The process of selling your home can seem intimidating and opaque, especially if you’ve never done it before. Even though you went through the buying process when you purchased the property, being on the other side has its own set of considerations. Your home is a huge investment, and I want to make sure that you realize as much profit as possible when you sell! A big part of my role as your Realtor® is making sure that you understand and are comfortable with the process – that you feel informed and in control at each step. This is Part 2 of a 4 part series on the home selling process - check out Part 1 here, and then read on!
Part 2:
You’ve met with your favorite agent 🙋♀️ and pre-listing prep (staging, cleaning, photos) is all done, with your property looking super fly - now what?
Thanks to all of our pre-listing prep, your property is in tip top condition - let’s show it off! We’ll enter all of the property’s information on the MLS, the multiple listing service, where real estate agents share and look for properties. (In the Denver Metro, it’s REColorado.) We may put it on the MLS in “Coming Soon” status for up to a week before it goes live - this means that agents can share the listing with their clients, but it will not be visible to the public, or shared on other sites like Zillow or Redfin, until it is officially active. Coming Soon status can help build interest and momentum in a property before it’s even listed.
Once the property is live, it will generally be syndicated out to Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, and any number of other similar sites. This is a good thing - we want as many people as possible to see your listing!
Once the listing is live on the MLS, you want potential buyers and their agents to be able to schedule showings. Showings can be allowed as soon as the listing is live, or there can be a delay or time restriction. As the seller, the parameters around showings are completely up to you - but generally, it is best to allow as many people as possible to see the property, hopefully generating more offers.
How do showings get scheduled? Most agents in the Denver market currently use a platform called ShowingTime, which allows buyer’s agents to schedule showings and receive access information automatically. ShowingTime also allows listing agents to set restrictions on showings, disallowing them before or after certain times or on certain days, or only allowing one agent at a time to schedule in a certain showing window (this is currently the standard practice during COVID). As the seller, you can choose to allow all showings to be approved immediately (“Go and Show”, common when the property is vacant or the seller is out of town for the weekend), or to require an appointment that you must approve before the buyer’s agent gets the access information. The latter may be preferable if you are still living in the home or are working from home and need extra notice.
What is the timing of showings? Common timing in the Denver market is to list on a Wednesday or Thursday and allow showings Thursday or Friday through Sunday (when most folks are able to be out looking).
A note on showings in February 2021: the market is currently showing high buyer demand, and a high number of showings on each listing. If you are still living in the home, you may want to choose a few days to be gone - either for the day each day, or out of town for the weekend - so that potentially 70-100 showings over the course of the weekend are less of a burden to you!
Once you’re listed and have had some showings, we hope to see an offer or two start rolling in! We may call for all offers in by a certain day/time, with a set time that you will review them, or you can review them as they come in.
What makes a good offer? This all depends on what YOU value. Is a quick close more important to you than an extra $5-10k? Will one buyer ask for less at inspection, or offer to cover some closing costs? What about an appraisal gap? (Especially important if the buyer is offering over your list price.) As your agent, I also perform my due diligence on each offer - talking with the buyer’s agent and the buyer’s lender. Are they clear, communicative, and easily reachable? That can make the difference between two similar offers! I will help you understand the differences between offers and make sure that you choose the one that is best for you. If you like most of the terms of an offer, we may go back to the buyer and ask if they’re willing to change it - come up in price, shorten the contract period, etc. If you have multiple offers, we may be able to negotiate exactly what you’re looking for!
Once you’ve made a decision, you’ll sign that offer, which means you are officially UNDER CONTRACT! This is where our next installment will start - check back next week!
Generally shortly before you list, but at the latest, once you go under contract, you’ll complete some disclosures to submit to the buyer. These include the Seller’s Property Disclosure (giving notice of any known adverse conditions of the property), Square Footage Disclosure, Source of Water Disclosure, and a Lead Based Paint Disclosure (if your home was built before 1978).
For showings during COVID times, I will provide gloves, booties, and disinfecting wipes as a “Sanitation Station” for agents and buyers at the door.
A note on lockboxes: I use SentriLock lockboxes, which are electronic and generate a specific access code for each person who sets a showing. The code only works during the showing window, and the system will show us who accessed the lockbox and when. I prefer these to mechanical lockboxes for ease and safety!
Up next: What happens once you’re under contract?
This has been steps 3-5 of the selling process! If you have any specific questions, please contact me and let’s talk it through – I would love to be a resource for you.
You can also peek at the whole timeline below:
