Seller's Guide

Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced team of real estate agents and this easy to follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible.​​​​​​​

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Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Do you want to make a certain amount of money that you can put toward a larger or nicer home? Do you need to sell it as soon as possible to facilitate a move to a new city or area? Once you understand your needs, you can better craft your offer. For example, if you need to sell quickly, you might want to price your home lower than if your goal is to make a certain profit margin. Make sure you convey these needs to your team of real estate agents once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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Step 2: Determine Selling Price

Knowing how to price your home is one of the most important parts of the selling process. When you set a fair price in the beginning, you’ll get the most interest from other real estate agents and prospective buyers. Overpricing your home could lead to reduced interest, and underpricing leads to receiving less than what your home is worth. Working with a team of real estate agents is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agents with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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Step 3: Start Preparations

If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. Once you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing the space so that buyers can envision themselves in the space, making any small repairs, and doing a deep clean to make sure your home is in pristine condition.

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Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

We will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. Our team creates a marketing campaign that aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing in the first three weeks after becoming a client.

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Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. We will evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. If the offer is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other ways to bridge the gap, such as covering some or all of the closing costs, making repairs, adjusting the move-in date, or leaving some appliances or fixtures for the new buyer.

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Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once we deem the offer is acceptable, we will review the proposed contract to make sure it’s all in order and includes the necessary components such as deposit amount, down payment, financing, inspection rights and repair allowances, contingencies, settlement date, and a list of fees and who will pay them. When both parties have agreed to the term, a final contract will be prepared by your team of real estate agents.

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Step 7: Get Ready to Close

You have accepted an offer and are now very close to the end of your selling journey. But first, you and the buyer must make a list of what needs to be done before closing. In some cases, your home may need to be formally inspected, surveyed, and appraised. In other cases, major or minor repairs will need to be made before the house can close. We will head up efforts to develop and execute this list, get each action item paid for by the correct party, and make sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before the closing date, we will call the company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession.

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Step 8: Close

You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a home you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer. We will meet with the company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork and go over any issues that have not yet been taken care of. During this time, you can also make plans with your team of real estate agents to handle final details such as canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances that will remain in the home.

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.

Our Testimonials

See why our clients love working with us.

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Kenneth W.

Mike and I have been working together for quite some time, until we found the right property. His expertise and patience were priceless.
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John & Becky B.

He was up front and honest about what we needed to do. We took his advice. The house went on the market for 1 day, and a great offer came in the next. Greg and his team are very reliable and thorough. I highly recommend.
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Chris S.

Susan is great. She went above and beyond our expectations. We will definitely refer anybody to Sue and Smitty. We love them!
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Mary Gene H.

All went great and easily. Cheri was efficient, knowledgeable, and friendly! A very hard worker!
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Buyer

Three houses later, and this is the first time I've met such a thorough agent. Greg made the process so easy. He was always prompt, returned every single phone call, and kept me informed about every step we took. If you're look...
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Seller

I sold 2 brand new construction homes with Deb; one last year and one this year. The most recent home literally just closed yesterday (Monday, July 6th). Working with Deb has been a great selling experience all along. I can tel...
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Buyer

Extremely thorough and thoughtful assistance with a difficult sale. Very quick response to any question and even-handed consultation on how to proceed through all of the steps.
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Christine L.

Right Choice Realty is the best! The agents are experts in the field and are so helpful. I would recommend Right Choice to everyone!
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Christine P.

Caren Westendorf was our realtor and she was amazing! We were only looking for a lot to build on in 3-5 years and she went above and beyond. Even contacted a building company about the house we hope to build in the area. Super ...
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Thad C.

Recently purchased a home on Fort Myers Beach. This process can be quite difficult if you do not have the right people helping you. James Farrell at Lahaina Reality was our savior. He went above and beyond to make this process ...
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Christy K.

My experience here at Right Choice Realty has been amazing! I love working with dedicated, knowledgeable and sincere Real Estate Professionals. I highly recommend Right Choice Realty to anyone looking to buy, sell or rent Real ...
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Buyer | Seller

Deb and Carl Lau are very attentive and supportive of ascertaining goals that we want to obtain in purchasing our next home. They readily contact and advise us of homes on the market that meet our criteria. They also provide us...
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Cyril A.

Greg was very useful in selling my condo in Naples, in spite of being out of the country. Communication was very good. He took great pictures and we got an offer after only 2 days at the asking price. He also recommended a grea...
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Buyer

Working with Deb was such a pleasure, my wife and I have been looking around SW Florida on our own for about 5 years before we decided on Cape Coral. We were in no hurry to buy and were actually looking for a house we both coul...
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Buyer

He took amazing pictures of our long-term home; very professional to work with. Our home sold in one day. He just recently found us a perfect condo as we were downsizing. I can speak as a seller and now a buyer. He really liste...
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Stephanie K.

Paula Kiker is the best! Her expertise and attention to detail is above and beyond what the norm is!
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Bradley P.

It was a true pleasure working with Greg Williams as my real estate agent for the purchase of my property in Naples! Greg took time to show me several properties. Answered all my questions, and guided & helped me through the en...
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Katherine L.

Greg was very helpful, respectful, and knowledgeable throughout our entire purchasing process. He was representing both the seller and us, the buyers, and we felt he was fair in dealing with both parties. Thank you.
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Dawn M.

Love Right Choice and all of the fun but professional realtors.
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Nancy S.

Had Deb Lau for my realtor. She was excellent, would highly recommend her.
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