire to schedule appointments yourself, allow agents to access your home via lock box on their own during certain hours or even insist that your agent be present for all showings. Keeping your real estate looking as best it can, staging correctly and being flexible with buyer visits will greatly improve your chances of selling.

Negotiating Begings

After receiving an offer to purchase you may decline, accept or counter offer. If the you decline, the deal is done. The Buyer may choose to make a more attractive offer or search for another home. If the you accept, the buyer's deposit will be held by a neutral third party (escrow company) while inspections & financing are worked out. Lastly, you may choose to counter offer by negotiating any number of things. Such as sales price, escrow time frame & inspection conditions. The prospective buyer may either decline, accept or counter offer.

Open Escrow

Congratulations, you & the buyer have reached an agreement. Now hopefully their financing will hold together, inspections and/or inspection negotiations will go in your favor & you don't suffer too much stress in the process.

Appraisal

A real estate appraiser will use information about the subject property and similar homes around the neighbor to determine what the home is worth. More so, its too be sure that the mortgage lender doesn't sell a $500,000 loan on a piece of real estate only worth $250,000.

Inspections

Home Inspection
Typically, a 3rd party inspector is hired by the buyer to conduct an inspection on the subject property & produce a detailed report for the buyer to review. More negotiating of the purchase price and terms may follow depending on what the home inspection report produces.

Termite Inspection
Buyers generally have the choice of who the 3rd party termite inspector will be. The cost of the service is negotiated before the offer is accepted. The termite specialist conducts an inspection & will produce a report, much like a home inspector. More negotiating of the purchase price and terms may follow depending on what the termite inspection report produces. Also, the inspector will flag problems that need to be address immediately & could ruin your buyer's financing. Termite clearance is a requirement for mortgage lenders.

Remove Contingencies

Any clauses and/or contingencies to purchase that were listed in your purchase agreement will be removed at some point during escrow. The Buyer's deposit will now be in jeopardy if they choose to back out of the transaction. Contingencies are used by buyers for many reasons. A common example is to protect a buyer from being obligated to purchase real estate without a home inspection.

Financing Finalized

The buyer's have obtained their financing & now have the ability to close escrow.

Close Escrow

Congratulations! You survived & hopefully financially gained from the transaction without too much stress.