Seller's Guide

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 Agent 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 Agent 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

Laura T.

Laura T.

Loved Brendan! Helped us find the most perfect piece of mountain property and went above and beyond with land inspections and evaluations the best ever!
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Phil K.

Phil K.

Brendan has been an amazing help when I purchased and sold my first home. I've referred him to multiple friends and they have be pleased to have his help! Thank you and can't wait to work with you again!
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Dominik H.

Dominik H.

My wife and I are first-time homebuyers and Brendan was the one who helped us get into our first home. He is very knowledgeable and made sure we were paying an appropriate price for the house we wanted. Thank you again Brendan!...
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Lauren L.

Lauren L.

Working with Brendan and Randy to sell our home was great! They were able to provide us with professional advice and excellent emotional support throughout our stressful and expedited process. Their expertise and kindness are u...
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Michael C.

Michael C.

I couldn't say enough about how Brendan made my home buying process as smooth as butter. The Colorado Springs market is getting as competitive as Denver, so having an agent that knows both markets definitely gave me a distinct ...
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Cloe G.

Cloe G.

Very patient, kind, helpful, and knowledgeable to work with. It was our first time buying a home and we were thrilled with Katelyn and Brendan and would go through them again in the future in a heartbeat! Thank you so much for ...
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Chad F.

Chad F.

So, I'm not one to leave a review, this will be my first, as everyone one else have said, Brendan went far outta his way to make my sale happen, considering the "Difficult" buyers, I can't express how grateful I am. I Highly re...
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Donna G.

Donna G.

Brendan Burns went above and beyond for me in finding the perfect house in Colorado Springs. I was moving from out of state so did the whole homebuying experience virtually. Brendan looked at more than 20 properties and face ti...
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Rex K.

Rex K.

I had lived in my house on East Brookside Street for 47 years. I loved the house, but it was full of collected stuff, and in need of some serious TLC. Brendan stepped in and arranged for the storage pods right off the bat. I fi...
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Cody M.

Cody M.

I met Brendan Burns in the Spring of 2021. He staged and sold my home in Colorado Springs for the highest price per square foot to date that a home had been sold for in that neighborhood. Brendan then helped me purchase my new ...
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Sif B.

Sif B.

Brendan is an amazing realtor. He not only knows the overall market, but he makes a point to understand the neighborhoods. For example, the overall market is slowing down at this time, but our particular neighborhood was still ...
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Crystal M.

Crystal M.

Brendan Burns is simply, the very best! I am so thankful to have had the chance to work with him on finding our little cottage. We are from out of state and had a very vague idea of what we were looking for, and yet Brendan ste...
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Join us on the journey to financial independence through real estate. Let The Burns Group be your trusted guide in Colorado real estate. Contact us today and start achieving your dreams with a team that believes in excellence and giving back to our veterans.

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