Greetings from Westport, CT!
Finally, summer’s arrived: the sun is shining, Compo Beach is getting PACKED, and the conditions couldn’t be better to list your house! When it’s this easy to sell your house while staying IN it to search for your new home, could there be a better time? Whether you’re feeling you need to stay put for a time before officially relocating, or you’ve got your sights set on the new home of your dreams, I’ve got a simple listing plan broken out into twenty easy steps.
My mantra? Make the home selling process a piece of cake!
1. GOAL DATES
We’ll examine your situation to reverse-engineer a strategy for when your home sells, including the date to list your house on the market as well as your move-out date.
2. STAGING
Strategizing how best to present your house for all marketing needs
3. WHAT STAYS, WHAT GOES
Indicate which items leave with you vs. those that stay behind (incl. furniture, appliances, etc.)
4. SCHEDULING PROFESSIONAL MEDIA
Photos and videos of your home are crucial to the buyer experience. It’s important to allot a 3 hour window to capture all the footage; turnaround time for photos could be as soon as the next day, while video editing requires half of a week.
5. FIRMING UP THE DETAILS
At this stage, we finalize the listing info including signage, a marketing plan, price, and more!
6. TIDYING UP
Time to get your house shiny and ready! Decluttering & cleaning are paramount to a fantastic first impression. Need help with this step? I’ve got connections to professionals who will take care of it for you!
7. LEGAL/FINANCIAL CONNECTIONS (IF APPLICABLE)
It’s easy to forget about legal documents – like leases and agreements – for items such as solar panels, trusts, and more. Have HOA fees or SID/LID balances? Where does your address show up in your legal life?
8. ACCESS CODES (IF APPLICABLE)
Have a gate code? As you can imagine, that’s important to share in order for your photographer and prospective buyers to visit!
9. FINAL TOUCHES
Now it’s time to prepare your listing documents for review and signatures.
10. RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY CONDITION DISCLOSURE FORM
A crucial part of the process, here’s where you’ll carefully and accurately denote the condition of your house.
11. KEYS
Simply put: in order for buyers’ agents to show your property to prospective home buyers, they’ll need a key! This will be placed securely into an electronic lockbox, which is assigned to your house to track agent access and request showing feedback once you’re officially listed.
12. LIST OF UPGRADES (IF APPLICABLE)
A clever marketing tool is to compile a list of upgrades to refer to when marketing your home. For example, a big green backyard may lend itself to a pool someday, a competitive selling point for a family with kids!
13. SHOWING PREFERENCES
We discuss how you prefer to have your home shown (preferred contact method for confirmations, restrictions, etc.) and set up “ShowingTime” instructions according to these preferences. This program helps us coordinate and track showing requests.
14. MAILER MARKETING
We reach out to a list of surrounding homes to let them know of your house coming to the market.
15. SCHEDULING AN OPEN HOUSE
One of the best ways to find home buyers for your house is to host an open house!
16. MLS UPDATES
We’ll add public remarks (the caption you see on Zillow listings), the “Coming Soon” designation (before your house is officially live), and “Active” (which we can schedule for our target date in advance).
17. YARD SIGN IS ORDERED (IF APPLICABLE)…
…to go up on the “Active” date!
18. TEXT RIDER
If applicable, we assign a text rider to your home so anyone driving by can pull up the details on your house to contact me for information and showings.
19. FINAL MARKETING MATERIALS
Finally, we’ll prepare social media ads, neighborhood notices, open house flyers, and more to cover all our bases.
20. EXECUTE EXTENSIVE MARKETING PLAN TO SELL YOUR HOUSE!
That’s it! If you have any questions about the process to sell your house, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d be more than happy to tailor this plan to your unique situation!
