When you decide to sell your home, what are the steps to get it done? Real estate agents will tell you that selling your home is a “3-legged stool” of buyers, agents, and sellers. What the listing agents won’t tell you is you will need attorneys to review your contracts, a title agency like MacGregor Abstract to ensure your title and issue forms like the RP5217, and a small army of inspectors, loan officers, and other professionals who provide real estate services.
Since you are the seller in this transaction, let’s start with your responsibilities. It is your job to make your home as presentable as possible. This means that you need to keep your home clean, organized, and presentable whenever there are potential buyers being shown the house.
“Selling a home is significantly harder than most people realize. It’s not enough to list the house and wait for someone to come along and buy it or make an offer,” said Charles H. West, president of the Council of Residential Specialists at Prudential Douglas Elliman. First, you need to set a price on your home if you haven’t already done so. Then find an agent who you feel comfortable working with and ask them how they plan to market your home. They must be able to tell you in detail what their marketing strategy will be to sell your house fast in any market conditions.”
The job of a seller’s agent is to properly market your home in a manner that will attract offers from qualified buyers. The more buyers, the greater the chance of selling your home. It is recommended that a seller’s agent represent you as their job will be to implement a marketing strategy for selling your home at the best possible price within a reasonable time frame. Your selling agent should have ideas on how to promote and advertise your home so it appears attractive and inviting to potential buyers.
“It’s important for homes on the market now that they get out there,” said Jeanne Proctor, an associate broker with Douglas Elliman. “You can’t just write about your home or send postcards—it needs to be more engaging than that.” This includes hiring a professional photographer. While this may seem like an unnecessary expense, it is critical to show potential buyers what your home has to offer.
Finally, the 3rd and most important party in a transaction is the buyer. “If you have lived in your home for 30 years, it might not be the right time to sell. You may want them to meet professionals that can give insight on how necessary updates can increase the value of their investment.”
It is important to remember that buying and selling a home is stressful, no matter how big or little the transaction is. Therefore it is best if everyone involved remains calm about things. You will have plenty of reviews during the process, so don’t let anyone stand out more than others.
Aside from simply marketing your home, you will need to enlist the help of a real estate attorney to review all of the paperwork and a title company to prove you with the correct tax forms, such as the TP584 or the RP5217. In general, all documents must be recorded within thirty days after they have been signed. However, contracts can be recorded up until closing so long as there have been no changes to any of the terms in the contract/agreement or it has not expired. All of this paperwork goes into an electronic register that everyone involved in the process can access.
Studies show that the best time to put your home on the market is during spring and summer. This means more potential buyers coming through your house.” Furthermore, spring often brings with it new listings, which give you a better chance of getting noticed by home hunters looking to get their families settled in before school starts again in the fall.
