Seller's Guide

Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.

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 team of real estate agents 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 team of real estate agents once you choose one so they 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 team of real estate agents is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agents 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

We 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. Our 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 team of real estate agents.

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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. We 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 team of real estate agents 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

See why our clients love working with us.
Alba D.

Alba D.

The best Realtors® around! Annie is amazing, she is smart caring, and patient. She made selling our home easy and stress-free. We were able to get top dollars for our property!
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Dara F.

Dara F.

Annie is amazing. This is the 2nd time we have met and she and Kevin were so incredibly helpful. I'm grateful for the time they spent with us helping us to figure out what to do next. Thank you so much, Annie and Kevin.
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Nancy R.

Nancy R.

Annie worked with my tight timeline, showed me how to stage my house with my own furnishings and sold it quickly for a price I didn’t think was possible. She was very responsive to texts or calls and was a delight to work with!
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Becky L.

Becky L.

Kevin and Annie are a superb team of Realtors®. We are out-of-towners, and they helped us buy in the local market while we were still remote. We ended up with the very best fit house for us, and we are very happy with the exper...
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Sarah H.

Sarah H.

She was amazing, and efficient and made it a great experience for a first-time home buyer! I would recommend her to anyone who is buying or selling. She takes the extra time to make sure you have everything you need and I could...
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Austin H.

Austin H.

I worked with Annie and Kevin recently. From day one we had great communication and handled each side of the transaction with ease! The two of them were very enthusiastic and responsive allowing for an easy and quick closing! I...
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Jorge C.

Jorge C.

Nothing beats having the right agent when you are buying or selling a house. It takes a special kind of agent to guide you during a pandemic. The Rocks team Annie and Kevin are the most professional and attentive agents around....
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Crystal M.

Crystal M.

Annie and Kevin have been amazing to work with. Moving out of state and selling a house is stressful but Annie and Kevin have helped lessen the stress of the selling process. They sold our house fast for the full asking price! ...
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Elizabeth B.

Elizabeth B.

Annie and Kevin were exceptional! The perfect combination of understanding, accommodating, and direct. They understood what we wanted and made it happen! We love our new home and our new neighborhood, this wouldn't be possible ...
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Seller

Seller

The Rocks team was amazing in every aspect! I cannot thank and recommend them enough. From the very early stages of selling our home, I could tell that Annie knew what she was doing. And Kevin knew his numbers inside and out. W...
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Gil C.

Gil C.

Annie was great to work with in partnering up with me, the onsite sales consultant to assist a customer in common. The experience was great she brought additional knowledge, expertise, and guidance to our customers. The best pa...
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Philip P.

Philip P.

Annie was awesome throughout the entire process! Always available rain or shine night and day and tirelessly working and keeping the process moving forward. From viewing potential homes to inspections to closing negotiations I ...
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Phoebe Y.

Phoebe Y.

Wish I could give Annie 100 stars! She is hands down the best Realtor® to have by your side when buying or selling a property. Annie took the time to understand our needs and found us a perfect house that crossed every box. She...
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Lorri M.

Lorri M.

Call on The Rocks Team Realtors® for a professional, no-nonsense, get-the-job-done sale of your home. Annie and Kevin were there for us every step of the way and sold our Starkey Ranch home promptly. My husband and I highly rec...
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Jenn

Jenn

I had the pleasure of working with Annie during our home build and am impressed by her dedication to her clients. As an integral part of the home-building team, Annie was present each step of the way. She expertly guided us thr...
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Edwards

Edwards

If you’re considering selling your home, you need to partner with a team that is committed to the best possible outcome for you and your family. Annie and Kevin’s market knowledge, network connections, and extreme attention to ...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

I can’t imagine a better team to have at my side whether buying or selling than The Rocks Team. Annie and Kevin are professional, responsive, and thorough. They go above and beyond typical agents to serve their client's specifi...
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Thea H.

Thea H.

Annie and Kevin truly have a goal to give their clients top priority and make the process a smooth one. They did a fantastic job! Their team is confident and “has it together”, which most certainly relieved any concern or stres...
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Julie

Julie

We recently not only sold 1 home but 2 within a month in Starkey Ranch. We were living out of state and once the decision was made to stay we didn't want to continue paying 2 mortgages for long! They helped us set competitive y...
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Jeff W.

Jeff W.

Annie and Kevin were phenomenal to work with and I couldn’t give them a more gleaming review! My family was relocated to the Tampa area and we were quite unsure about where to focus our search. We were also under extreme time c...
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