A step by step guide to selling your home

Seller's Guide

Selling With Zalone. A Step-by-Step Guide.

Selling a home can sometimes feel stressful or overwhelming for many sellers, but it doesn’t have to. As a top performing agent, I have diversified skills in working with buyers and sellers, which provides me an advantage of understanding and negotiating from both sides of a transaction. I am able to better serve my clients and help to navigate each step of the process to ensure a seamless and successful experience.


As a real estate expert/professional, my goal is to provide personalized, high-quality service to each and every seller and to help you achieve a successful sale that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations.


If you are considering listing your property for sale, I can promise you a fair, thorough and confidential evaluation. Contact me today regarding your real estate objectives.

Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

Every listing is different depending on the seller's needs and wants. Each seller has their own specific requirements or list of items that are most important to them. It's my job to listen to what matters to you most. Then, based on your criteria, I’m able to prepare a listing action plan that works best for you and your family with the goal of selling your home for top dollar. In today's fast-paced real estate market, communication is key to a successful transaction. Effective communication is one of my top priorities.

Step 2: Determine a Selling Price, Signing Seller Disclosures and the Listing Agreement

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. Pricing a home correctly from the start will help you maximize the attention on your home and allow you the best opportunity to get the highest possible offer.

Overpricing your home can lead to reduced interest and you lose that peak marketing time. You have the most leverage as a Seller in the first 30 days your home is on the market. Your listing is fresh and you have buyers’ attention. If your home is overpriced during this timeline to “see what kind of offer you can get” you’re sure to lose traffic and attention during this critical window.

After we decide on a fair selling price, we will work together to make sure we complete the proper paperwork in order to disclose everything about the property to a potential buyer. Then we will review and sign the Listing Agreement.

Start Preparations

Step 3: Start Preparations

Pre-Open Title/Escrow to Ensure a Clean Title:

Prior to Listing your property, we will pre-open Escrow with a reputable and respected Title Company. The Title Company will start the process by obtaining your Preliminary Title Report and conducting a title search. This step is a critical piece in ensuring a smooth transaction process. It allows a seller and title company time to uncover any unknown title problems and correct them before we even list the property, avoiding seller delays after we have a buyer. This step ensures that there are no title issues or encumbrances that may hinder the sale process, providing confidence to both you and prospective buyers.

Most people don’t know the condition of title to their property. Maybe they don’t realize that their line of credit is secured by their house, or that the judgment they suffered after not paying their credit card is now a lien against their property or that their Solar Lease is a lien on the property. The only way for a seller to be sure that they have a clear title is to have a title search done.

Pre-Listing Inspections:

Typically, the inspections take place after a home is in contract and the Buyer coordinates and pays for them. BUT, a Seller can actually prevent unexpected surprises during a transaction even before we list the property for sale. By conducting a pre-listing inspection(s), you can better prepare your home so when we do have a buyer, you can close in the shortest amount of time and as seamlessly as possible. If Inspections are done after an offer has been accepted, and the inspection reports reveal any unknown defects, a buyer may feel they have another negotiating opportunity.

By scheduling a pre-listing inspection with one of our trusted home inspectors, you can have peace of mind knowing that any surprises shouldn't arise during the buyer's inspections. This professional inspection conducted before listing your home provides the opportunity to address possible repairs that a buyer may require, disclose those items in the listing and allow us to adjust the price accordingly.

Should you decide to proceed with any pre-listing inspections or repairs we would:

  1. Discuss reports and recommendations: We will thoroughly review the inspection reports and recommendations with you, ensuring that any repairs or maintenance issues are addressed before listing your property.
  2. Enhance marketability: The pre-listing inspection allows us to arrange for any necessary maintenance or improvements that can make your property more appealing to potential buyers and solicit the best offers.
  3. We have established long-term relationships with trusted professionals, including licensed contractors, plumbers, electricians, painters, cleaning services, landscapers, and many others. By connecting you with these reliable referrals, we can help address any repair or maintenance needs identified during the inspection. This ensures that your home is in the best possible condition before it is listed for sale.

By taking advantage of the pre-listing inspections and related services, you can maximize the marketability of your home, address necessary repairs, and ensure a smooth and successful selling experience.

Home Staging:

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 for professional photos and video and for it 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.

The first impression is the key factor in selling a home. You may want to consider Home Staging. Buying a home is an emotional experience…it’s about buying a dream. Staging creates a lifestyle or ambiance. It is an art of preparing a home to appeal to the greatest number of potential buyers in your market. The right arrangements can move you into a higher price-point and help buyers fall in love the moment they walk through the door. Staging can transform blank walls and floors into a warm and welcoming home that buyers can relate to. The right staging can inspire buyers to realize just how valuable your home really is, and see the potential of their life in that home unfolding with every room they explore. See the National Association of REALTORS about Why Home Staging Inspires the Best Prices in Any Housing Market. We have the resources to have your home staged with a professional Stager.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I will develop a marketing strategy that is most effective for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. My extensive marketing aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing as quickly as possible.

We aggressively and persistently advertise your home. Here are some of the marketing channels we use:

  • Listing Distribution to Consumer Real Estate Websites: In addition to the MLS, I distribute your home listing to the top premier consumer websites including Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Redfin.com and several others.
  • Digital Marketing: Digital Marketing is the heart of our online world and includes the creation of my exclusive real estate websites, designed to make your property easily found online. Your digital marketing will include your exclusive property webpage, giving potential buyers an overview of your property and community.
  • Featured Property Listings: Your property will be featured on my Featured Listings Webpage.
  • Internet Advertising: I invest in ongoing Internet advertising campaigns that include Google and Facebook I also belong to several private social media groups/platforms that I feature the property on.
  • Professional Photography, Aerial Drone Photos & Video: I believe that each home deserves award-winning magazine-quality photography. And since over 90% of today’s home buyers conduct their home searches online, it’s a fact that homes offering the best photos will generate much more interest than homes with average or poor-quality images. Beyond investing in the best photography possible, I market on my own exclusive websites to showcase these high-quality images.
  • Exclusive Video Tour: A custom video tour featuring your home and your area/community will be featured on my real estate websites and my YouTube channel, if appropriate.
  • Property Brochure or Flyer: Print media will be developed for placement within your property.
  • Extensive Networking: I leverage my extensive network of contacts and industry expertise to help find the best possible buyer for your home.

Solid representation starts with my experience of successfully negotiating hundreds of transactions on behalf of my clients. During the marketing and sales process, me and my client services team will keep you informed with regular feedback and communication every step of the way.

Agents like myself, who are innovative and offer new methods of attracting buyers will measurably outperform agents who rely on outdated methods of the past such as newspaper ads or open houses.

Throughout the entire selling process, we maintain open and transparent communication with you, keeping you informed about any developments and providing regular updates on the status of your property.

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 pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. I take this a step further and personally reach out to the Lender to gauge the level of the buyer pre-approval.

When an offer is received, we will review and evaluate the proposed contract to make sure it’s all in order and includes the necessary components, such as the purchase offer amount, deposit amount, down payment, financing, inspections, appraisal (contingencies), settlement date, a list of fees and who will pay them, and any other terms included.

I will help you navigate the negotiation process and provide experienced feedback in regards to responding to offers.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once we deem the offer is acceptable and when both parties have agreed to the terms, the purchase contract will be signed.

Step 7: During Escrow

You have accepted an offer and are now a step closer 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, the Buyer may choose to have the property formally inspected and the Lender may require an appraisal. I will help you navigate the process when a Buyer provides us with any inspection reports and/or has any requests not presented at that time of their offer.

During this time, the Buyers will also be responsible for reviewing and acknowledging/signing all of the Seller Disclosures that we provided prior to them submitting an offer. They must also perform any contractual obligations, including removing contingencies (unless otherwise waived in the initial offer). The Lender is responsible for keeping the loan moving forward, communicating with us and the Title Company throughout the transaction and ensuring a successful and timely closing.

Step 8: Closing

You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a property that you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer. The Title Company and Lender will work closely to finalize any final documents and will schedule an appointment for you and the Buyer to sign your final paperwork.

During this time, you can also make arrangements to handle final details such as canceling utilities, electricity, gas, internet/cable, water, sewer, garbage, and any ongoing services such as lawn care, pest services, etc. Utilities MUST remain on until close of escrow. Generally, Sellers have the utilities turned off the day after we close escrow.

Lastly, I will collect any house keys, mail keys, gate keys, clubhouse/pool keys, remotes and obtain smart device instructions and have sellers remove personal profiles from Security Products or other Smart Home Devices, such as RING, thermostats, etc. These will be given to the Buyer’s Agent to turn over to the new Buyer.

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step in your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city or state, 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.

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