Home Selling Process & Timeline
How to Sell Your Home
Optimize Showing Your Home
- Every showing appointment is handled by our professionally trained staff 7 days a week.
- Providing consistent showing instructions and information.
- E-mail follow-up for feedback on every showing.
- Utilizing cutting edge software.
Competitively Price Your Home
- Your agent will provide a custom Comparative Market Analysis to price your home for today’s market.
Prepare and Submit Accurate Information to Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
- With maximum photos and captions to provide the information most Buyers seek.
- You will receive a copy for your review and records.
Market Your Home With Our Remax Colorado Springs Elevated Marketing Plan
- Proactively promote the property for maximum exposure.
“This is our chance to tell your story.”
My Promise to you:
- I will carefully review and present all offers for your consideration.
- I will make sure you understand the strengths and weaknesses of an offer/contract.
- I will verify qualification of prospective buyers and research their lending options to increase the likelihood that they can secure financing.
- I will negotiate the strongest terms to create a solid transaction that will close on time without any surprises.
Before, During & After the Sale
- Even after the closing, I’ll be there to assist you with all your real estate needs.
- You will receive valuable information on a regular basis.
- Along with great coupons, local offers and information and coming attractions.
- Consider me your source of referral for all types of business, whether related to real estate contract or not.
Three Factors That Impact the Sale of a Home
1
Location
Location is what it is, you cannot pick your home up and move it, so let’s discuss the other factors.
2
Condition
Condition is what YOU CAN do yo your home to prepare for the market. By now, let’s hope that your home is in the best condition possible for today’s buyers who are looking for move-in-ready homes (updated and no work required).
3
Pricing
Pricing is critical – even in a low inventory market.
What the Seller Does and Does Not Control
You Can Control
Property Condition
Asking Price
Home Warranty
Availability for Showing
Choose the Right Realtor
You Can Not Control
Competition
The Current Market
Interest Rates
When the Perfect Buyer Walks Through the Door
Pricing Misconceptions
Buyers and Sellers Determine Value
- The True Market Value of your home is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to accept in today’s market.
- It is very important to price your property at competitive market value at the signing of the listing agreement.
- Buyers make their pricing decision based on comparing your property to other properties SOLD in the area and currently available. Historically, your first offer is usually your best.
You Can Improve the Marketability of Your Home By
- Improving the condition of the property
- Offering good terms
- Improving the way the home shows
- Pricing the home to reflect the current market condition
Closing Timeline
Typically, closing happens four to six weeks after the sales and purchase contract is signed, although it could be sooner or later. Normally, as the seller you are anxious to receive your money and move on. And unless there is a special circumstance surrounding the buyer’s loan, there is no reason to delay.
For the least stressful closing, experts advise choosing a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday in the first three weeks of the month, although it is wise to avoid the 1st or 15th.
Additional Dates and Days to Avoid
Title companies are busiest the last week of the month. Also, Fridays are considered less than ideal because that’s a busy bank day. The 1st, 15th, and last day of the month also are very busy days for financial institutions.
Also try to avoid the end of the year, especially the last day of the year. You may want to take advantage of deductions on this year’s tax return, but you are likely to run into the disadvantages of offices closing early, being short-staffed, and holiday parties.
If you must close during one of these hectic periods, plan as far ahead as you can.
Other Considerations
Unless you’re dealing with a first-time buyer, it’s likely your buyer has to close another sale before this one happens. And as the seller, you probably are moving to another home and that sale can’t close until this one does. A crisis that reschedules the first closing could easily cause a chain reaction. So leaving a bit of wiggle room between closings is a good idea.
If your buyer balks at closing early in the month, explain that the old saw about paying extra interest may not be as advantageous as it sounds. For example, let’s say the closing happens on October 5. The buyer will pay 26 days of prepaid interest at closing, but her first mortgage payment won’t be due until December 1.
If the deal closes September 30, she will only pay one day’s worth of interest, but her first mortgage payment will be due November 1. So she could look at the early-in-the-month closure as gaining a whole month without a mortgage payment.
Interest accrues on the loan from the date of closing; two months later, regardless of the time of month you closed, the buyer has paid the same.
The Paper Trail
What if paperwork isn’t finished by closing day? Regardless of when the closing is scheduled, it can’t happen until the closing agent notifies the parties that all necessary paperwork is in order. There are all sorts of things that can delay closure, ranging from clerical errors to loan documents lost in the mail room.
Money can also trip up the process. If the buyer is told to bring a certified check for $10,000 to closing and shows up with a certified check for $9,000 and a personal check for $1,000, the closing will be delayed.
If in reviewing documents either the seller or buyer finds a name misspelled or an incorrect address, or figures that don’t add up, the errors must be fixed before closing proceeds.
This is why both seller and buyer need to stay in touch with the closing agent and do everything they can to facilitate closing on the scheduled day.
The Parties
Depending on where you live, either all parties involved in the settlement will gather around one table, or sellers and buyers will have separate signing meetings with the closing agent.
In states where an attorney is the closing agent, it’s likely that the seller, buyer, real estate agents, possibly attorneys representing each party, and perhaps the lender will be present.
At the end of the signing ceremony, the seller will receive a check for the proceeds of the sale. The buyer will receive all keys to the house and outbuildings, plus the garage door opener and security system codes.
If you live where a title or escrow company agent handles closing and there are two meetings, it’s likely that the seller and the seller’s agent or attorney will sign paperwork at one meeting and the buyer, accompanied by her agent or attorney, will sign at a separate meeting. This probably will happen on the same day.
The seller’s keys may be left with the closing agent, or an arrangement may be made for the buyer’s agent to deliver them after everything is signed.
The two-meeting closing is faster for the seller, who has much less paperwork to review and sign than the buyer.
Remember that the new ownership is official the minute the signed and notarized closing documents are recorded at the county courthouse, which usually happens at the end of the day or first thing in the morning. When the deed is recorded, the title of ownership transfers from seller to buyer.
