Seller's Guide

Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.

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: 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.

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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.

Our Testimonials

See why our clients love working with us.
The Engleman Family

The Engleman Family

After the passing of our parents, we three siblings chose to prepare our family home of 57 years to be sold. During our initial meeting with Ben, it quickly became evident that Ben was not the everyday broker looking for his ne...
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Thomas H.

Thomas H.

Ben listed our house Just before the COVID crisis. Our listing was amazing, as he guided the process with what buyers were looking for at the forefront. When the market stalled he calmed us down and helped us feel confident wit...
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Andrew & Irina I.

Andrew & Irina I.

Ben was the perfect realtor for us and our house. We had heard that Ben was an expert when it came to historic homes in LA, and his reputation did not disappoint. Ben knew exactly what made our historic home special and what wo...
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The Siegfriedts

The Siegfriedts

Vanessa is incredible! We have used her to help us buy a home and are now using her to sell our home. On both accounts, she is absolutely the best! Vanessa has a keen eye for finding a house with good bones and good energy. Whe...
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The Ahearns

The Ahearns

Vanessa was just the best. She found our family the perfect home in terms of price, neighborhood, and style without even meeting us. Even though we purchased the house sight unseen, we knew we could absolutely trust her. She is...
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Garcia Family

Garcia Family

We seriously don’t know where we’d be without Vanessa. Selling our house with her as our agent never ever felt like a business transaction, it felt like we were family. She is amazingly competent and well-versed in her knowledg...
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Gerry

Gerry

Three years ago I engaged Eddie as my realtor for a purchase of a condo in Pasadena. Before that transaction closed (which was quite smooth) Eddie became a dear friend that I continued to rely on throughout the 3 years that I l...
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James & Michelle

James & Michelle

Eddie Ramirez of The Loeffler Team has truly been above and beyond with his service and advice. We bought in a highly competitive market, with many cash offers, flippers, and multiple offers the norm. Eddie really listened to o...
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Taylor & Andrew

Taylor & Andrew

My boyfriend, Andrew, and I were looking to purchase our first home and were recommended to Eddie. He was so incredibly helpful from the get-go. From our first meeting with, him he helped us narrow down what ly wanted in our fu...
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Minh P.

Minh P.

Jack is an excellent realtor, hard-working, thorough, and sharp. If you're in negotiations, you want this guy on your side! He's always 2 steps ahead and extremely honest. I respect him for his integrity. when my husband and I ...
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Jin P.

Jin P.

I know Jack personally, and he is a man of integrity. I would use his services any day, and so should you.
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Randy A.

Randy A.

Jack's attention to detail and desire to provide excellent service in meeting the needs of his clients have propelled him to be considered a top producer in our firm in a very short time. Excellent negotiation skills, knowledge...
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Mehran

Mehran

Barry, I enjoyed working with you and appreciate everything you did for me. You went above and beyond what could be expected of any Realtor® in helping me sell my house.
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P. & C.S.

P. & C.S.

If you are looking for the “concierge” of Realtors®, then look no further than Lisa Paperno. As first-time homebuyers, we required a lot of guidance and Lisa was there every step of the way. With valuable insight, knowledge, an...
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Kevin G.

Kevin G.

Thank you, Barry, I never thought anyone would have to work so hard to get a deal done and you really did the job, and i'm very grateful for the way you conducted all aspects of this transaction.
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Jon S. & Emily A.

Jon S. & Emily A.

Last summer, when my wife and I were looking for our first home, we were lucky enough to have had Barry recommended to us. He isn't only a hard-working, knowledgeable, and dedicated real estate agent, but he is also one of the ...
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R.J.L.

R.J.L.

Lisa has represented my company on each of our new construction projects dating back to 2005. She also listed my home and successfully sold it over asking. Lisa is efficient, detailed oriented and an excellent negotiator, and a...
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Melodie H.

Melodie H.

I cannot recommend Barry highly enough! He was my agent when I sold my home. Clearly selling one's own home is not easy. Barry's expertise in homes of architectural interest, as well as his caring for his clients, made the proc...
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Fitz & Su S.

Fitz & Su S.

Su and I are writing to express what a pleasure it is to have Barry Grey as our real estate agent. Barry has represented us in both the sale and purchase of our homes. Su and I both credit Barry with “getting” what we were look...
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Orit & Kevin E.

Orit & Kevin E.

Barry Gray helped us sell our home in an extremely difficult market. He guided us through the process with professionalism and confidence and got it sold for a higher price than anything else in the neighborhood. It was always ...
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