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 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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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 Realtor® once you choose one so he or she 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 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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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.

A large white house with a lot of windows. The house has a slate roof and two attached garages.

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. 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.

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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 agent.

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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 Realtor® 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.

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Randy & Laurie M.

I was fortunate to find Steven (Steve to me) as I started to look at homes. My wife and I were living in Elk Grove and knew it was time to leave the area when the Sheriffs were out in our area several times to break up parties ...
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We'll give him a 10. If you're looking for an amazing real estate agent, Steve Rath (with Better Homes Realty is your guy. We were relocating to the area, sat down to the first talk, and tell him what we were looking for. He ac...
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Vicky R.

Steve was an absolute pleasure to work with. He sold my house in Roseville in a week’s time and found me the perfect house in East Sacramento. He also went way out of his normal territory to find my fiancées house in the foothi...
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Julie H.

Steve was referred to us by a close friend when we were relocating back to the Sacramento area. Steve spent numerous weekends with us driving through different neighborhoods and looking at homes. His vast experience and knowled...
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Craig

For more than 20 years I've been impressed with Steve's efforts in the world of real estate. But it really hit home when I moved out of state and I had to use other agents. What I thought was common practice turned out to be St...
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I have bought and sold many homes in the past and Steve Rath is by far the best Real Estate Broker I've ever used or known. Steve's neighborhood and home knowledge are amazing and surpassed only by his negotiating skills. Steve...
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Steven has mastered their market! They know all there is to know and serve their clients exceptionally well. Steven is completely on top of new trends and able to find the houses! Hard to do in this environment. He is terrific ...
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Lynn P.

Steve is a wonderful collaborative Realtor®. His years of experience have made him exceptionally well versed in all aspects of real estate from REO, Short Sales, Residential Sales, and Commercial.
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Becky E.

Steve Rath is a true real estate professional with a pure heart. I admire his hard work ethic for his clients and co-Realtors® like myself. His integrity and advice are priceless.
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I’ve known Steve for almost 30 years and he has always been a person of very high character and extremely knowledgeable in the Real Estate market. I highly recommend his services!
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Steve did a great job for me trying to find a new house in Sacramento. He listened carefully to my parameters and worked hard. Nice to work with!
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