Sellers

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If you’ve been thinking about selling your home but are afraid to jump into the home selling process, you are not alone. Selling a home can be a difficult and confusing endeavor. We know fears of paperwork and unforeseen costs may be weighing on your mind as a homeowner looking to sell.

In reality, selling your home is more streamlined than you may think. Here are nine simple steps to sell your home.

Walk-Through and Initial Assessment

The walk-through and initial assessment will make or break the sale, so never sell your home before it’s ready. When you start preparing your home for the market, you’ll need to put in some elbow grease. Potential buyers notice dirty mirrors or cluttered counters. A deep clean will freshen up the space and make it more appealing to prospective buyers.

After cleaning, you need to stage your home. Keep in mind that you aren’t showing your home. You are showing the buyer their future home. Remove personal touches like notes on the fridge, but still make your house look warm and inviting. If the staging is too cold and impersonal, prospective buyers have difficulty imagining themselves living there.

Getting a Real Estate Agent

A good real estate agent will help you through the entire process of selling a home. They’ll save you the hassle of organizing and preparing paperwork and setting up inspections. Plus, a realtor will help you avoid any legal troubles throughout the process.

You should speak with an agent from Family Florida Realty before teaming up with a real estate agent. Keep in mind that realtors hold vital information about the housing market. Additionally, they know how to present your house in a way that will appeal to buyers. You’ll want to hire an agent that understands your situation and prioritizes your needs and wants.

Listing your house for sale by owner (FSBO) is an option, however, it does come with some challenges. Cutting the realtor out of the equation also eliminates their arsenal of resources.

Realtors often complete much of the grunt work when selling a home and have professional experience negotiating the best deals. Consider that, without a realtor, you could end up selling for less, and more problems may pop up, including legal issues which may haunt you in the future.

Preparing Your Home

Do any necessary repairs on your house before listing it on the market. If there is damage or anything that the new owners will have to fix themselves, you may end up renegotiating during the inspection. Remember, if severe repairs are needed, the buyer has the option to back out of the deal. So fix up any major issues before the buyer sees them.

Before you can list your home, you need to take photos. Photos present potential buyers with the first look at your home, so they are a high priority. High-quality photos from a professional photographer will help you feature your home to its fullest potential. Your realtor should have a relationship with the best home photographer in your area.

Additionally, you may want to show off your property in the photos. Buyers love video and it should be used to appeal to a larger sector of the market. Drone photography is rising in popularity in the real estate market to capture a bird’s-eye view.

Pricing Your Home

This step is crucial. If you over-value your house, it may never sell. If you under-value it, it will sell, but you won’t get back its worth. Your realtor will know how to price your house. They will give you suggestions and lead you through the process.

If you don’t have a realtor yet, look at listings of houses similar in style and size to see what they are selling for. Pay attention to the specific features the houses have, as different elements can impact the worth of a house.

Marketing Your Home

It’s finally time to list your house. You will put a sign in your yard to let passersby know your home is for sale and who to contact about touring. Your realtor will know the best places to list your home and will be able to syndicate your property across multiple popular sites on the web..

If you don’t have a realtor, look into each available site to list a home. Choose sites that are the most trustworthy. Some may have listing fees, and others may be free.

To gain more traction and receive more offers, you can promote your home yourself. This can be especially important when you aren’t using a realtor, as they have connections that can get more eyes on your house.

To promote your home, you can post open house dates on social media and let people know that anyone looking to buy can contact you.

Selling and Negotiating

Once you have an offer, you can start negotiating a deal.

As the seller in the home selling process, you have the freedom to accept, counter, or reject an offer. Keep in mind that the negotiation process extends past accepting an offer.

When accepting an offer, keep in mind the different characteristics of your home. The best-case scenario is to have a bidding war. When a bidding war happens, you can use that as leverage when negotiating further down in the selling process.

Inspections and Appraisals

Inspections are done to ensure the home is in good condition upon selling. Whereas, appraisals are done to professionally declare the value of a home.

Inspections and appraisals can be conducted by both parties in the home selling process. You can have your inspection done and the buyer can have their inspections done. Completing an inspection or appraisal before the buyer will alert you to any problems that need fixing.

Renegotiating After Inspections/Appraisals

After accepting an offer, you may need to make more negotiations once the inspections and appraisal are complete.

If you counter and think some issues may be revealed in the inspection, you may want to adjust your counter offer. Your realtor will know how aggressively to negotiate the different factors of your home.

Coordinating the Closing With Title and Lender

Once a price and contingencies are agreed on and any inspections or appraisals have occurred, it’s time to close.

Your real estate agent will work with you, your title company, and your lender to prepare the correct documents. Once the lender has verified that the proper financial qualifications are in check, you can sign the documents, and the title company will close the deal.

Final Thoughts

Selling your home can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Once you find a realtor and get started, it will feel simpler. After all, it’s only nine steps and your home is on its way to being sold.

What is the Best Time of Year to Sell a Home in Florida?

Timing isn’t everything when it comes to selling a property in Florida, but it can have a significant impact on the length of time it takes and the final price you receive. There is no harm in conducting some market research to ensure you get the greatest potential price for your home.

In Florida, July is the best month for selling a house quickly. In July last year, homes in Florida sold for an average of 51 days on the market, which is four days shorter than the statewide yearly average.

What are the costs associated with selling a house in Florida?

There is no short answer to this question. There are a tremendous number of variables associated with your decision. They all have an impact on both your costs and the potential profit you actually realize at the closing table. Here is a link to an article which outlines these concerns and considerations you should be aware of before selling your home!

What do I have to disclose about the condition or history of my home for sale in Florida?

Florida, like many other states, requires sellers of residential properties to disclose specific information about the property’s condition and history to potential buyers.

It’s founded on the idea that sellers are in the best position to know everything there is to know about their homes, even if it’s not immediately apparent. Failure to do so could result in a fine or even criminal charges.

According to Florida case law, a home seller must disclose any facts or conditions regarding the property that has a significant impact on its worth or desirability and that others cannot easily perceive for themselves, with limited exceptions. Johnson v. Davis, 480 So.2d 625 was the source of this law. (Fla. 1985).

What Steps Should I Take to Prepare My Home for Sale?

Just getting your house ready for sale is a significant portion of the work involved in selling it. Realtors say it’s not unusual for clients to forget something when they’re prepared for the move, though.

We’ve put up a list of the most important things you can do to make your home stand out, entice buyers, and attract the best possible offers. While some of these suggestions may seem obvious, we bet there are a couple here that you hadn’t considered!

Why is the assessed value different than what you say my home is worth?

The worth of your home in the current market is determined by the projected price that prospective purchasers are willing to pay for it. Your home’s market worth is established through an appraiser, who is often engaged by your lender when selecting how much money to provide with the loan or when you are setting your home’s list price when selling it.

Instead, the ‘assessed value’ of your home is based on its current market worth. Many counties in the United States base property taxes on an assessment of a percentage of the market value of the property in question. So the assessed value is usually lower than the appraised market value of a property