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Seller's Guide

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 agents is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agents 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.

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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.

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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 team of real estate agents.

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Step 7: Have the Home Inspected

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 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.

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Success Stories

"Working with Robert was a great experience. My wife and I could not have asked for a better agent. After looking for a place that had everything we wanted for 12 years, we spent the last few with Robert. Being picky about where and what we ended up with, we found the perfect place for us. Robert was instrumental in keeping the process rolling with excellent communication about anything pertaining to the property. What everyone should know about Robert is that he has the patience of job and through great obstacles was always there for us. Robert will be our agent if we ever make another move."
"Working with Robert was a great experience. My wife and I could not have asked for a better agent. After looking for a place that had everything we wanted for 12 years, we spent the last few with Robert. Being picky about where and what we ended up with, we found the perfect place for us. Robert was instrumental in keeping the process rolling with excellent communication about anything pertaining to the property. What everyone should know about Robert is that he has the patience of job and through great obstacles was always there for us. Robert will be our agent if we ever make another move."
Allen B.
"From Open House to contract signed to closing all in 16 days! Wow! Thank you Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate for your professionalism, tireless work ethic, and friendship. Amazing experience from start to finish, we would highly recommend you to anyone buying or selling! See you at the next DI event under the Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate tent."
"From Open House to contract signed to closing all in 16 days! Wow! Thank you Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate for your professionalism, tireless work ethic, and friendship. Amazing experience from start to finish, we would highly recommend you to anyone buying or selling! See you at the next DI event under the Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate tent."
Beth F.
"Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate provided an outstanding, personal selling experience. This motivated team fully understands the market and applies their knowledge to get us the highest price for our home. Their communication skills are unmatched, keeping us informed every step of the way. Additionally, they used every aspect of social media to advertise our home and it obviously paid off as they sold our home in 16 days from open house to closing. We took their recommendations for staging, marketing, etc. and it paid off better than we had hoped. Finally, the closing was organized, quick, and easy. They did all the hard work and left us to reap the benefits."
"Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate provided an outstanding, personal selling experience. This motivated team fully understands the market and applies their knowledge to get us the highest price for our home. Their communication skills are unmatched, keeping us informed every step of the way. Additionally, they used every aspect of social media to advertise our home and it obviously paid off as they sold our home in 16 days from open house to closing. We took their recommendations for staging, marketing, etc. and it paid off better than we had hoped. Finally, the closing was organized, quick, and easy. They did all the hard work and left us to reap the benefits."
Chuck B.
"Robert was outstanding. It was my daughter’s first home purchase and he helped us every step of the way. She is working out of the country, so he dealt with me a lot of the time. He went above and beyond with group texts, emails, information, resources, contacts, and every kind of question that we had in the process of my daughter’s first Real Estate Purchase. Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate is a gem to work with and we look forward to working with them again in the future."
"Robert was outstanding. It was my daughter’s first home purchase and he helped us every step of the way. She is working out of the country, so he dealt with me a lot of the time. He went above and beyond with group texts, emails, information, resources, contacts, and every kind of question that we had in the process of my daughter’s first Real Estate Purchase. Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate is a gem to work with and we look forward to working with them again in the future."
Janet D.
"Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate is the best in the business. Living out of state and being new to the SC buyers' market, we greatly appreciated the time they took to educate us with their vast knowledge. They listened and asked the right questions so that they could work efficiently on our behalf. They provided video walk-throughs of homes with detailed commentary when we could not be present. They consistently provided timely and informed answers to our endless questions. We felt very well represented from the early stages through negotiation, to the final purchase of our dream home. They have their own unique brand of professionalism, energy, and integrity. The passion and commitment they demonstrated in helping us find our retirement home was exemplary. We would recommend them to family and friends without reservation."
"Coastal Luxury Homes Real Estate is the best in the business. Living out of state and being new to the SC buyers' market, we greatly appreciated the time they took to educate us with their vast knowledge. They listened and asked the right questions so that they could work efficiently on our behalf. They provided video walk-throughs of homes with detailed commentary when we could not be present. They consistently provided timely and informed answers to our endless questions. We felt very well represented from the early stages through negotiation, to the final purchase of our dream home. They have their own unique brand of professionalism, energy, and integrity. The passion and commitment they demonstrated in helping us find our retirement home was exemplary. We would recommend them to family and friends without reservation."
Marie O.
"Very highly recommended team. Responsive, friendly, proactive. Smooth transaction. Great knowledge of area, comparables, and market. Willing to go the extra mile to facilitate transactions."
"Very highly recommended team. Responsive, friendly, proactive. Smooth transaction. Great knowledge of area, comparables, and market. Willing to go the extra mile to facilitate transactions."
Buyer