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Selling a Home

selling a home

When selling your house you want to take a systematic approach. Having a well drawn out plan on how to handle the details can reduce the stress and help avoid common problems. Of course you can hire a real estate professional to handle the transaction for you or you can sell your home yourself. Which ever you choose it is always a good idea to know the process and what to expect.

Home Selling Steps

  1. Preparing your home for sale.
  2. Know the Boise real estate market conditions and set a price for your home.
  3. Calculate the bottom line.
  4. Marketing and showing your home.
  5. Negotiating the contract.
  6. Closing and moving.

Preparing your home for sale

This is one of the most important steps when selling your home. If done correctly you can sell your home in record time for a fair price. By making minor improvements such as:

Know the Boise real estate market conditions and set a price for your home

Not understanding the market conditions can cost you thousands of dollars and/or months where your home sits on the market without any activity. If you are using a real estate agent to help sell your home they will conduct a CMA (comparative market analysis) that details the necessary information to make an educated guess when it comes to selling your house.

When researching the market you need to look at homes that are similar to yours and in the same area or neighborhood. Look at how many homes are available for sale, under contract, and closed sales to gather vital statistics on (you can find this information from local city or county records):

You need to get a good feel for what is happening in your neighborhood and remember that the value of a home is affected by supply and demand. By making the necessary comparisons you should be able to determine a price range.

Calculate the bottom line

You will need to know how much money you will make or lose if you sell your home for what you are asking. You may also want to see how low you can go before losing money on the deal. If you have a lot of equity in the home then this shouldn’t be a big deal, however you need to know what to expect to make from the sale. In order to do this you need to subtract the remaining mortgage plus and fees, concessions, commissions, taxes, etc (related to the sale) from the asking price. This should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Marketing and showing your home

If you followed step 1 and cleaned things up, de-cluttered, and fixed and replaced broken or missing items from around the home then you should be ready to start marketing and showing your home. If you are selling your home yourself you want to get as much exposure as you can. Make flyers, brochures, advertise in the newspaper, advertise online, send out mailers, advertise in magazines, tell everyone you know, and put a sign in your front lawn. Take the time to make things look professional.

You will also want to conduct a “Open House” on the weekends to show your home. Be cautious when greeting potential buyers, avoid saying the wrong things. You must treat this as a business transaction and you don’t want people to feel uncomfortable. Greet potential buyers courteously and provide them with a brochure with information about the home. If they are with a real estate agent stay out of the way and let them look through the home.

Negotiating the Contract

If you done everything right and priced your home well it won’t take long to get an offer. Here is where the paperwork begins. There are many forms and contracts involved when selling a home and you need to be familiar with them.

Types of real estate forms

When you are presented with an offer you have one of three choices; 1) accept the offer, 2) reject the offer, or 3) make a counter offer. Most of the time the price is the focal point of the offer, however there are many areas you need to address and pay close attention to. Make sure that all the details are spelled out on the offer such as:

Spelling out every detail is crucial and can prevent a major misunderstanding down the road that could lead to a costly court battle. Keep your goals in mind throughout the negotiations and let them guide you and keep you from making poor decisions based on emotion.

Closing and Moving

Once all terms are agreed upon and singed off it is time to close the sale. This is usually done at a title/escrow company where paperwork is signed and completed. Once done it is time to completely move out of the home. Congratulations!