We provide a highly personalized and comprehensive service to clients who are selling one of their most valuable assets. The emphasis is not merely listing your home; but on selling it.
Step One – Setting Goals and a Timeline for Selling a Home
When you first contact us, we will arrange a meeting to discuss your goals and timeline for the sale of your home, the current real estate market relative to your home, pricing strategies, our marketing plans and answer all your questions.
Step Two – Preparing a Home For Sale
Once you have made the decision to work with us, we formalize the listing agreement. There are two key factors to consider before placing a property on the market. The first priority is to prepare your home for the market. We will schedule an appointment for you with our staging specialist who will visit your home and prepare an action plan for optimizing your home’s presentation inside and out. Once that work is complete, we will arrange for professional photography and engage our marketing specialists to begin work on the marketing materials and online presentation. The second key consideration is setting a market price that will attract the right buyers. No amount of marketing magic can make a property sell if it’s priced incorrectly.
If you are relocating out of the area, we can recommend the best agent at your destination to take the very best care of you. If you are moving locally, this is the time we will start working together to locate your next home.
Step Three – Effective Marketing of a Home For Sale
With the preparation activities complete, and the marketing materials in place, we work on getting your home the widest and most comprehensive exposure possible. This starts with the Multiple Listing Service and extends to include professionally printed brochures and flyers, customized websites, featured online presentations, virtual tours, targeted mailing and outreach to our personal network of clients and brokers. We also arrange a private broker tour of the home and a public open house where it makes sense. Learn more about our Real Estate Marketing.
Step Four – What Happens While a Home is For Sale
Private showings are scheduled directly by our scheduling specialists. All showings of your home will be accompanied by a licensed broker following the specific showing instructions that we provide. Throughout the period that the home is available for showings, we keep you informed of showing activity, feedback received, interest from the online marketing, and changes to the local real estate market. During this time, we will also handle all inquiries on your home and questions related to the process of purchasing a home like yours from interested buyers.
Step Five – Evaluating a Purchase Offer
When a purchase offer is received on your home, we review the contract price, financing, terms and contingencies. We will verify the buyer’s financing or assets being used in the purchase. We discuss the offer and negotiation scenarios with you. Our representation in the negotiation is exclusively to your best interest. When the negotiations are complete and the purchase offer is accepted, we coordinate with your attorney and the buyer’s representatives toward a successful close.
Step Six – What Happens Between Accepting a Purchase Contract and the Closing
Once a purchase contract is accepted on the home, there are two significant milestones to complete before the closing will be scheduled. First, the buyer will hire a licensed home inspector to inspect the property. If the home inspection reveals any defects in the property, those will need to be addressed before the sale. Second, and only if the buyer is financing the purchase, the buyer’s lender will order an appraisal of the property and then submit the loan package to underwriting for final loan approval. We will advise and assist you in resolving any issues arising during this phase, and answer any questions you may have throughout the process.
Step Seven – The Real Estate Closing on the Sale of a Home
Your attorney will schedule the closing with a Title Company. The property is transferred to the buyer at the closing, and the proceeds from the sale are disbursed to the seller.
After the Sale
If you have any questions following the sale, we are always available to you. We appreciate your thinking of us when your friends and family need exceptional real estate representation.
Richard Gerber – RE/MAX Suburban – 2311 W Schaumburg Road, Schaumburg Illinois 60194