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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 agent  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 realtor once you choose one so he or she 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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent 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

I 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. My 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 agent.

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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. I 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 realtor 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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We were lucky to have Xiaoxing as our agent. She is very knowledgeable and helpful. She always provided us with honest opinions about the pros/cons of houses we were searching, for and help us make reasonable offers based on th...
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Fantastic local agent, Xiaoxing was super helpful in guiding us through our first home purchase, looking through many homes and digging into the background of homes that had bids or stood on the market for a while. She's super ...
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It is a great experience to work with Xiaoxing as a first-time buyer. She is very professional and knowledgeable. As a local, she knows Millburn/Short Hills very well. She is patient, responsive, and efficient. For each show, s...
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Xin

It is a great experience to work with Xiaoxing as a first-time buyer. She is very professional and knowledgeable. As a local, she knows Millburn/Short Hills very well. She is patient, responsive, and efficient. For each show, s...
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This is the second time I am working with Xiaoxing to sell my main home, same smooth and effective! Xiaoxing helped me with every step, making remote selling so smooth, and the price I am very happy with. She did so much from s...
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Xiaoxing is such a patient, responsible, responsive, diligent, and experienced agent. She is very helpful during our house searching and gave frank opinions about the houses. She helped us a lot going through the buying process...
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Thanks, Xiaoxing for helping us buy the house we like in Morristown. She is the most effective and responsible agent that I ever met. We have seen more than 50 houses. She is patient to answer all the questions we have. She is ...
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Zhiqiang M.

Xiaoxing helped us get the house in the competition! I have to admit the current market is a bit crazy - bidding wars and multi-offers are common. We almost gave up and thought the house shopping would end up with nothing this ...
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Lindsay

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Seller

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Seller

Xiaoxing is the best Realtor® I ever met. She was very nice and considerate. Since I was not at home most of the time, she took care of my house and let me feel the whole process of the selling house hassle-free. Would definite...
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We had a great experience working with Xiaoxing. She is very patient and always helped us to analyze the pros and cons of the house during showings. She is very responsive, familiar with the local market, and very flexible with...
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John L.

Highly positive experience. Always responded quickly to my questions in a satisfactory manner. Was able to get my transaction completed in a short period of time.
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