Sell Your Home in Florida or Michigan

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.

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 Real Estate Agent once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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.

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.

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.

Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. I 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.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once I deem the offer is acceptable, I 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.

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, I 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.

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. I 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 Real Estate Agent 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

Rob B

Helped us get the home we wanted in a very competitive market! Alex and Michael were great to work with. They are highly experienced professionals and know the market. They were able to guide us and negotiate on our behalf to g...

Liz B

Seemless process! Alex was great to work with. He is extrememly professional, very organized and responsive. He gave us great recommendations on some changes to make to our home in order to make it more marketable. He used a va...

Veronica G

Did a great job! Extremely professional. Put together an awesome marketing plan and executed it to perfection. Extreme attention to detail, would absolutely work with him again. Verified by RateMyAgent

Fizza H

Two words: Frickin’ Awesome!! Alex and Michael are hands down the best team you can hire as real estate agents. Here are three reasons why we would recommend them: 1) From the first call through the end, Alex is your advocate. ...

Deb C

Outstanding Overall Experience Alex was great to work with. He was both our selling and buying agent and exceeded expectations on both ends! When selling, he was extremely knowledgeable of the market, put together a thorough & ...

Diana M

Knowledgeable and Professional Alex did a fantastic job making our selling experience a positive one. He and his team came highly recommended to us and we found them to be true professionals. Alex is knowledgeable and excel...

Christopher K

Very Professional I can't tell you what a great realtor Alex Nugent is. Mr. Nugent is knowledgeable, hard-working, and professionally well-connected. He got me into my current relocation home in under 30 days. Alex knows his bu...

Shauna B

I could not have dreamed of a better experience! Alex and his team were so wonderful to work with. Extremely responsive, caring, knowledgeable, and professional. They made the process easy to understand and follow. The pictures...

Nancy G

I can't tell you what a great realtor Alex Nugent is. Mr. Nugent is knowledgeable, hard-working, and professionally well-connected. He got me into my current relocation home in under 30 days. Alex knows his business and works w...

J. Lajoie

Very professional and very detailed service in a short amount of time. Always easy to ask questions and always prompt in reply. Made our whole experience less stressful. We have a whole new appreciation for the real estate mark...

Roger W.

The entire team has been excellent to work with. Great communication throughout the process. Informed, data-driven assistance in seeing the price. Strong marketing that drove lots of qualified traffic. Valuable and pertinent ad...

D. Hayen

Alex and his team are amazing! We had to move my mom out of state leaving her home of nearly 50 years to sell. Alex and his team coordinated all the of details of preparing and listing the house and then working through inspect...

Rai A.

I used Michael to buy my first home a few years ago and when we were ready to sell and buy again we went back to him. Not only did it help me get above asking in less than 3 days but we found a home and got an offer accepted in...

Seller

Alex is the best. He’s responsive and savvy. He hustles and has an answer for everything. Working with him is easy and a pleasure. He is far better than any agent I’ve worked with, and I’ve worked with many.

Frank S.

Alex and his team were professional and hard-working. I had tried to sell my house 3 years ago with another agent with no success. I was worried that I was going to have that same issue again, boy was I wrong? Alex not only met...

Suzzane Z.

The Alex Nugent Team was fabulous! They exceeded all my expectations! Everything that Alex said would happen, happened. We received two offers (above the asking price) on day one - before the sign was even in the yard! Alex was...

Mike B.

Alex's Team was on top of things during every step of the process. We sold our old home super fast got our asking price, and were able to buy our dream home! They know what they're doing and are absolutely great to work with!

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Seller's Guide