At your listing appointment, you will meet with a real estate agent at your home. It’s important to understand everyone’s roles in the process and how agents may cooperate to sell your house.

Demand Sets Price

After conferring with the listing agent on market conditions and comparable nearby sales and properties on the market, the home seller will set the listing, or asking, price for the house.

What Conveys with The Home?

The home seller must be ready to supply the listing agent with a specific inventory of the personal property that is included in the real estate property for sale. Examples of items to “convey” may include draperies, drapery rods, remaining heating oil, firewood, washer, dryer, refrigerator, stove, microwave, swimming pool chemicals, awnings, storm doors and windows, screens, blinds, shutters, and window air conditioners, among similar items. The home seller should tag or remove items that are not intended to convey.

Listing Agreement

When the home seller is ready to put the house on the market, a listing agreement is completed, indicating a specific period the agreement is in effect (also known as the listing period), and this is signed by the seller. You’ve now hired a listing broker and listing agent.

Today, the home that stands out among similarly priced houses is the home that sells. Why? Because it makes a good first impression that lasts right to the settlement table.

1. Curb Appeal – Make sure you have a trimmed lawn and well-proportioned shrubs. Remove garden hoses, lawn tools, the doghouse, and toys from the yard. Check for flat-fitting roof shingles, straight lines on gutters, shutters, windows and siding, and solid caulking around frames and seams. Paint where needed and keep walks and steps free of snow and ice if selling in the winter.
2. Property Repairs – Simple upgrades such as a fresh coat of paint, replacing hardware and light fixtures, will instantly brighten up the property.
3. Cleanliness – Declutter, depersonalize, and deep clean! Have your carpets professionally cleaned, long with your weekly cleaning, you should clean windows and screens, disinfect bathrooms, and keep kitchen appliances spotless and in working condition. Unclutter kitchen and bathroom countertops.
4. Staging – Increase lighting, stay neutral for broad appeal, arrange furniture, organize pillows, and add a vase of fresh flowers, can go a long way to improving staging your home.

Your listing agent and other buyer’s brokers will be bringing prospective buyers to see your house. Buyers’ brokers will make an appointment with your listing agent and give you as much advance notice as possible. That will give you time to tidy up, make beds, light dark areas, and perhaps pop something sweet smelling in the oven. Make every effort to accept all appointments—you never know when your buyer will walk through the front door. Buyers feel more comfortable discussing the property with the agent if you are not there. Your agent will know what information will be most useful in representing your interests when speaking with prospective buyers.

The presentation of a contract begins when the listing agent presents the offer to the home seller. The listing agent acts as the home seller’s advisor to find a win-win agreement to all parties involved. A decision on an offer should be made when it’s presented, if possible. A home seller has three possible options.

1. Accept the offer as written.
2. Make a counteroffer on unacceptable aspects. Counteroffers are often written in the margin of the contract or in addenda and initialed by the home seller. A purchase offer with counters is not a ratified contract until the homebuyer accepts and initials the counter-offered terms. Buyers can withdraw, accept or counter the counteroffer.
3. Reject the offer if it is unacceptable in its entirety.

A contract exists when it is signed and all terms, including changes, are ratified by initials of all buyers and sellers.

Contingencies

A few professionals come into the home-selling process during this period, including a home inspector (if requested by the buyer), well and septic inspectors, termite inspector, appraiser and attorneys.

Loan Approval

After the buyer receives written loan approval, the buyer’s and listing agents will coordinate a settlement date. Your listing agent will confirm the date, place and time, and may give you a checklist of everything you need to bring to settlement. You should notify utility companies to transfer accounts when you make definite moving plans.

Walk-Through

The purpose of the walk-through inspection is to determine if conditions in the contract are satisfied. This is not the time for the buyer to inspect and note defects for correction. Repair or replacement items should be noted in the contract through the home inspection process. It is up to the buyer to perform the inspection, not the seller who may or may not be present. The buyer should be accompanied by the buyer’s broker and/or the listing agent. The seller must have utilities on so that equipment can be operated

At settlement, there will be an attorney or title company representative, the buyers, the listing and selling brokers and all owners, though in some locations the buyers and sellers can schedule separate settlement appointments. The seller should bring all warranties on equipment (or leave them in the house) and any instructions on equipment maintenance or operation.

With the seller, the attorney explains the deed and settlement sheets and obtains the seller’s signature. The seller pays appropriate closing costs, typically including real estate commissions.

Disbursement

The attorney or title company will disburse proceeds after all funds are in hand, checks have cleared, the new lender has reviewed papers, the title has been re-checked and the deed recorded. The seller should not plan to receive funds for up to four days, although they may be disbursed the same day in some localities. The house has now been sold, settled and funds disbursed