For Sellers
Ready to put your house on the market and move on to the next property that’s a better fit for your lifestyle now? Check out the information below on what you can expect from this process. Then contact a REALTOR® to take the first step toward “SOLD.”
There are more than two million people nationwide who have licenses to sell real estate, of which approximately 1.5 million members belong to the National Association of REALTORS®. Only these certified members are entitled to use the term “REALTOR®”.
REALTORS® must adhere to a strict Code of Ethics. By joining the National Association of REALTORS®, individuals have access to a wide range of classes, seminars and certification opportunities. Local REALTOR® groups are active in community matters and individual members are routinely involved in PTAs and other neighborhood organizations. Georgia REALTORS® actively advocate for private property rights and the interests of consumers in regards to real estate transactions.
In essence, local REALTORS® are community experts. They track real estate trends, share neighborhood concerns, and participate in local matters. They’re good neighbors who are in the business of helping others buy and sell homes.
How Do I Select a REALTOR®?
Whether you’re a first-time seller or someone who has sold many homes, there are several ways to find a local REALTOR® in Georgia.
- Use the Find a Georgia REALTOR® search engine to find individuals who actively sell in your community.
- Get recommendations from friends and colleagues who have recently sold their homes.
- Look for REALTOR® signs in your community.
- Look at the listings in local real estate magazines. You may be able to quickly find one REALTOR® with whom you would like to work.
You may also like to meet with more than one REALTOR® before choosing the person who you believe is best fit to help you sell your home. When you meet with a REALTOR® for the first time, it is important that you ask about their fees, services, local experience, and marketing ideas and capabilities among other things.
What Should I Expect When Working with a REALTOR®?
Once your home is listed with a REALTOR®, he or she will immediately begin to market your home according to the most appropriate conventions for your community, which usually includes entering details and photos of your home into the multiple listing service (MLS), a database of current properties for sale, and properties that have sold, or been offered for sale but for various reasons, did not sell. The complete MLS Database is only accessible by licensed real estate agents.
He or she should keep you informed as the marketing process unfolds and as expressions of interest are received. In time, the marketing plan may be modified to reflect buyer reactions and changes in the marketplace. Your REALTOR® should keep you updated periodically as to the progress – or lack thereof – in the sale of your home.
What Is Your Home Worth?
All homes have a price, and sometimes more than one. There’s the price owners would like to get, the value buyers would like to find, and a point of agreement which results in a sale.
In considering home values, factors like local sale prices, community supply and demand, owner needs, and sale incentives are important to consider.
How Much Is Too Much?
Because all transactions are unique there is some flexibility in the marketplace. The amount of flexibility depends on local conditions.
Suppose you’re selling a townhouse. There have been five recent sales of the model you own and those sale values have ranged between $200,000 and $210,000. These recent sales give you an idea of how your home might be priced. In a strong market perhaps you can ask for $210,000 or a little more. If the market has slowed, $210,000 may be a reasonable asking price, but perhaps more than the final sale price.
Here’s another example. Imagine that you live in a community of Victorian-style homes, most of which were built in the 1920s. All the homes are different in terms of size, condition, modernization, style and features. In such a neighborhood, an average sale price is just a statistic without much practical meaning. On a single block one home may sell for $400,000 while another is priced at more than $1 million. For this reason, the average price may be outrageously high for one home and staggeringly low for another, making this figure unsuitable as a price-setting standard.
Who Can Help?
Experienced REALTORS® are active in the local marketplace and can provide assistance with pricing, marketing, negotiation and closing. Because REALTORS® have likely handled many transactions, they’re familiar with the terms and conditions that went into individual sales, not just published sale prices which may not reflect various premiums, discounts and adjustments.
Every home sale is different. The marketplace is always in flux, interest rates constantly change and new buyers search for homes each day. With such fluidity, it requires REALTORS® to craft marketing plans specifically for individual homes and market conditions.
Selling can entail a variety of marketing strategies. Once listed, it’s likely that the home will be quickly entered into the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and placed on REALTOR.com. This aggregated data can be specific to your housing needs. REALTORS® routinely market by mail and via email and their personal websites with new-listing announcements and newsletters. Open houses, broker access to the home via the use of a lock box, and networking with both local and out-of-town brokers are also common.
Much of a broker’s work will be quiet and unseen. Telephone calls, work with contacts, follow-ups with open-house visitors, conversations with ad respondents, web postings and other outreach efforts are all part of the process required to sell a home.
An open house is another method of marketing. In planning an open house, a REALTOR® typically advertises that the home will be open for a given period of time on a set date. During the open period, the REALTOR® hosts the home while the owners leave for a few hours.
At the open house, the REALTOR® will provide literature, maintain a visitor log, and answer questions. By interacting with visitors, the REALTOR® will seek feedback regarding the home and opportunities to follow up with prospective purchasers.
Showing Your Home Online
REALTOR.com lists about 1.4 million homes, while individual REALTOR® sites and local MLS services also have an online presence. Online real estate information includes not only home listings, but numerous additional features and benefits such as neighborhood information, school data, recent home sale prices, and video tours.
The internet is not only a way to view properties. E-mail, social media, even text messaging give REALTORS® and consumers more opportunities to keep in touch.
There is no question that selling a home is an important event. A home sale represents transition, movement and change. Households move from the known and comfortable to the unknown and a period of adjustment. There may be job changes, new schools, distance from old friends and the possibility of new ones.
No less important, a home sale by itself can be complex. There will be people looking at your house, documents to sign and issues to be negotiated.
Because a home sale involves an array of both personal and business concerns, it’s important to get it done right. You need to carefully prepare your home, understand the market and see what alternatives are realistically available.
What’s An Acceptable Offer?
The goal of every seller is to have a line of buyers outside the front door, each clutching higher and higher offers. While this has been known to happen, in most markets there is generally a balance between the number of buyers and sellers. A number of factors determine whether a buyer’s offer is acceptable, including if the offer is near the asking price or has clauses hidden in the contract and if the seller can wait for more offers.
In each case, owners, with assistance from their REALTOR®, will need to carefully review offers, consider marketplace options and then determine whether an offer is acceptable.
What Is A Counter-Offer?
When a home is made available for sale, the owner is essentially making the offer to buyers that for a given number of dollars and other terms you can acquire this home. Buyers, in turn, can respond disinterest, agreement to the seller’s terms, or a counter-offer.A counter-offer is nothing more than a new offer. And just as the buyer had three options in response to the owner’s original price and terms, the seller can now choose one of three reactions: accept the offer, decline the offer or make a fresh counter-offer.
Offers and counter-offers reflect the back-and-forth activity of the marketplace. It’s an efficient and practical process but also one that may contain tricky clauses and hidden costs. The REALTOR® who lists your home can explain the local bargaining process in detail and assist in the actual negotiations.
How Do You Negotiate?
It’s sometimes argued that negotiation must produce one “winner” and one “loser.” Others suggest that a “win/win” situation is possible where each side gets something of value. In actuality, real estate bargaining typically involves compromises by both sides. It’s not war; it’s not winner-take-all; and it’s not the time to take personally any comments made by purchasers.Instead, negotiating should be seen as a natural business process; buyers should be treated with respect; and owners should never lose sight of either their best interests or their baseline transaction requirements.
Even the smallest home contains a lot of furniture, clothes, kitchen equipment, pictures and other items. For a short move, it may be worthwhile to transport small goods by yourself, but larger items will likely require a professional mover.
Moving.com provides information on moving options, storage, truck rentals and related topics. This information, plus assistance and advice from your REALTOR®, can ease the moving process.
It’s ideally best to get rid of excess furniture and other goods by having a sale before you move. This will reduce the volume of goods to be moved and thus lower moving costs. Unwanted furniture which cannot be sold can often be donated to charitable groups, many of which will come to your home to pick up donations. All other unwanted items should be taken to a landfill. You should provide the U.S. Postal Service with a forwarding address, and utility companies should be advised when to end service. Check with utility companies to see if there is deposit money which should be returned.
Planning Your Move
The time to plan your move begins once you’ve decided to sell your home. Some of the activities required to sell the home can actually help with the moving process. For example, cleaning out closets, basements and attics means there will be less to do once the home is under contract.
Your planning will be guided by a number of things:
- If you are moving a long distance, you’ll likely require an interstate mover and the use of a large van.
- If you are moving internationally, you will need to contact the embassy in Washington, D.C., for information. Be aware that items which may be entirely common in the United States can be prohibited in foreign countries. Ask about customs protocols, duties and taxes.
- If you are moving locally and plan to move without professional assistance, you’ll need to consider packing boxes, peanuts, blankets or padding and a van rental.
Regardless of the distance of your move, planning is key. Stock up on boxes, packing materials, tape and markers. Always mark boxes so that movers will know where goods should be place.
Movers must have the right equipment, training and experience to do a good job. A mover, no matter how large or small, should be able to provide recent references for home sellers with a similar volume of goods to transport. Movers should also be licensed and bonded as required in your state, and employees should have workman’s comp insurance, so be sure to confirm your mover’s credentials.
Get mover estimates in writing. Be aware that it’s possible to get discounts through membership organizations and, sometimes, on the basis of your profession.
Get A Checklist
Moving is a big job and checklists can make it more organized and easier. Here are some of the major items to consider:
- If you’re moving more than a few miles then you should have enough cash or credit to cover travel, food, transportation and lodging.
- Keep medicines and related prescriptions in a place where they will be available during the move.
- Number boxes so that all items can be counted on arrival. Make a list of boxes by number and indicate their contents.
- If moving with children, make sure that each has a favorite toy or toys, blankets, games, music and other goods.
- When moving historic, breakable or valued items, be sure to use special handling and packing to protect from expensive damage.
- Have address books and important contacts readily available in case you need help.
- If you have a smartphone or laptop computer, make it accessible during your trip to pick up business and personal e-mail.
Moving Checklist – from RealSimple.com Moving Checklist – from Moving.com - Are there pieces of furniture that aren’t going to make the trip with you? Click here to see a list of organizations that will pick up furniture for free. (Source: thisoldhouse.com)