Local Selling Tips

What’s the home selling process?  Here are the main 7 steps home selling process in California. 

(1) Choose A Right Real Estate Agent 

Don’t waste time with the wrong agent. An experienced and skilled real estate agent can ensure shorter sell time and a smoother transaction.  Hiring a real estate agent is one of the more important decisions you will make when selling your home, so take your time. The biggest problem is when hiring the right agent is making sure they have enough experience because with short sales, foreclosures, or traditional home sales, there’s a lot more that goes into actually buying and selling a home, so you’ve got to know what you’re doing. An agent with experience in your market will know the difference between your home and the one for sale down the road and how your home should be priced as a result. Interviewing at least two or three agents, ask about past sales, what type of advertising budget and marketing strategy they would have to your property. Before you hire a real estate agent, simply check their personal website, online reviews, for sale listings, track record, and what marketing plans they offer to assure your property maximum exposure. 

(2) Price It Right 

Regardless it’s a buyer’s or seller’s market. Buyers will compare other homes for sale in the market. Typically, your home value is determined by the similar homes that have sold in your neighborhood for the past 6 months. So, pricing your home correctly is one of the most important factors in getting your home sold. The first 2 weeks activity of your house being on the market is always the best activity you’re going to see. If it’s not priced right, it won’t sell. Pricing depends on the type of market and strategy your agent uses. Discuss pricing with your agent to decide the best approach for your property. 

(3) Get Your Home Ready for Sale 

a. Making your home appear “move in ready”: 
Clean everything inside and outside. The first impressions will either make or break a buyer’s opinion of your home, so make sure you put your best foot forward. Take the time to make the home bright, clean and great smelling. Hiring a handyman for a single day is often enough to take care of a whole list of small repairs, such as: Replace cracked floor or counter tiles/ Patch holes in walls/ Fix leaky faucets/ Fix doors that don’t close properly and kitchen drawers that jam. Consider painting your walls neutral colors, and replace burned-out light bulbs. 

b. Get your property ready for a home staging (optional): 
Home staging, the art of making your home look neat, stylish and inviting to a potential homebuyer, is the essential first step in selling your home. Homebuyers will feel they can make your place a home. If the house is empty, buyers can’t visualize how furniture will fit in an empty space. also, it feels cold and lonely. Jerry Sun’s team provides the professional staging that can help your home stand out to buyers, resulting in a quicker sale and higher offers. 

c. Casting a wide net: 
Research shows that 92% of the homebuyers search for homes online. Work with a tech-savvy professional to get your home exposed to the greatest number of buyers. An expert can utilize advertising strategies: such as: direct mail marketing campaigns, newspaper ads, radio podcast ads, open houses, leading-edge tech tools, innovative internet marketing, social media advertising, property websites, 3D showcases, video tours…and more. 

(4) Negotiating and Accepting an Offer 

Once a buyer has made an offer, you can choose to accept the offer if it meets your needs, reject it or counter the offer that represents your best interests. In choosing the best offer, the highest purchase price offer isn’t the only thing to consider. You should also factor in the strength of the buyer’s financing and the contingencies the buyer wants. If the offer is not acceptable to you, further negotiations may be necessary to reach terms agreeable to both you and the buyer. You can either accept or reject an offer or make a counteroffer. In your counteroffer you can revise the offer, the purchase price, contingencies (dependent on satisfactory inspections, on selling the buyer’s house, etc.), or the time for completing the purchase. 

Accepting an offer in writing binds both you and the buyer to a legal contract on the terms of the offer. The buyer can do the same by accepting a counteroffer in writing. So make sure you are careful about what you put in writing. 

(5) Open Escrow Account and Order Title Insurance 

After the offer is accepted, once both parties have made a binding agreement, escrow is “opened” and the buyer’s deposit is placed in escrow. Throughout the transaction, you will need to closely monitor the progress of all contingencies to make certain that all deadlines are met. On the day of closing, the buyer will have a “final walkthrough” to make certain that the house is left in “broom clean” condition and has been thoroughly vacated. 

(6) Contingencies Period 

Most sellers of single- and multi-family residential homes are required to provide potential buyers with a completed and signed property condition disclosure form. Failure to provide this form will result in a monetary credit to the buyer at closing. Make sure you’ve provided all the necessary disclosure documents, such as Preliminary title report, Termite report, Condominiums rule and regulations (Condo only), Permit records, Seller’s real estate transfer disclosure. Your agent will help you to prepare those documents. 

(7) Closing Escrow 

The closing is a formal process where all parties sign all of the necessary paperwork needed to complete the transaction. Title to the property is transferred from you to the buyer. The buyer receives the house-keys and you receive payment for the house! From the amount credited to you, the title representative subtracts the funds to pay off the existing mortgage and other transaction costs. Deeds, loan papers, and other documents are prepared, signed and ultimately filed with a local property record office. Final documents will be prepared and signed by both parties. When the transaction has closed, your agent will deliver the closing