No matter how hot property sales in 2018 is predicted to be for your city, the process of selling your own home is still a lot of work. You don’t want to rush anything to close a deal or you might be a sitting duck on your block.

Everything should be planned carefully, researched, and guided by a professional realtor, if possible. To help get you through the trials and tribulations of selling, we’ve condensed the process down to four simple steps.

Use these as a foundation to help pace yourself and keep from being overwhelmed with property sales.

1. Become Financially Secure

Selling a house is never cheap, especially if you’re still paying off a mortgage. You should understand any penalties, fees, and extra steps needed before you start selling.

After that, you’ll want to start doing the math for how much your new home is going to cost, the type of mortgage you need, and so forth. Don’t make the mistake of counting your eggs before they hatch.

To understand more about these common mistakes that happen before you even get started selling your house, request these free buyer and seller reports.

2. Prepping and Staging

Before you list your home on the market, you should invest some real time and money into how you want to present it. Staging isn’t just about making everything clean and pretty, it’s about demonstrating value.

In order to stand out from the competition, you should consider showcasing the home’s strengths, storage features, luxury add-ons, and unique traits. Hire a professional to come photograph the home, so that your ads stand out.

Taking pictures of your home is hard to do without knowing some industry secrets.

3. Sale Negotiation

Once you’ve attracted an ideal candidate, you’ll need to finalize a contract and a price. Things like included home features, fixtures, and installations. Whatever that is or isn’t included should be tallied and recorded with accompanying discounts or price adjustments.

Once a price is accepted by both parties and agents, the buyer puts down a deposit and awaits the purview of the banks and lawyers involved.

This aspect of property sales should be painless if everything has been properly planned and prepped for.

4. Signing Documents and Closing

Depending on where you live in the country, escrow documents will get signed before closing, typically with all parties present. Then, the deed’s reconveyance is officially signed into public record.

This make take some time before the title company processes the deed, but once it’s done you should be ready to move out the next day. Most sellers will have already moved out, it all depends on the buyer negotiations.

Finding Help with Property Sales

Even knowing exactly what step comes after the other, there will always be little hiccups, misinterpretations, and false alarms. The best thing you can do is keep a cool head and prepare as early as you can for what’s to come.

To help, you should enlist in a good, trustworthy local realtor. Doing everything by yourself is technically possible, but no one should be putting themselves through the gauntlet alone.

For honest advice and more real estate resources for your market, feel free to contact us anytime.