10 Steps To Consider Before Selling Your Home.

Karen Lippoldt's 10 Steps To Selling Your Home

Did you know some 100,000 people put their home up for sale each week? With those kinds of numbers, it's easy to see that competition is pretty fierce. So, the better prepared you are, the better your experience will be, and the better (and faster) outcome you can expect.

Before you decide to sell the house, get pre-approved by a lender you trust and research the housing market in the area where you wish to live so that you have a good idea how much it will take to buy a replacement.

An attractive, well-maintained home will generally sell faster and for a higher price than a similar home that looks drab or run-down. When you prepare your home for sale, take a critical look inside and out. If you're having trouble being objective, ask Karen, a neighbor or a friend to help. Watch for places and things you can clean up, repair or replace.

Your home will be competing with similar homes for sale in and around your neighborhood, so it's a good idea to know which homes are on the market and what their asking prices are. Take a leisurely walk or drive through the area to look for signs, check local newspaper and Internet listings, and make sure you ask Karen for a comparative market analysis (CMA), which includes information on area homes for sale. All of this will help you when you work to determine the fair market value of your own home.

Showings and open houses let potential buyers personally tour your home to see if it fits their lifestyle. Your goal should be to create an environment where potential buyers can visualize how the space will fit them. This includes removing items from your kitchen counters and arranging your furniture to create a simple, spacious appearance, so it's easier for buyers to see themselves living there.

Total your costs to acquire a new home: moving expenses, loan costs, down payment, home inspections, title work and policy, paying for a new hazard insurance policy--all expenses related to buying a home. Your lender should give you a disclosure of estimated costs when you apply for pre-approval.

Buyers and sellers usually expect to negotiate the price and terms of a home sale. You can speed up this process if you evaluate and respond to offers and counteroffers in a timely fashion. Don't worry if you're not personally comfortable negotiating; Karen has great experience and will help you through this process by handling all negotiations.

Most buyers will request a home inspection before completing the sale. Once they have the inspection results, many buyers request certain repairs. As the seller, you should receive a written copy of the inspection report. Be sure to review it carefully so you understand the nature and extent of any problems and repairs a buyer may request. Karen will help you respond to the inspection, clearly stating what you will take care of, how and when.

Once the home inspection is complete, the selling and buyer will need to review and negotiate any discrepancies and have them resolved prior to closing. If the house is well maintained there is seldom any home inspection issues.

This is where ownership is legally transferred to the buyer. As the seller you will need to be prepared to give over any necessary documentation regarding the property and, depending on the arrangements made during negotiations, you may be required to have done something specific in order to close. Karen can save you time and money by being present during the closing to help explain the process and forms to you and make sure everything goes as planned. By being present during the closing, Karen can mediate any last minute issues that may arise. Something always seems to come up!

Congratulations on the successful sale of your home. Hopefully, everything went monthly and you will be vacating your house in the time frame that you had anticipated. You should make a list of all the items you will need to do to turn the property over to the new owners. You will need to do such things as make sure that all of the local services (i.e. electricity, gas, lawn care, cable, etc.) have been canceled or, if the new owner is going to retain some of the services, the name for the account should be changed. The property and anything assigned to the buyer according to the contract, should be prepared appropriately for the new owners.