Home Selling Checklist

It's not an easy job to sell a house. It's a detailed process. You don't just advertise your house, meet a buyer, negotiate and sell it. There's a lot more involved and you should have a checklist that you should follow when selling your house. The home selling checklist includes some procedures that you must do in correlation to selling a home.

Below are things you should pay attention to before placing your house on the market:

- First off decide whether you want to pay an agent to sell your house or you do it by yourself. Paying a real estate agent means there's less effort involved on your part when selling your house. An agents job is to market, promote and show the house as necessary. They should also act as a mediator between the buyer and seller and over see the entire process to make it as smooth as possible. However, selling your house FSBO (For Sale By Owner) means no realtor commisions which will save you thousands of dollars when the house sells. If you're willing to put in the work required when selling by owner, it can be worth the money saved.

- Be a communicative and informed seller. It is necessary to your promotion strategy. You can use the media to promote your home, such as newspaper classified ad's, pamphlets, flyers and/or websites. Be prepared to answer any questions that a buyer might have about the property. Also, set time aside during the week when you can show or have the house shown. By having prearranged showing times during the week before hand, you don't have to scramble to clear your schedule and do last minute cleaning before the potential buyer(s) arrive.

- Get your house ready to sell by doing some improvments on the house exterior, interior, and update old appliances. The nicer a house looks, the quicker it will sell. If the lawn is overgrown and the paint is chipped and faded, mow the lawn and paint the exterior. Another tip is to paint the interior a neutral color, update the carpeting if it's old and worn down and replace outdated fixtures.

- Decide whether you want to pay a professional to do a pre-listing house inspection or not. Doing a home inspection before placing your house on the market is a good idea. By being aware of any problems ahead of time such as the furnace needs to be replaced or the roof needs to be fixed, you can either fix them before placing the house on the market or offer seller concessions to a potential buyer.

- Donate or sell some of your unnecessary furniture and appliances. Staging a home is very important when presenting it to buyers. If the home is cluttered and unorganized, remove some of the furniture and store it off site or have a yard sale and sell it with other unwanted items. Also, remove personal photos and minimize wall hangings to present a neutral environment to the buyers. The goal is for them to envision their belongings in the house, not yours.

- Get familiar with financing terms, such as mortgage financing (fixed, adjustable, seller financing, assumable loans), pre-qualified and pre-approved. Understanding these terms will benefit you when it comes time to dealing paperwork and contracts.

- Get familiar with negotiating such things as contracts, written offers, financing deals, etc. You should learn to do some counter offer approaching and all that's involved with the seller transaction process

.- Know about what you can improve or not with the house. Things you can improve are the interior, exterior and updating appliances. What you can't improve are things such as location, style, the school system, etc.

- Decide whether you will put a home warranty to your house or not. Offering some type of warranty may make all the difference in whether the house sells or not.

- Start searching for tips on buying a new house while you are still selling your old one. Where are you going to live once your house sells? What things should you be looking for as a buyer? Learn what you can from selling your house and apply it to buying your next home.

- Start planning your move by packing and storing items ahead of time. As mentioned above about storing extra furniture off site, it's never too early to start packing items and preping for the move. Start by packing items that you don't use or out of season items first. Also, have a detailed moving plan in place so that you can start moving right away once your house is sold.

The home selling checklist above shows you that there are some important things to consider when selling a house. You should pay attention to the home selling checklist and do the steps correctly.

See you next time...

Warmest regards,

Daniel Durham
Founder of Region Real Estate Resource
http://www.RegionRealEstateResource.com