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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.

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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 agents once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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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 agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 agents 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.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Allan is an exceptional realtor. I purchased my second home with him. I have a financial background and, therefore very familiar with what "quality" looks like. He was very patient, responsive, and knowledgeable. He also has amazing resources if you are in need of a real estate attorney and/or lender for your home-buying needs! He is a genuine person. Contact Allan, you will not be disappointed!

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Allan is a great realtor who knows Chicagoland like the back of his hand. He was very flexible in working with my schedule and was able to arrange many showings even within a day's notice. Every home he showed me was within my budget, in a desirable area, and met all of my specifications. He was very patient and took me out several times for showings until I found the perfect condo in the city. There wer...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We are so thankful we chose Allan to help us, both to sell our home and buy a new one. My husband and I, frankly needed a lot of help. We were downsizing and had much work to do in getting our home ready to sell. He also led helped us find the right house, that we can now love. He was patient and thorough. He greatly helped us negotiate a sale with difficult buyers. We came out protected. I would recomme...

— Shirley S.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Allan helped my wife and I purchase a home during the competitive market period of spring 2022 — I'm glad we used him. He was diligent in looking through all of the parts of the home with us and presented a lot of useful information to help us become more knowledgeable. We changed our geographical search back and forth during the search and Allan was able to give insights about each location. Allan also ...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We loved working with Allan! He is very knowledgeable, trustworthy, and incredibly hardworking amid a crazy housing market. Would recommend his services for the sale and/or purchase of a home.

— Kayla D.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I would choose Allan to sell my house and also to help me buy one! Allan is thoughtful with a caring attitude, holding integrity and professionalism each and every time I see him. Allan is driven and motivated to get it done!

— Tim K.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Allan was a pleasure to work with. He went above and beyond to sell my condo in Oak Park and sold it quickly for the asking price. I highly recommend him. He did a great job!

— Seller

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Allan did an outstanding job in assisting and facilitating the sale of our house. He was patient, prompt, helpful, and thorough. His attentiveness, unwavering encouragement, kindness, persistence, and commitment were very helpful as we did our transactions remotely since moved out of state.

— Roni S.

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