Seller's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced team of Real Estate Agents and this easy to follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible.

Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Do you want to make a certain amount of money that you can put toward a larger or nicer home? Do you need to sell it as soon as possible to facilitate a move to a new city or area? Once you understand your needs, you can better craft your offer. For example, if you need to sell quickly, you might want to price your home lower than if your goal is to make a certain profit margin. Make sure you convey these needs to your team of Real Estate Agent once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

Step 2: Determine Selling Price

Knowing how to price your home is one of the most important parts of the selling process. When you set a fair price in the beginning, you’ll get the most interest from other real estate agents and prospective buyers. Overpricing your home could lead to reduced interest, and underpricing leads to receiving less than what your home is worth. Working with a team of Real Estate Agents is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of Real Estate Agents with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

Step 3: Start Preparations

If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. Once you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing the space so that buyers can envision themselves in the space, making any small repairs, and doing a deep clean to make sure your home is in pristine condition.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

We will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. Our team creates a marketing campaign that aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing in the first three weeks after becoming a client.

Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. We will evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. If the offer is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other ways to bridge the gap, such as covering some or all of the closing costs, making repairs, adjusting the move-in date, or leaving some appliances or fixtures for the new buyer.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once we deem the offer is acceptable, we will review the proposed contract to make sure it’s all in order and includes the necessary components such as deposit amount, down payment, financing, inspection rights and repair allowances, contingencies, settlement date, and a list of fees and who will pay them. When both parties have agreed to the term, a final contract will be prepared by your team of real estate agents.

Step 7: Get Ready to Close

You have accepted an offer and are now very close to the end of your selling journey. But first, you and the buyer must make a list of what needs to be done before closing. In some cases, your home may need to be formally inspected, surveyed, and appraised. In other cases, major or minor repairs will need to be made before the house can close. We will head up efforts to develop and execute this list, get each action item paid for by the correct party, and make sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before the closing date, we will call the company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession.

Step 8: Close

You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a home you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer. We will meet with the company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork and go over any issues that have not yet been taken care of. During this time, you can also make plans with your team of Real Estate Agent to handle final details such as canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances that will remain in the home.

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.

Testimonials

Megan S.

Buying a home for the first time can come with a lot of new emotions, especially in this highly competitive market. Having the right Realtor® to navigate us through it all was essential to our process. Holton checked all the bo...

Rahul S.

Tired of “good enough” services? I am! Looking for the best Realtor® who does more and makes your needs a top priority? I was! Luckily, I found Holton Irwin. The amount of effort and time he put into walking me through the proc...

Brian B.

Holton is the best real estate agent I have ever worked with. Holton really knows the South Tampa area and helped us fine-tune our search and find our perfect home. He always was available and worked with my erratic schedule an...

Jen S.

This was my first time selling. I was overwhelmed and not sure what to expect. Holton was there every step of the way in helping me with any answers I needed. His professionalism is outstanding and his approach boosted a top-do...

Taylor M.

As first-time home buyers, Brandon and I didn't know what to expect during the home-buying process. Holton made buying our first home such a breeze! He was so professional and helpful during the entire process, even when we wou...

Deborah N

Holton was instrumental to us successfully buying our first home in the Tampa area. He helped us find a community that met all our needs by listening to us and finding the perfect fit. He and Jackson walked through countless pr...

Arya K.

The most helpful Realtor® in Tampa. We recently moved to Tampa, Florida, and with the rental market skyrocketing we had been thinking about buying a house for a while. As a first-time home buyer, Holton patiently guided us thro...

Taylor R.

We were very lucky to find Holton as our Realtor®! Holton was very helpful through every stage of the process. He was quick and responsive with setting up home tours which are so important in the busy Tampa Bay Area market. Hol...

Tyler B.

We had an amazing experience working with Holton. This being our first home purchase, on top of relocating from across the country, we weren’t very knowledgeable about the process or practices. Holton always went above and beyo...

Joey P

Such a great experience using Holton as our Realtor! He was very professional, always on time, and he always kept us up to date on what was going on throughout the process. 11/10 would recommend using him as your realtor of you...

Lisa E.

Holton Irwin and his team were such a great team to work with. We found our property by going to an open house on a whim and fell in love with the home and the neighborhood. Once under contract, Holton and Nicholas worked tirel...

Nicolas C.

Holton was amazing to work with. Finding the right home is stressful, time-consuming, and exhausting. Holton always showed up with ideas and houses and an abundance of positive energy that's kept us going! I truly loved the hon...

Tomasz B.

He is a great Realtor®. He is very helpful, patient, and responsive. I would definitely recommend Holton, he was super flexible with scheduling viewings so that we could work around my work schedule. He explained the whole proc...

Amanda C.

Holton was fantastic to work with! Super friendly and knowledgeable. He spent hours one evening showing me around different condos he thought I might like. I fell in love with one and he had an offer in by the next morning. He ...

Jake D.

The perfect process! I don't know how you get better than buying your first home from an agent that is genuine, responsive, caring, knowledgeable, and downright incredible at what they do. Other than having that Realtor® to be ...

Brittany M.

Holton did an excellent job helping me and my fiancé find the perfect home! He was always available for any questions we had and kept us updated daily on homes we might be interested in. He is seriously the best and we could no...

Dulce L.

Holton gave nothing short but an amazing experience! At the time, I was looking for a house rental and I had many requirements that Holton accommodated for myself. He made the whole experience comforting and assuring. I would r...

Lucia C.

My husband and I used Holton to help us find a house while we were living 3 hours away. He was patient, knowledgeable, and kind, and went above and beyond to us find something in our price range, and in the timeframe we needed....

Jan V.

Holton is an extremely well and professional real estate agent. He's so new to the field and he's already attacking and finding deals. I'm extremely proud of him and as a friend, I like to see him go above and beyond. Thank you...

Avin A.

I have to send a special very good remark about Holton. He is the reason me and my wife bought such a beautiful house.

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