The 3 Stages Of The Home Selling Timeline
Have you decided to sell your home but aren’t sure how to get from point A to point B? In this video, I’m going to walk you through the three steps of the home selling process. I’ll also show you how to lay out your timelines so you know exactly what to expect to have the smoothest move possible.
The Pre-Listing Stage
If you're like most people—especially if you're in the military—the thought of moving is daunting. You have a very compressed timeline with a lot of stuff to do. And most of the time, you're making moves across the country, not just from one state to the next state. The good news is that I'm going to explain three easy steps to help you get through that process. I’ll also make sure you have the appropriate planning in place to make a smooth move.
The first stage of the home selling process is the pre-listing stage. At this stage, there's a lot to do in making sure that the house is ready to go to market. Before I list your home for sale, I’ve got to make sure it looks good and presentable. Chances are your first showing is going to be online—and what people see there is everything.
First, we’re going to declutter your house, getting unnecessary things out of the way. This will make it presentable, easy to walk through, and easy to navigate. Once your house is in tip-top shape and looks spick and span, that's when we'll schedule the photographer to come and take professional photos that are extremely well done.
Another thing we want to look at during this pre-listing phase is to find any areas in your home that we can improve to make sure you have the maximum return on investment. For example, painting a room is pretty low cost and gives you a pretty good return on investment. Replacing the carpets is another great improvement to ensure that everything has a nice fresh and clean smell. For example, if we were to invest $1,500 into your home and make it ready for market but had a selling price that was $10,000 more, that would be a worthwhile investment prior to listing.
The Active Stage
Once we're complete with stage one, we’ll move into stage two: the active stage. This is the stage where we'll actually start marketing your home and get it linked up with the appropriate buyer. It’s where everything is happening and all the actions are taking place. People are coming in and out of your home, scheduling home showings, we're doing open houses, and the marketing is going all over the place.
The key to listing is the first two weeks. It’s during this time that you have the best chance of selling your home for top dollar. This is because new listings get all of the attention, and all of the buyers are going to be shifting their focus on those new properties. This is why it’s essential to be aggressive with your pricing in the first two weeks of listing your home. This is when you're going to have the most offers and your best chance of getting top dollar for the sale of your home.
As a homeowner, you have to be prepared for 24/7 access to your home for showings. We can't be picky about when people are coming to see the properties. After all, you never know when you're going to have that one buyer that's bringing the deal that you want. The other reason we want to be aware of this is that we want to have it in broom clean condition and field inspection ready. It’s like Thursday Field Day; everybody knows that process. You want to have your home clean so that at any time a person can look at your home.
In Escrow
Eventually, your home will receive an offer. Hopefully, at that time, you will be prepared to accept it and we'll move into the third and final stage of the home selling process. Once you are under contract in California, you're technically in escrow. This is when all of the duties and contingencies of the contract are performed.
Just because we're under contract doesn’t mean you're free and clear. The buyer of the home is going to want to do a lot of actions just to make sure that they have the house that they're putting an offer on. Those things will include a variety of inspections from top to bottom to make sure the property is ready to go.
If your buyer is paying cash, that's great. If they're financing—like most buyers—the first thing that they're going to want to do with their lender is schedule inspections and get an appraisal going on the property. If your buyer is using a VA loan, as we're most familiar with, they're going to have a scheduled inspection coming almost immediately after getting on our contract.
My job throughout all three stages of this process is to make sure that everybody's doing everything they're supposed to. I’ll make sure that they're getting all those inspections done, helping to schedule, and trying to deconflict as much as possible. I’ll work with you to get the buyer in the home and remove those contingencies so the loan can be approved or the cash can be moved into your account as soon as possible. When we stay on top of everything, we’ll move through the process very smoothly.
When we get to the point of closing, that means we have all the contingencies ready to move. We’re also ready to transfer the possession and title of that home from you to the buyer. If you're thinking about the timeline in the process and you're planning out your next move, you should expect about 30 days for this process. However, I've worked with lenders that have got it down to 20—and even once down to 17 days after an offer was accepted. Another factor that goes into play is being able to lease back your property until you're actually ready to move, which is also common here in Southern California.
Getting Your Home Sold
I hope this helped you understand the three phases of the home selling process so you feel a little bit more at ease about this process. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me and I’d be happy to help you sell your home.
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