North Texas Real Estate Blog

With summer time comes an increasing number of homes for sale. Many Southlake TX homeowners or homeowners in other parts of Tarrant County are preparing their homes for sale. For those that have lived in their homes for many years, or those that have never sold a home before, we have prepared a step by step guide to the home selling process. For more detailed information, please contact Dave or Betty Warden at 817-706-3291.

1. Choosing a Realtor. If you don’t know a Realtor or haven’t used one in the past, ask friends or family for a referral. If you hire a Realtor to sell your property, they represent you, the seller, and their duty is to market and sell your home for the best possible price in the least amount of time. By utilizing various means of marketing, from advertisements to local MLS to real estate websites, your Realtor must use these and any other methods to help expedite the sale of your home. Your Realtor will provide you with a written contract that stipulates their obligations to you and the terms and length of their representation of you the seller.
2. Setting a Price. After you’ve chosen a Realtor to represent you, the most important decision will be determining the sales price of your home. Using current real estate data of comparable homes in your immediate area, your Realtor will recommend a sales price for your home. If at all possible, your Realtor will find homes within 1 to 2 miles of your home that are similar in size, age, square footage and design that have sold in the last six months to use as comparison. When there are not comparable home sales available within a 2 mile radius of the seller’s home, the Realtor will find the closest and most similar homes for comparison. In many areas, home values are not necessarily what they were 2 or 3 years previous. Your Realtor can assist you at arriving at a sales price that is in line with current market prices. Your home must be able to appraise for the sales price if a buyer is obtaining financing to purchase the home. Real estate appraisers use current sales data to base their appraisal. Overpricing your home from the start can be counterproductive and can have a negative effect on the sales price of your home.
3. Signing a listing agreement. Most Realtors will ask you to sign an Exclusive Right to Sell listing. This means that as a seller, you will be obligated to pay a commission upon the sale of your home regardless of who brings the buyer during the specified listing period. In many instances, another brokerage or real estate company will represent the buyer of your home. In this case, it is common that your agent and the buyer’s agent will split the commission of the sale unless other arrangements have been stipulated in the listing agreement. The listing agreement will have the agreed upon sales price and the length of the listing period.
4. Marketing your property. Prepare your home for showings by cleaning, making repairs, removing clutter and most personal items and effects. Complete a seller’s disclosure that will be provided by your Realtor that indicates, to the best of your knowledge, the condition of appliances and other systems and any other pertinent information related to your home that may affect the buyer’s decision to buy your home. Your Realtor will list your home on the local multiple listing service (MLS) to advertise your home for sale. Many Realtors will use a showing service to schedule appointments for your home to be shown to prospective buyers. Other real estate agents will set up appointments via the showing service to see your home. Most showing services have websites where the home seller can see who is showing their property and at what times. Many times the agent showing the property will be asked to provide feedback to the seller’s real estate agent, which will often provide valuable information on what prospective buyers think of your home.
5. When a buyer makes an offer. When your Realtor receives an offer on your home, they will contact you as soon as possible to discuss it and answer any questions. The contract will provide the sales price offered, the terms of the sale, such as financing approval or possible sale of another home, closing date and possession of the property, and who will pay any additional closing costs or repairs. After reviewing the offer, you have three options of how to proceed: accept the offer as written, reject it, or make a counteroffer to the buyer. You may want to review the contract with your attorney or tax advisor as well.
6. Acceptance of an offer. After both the buyer and seller of a home come to agreement with the terms of the sale of a home, the contract is signed by both parties and a copy will be forwarded to the title company of their choice. The title company will research the title on the subject property to make sure there are no liens on it and make sure the title is clear for transfer to the new owner. The buyer will usually have a home inspection performed shortly after they sign the contract. The option period is an agreed upon time frame that the buyer has to perform inspections and to make any changes or amendments to the original contract. The buyer also can walk away during the option period and only forfeit their option fee. If after the inspection the buyer wishes to proceed with the purchase of the home, their lender will prepare the loan documents and order a survey of the property, if necessary, to send to the title company.
7. After all title work is completed and all loan documents have been prepared by the buyer’s lender, the title company will handle the closing transaction and the transfer of title to the new buyer. At the time, the proceeds from the sale of the home will be used to pay off the seller’s existing mortgage. If the sales price is less than the amount owed on the mortgage, the seller will be responsible for paying the difference before the transaction can be completed. The buyer will usually obtain possession of their new home after their lender has funded their loan and the seller’s mortgage is paid off.

Buying or selling a home can be a stressful, but very exciting time in your life. Understanding the process from start to finish can help alleviate some of the anxiety of the transaction. Having a licensed real estate professional in your corner is the key to a smooth transaction.