How to Sell a House

6. List Your House and Do Home Showings

Listing your house is simple if you’re working with an experienced real estate agent. Your agent will help you get professional photos taken and will get your home listed on multiple platforms for maximum exposure. Once your listing is up and running, buyers are going to want to visit. So, you’ll need to get ready for home showings.

Home showings are hard to juggle whether your home is empty or full of kids. If you’re still living in the home you’re trying to sell, these handy tips can help you stay sane and manage the home-showing phase.

• Make a daily to-do list. Reduce last-minute panic by putting things away as soon as you’re done with them and creating a checklist of simple tasks to knock out before you leave every morning.

• Find a place for your pets during showings. Leaving pets at home can get messy, and a vocal dog won’t make the best impression on buyers. Take your pup for a ride around the neighborhood or drop him off at Grandma’s house so buyers can focus on your home.

• Try to be flexible. If you want to make a deal, you’ve got to give buyers time and space to fall in love with your home. Be flexible about scheduling showings, and don’t make buyers work around you, your feelings or your schedule when they visit.

• Tackle the toys. Paring down the playroom or toy box is a tough task, but it sure does make cleanup a breeze. Ask your kids to choose a few favorite toys to keep in their rooms. Then store the rest in bins.

Do the best you can, but remember, you’re only human. There will be days when you just can’t get everything put away and make it out the door on time. If you get a call for a showing, tell your agent you were running behind so they can prepare the buyer ahead of time. Just don’t miss an opportunity to get your home seen.

7. Choose the Right Offer

This is pretty obvious, but the first thing to keep in mind when choosing an offer is to make sure it’s enough to cover paying off your mortgage—and then some!

Next, you’ll want to compare important details about the buyer in each offer. Here’s what I mean: If you have an offer from an all-cash buyer, that’ll save you the headache of waiting on buyers who need a lender to finalize their mortgage. If your buyer is preapproved for a conventional loan, that could save you the delays caused by government mortgages like FHA loans, which require certain repairs and approvals before closing.

Sometimes deciding between offers can be tricky. For example, one buyer might offer to pay your asking price if you offer to pay their closing costs or let them keep certain appliances or furniture. Depending on your goals (and budget!), you might not like that deal and decide to go with a buyer who offers a little under your asking price without any other conditions attached.

To sum up, pay close attention to these details:

• Special allowances for personal property, possible tax implications, home improvements and closing costs

• Contingency deadlines for the home inspection, appraisal and buyer financing (I’ll cover more on these later)

• Additional contingencies like the sale of the buyer’s current home

An experienced real estate agent will be a huge help in sorting out your offers. An expert who does these deals every day will spot a crappy offer from a mile away (hey, that rhymes!). Bottom line? Consult a pro!

8. Negotiate the Contract

Negotiations between you (the seller) and the buyer start with the buyer’s initial offer. You never have to accept an offer as is. In fact, you could do a little back and forth to sweeten the deal on both sides. Ideally, you and the buyer will walk away feeling like you reached a win-win agreement.

Here’s how that might look: A potential buyer offers to close on the seller’s ideal timeline—but the offer is lower than asking price. The seller agrees to a lower price, but not as low as the buyer’s initial offer. The buyer is willing to agree to the seller’s new price if the seller throws in some appliances like the refrigerator, washer and dryer. The seller was planning on buying all new appliances anyway, so the seller is happy with those terms, and they strike a deal!

Sometimes you may even land in a bidding war with multiple offers on your home. But don’t let that power go to your head. Trust your real estate agent to help you sort through the offers and choose the best one.  

Just remember, the contract stage works differently in every state, so your agent should explain those details in terms you understand. Never sign a purchase agreement before you’re clear about what is and is not included in the offer and how it affects you.

9. Tackle Contingencies

Okay, now it’s time to take care of contingencies. Great! But, what are contingencies? Well, they’re contractual conditions that must be met in order for a home sale to close. If they aren’t settled by closing day, the contract is broken and the deal could be off. Three important ones to watch for include:

• Buyer’s home inspection
• Appraisal
• Financing

If the buyer’s home inspection reveals something majorly wrong with your home, the deal might be off unless you agree to make repairs or lower the price. If an appraiser values your home for less than the agreed-upon sale price, the buyer could lose financing from the lender, which means you don’t get paid. Or the buyer could mess up their financing if they decide to take on new debt during your home deal.

These things happen, but they don’t always end with a broken deal. A skilled real estate agent can usually help you work out a solution to make the deal go through if possible.

10. Close and Get Paid!

Closing day is notorious for its mountain of paperwork. You will have a bunch of dotted lines to sign. Here are some things you may need to bring:

• Photo ID
• Keys to your home
• Garage door openers
• Check for closing costs
• Other documents, depending on your sales agreement
• Your favorite pen!

Congrats! After closing day, your house will officially be sold. The company that handles your closing will send funds to your mortgage lender to pay off your home loan for you. Then, you’ll get a big fat check for the rest! Use that money wisely, as you may need a good chunk of it to go toward your next home.

How Long Does It Take to Sell Your House?

There’s not a one-size-fits-all answer to how long it’ll take to sell your home. But you can probably expect to invest at least a month or two to go from listing to closing. Keep in mind, the market is always changing. How long it actually takes to sell your house depends on the real estate trends in your area and the particulars of your home.

If you’re wondering how to sell your house fast, remember that these factors can impact your home-selling timeline:

• The hot (or not) nature of your real estate market: If you live in an area with a hot market, you can typically expect your house to sell faster than in markets where buyer demand is low.

• The season: If you want to maximize your sale price and decrease the time your house is on the market, listing your home in late spring is your best bet. But that’s not true for every home or market—after all, you’ll likely deal with less competition if you sell in the winter. Ultimately, the best time to sell your house is when the time is right for you.

• Location, location, location: Details like your home’s school district, neighborhood, and distance to restaurants and shopping can affect how long it takes to sell.

• Your home’s price point: Larger, more expensive houses can take longer to sell because the pool of buyers is smaller.

• The time it takes to get your home ready to sell: If you decide to make some updates or repairs to your house before listing, your selling timeline will be longer.

• The closing process: If your buyers are getting a mortgage, the closing date is dependent on their financing. Your closing could also be delayed by home inspection or appraisal issues.

How Much Does It Cost to Sell Your House?

You’ll probably make money from the sale of your home, but there are some selling costs that will cut into your profits. Here are some you may need to prepare for:

• Real estate agent commission: As the seller, you’ll pay your real estate agent a commission (for example, 3% of the home’s sale price). In some cases, you might want to offer to cover part or even all of what it costs the buyer to work with their agent to sweeten the deal, and to thank the buyer’s agent for helping find someone to purchase your home. But every situation is different. So be sure to discuss any specific rules related to this with your agent.

• Staging your home: As you’re preparing to list your house, you could spend some money getting your house staged or investing in some new decor to give your space a fresh look.

• Repairs or maintenance: You may decide to take care of some repairs before you list your house. Or if your buyer does a home inspection, they may ask you to do some repairs before closing.

• Fees negotiated in the contract: As part of your purchase and sale agreement, the buyer may ask you to cover a portion of the closing costs, title insurance or other fees.

Sell Your House Faster With a RamseyTrusted^® Agent

The best way to have a smooth experience selling your home is to partner with an experienced agent who eats, sleeps and breathes real estate. The right agent should guide you every step of the way without taking over the driver’s seat. They should inform you but not overwhelm you. Those are the only kinds of agents we recommend through our RamseyTrusted program.

Connect with a RamseyTrusted agent today!