Guiding You On Your Path To Selling Your Home

Selling your home can be a complex and time-consuming process, but with the right approach and planning, it can also be a rewarding experience. Whether you are looking to downsize, relocate, or move into a bigger space, there are certain steps you can take to make the process smoother and more successful. In this blog post, we will outline the next steps we will take together when selling your home - from choosing your real estate agent to closing on the sale.

The Path Home Team is passionately committed to being your expert real estate guide by empowering you through education, consultation, and choice. We’ve put this workbook together to assist you as you travel down this exciting path of selling your home.

HIRE A REAL ESTATE TEAM THAT WILL ADVOCATE FOR YOU

One of the first things you should do when considering selling your home is to hire a real estate agent. A good agent can help you navigate the complex world of home selling and provide valuable advice and support throughout the process. They can also help you determine an appropriate asking price for your home and market your property to potential buyers.

At the Path Home Team, We promise that your goals will be our goals. Every member of our team is committed to taking the time to get to know you and to ensure that your goals are met. We do this by staying in front of the many hurdles and potential challenges that come up, while educating and empowering you along the way. Our team, our support staff and all of our systems are designed to deliver this promise to you! We believe that partnering with you is much more than a transaction. This is a relationship, centered on a promise to turn your goals into reality. The majority of our business comes from client referrals and from our past clients having a great experience and hiring us again. Our goal is to forge long-term relationships with our clients where they trust us to represent them for all of their real estate needs. We are more than Realtors. We want to become your trusted advisors now and as your life evolves. A large part of our business comes from taking exceptional care of our clients, earning referrals and repeat business along the way.

ESTABLISH A COMPETITIVE PRICE

As your home selling partners, we’re here to guide you in making a well-researched and strategic decision when pricing your home. Many factors go into the determination of pricing. The value of a property is ultimately determined by what a buyer is willing to pay and what a seller is willing to accept in a given market. To effectively price your home, we take many factors into account: location, comparable sales in your area, market trends, timing, the condition and upgrades in your home, and our extensive experience pricing homes in your area. Our expert Realtors will do the research for you, interpret the market findings and explain how they arrived at the recommended list price: the final say on pricing is your decision. Overpricing your home from the get-go is one of the most common mistakes well-intentioned sellers and Realtors make. Intuitively, many people believe that overpricing will leave room for negotiation to achieve the desired price in the end. However, this will actually lower the number of qualified potential buyers who consider your home. You want the largest amount of buyers interested in your property to submit competing offers. We’ve negotiated many sales on behalf of our sellers who priced “just right,” creating a large pool of buyers, and leading to bidding wars resulting in full price or even above-asking price offers.

OPTIMIZE CONDITION TO MAXIMIZE VALUE

Before you list your home for sale, you should take some time to get it ready for potential buyers. This might include making repairs, cleaning and decluttering, and staging your home to show off its best features. A professional home stager can help you make your home look its best and appeal to a wide range of buyers.

In order to guarantee a fantastic first impression for potential buyers, we'll advise you about improvements and upgrades that are likely to increase your bottom line. Equally as important, we can help you avoid sinking money into projects which are not likely to pay off. If a more neutral paint color or upgrading your appliances could help you pocket more money for your home, we’ll give you our best tips.

Staging helps potential buyers imagine what it might be like living in your home. Thoughtful professional staging can increase the likelihood of multiple offers and thus increase your bottom line. Our professional stager will provide expert recommendations on what will make your home show-ready and appeal to the largest number of buyers. Our stagers offer different levels of service, depending on your specific property and goals. The simplest level of staging involves rearranging your own possessions and furniture to optimize the space and draw attention to the home's best attributes. The stager will advise you on which decorations to utilize and which to pack away, as well as paint colors, lighting and other potential visual improvements. The next level of staging entails bringing furniture in from the stager’s collection to enhance your interior and make it appeal to the most buyers. Finally, there is the option of “virtual staging,” in which the stager takes pictures of your empty home, and fills the home with computer generated furniture, decor and accent pieces. All of these available tools can strengthen a buyers’ ability to envision purchasing and living in your house.

MARKETING YOUR HOME

Marketing your home effectively is essential to attracting potential buyers. We’ll determine what professional marketing pieces will showcase your unique property to maximize the amount of potential buyers. Photos are the most utilized and impactful factor to buyers when searching for a home. From using optimal lighting to the finishing touches in post-production, our professional contracted photographers use their expertise to make sure your photos stand out against competing listings. We have a customized approach for video and photography for each home we list, including:

Virtual Tours showcase your listing remotely with 2D and 3D tours. Our virtual tours are interactive, allowing the prospective buyer to view the home at their own pace and duplicate the experience of visiting a home in person.

Drone Photography and videos of home are especially impactful if one of the main selling points of your property is the beauty and scope of the exterior architecture and setting.

Floor Plans show a complete home layout with room measurements and are a fantastic add-on to professional real estate photography for your listing! 

Typically, the greatest interest in a property occurs within the first few weeks it's on the market. The Path Home Team effectively capitalizes on this window with a strategy to create buzz and excitement about your property prior to hitting the market. Leading up to going live, we’ll expose your listing to top agents and buyer specialists, create social media posts, and design targeted advertising incorporating photography and videos. These tools can drive buyer interest, building anticipation, driving up your home’s value, and shortening the sales timeline. We'll notify neighbors of your upcoming listing so that they can come see it in person, and let their friends and acquaintances know about it. We let them know that now is their chance to pick their next neighbor before we pick one for them.  We initially launch your home through our social media outreach and the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), a proprietary, exclusive listing system that markets your property online 24/7 through millions of the most popular search engines and web sites.

On the Market. Timing matters when it comes to officially putting your home on the market. Because a property generates the most activity from potential buyers when it's first listed, We’ll strategically choose the best date to go on market to garner the most initial attention and showings. Your home will show as officially "on the market" online, and we’ll place eye-catching signage and on your property for drive-by interest.

Showings. We’ll field outreach from potential buyers and agents and coordinate showing times. Our listing specialists will keep you informed of upcoming showings and confirm they work with your schedule. We'll provide a secure lock-box for your door and all of our showings are held by a licensed cooperating buyer's broker or a member of the Path Home Team - no buyers are unaccompanied. After each showing, we’ll follow up with the agent representing the potential buyer and get specific feedback, answer any questions and gauge their interest level. 

Open Houses. Once your property is on the market, we’ll schedule open houses. There’s no better way for buyers to experience a home’s unique merits than in person. Our seamless, professionally hosted open houses invite buyers to truly connect with the space. By showcasing your property with an open house, we will create and target a qualified, localized group of potential buyers. We collect data on each individual who tours your property both for security purposes, and to follow up with potential buyers after they tour.

Continued Presence. We have agents on the ground door-knocking and on the phone reaching out to our limitless network of potential buyers. Your listing is continually supported by a dedicated in-house marketing and social media team, maximizing its presence. We consistently track our results to implement strategic changes on your behalf to create the greatest amount of exposure in the shortest amount of time.

NEGOTIATION AND GETTING UNDER CONTRACT

When you receive an offer, we’ll communicate the details to you. It is customary for the buyer to give the seller a minimum of 24 hours to reply to an offer. Buyers, at times, will request a shorter or longer response time strategically, and we'll advise you on the best response under the specific circumstances. In some cases, it might be prudent to request extra time and your agent will advise you on this. 

The Next Steps Include:

1. We'll notify you and review the offer with you. 

2. We'll notify all other agents whose buyers have expressed interest in your property that you have received an offer and encourage them to bring their best competing offer. Our goal is to get buyers to bid against one another, maximizing the price and/or terms of the contract for your benefit.

3. We'll review and compare all offers received. 

4. We'll represent you in negotiating with the offering party or parties in an effort to maximize the price and terms of the contract to your benefit. Options for responses include making a counter offer or accepting the best offer. Our philosophy is to never reject an offer outright, but to counter all offers to create the best win for you. Counter offers may address any number of items including the price, contingency duration, possession date, potential rent-back provisions and other items. 

5. This process can go back and forth until an agreement is reached on both sides. All the while, you can be confident that your Path Home Team agent will be an advocate, advisor, and knowledgeable sounding board for you. 

6. Once an agreement is reached with a buyer, we'll notify all the non-winning offers and attempt to secure a backup offer for you as a safety net.

TAKING YOU FROM UNDER CONTRACT TO CLOSE

Once under contract, there are many steps to achieve a successful closing. Navigating you through every step of the process is our expertise and we’ll make sure every box is checked and deadlines are met. 

1. The buyer deposits earnest money by the deadline (typically 3 days after contract). 

2. We’ll help you communicate with the title company to convey title work and guide you in obtaining HOA/Association documents, which can save you money with the title company. 

3. We’ll instruct you on gathering and providing the buyers with due diligence documents, including warranties and permits. 

4. We’ll help facilitate the inspection process which can include home, radon, sewer, well, and/or septic. 

5. We’ll assist in advising on and negotiating any inspection issues and help reach an agreement with the buyer on which items, if any, will be addressed prior to closing. 

6. We’ll oversee the property appraisal by scheduling the appraisal, supporting the appraiser in achieving appraisal value, and in some cases, meet the appraiser at your property to assist in challenging appraisals and negotiate any appraisal conditions. 

7. We’ll assist in confirming the final loan approval and closing document preparation 27 

8. Your Path Home Team transaction specialists will communicate with you regarding the final walk through and closing date. Prepare your property by moving out any of your possessions and leaving it in broom-swept clean condition. 

9. The official closing meeting typically takes one to two hours and is attended by the seller and seller’s realtor, buyer and buyer’s realtor, title closer and sometimes the buyer’s lender as well. If you are unable to attend in person, our agents can arrange for you to sign documents remotely. You’ll want to bring valid government issued photo ID, keys to the house, keys to the mailbox, HOA fobs and/or garage door opener. 

10. After closing, transfer possession to the new buyers and the process is complete.

    
    

    At the Path Home Team, Selling your home is our specialty. We can't wait to help you build generational wealth through real estate.