Selling your house can either be a pleasant or an unpleasant process, depending on how you go about it. It can involve a lot of stress, work, and sometimes disappointments; and this holds true, especially for first-time home sellers who have limited knowledge about how to sell a house. Therefore, knowing how to sell your house and the stages of selling your house is very important to reduce the likelihood of getting disappointed or stressed out of your mind.
Every home seller wants to get the best deal possible and turn a good profit from the sale of their houses. To do this, you must familiarize yourself with the stages of selling your house and follow them to the letter, to avoid making mistakes that could make your deal fall through or result in you making less than you are actually meant to. If you would like to know how to sell your house, you should consider the stages of selling your house below.
Steps to selling a house in Arizona
1. You need to hire a good real estate agent
This should be your first priority in the stages of selling your house. A good real estate agent will make the entire selling process easier for you. Your real estate agent would be the person representing you during the sale process and giving you tailored advice on how to sell your house so this one decision can either make or break your sale.
If you are looking to find a good real estate agent in Arizona, you’ve come to the right place. Tammy Gazda has been helping sellers make savvy decisions for over 20 years! Give her a call today by simply clicking here.
Once you have found the right agent for you, the listing agreement will be drafted up and agreed upon by both parties. You should make sure you understand everything about the agreement before signing.
2. Figure out how much you should sell your house
If you want to know how to sell your house then you have to know how to price correctly. As a home seller you definitely do not want to sell your house for less than what it’s worth and at the same time, overpricing your house will make many buyers lose interest and this could potentially leave your house sitting on the market indefinitely. This could lead to you slashing your prices in a desperate attempt to sell, which buyers may take as a bad sign.
Your real estate agent can help you appraise your house correctly using comparative market analysis alongside other tools. Your home will be compared to similar houses that have been sold and the differences between your house and the ones you’re comparing with are also factored in. Using this, you can now price your house accordingly.
3. Determine the sellers’ market and the best time to sell
The key to selling your house fast and for a good price is to sell when the supply is low and the demand is high. You need to monitor the market to know if you’re in a seller’s market or a buyer’s market. In a seller’s market, you have better negotiating power and this could lead to you making more profits from the sale of your house. Your real estate agent can help you do an inventory analysis to figure out the market conditions.
When you have figured out when to sell your house, the next thing you need to do is to market the house. Make use of social media to advertise your house. Take high-quality photographs of your house and post them online. You may also make use of other channels to advertise your house to potential buyers as well.
4. Make necessary repairs and show your home
First, you need to get a home inspector’s report. This report comes after an inspection and shows the repairs that need to be made on the house. You and your agent can decide which repairs are necessary and you should take care of those repairs. When all repairs have been made, make sure to maximize the space of your house. Remove unnecessary items and also personal items so the potential buyer can imagine themselves in your house. When you’ve adequately prepared your house, you can now ask the agent to show the house to the potential buyers either through pictures or open house events.
5. Take care of your selling disclosures
In a disclosure document, you are required to give certain required information about the house you’re selling. This is designed to notify the potential buyer of things that may have a negative effect on their stay in the house. Do not leave out information on purpose as this can have legal consequences. Repairs, water damage, death in the house, and environmental contamination are some examples of things you need to give information about in a disclosure.
6. Negotiate with the buyer and close the deal
When a buyer submits an offer, you can either accept the offer, reject or give a counter offer. If an acceptable price has been agreed upon, you can now begin the process of closing the deal. The buyer’s loan has to be approved, and all necessary payments completed. When all the requirements are met, you can now sign the final documents that would make the sale official.
Taking care of everything above would ensure a smooth sale of the property but we can’t say we have completely covered the topic of how to sell your house we do not cover the emotional stages of selling a house.
The emotional stages of selling a house
The process of selling your house can be physically stressful, but nobody talks about how it can send you on an emotional rollercoaster as well. It’s expected for you to go through these emotional stages of selling a house. You may experience all of them or only a few of them, however, what’s important is for you to identify what you are feeling and know how to deal with it. Listed below are the emotional stages of selling a house:
● Excitement:
Selling your house can be exciting and sometimes this could be because you have to move to a different environment and start a new chapter in your life. You get everything set, you hire a listing agent and you are particularly hands-on when it comes to marketing your house. You are highly optimistic that this is going to be a smooth sale.
● Worry:
You’ve done everything you needed to do and your house is on the market. You have some people coming in to take a look here and there, but there’s no one making an offer. You know that selling a house takes time but you’re now starting to lose patience. You start worrying about the financial implications of owning two homes and you also worry if something is wrong with your house and if you didn’t figure out the selling process correctly.
● Blame:
More people are coming into your house now but you are yet to make a sale and now you start to wonder if the real estate agent you hired is the problem. The offers you’re getting are not matching your expectation at all and you are almost certain that your agent isn’t doing their job well. This is probably the ugliest among the emotional stages of selling a house.
● Acceptance:
At this stage, you’ve started to calm down and have now realized that these things take time sometimes and you would just have to be a little bit patient and wait for the offers to start pouring in.
● Completion:
Offers have finally come and you’re very happy but as the deal you accept starts getting finalized you start thinking about all your memories in this house and realize you’re attached to the house. Now you don’t want to leave but you know you will eventually have to. You become excited again when you think about the new life you’re about to begin. You know you will miss this home but you say your goodbyes anyway and you move forward with hope about what the future holds.
It’s perfectly normal to go through the emotional stages of selling a house. This is why you should prepare for them and try your best to cope with them.
On a final note, hiring a good listing agent that gives you an accurate insight into the state of the market and realistic expectations concerning the sale of your house can go a long way. Tammy is that agent.
Give her a call today at (480)-848-7173.