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Getting ready to sell your home! www.NewRealEstateProperty.com

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Real Estate Broker/Owner with WERTH REALTY

How to Sell Your Home

Getting Started

  1. CMA Appraisals & Market Value
  2. Listing Price & Price Reductions
  3. Disclosures / Property Condition Statements / CLUE Reports
  4. Staging & Getting Ready to Sell
  5. Days on the market & price drops or adjustments
  6. Contracts & Offers
  7. Closing Dates / Possession Dates
  8. Closing Day

1. CMA Market Value

Standard ways to determine how much a home is worth. A comparative market analysis and an appraisal are the two most common and reliable ways to determine a home's value. Dave can provide a comparative market analysis, an informal estimate of value based on the recent selling price of similar neighborhood properties. A CMA will have comparable homes that have sold within the past year and includes the listing, asking price, current homes for sale, days on the market and values per square foot. An estimate of value is given and there are variables that make a difference such as specials, closing costs, additional fees, or improvements to the property. All of these influence the CMA to give you true market value or what your property should be listed at or the value of your home. City and County tax values should not be used for the CMA as each area varies and marketable property values are separate from taxable property values.

2. Listing prices

The difference between listing price and a sales price. The list price is your MLS advertising price or the asking price for a home. The sales price is the final price paid for on a property. The sales price is the actual amount the home sells for.

3. Disclosures

Property Condition Disclosures are used by sellers to give the buyers a chance to see information about the property while the sellers have lived there. Such as any changes to the property, improvements, damages, flooding, hail, environmental concerns, methamphetamine production, and basic facts about the property and structure of the home. This is a report that the sellers provide when selling their home, of all facts of the property while they lived there. If the house is a foreclosure, the banks do not have to offer a disclosure condition report. Usually the property in a foreclosure is sold as is.

4. Staging the home to sell.

Rule of thumb is bigger, cleaner, and not broken. What sells a home the most is the price. Houses must be ready to sell, and cleaned free of debris inside and outside, and must appear to be clean and spacious. Clutter is a houses worst enemy. For example, go to a furniture store, and look how that is staged. Clean, organized, and free of bad odors. Smoking, pets, and environmental smells will create a bad stigma for buyers. From the curb to the good bye, the house should be prepared and ready to sell, or put the listing on hold until this is done. Ask Dave how to get a house ready to sell. Putting money into your house before you sell, can make a difference, only if it is to bring it more marketability, not improvement to the price. Improvement to the price must be looked at closely with an agent, as this is the biggest myth sellers do not discuss with their agents when trying to increase the value of their home. Money spent in areas of improvements should be: Professional cleaners, carpet cleaners, paint, window cleaners, professional movers cleaning out the house to look bigger & spacious using storage units if possible, fixing minor broken things to repair, and the entry into the house should be clean and free of anything. Contact Dave to help you understand where to spend your money wisely instead of wasting it on your old home, when you could of used it on your new home.

5. DOM or days on the market

How many days on the market is it going to be before my house will sell? The biggest question is how well is your home priced. The right price will bring you more traffic and more offers. If you are too high, you may scare away buyers and don't think that someone just might place an offer just to shoot you low. Pricing your house accordingly to what your agent knows what it will sell for, is the best way to go. Your mindset of how much it's worth to you, is not how much it is worth the buyers. The market will dictate the price, and length of time it will take to sell. Check with your agent on the average days on the market for a home similar to yours as this should also be included in your CMA or market analysis. Each area varies, and each market will fluctuate year to year.

6. Contracts and Offers

There is no such thing as a low ball offer. Its only an offer the buyers are willing to start the negotiations with. Do not be offended by any offer, as the rule of thumb is sometimes your first offer might be the only one you might see, or the only one you can negotiate with. Your agent will advise you of techniques within a contract to make things come together, and bring more buyers offers coming. The purchase agreement will give you the terms and strengths of the contract which usually indicates a lot of information, as the buyer's agent cannot disclose any information besides price, terms, and motivation. Reading into a contract is impossible to do, so don't spin your wheels to fast. The earnest money is sometimes an indication, but not to be a determining factor. Offering price, date of closing, where the buyers are from, pre approval letter, additional addendums, assumed specials, closing costs, and warranty & inspections will give you an idea of how serious they are. There is not one thing on a Purchase Agreement that will give you more insight than another. If the property is offered cash, this is sometimes the stronger offer, as there are no financing hang ups or money that will be asked to drop because of appraisal issues. Also home inspections are also a buyers source of negotiations which can hinder a buyer from purchasing your property. I do not recommend getting a home inspection report to give to buyers as this is sometimes a waste of your money, that can be used in negotiations. Contracts and offers should be looked at carefully with your agent and bad or good, do not get discouraged, as it is a sign that your agent is successfully marketing your property in the eyes of the public and realtors.

7. Closing Dates

When are we going to be closing and they are going to take possession of our home? The closing dates are in the purchase agreement and should be followed through with. There are some cases the closing dates do change so don't get too worried. Talk with your agent about any closing date changes and opportunities that may arise. When getting ready for your closing date, make sure to follow instructions from your agent about times and closing information you will need to provide your closing company. You have the choice of choosing a closing company or having your agent choose one for you. Your agent may have good relations to make the closing smoother with a preferred closing company, and I suggest letting them choose one for you. Just correspond what times work best for you. Who goes first? It will change sometimes as the buyer usually will go before the seller and the other way around, so don't worry about whom goes first. Money has to be released to the closing company in order to consummate the sale of the property and final numbers are final. Make sure to get a HUD 1 statement a day or two in advance to see what your final amount will be if you are or are not receiving money back. In some cases sellers will have to pay in some money if they are upside down on their homes. The closing company will provide you with a HUD 1 statement and your agent and you should review all of the line items on each statement to make sure everything is accurate before you go to closing.

8. The day of closing

Under the purchase agreement you have till the closing time, to have the property removed. You do not have to have everything out before the final walk through. Some agents are impatient and want their clients to check out your home before closing, which is fine, but they need to understand moving is not an easy process. To make your house readily available for possession is certainly the right thing to do. Round up all keys, garage openers, brochures on included items being sold, receipts of improvements, mechanical companies you worked with, and let your agent know where they are at so they can get dispersed to the buyers at the time of closing. Make sure to contact all utility companies, phone companies, city records, post office, rental agreements, fuel companies, and additional bills you have coming to your property and advise them that you are moving. You may decide to have your carpet professionally steam cleaned as this is not a requirement of selling your property, but if it is in the contract, you must have it completed before closing. Some people will have the carpets cleaned just in good standards for the new home owners to show them appreciation of buying their house. Try to clean the house as you would like to have done when you move into your next home. Do not try to get sneaky about things, as everything must be disclosed before you close, as some final walk through will come across issues that can create problems. Follow your purchase agreement terms, and get ready to close on time. Bring a drivers license to your closing. If you have to pay for any liens, mortgage satisfactions, or any money, contact the closing company to make sure what type of funds you may pay them with. At the closing, you will have quite a stack of papers to be signed. Make sure to sign your name just as they ask, and to make sure to keep all documentation you receive that day, and store it in a safe place for records. Tax information may be used later by your tax advisor, so have all information readily available for easy access. Other than that, congrats, as you just sold your home, and it's time to move on!

 

Dave Werth

davew@kvammerealestate.com

Kvamme Real Estate

www.NewRealEstateProperty.com

 

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