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 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.

Testimonials

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Rich P.

Rob is the most personable and very customer service oriented Realtor®. He will find you the home you're looking toward.
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Craig S.

Rob is the best kind of Realtor®. He’s an absolute professional, trustworthy and fun to work with. He helped me buy my first home in Colorado and will help me again if I ever need another one.
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Jim D.

Rob is a true professional with high moral character. He gave us great advice on how to stage our house and was consistently excellent in communication with us. Our house sold on the second day.
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Matt H.

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Seller

Rob helped us get top dollar for a condo that didn't have many comp's. In fact, he set the market on price per square foot! He was always confident, and followed through on that confidence which only means one thing, he is sure...
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Mark F.

I highly recommend Rob for your real estate needs. When it comes to selling your home or property, above all else you want an agent with high ethical standards, responsive, and knowledgeable. Rob is tops in all aspects. Rob had...
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Beckman B.

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Tim W.

Rob is an absolute rock star Realtor®! If you choose not to work with him, you are making a big mistake. Buying or selling a home is a complicated and stressful process. Rob has an incredible talent of simplifying and destressi...
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Casey P.

Rob presented a phenomenal service to my fiancé and I as we pursued the adventure of purchasing our first home. Despite the restrictions and obstacles set in place due to COVID, Rob exceeded expectations and helped us to find t...
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Alex M.

Rob and I have worked in multiple houses by now and I couldn't ask for someone as attentive and informative as he is. All the way from the beginning till the end he has been more than amazing with each home we have dealt with. ...
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Scott & Katherine S.

We have bought and sold 7 homes over the years, and we can honestly say that Rob is by far the best Realtor® we have ever dealt with. He is so quick to respond to any questions you might have, he listens first, and his integrit...
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Buyer

Stop your search and look no further! Rob Thompson is that incredible! After pondering off and on about our potential move, working with only Rob from beginning to end, we committed to our house hunt. A true professional whose ...
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Chris B.

Rob was great. Helped out through the entire way of listing and selling my prior home, and buying a new one. Arranged the closing process to coincide with each other so there was only a small week lease-back to allow for moving...
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Jake L.

Working with Rob was an amazing experience. He helped sell my wife’s condo and helped us score our dream single family home in Denver. His patience and responsiveness made him easy to work with, and his industry knowledge and r...
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Jessica H.

Wow! What a great experience. My fiance and I recently built our first home and Rob was there every step of the way. Because I am a first time home buyer I had a lot of questions, there were times I would email or text Rob late...
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Elaine Face

I connected with Rob Thompson when I decided to move cross-county from Georgia to Colorado. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Rob as it is obvious he truly loves his profession. Rob was so accommodating ...
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Cole Simmons

Rob treats every client and their unique situation like family. I know my clients are taken care of every time. Keep up the great work Rob!
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Louis

Rob is very professional and a hard worker. He has great people skills and is very knowledgeable about his profession. He is very responsive and a great communicator. I do not know what more you could ask from a relator.
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Keri B

Rob came highly recommended to us. We talked through what we were looking for, and he and Colten Janssen, from his team, helped us every step of the way. We were looking for a unique home and Colten was able to think creatively...
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Casey P

Rob was an absolute pleasure to work with and we could not be happier with the service he provided! Rob helped us to buy and sell our first home, and seamlessly walked us through the process every step of the way in a manner th...
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