Listing and Selling a Home Timeline

Selling a house can be an uncomfortable experience. It’s a necessarily invasive process. This is a bit of what to expect from start to finish.

• Decide to sell

  • This is so much more than a bullet point. Is this a discretionary move? Is it going to be worth the trauma? Where are you going? How long might your house take to sell? Can you afford to sell? And a whole lot more.
• Interview agents (or, just call me)

• Evaluate market analyses – and ask questions. 

  • I tell my clients that my valuations need to be defensible to me, to the seller, to the buyer, to the buyer agent, and the lender.
• Determine what repairs and improvements you need to do, and which ones of the “should do” you’re going to do
  • Yes, you likely need to spend money on upgrades that the next buyer will enjoy. You’ll enjoy getting an offer.
• (this is a reason I recommend spring sellers start this process in late summer/fall)

• Now that you’ve decided to list

• First, your home is no longer “home;” it’s a product.
  • Staging? Virtual staging? We’ll talk about this.
  • If listing in the spring, take exterior photos in the fall. First to third week of October should be ideal. Listing in the winter? We’ll do our best.
• Upon listing
  • More of our work starts – Custom website, signs, flyers, lockbox … there’s more of this sort of thing; if we work together, I’ll share more.
• Wait. Patiently. (I know, it sucks)
  • Your last house might have sold 7 years ago in three days with multiple offer in a different market; lamentably, that means absolutely nothing with respect to your current market (wherever & whenever that might be).

• Offer/Contract/Closing

  • Negotiations, holding things together … this is where stress, emotions, and calm heads come to play.
  • The Quiet Period (no longer available) … once everything is done, and we’re waiting.

Ask questions. About everything. And, be prepared to trust your representation.

Real estate is, and can certainly feel like the archaic business that it is. Sometimes, “this is the way it’s done” is the only and best answer. Really. More on this in a future post.

Short summary: selling a house can suck. My role is to ensure that the you understand the process, know what’s coming, and you are best positioned to make the best decisions possible.

Questions? Ask anytime.

*I do these types of posts for a couple reasons

• I hope to help/educate some readers
• Helps me flesh out the timeline and understand clients’ expectations
• I’ll send this out to new seller clients to help them get started.