Seller's Guide

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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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 they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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Determine The 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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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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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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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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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 terms, a final contract will be prepared by your agent.

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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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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 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.

Testimonials

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Katie Shreve

I am so grateful to have Claire helping me search for my new home. She is a huge advocate and genuinely wants to put people in their dream home. She is incredibly communicative, and the best agent I’ve worked with by far!
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Erica Walker

Claire is The Best! She helped us navigate the confusing world of real estate and helped us find our dream home! She is very sweet, super attentive, informative and so, so helpful! I highly recommend Claire’s services! :)
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Ben Krebsbach

Claire is extremely professional and has a deep knowledge of all the West Seattle neighborhoods. She was able to work with my schedule, and she brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm, while still being realistic about the proper...
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Loretta Beaman

Claire is FABULOUS, I wish there were more stars!! She went above and beyond time and again, kept us in the loop every step of the way, and was never too busy to answer our call! A pure delight to work with! Highly recommend!!
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John Maulding

Claire is exactly what the real estate business needs: transparency, hustle, consistency, and enthusiasm. I recently asked a 29 year real estate veteran what they thought of Claire and they said "she's so good...I wish I could ...
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Tyler Gjersee

Claire did everything we asked of her and more. After viewing some houses casually, the perfect house became available and she was immediately available to tour and make an offer. I truly believe her advice on how we structured...
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Craig Bettles

I worked with Christina to buy my current home. She was great to work with and really helped with securing a place in a really hot market. I would recommend Christina for anyone shopping for a home in the Seattle metro area.
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Chris Wilhelm

Christina was an incredibly helpful guide for my partner and I while searching for a new home. Her insights on the home-buying process and the housing market empowered us to serch for and find what we were looking for. If I wer...
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Teri Vigeant

Very knowledgeable. Chris goes above and beyond what most realtors do. I have been investing in real estate for over 30 years. She’s the best realtor I’ve ever worked with. I Highly recommended her for any real estate transacti...
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Ian Cameron

My experience with Christina was incredible! As first-timers, my partner and I knew so little, but Christina made us feel so comfortable and got us up to speed as we jumped into the Seattle market. Even with our very limited bu...
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Madeline Kernan

Christina is a fabulous realtor! She made me and my husband (first time buyers with a small budget) feel supported and welcomed! She is both a shrewd businessperson while being warm and fun to hang out with. We loved meeting he...
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Emily Hartl

Christina is excellent. From the beginning of the process of preparing my house to sell to the last days before closing, I felt taken care. Her attention to detail is unmatched and she is so warm and responsive! I cannot recomm...
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Katie Condit

Christina Castillo is the best realtor I could have imagined working with. She is brilliant in her field, and is also a very committed professional when it comes to ensuring you know every detail of the process and feel confide...
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Julia Cox

Christina did an amazing job helping us get our home ready to be sold and then getting it sold. We had lived in our home for 17 years. She was great at helping us figure out what changes, upgrades were necessary to make the mos...
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Ana

Phillip Belenky and Jill Petersen were exceptionally the best!!!. They treated us as if we were their only customer, spending their precious time to Accommodate us and helping us with staging our house to showing us properties....
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Matthew

The personal attention and guidance throughout the process of buying our new home and selling our old home. Mark and Jill do all the little things that really make a difference and they take all the extra steps to make sure we'...
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Lauren

ill Petersen is a reliable & conscientious broker who I is very organized and thorough in her approach. I have & will continue to recommend her.
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Tara

Jill Petersen was the perfect associate for this transaction. She was professional, responsive, proactive and resourceful. Very pleasant to work with. I'd recommend Jill to my friends.
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Jonathan

Jill Petersen is professional, responsive, great at following up, and friendly broker. We were glad to have the opportunity to work with Jill. Highly recommended to friends and family.
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John

Jill was very precise, diligent, and by the book. I felt safe with Jill, knowing our transaction was being monitored closely by professional eyes. I like that Jill is sensitive to our needs, and responds to texts and emails in ...
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