Finding a buyer is just one aspect of selling home.

Do your research to find a trusted Realtor; ask friends and family for a recommendation. Think of what’s important to you when selecting an agent and make a list of questions to ask when doing interviews.

Take time to research and come up with the right price for your home. Your Realtor can be a good resource for this. Your Realtor should come with a Comparable Market Analysis (CMA), he should have access to tools that will tell you how your market is doing – Hot, Cold, or Neutral. After gathering all information, make an educated decision to come up with an optimal starting price for your home.

Clean and declutter your home. Repair and fix the issues you are aware of. It is recommended to hire a professional home inspection company to find the issues before the potential buyer finds and leverage for negotiating the price. Professionally staging your house can also help increase traction. Your Realtor should be aware of the latest trend and can give you recommendations or refer to the professionals accordingly. Remember, the buyers are visualizing them spending their life in the house they are purchasing.

Think of it as the only opportunity to show the best of your home. Hire a professional to take high-quality pictures, videos, and if possible, virtual tours. Being one of the Realtor’s duties, he/she should be able to come up with marketing material – not only visual material but also great verbiage and taglines – mixed with technology, and plan. Work with the agent closely reviewing, providing comments, and approving all the materials and the plan.

Alright! Great job on coming thus far. The trend shows that an open house and giving unrestricted access, like with a lockbox, have more showings than with appointments only. Try to be as flexible as possible to show your home to potential buyers. Check with your Realtor to see what is and what isn’t allowed during the showing – audio and visual recordings, pets, and current city or county restrictions. A Good Realtor should be able to set up a great open house – it sure leaves a great impact on the buyers and their agents.

The highest offer is not always the best offer. Here you need your Realtor’s help the most. Your Realtor should be reading between the lines, preparing the positives and negatives of the offers, and presenting them to you in the most understandable way. That way you can compare them side by side and choose the best of them. After selecting the top one, start negotiating to get the best out of them. You can either accept the offer as is or make a counter offer. This process can take a few days until all parties can come to a mutual agreement on terms.

After you accept the offer, it’s time to open escrow. Depending on the terms of your offer, the escrow period is typically 30-60 days. The buyer will need to send the initial deposit (the earnest money deposit) to escrow. You should receive a receipt for the deposit. You need to order a title policy.

Typically, the buyer’s lender will hire an appraiser to determine your home’s value. Make sure to keep and show the best of your home. A lower value than the agreed price in the appraisal can allow the buyer to start haggling the price once again. The appraisal is typically scheduled within a week from acceptance of your offer and it usually takes 3-5 days to receive the report, once the appraisal has been completed.

The buyer may or may not rely on your home inspection. They may hire their own inspector to perform a home inspection. Typically, the buyer is provided 10-17 days to complete all inspections. The inspector will go into the attic, basement, and on the roof. Make sure to provide easy access to the inspector. If ordered all, usually, termite, home, sewer, and roof inspections are performed at different dates or times by different professionals. In California, a termite inspection report is a public record that can be provided with a request. After the inspection is performed, the buyer will be provided with the inspection reports in about 24-48 hours.

You will have 7 days from acceptance of the offer to provide the buyer with all of the disclosures for the home. If you opted for a shorter escrow term, then it is a good idea to work with your Realtor and have them ready ahead of time. The realtor should assist you with the seller’s disclosure forms.

Accepting a request for repairs is not necessary, but I would choose my option cautiously. While they cannot advise or make a decision for you, having a Realtor on your side can give suggestions and feel for the other side. This can also open another “counter offers back and forth” situation. The buyer may also ask for a credit towards escrow. Again, an experienced Realtor can guide you in the right direction on a case-by-case basis.

At this point, both sides should start removing their contingencies. A good Realtor and/or their Transaction Coordinator (TC) should stay on top of the timeline everyone agreed upon on the offer. If the deadline for the removal of contingency is passed, then you should send a notice to perform and make sure everyone stays on top of their deadlines. Not that anyone likes this idea, but if notice to perform doesn’t bring any result, then you can cancel the escrow. In most cases, the seller is allowed to keep the 3% of the purchase price as liquidated damage, which typically comes from the earnest money deposit.

Yes, it’s the time! Everything went well so far. Now, as you get close to the Escrow closing date, you need to schedule an appointment to notarize the documents. In California, you need to bring a valid ID and sign your documents in front of the Notary Public.

Within a week before closing the transaction, on your agreed date and time, the buyers and their Realtor will do a final walk-thru of the property to check the condition, making sure it’s in the same relative condition as when you first saw the home; if you agreed for any repairs made, this is the time they will verify that all repairs are complete. Take this seriously and keep your house in the best condition as it was offered to the buyers in the first showing.

The buyer’s lender and the escrow officer will do a final audit of their files and if everything is complete, the loan will be set up to fund and the Grant Deed will be recorded, completing the sale of the property.