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Seller’s Guide

Selling your home.

The first step is to find a real estate agent that you trust and like. Realtors have advantages in selling real estate that allow them to get maximum return on your investment. They are also there to help guide you through the process.

Prepare your home.

Before the home goes on the market, it’s important to make sure the home looks it’s best. Our team gives recommendations for getting a property ready for market before listing it. Depending on the home and it’s current state, here are some suggestions that we may make to our clients:

  • Fresh coat of paint
  • New flooring
  • Carpet cleaning
  • New light fixtures
  • Remodel kitchen / bath
  • Spruce up the landscaping
  • Declutter & depersonalize
  • Staging
  • None of the recommendations are required to list with us, but we do like to give homeowners our
  • opinion if they want to get the home sold for top dollar.

Determine a listing price.

Deciding on a listing price is a collaborative task. Your real estate agent can give you a suggested price based on your home in comparison to other listings in the neighborhood, but ultimately the listing price is up to you to decide as the seller. Price is extremely important in effectively getting a property sold.

Launching the listing.

Our team creates a custom marketing plan tailored to the home and location. Once the home is ready to hit the market, we take professional photos, video and a virtual 3D tour to utilize across our marketing. These are showcased on our website, the Coldwell Banker website and syndicating sites, the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), property brochure, mailer, eblast, air spot on the Coldwell Banker TV show – At Home in Southern California, The View Magazine and more.

Showings.

Your real estate agent will arrange showings with prospective buyers. It’s important to have the home tidy for each showing. Your agent will also get the house ready to show by turning lights on, turning on music, if accessible, and straightening up items around the house. Once the showing is over, all lights will be turned off and the home will be locked up.

Offers.

Your real estate agent will present all offers to you. Offers may differ in more areas than just price. Contingency periods, the escrow period, and financing are a few other ways offers may differ. It is important to take into account all components of the offer and then start the negotiation process. Your real estate can help guide you through this process.

Open escrow.

Once both parties come to an agreement on the contract, escrow and title will be opened. The date the contract is accepted becomes the “acceptance date”. Escrow will issue wire instructions to the buyer to send the Earnest Money Deposit.
Seller’s disclosures. Sellers are required to disclose information about the property. These disclosures must be shared with the buyer within 7 days of the acceptance date.

Inspections.

The buyer will conduct inspections on the home during the inspection period. The buyer will analyze and may try to negotiate repairs or a credit for any unforeseen issues with the home.

Removing contingencies.

After the buyer conducts all inspections, negotiates any potential repairs, reviews the seller’s disclosures and asks any necessary questions, it’s time to remove contingencies. The standard period for these contingencies is 17 days after acceptance. The lender will gather documents and order the appraisal of the property. If the property appraises and the lender gives full loan approval, then the appraisal and loan contingencies will be removed. The standard period for the appraisal contingency is 17 days and standard for loan contingency is 21 days after acceptance.

Loan documents.

Loan documents are sent to escrow and escrow then arranges a time for the buyers to sign. Documents are delivered back to the lender so they can prepare to fund.

Final walk-through.

The buyer has the opportunity to do a final walk-through of the house to make sure the house is in the same condition as when they made the offer, and to confirm that repairs were made if any were agreed to in a Request for Repairs during the inspection contingency period.

Funding.

Buyer’s closing funds are wired to escrow. Lender’s funds for the loan are then wired to escrow.

Closing.

Once all funds are in escrow, the deed is released for recording. Once recorded, escrow closes and the keys are handed over to the buyer.

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