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 team of real estate agents 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 team of real estate agents once you choose one so they 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 team of real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

Living room with a vaulted ceiling, fireplace, and large glass doors opening to a wooded yard.

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.

Gray stone-and-stucco house with slate roof, dormer windows, covered porch, and broad driveway.

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. 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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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.

White two-story house with a covered entry, landscaped shrubs, mature trees, and a broad green lawn.

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 team of real estate agents.

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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.

Home entrance with a dark wood door, white brick facade, and matching potted shrubs.

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 team of real estate agents 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.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Batya and Alex were fantastic throughout the entire process of selling our house in Waban. Their initial proposal was much more thorough than the competitor's proposal. They provided a detailed analysis of recent sales to determine fair market value. They presented a solid plan including suggestions and services to showcase our house both inside and out in the best light. They committed to a very tight s...

— Jason M.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Alex and Batya were an absolute pleasure to work with! They did a wonderful job in helping me and my family navigate the extremely confusing, and stressful process of buying a home in the Boston area. Batya and Alex are consummate professionals at the absolute top of their games - the best of the best you can find in Massachusetts. This was evidenced by their ability to help identify the right properties...

— Siddarth R. | Realtor.com

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Batya and Alex have gone above and beyond in facilitating the search and purchase of our condo in one of the hottest markets of Boston which is the Back Bay area. We explained what we were looking and they searched aggressively with us all while educating us during the process. Batya and Alex left nothing up to question and quite often took on roles or tasks outside of their responsibility. They were ext...

— Sara Y. | Google

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Relocating from Turkey to Needham, seemed like a daunting task until we met Batya and Alex. From our first conversation, their professional demeanor and warm approach immediately put us at ease. They not only understand the real estate market, but they truly get to know their clients, treating them more like family than customers. Being new to the country, we needed someone who could guide us through the...

— Cumhur O. | Google

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Batya and Alex are amazing realtors and have helped us over the last few years to rent and buy properties around the Boston area. They were so committed to helping us find a place we liked and did not let up on the level of effort irrespective of the budget or time required. They brought a personal touch to the process and left us feeling that we were being helped by friends rather than realtors. They ar...

— Deepak B. | Google

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I am extremely pleased to have Batya & Alex Team and William Raveis represent me in the listing and sale of my properties in Newton. I very much appreciated your handling and quick sale of my properties at Walnut Street and Channing St. You worked very hard and diligently and you were reachable at all hours of the day. I look forward to keep working with you and I know you will be successful in the sale ...

— Sarah D.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I had the pleasure of meeting Alex and Batya a year ago at a realtor event in Dallas. Following a thorough conversation, I appreciated their depth of knowledge and wealth of experience, more importantly, I discovered they served the area where my friend and her family reside. I referred them to my friend and her family in Massachusetts, and they not only successfully sold their property with Batya and Al...

— Joy L. | Google

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Batya and Alex are wonderful to work with- highly recommend them. They assisted us with our home search for several months, and when we found the one, they expertly negotiated a competitive offer situation. They are true professionals but also genuine and warm people who provide support during what can be a very stressful process. You will be in good hands with them.

— Amy K. | Zillow

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I’m incredibly pleased with the service we received from Batya & Alex Real Estate (The Dream Team) for our home purchase. The home buying process can be exhausting and miserable especially here in the Back Bay area with the high demand and having zero to no available condos for sale, but they were fantastic every step of the way. From finding potential properties to helping us negotiate an ideal contract...

— Ozgur B. | Google

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Batya and Alex are the best realtors. They helped us locate the right house for us, walked us through the process, and made us feel supported the entire way.

— Sebastian L. | Google

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Excellent doesn't begin to describe it. They have the empathy of a parent, the knowledge of a professor, and the drive of an 80s stock trader. If there was a "fiduciary" status in real estate, Batya and Alex would be that. We had to move thousands of miles, with two kids school age, had no knowledge of the MA real estate market, and 3 days to see houses. Batya and Alex arranged back-to-back appointments ...

— Zeynep A. | Zillow

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Batya and Alex is the most professional team, knowledgeable, great service. They are the best team, I would highly recommend them.

— Gina E. | Google

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