Seller's Guide

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 agent  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 realtor® once you choose one so he or she 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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent 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

I 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. My 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 agent.

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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. I 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 realtor® 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.

Testimonials

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Bingham

Carly Seiff is an exceptional Realtor® in every sense of the word and we highly recommend her as an agent who will achieve your goal to the highest degree. After losing our mom, and finding it necessary to sell our family home ...
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Alex H.

Carly is incredible at her job. I just purchased our first home in the San Mateo area. Being first-time buyers, we were both clueless and nervous about the whole process (especially since this area moves fast and is hyper-compe...
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Alisa R.

Carly Baleix (Now Carly Seiff) helped us purchase our home in San Mateo this year. She is an exceptional Realtor®. We were first-time buyers, thrown into our situation unexpectedly, and very unprepared. Our home-buying process ...
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Alisa W.

Carly Seiff helped us purchase our home in San Mateo in 2014. She is an exceptional Realtor®. We were first-time buyers, thrown into our situation unexpectedly, and very unprepared. Our home-buying process (like that of many bu...
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L F.

My husband and I had the pleasure of working with Carly a couple of times over the past four years. She is an extremely dedicated Realtor® and will go above and beyond to help you purchase your new home. We are originally from ...
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Mike D.

I'm putting this part at the top because it is all you need to know: calling Carly a Realtor® is like calling Neil deGrasse Tyson a science teacher. Sure, you are technically correct, but it lacks the gravitas of how uniquely t...
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Steve L.

We've worked with Carly for buying our home in Menlo Park as well as selling our home in San Mateo. If we were to do any other real estate transaction again, we are surely going to work with Carly. She was able to provide hones...
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Cathy B.

Carly is a wonderful agent. She is dedicated, a go-getter, very professional. She listened well to what we said we wanted and also deduced from our body language and emotional reactions what we responded well to in a home. She ...
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Anga L.

Carly did an amazing job throughout our first-time home buying process. In retrospect, we realized more and more that she allowed us to go through our process and journey to buying our first home. She was supportive and patient...
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Alisa W.

In the real estate industry, honesty is a rare commodity, but Carly has it in spades. It was so reassuring and refreshing! She proves that you can be an assertive, and highly effective Realtor® without ever sacrificing integrit...
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Susan S

My husband and I have purchased two homes and sold one with Carly's work with Carly, you won’t regret it! Carly is savvy, dedicated, and diligent. We knew we loved Carly as buyers, but she took our esteem over the top when we s...
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Trudy H.

Carly was so great helping us find a home. Not only did she find a place to suit our needs, but she was also able to help us close below the asking price which is unheard of in this market! She had so much patience with us as w...
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Buyer

As first-time home buyers, and in an extremely competitive market, Carly helped us buy a house after making only one offer! Her understanding of our wants/needs and the local market allowed us to narrow in on the best house for...
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Hunter H.

Carly was an extremely patient and wise educator. Her knowledge of the local neighborhoods is second to none, and she was always able to give us excellent lists of pros and cons for each area we explored. Carly has lived here h...
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