Sell Your Home in The Woodlands | The Mike Seder Group

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.

A modern living room painted in a light beige color with a fireplace, couches, chairs, coffee table, and sliding glass doors.

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.

A modern kitchen with hardwood floors, a sink and faucet, light wood cabinets, and stainless steel appliances.

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.

A modern farmhouse with an open floor plan, wooden floors, couches, a dining area, a kitchen, and a doorway to a patio.

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.

A living room with a large couch, coffee table, brick fireplace, wall-mounted television, and sliding glass doors to a patio.

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.

A kitchen backsplash design including a stove, sink, glass vase, white marble countertop, cabinets, and pendant lights.

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.

A large white house with a slate roof and a chimney, a long driveway to the front door, a lush lawn, and surrounded by trees.

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.

A large kitchen with stainless steel appliances, wooden cabinets, a large island with a sink and faucet, and pendant lights.

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.

A small white brick house with a wooden front door, small window panes, bushes in planters, and a black metal railing.

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.

Testimonials

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Candice & Luke

I was introduced to Ally Seder through a friend when we relocated to The Woodlands area. Immediately after the introduction, Ally called me personally to learn more about me and my family. By the time we started discussing prop...

Brent B.

Worked with Bill and Brett on purchasing my first home and had the best experience with them. Their attention to detail and excellent negotiation skills were instrumental in securing the best possible deal for us. We felt like ...

Eric P.

We retained Kaitlyn Arceneaux at the Mike Seder Group to act as our agent in multiple Woodlands real estate transactions over the last year. She's very responsive and detail-oriented. We felt comfortable with her guidance throu...

Mona S.

Mike Seder and the staff have been my realtor since I moved to Texas 13 years ago. On one occasion, his firm was juggling 3 transactions for us at the same time! I have worked with Mike personally, both his sons, and all of his...

Melissa S.

Amazing experience! Mike and Ally are both knowledgeable while providing a very personalized home buying and selling experience. They were there with assistance and advice every step of the way, from readying my house for listi...

Christopher S.

I highly recommend Mike Seder Group. We worked with Patrick Seder. Patrick secured the deal on our dream house. If you want to know that you are working with the best, you need to work with the Seder Group.

Seller's Guide