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Austin Home Selling Steps
Here are the steps to getting your home sold. If you follow these steps, your home will sell for more money in the shortest period of time.
Step 1: Understand Current Market Conditions
Before you make the decision to sell, take a minute to research what’s going on in the Austin real estate market. You can start with our Austin real estate price reports to get a general idea, then dive down a little deeper and sign up for one of our Local Market Reports by area of town. You’ll get a detailed, 4 page report of real estate activity in your area.
Once you’ve gotten an overall picture of the market in your area, use our Austin home value tool. With your address, the tool will give you an estimated value of your home. If you’d like to be notified when nearby homes sell (and learn what they sold for), put your name and email in the right sidebar and you’ll be notified by email.
If you’re thinking of selling, or if you just want to keep up with home values in your neighborhood, sold data is the only way to accurately determine home values. What a home actually sold for tells you what buyers were willing to write a check for, not what the owner was asking. When looking at market activity, sold data is the only data we use.
Step Two: Put Us to Work For You
Hiring a Realtor early in the process can save you a tremendous amount of time, energy, money and effort. They can help recommend improvements and save you money on improvements that won’t give you a return on your investment. Even if you are months away from selling, a conversation with a Realtor will help you prepare.
Step Three: Create an Effective Strategy
Together we’ll sit down and come up with a plan to prepare your home for the market. We’ll help you interpret the market data you acquired in Step 1 and prepare a more detailed Qualified Home Evaluation to help you understand what price your home will likely sell for in today’s market. We’ll also help you understand which repairs/improvements are cost effective and which repairs/improvements are not. We know what buyers will pay for and what they won’t – why spend money you don’t have to?
Step Four: Set the Right Price
Armed with the information you’ve obtained in Steps 1-3, its now time to set a market appropriate price. When determining a price, try to set your emotions aside and look at your home objectively. To help you think like a buyer, we spend an afternoon showing you comparable properties in your neighborhood so you can see what buyers will be using as a comparison.
Remember, you won’t get a second chance to make a great first impression. Setting the right price from the get go is key.
Step 5: Calculate Your Bottom Line
Once you’ve set a market appropriate price, we’ll prepare a Seller’s Net Sheet. With closing cost estimates and your estimated loan payoff, we can help you understand how much money you’ll walk away with after you’ve sold your home.
This is especially important if you owe near what your home is worth. You want to make sure you’ll net enough money on the sale to cover the costs. If not, you may need to come up with a check for the difference.
Step 6: Inspect and Disclose
We’ll help you prepare all of the required documents you must provide the buyer when you sell. You’ll be asked questions about the working order of the systems and components and improvements you’ve made.
Insider’s Tip: Ask your Realtor if you’d benefit from getting a pre-marketing home inspection. A pre-marketing home inspection is where you hire an inspector to come out and check the working order of your home’s systems and components. Buyers will be able to get instant piece of mind that the major systems and components have been checked out and are in working condition. When you’re competing with other similar homes, this may be what sets your home above the rest. If you were buying a car, you’d be more willing to buy the one that has been thoroughly inspected by a mechanic as opposed to one that hasn’t, right?
Step 7: Stage Your Home to Meet the Market
The way we live in a home and the way we market a home are two totally different activities. Not every home sellers needs a professional home stager, but every home can benefit from some staging. A lot of it can be done with properly arranging what you already have. Studies show home stagers who spend $550 on “staging” will recover 299% of that investment. It’s money well spent.
Step 8: Unleash our Marketing Program
Our comprehensive home marketing program is unlike any other marketing program in Austin. From expertly designed custom websites, professional photography, professionally created virtual tours, custom for sale signs for your home only, video, custom neighborhood maps, a presence on all websites, we have the most comprehensive most effective plan in Austin. We know how to market your home to get it sold. Learn more on our Austin home marketing page.
Step 9: Continually Assess Market Position
Real estate markets are constantly changing. We’ll continue to update you with market statistics, a new Qualified Home Evaluation and market activity through the listing period to ensure your home is priced appropriately. We’ll schedule a weekly phone call or email to discuss what we’ve been doing to market your home and the response we’ve been getting from potential buyers. You’ll never have to question what’s going on in the sale of your home – you’ll know.
Step 10: Review Offers and Negotiate
When we get an offer from a buyer, we’ll sit down and explain it in terms you can understand. We’ll help you calculate your bottom line with this specific offer and provide you with the most recent market activity so you can make an informed decision.
When you hire us to represent you in the sale of your home, we’ll fight for your price. Our goal is to get as many dollars on your side of the table as possible. We’ll treat your money as if it were our money.
Step 11: Sign Closing Documents
The last step is to sign the closing documents. When working with another Realtor, ask them if they go to signings (hint: most don’t). We are with you every single step of the way and will be sitting quietly across the table while the Escrow Officer explains the paperwork. We’re there to answer any of your questions and to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Step 12: Pack and Move
This one’s pretty self explanatory!
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More Austin Home Seller Resources
Ready to Sell Your Austin Home?
If you’re looking for a Realtor who will market your home, not our brand, with a proven record of success, call us at (512) 827-8323 or fill out our Seller Survey to schedule a no obligation consultation. In the meantime, check out our Austin Home Sellers page for all of our resources and tips for home sellers.