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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 agents 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 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.

What Our Clients Say

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Hans K.

Hans K.

We first used Sophia to help buy a house in 2019 in Alameda. Our situation required us to move in 2024 so we sold that house, again with Sophia's help. Sophia is very knowledgeable, professional, and has a great team. We needed...
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Cory A.

Cory A.

Sophia has been a consummate professional throughout our transactions. We were fortunate enough to find her when we sought an expert in the Alameda market and got the home we loved. When it came time to recently sell our home, ...
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Jay K.

Jay K.

Sophia helped us purchase our first home in Alameda. We can't recommend her enough! Her expertise, the strong relationships she holds in Alameda, and her warm demeanor helped us secure our dream home in a highly competitive and...
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Buyer

Buyer

When we sought out to purchase our first home in Alameda so that we could have stability for us and our young daughter, we were most nervous about finding the right realtor. When we met with Sophia, we immediately knew we were ...
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Seller

Seller

We worked with Sophia to sell our home in Alameda during a great time of uncertainty given interest rates, time of year (January), and the volatile labor market. From the get go, she was direct, honest, never sugar coated, but ...
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Elif K.

Elif K.

We recently (Jan 2023) purchased a condo in South Berkeley. The process was complicated due to first right of refusal and probate court factors. Sophia was stellar in helping us navigate, strategize and complete the purchase. S...
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Maverick C.

Maverick C.

Sophia went above and beyond to help us find a house that fit our needs. As a first time home buyer, I was so reassured by Sophia's demonstrated experience and trustworthy, rock-solid judgment. Almost every concern we had was s...
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Sylvia H.

Sylvia H.

I discovered Sophia on Yelp, and from our first phone call, I knew she was the right choice. She's a total pro and super knowledgeable about the Alameda real estate market. I'd been trying to buy a house in Alameda for over a d...
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Jess B.

Jess B.

Sophia was referred to our family through a friend and with her expertise, we are thrilled to have just purchased our first home. We found Sophia to be easy to talk to and most importantly, she was honest with us about the real...
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Larissa C.

Larissa C.

Sophia came highly recommended to us by family members who'd worked with her previously and let me tell you, she did not disappoint! From the moment we first met to talk through our wish list to the day she handed us the keys t...
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Finding the perfect home or selling with confidence takes expertise and dedication. With Sophia Nui Group's strategic approach and market insight, your real estate journey will be seamless.

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