Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.
I prepare a custom marketing plan to position your property for a successful sale.
Putting your home on the market in Austin can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of experienced Austin real estate broker, Lyon Gegenheimer, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you get prepared and sell your home for the best price possible.
What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Are you upsizing or downsizing? Are you hoping to move to a better neighborhood or school district, or area that better fits your current lifestyle goals? Do you need to sell to facilitate a move to a new city? Or would you like to test the market to see if a buyer is willing to pay you a high value on your home? Make sure you convey these needs to your REALTOR® so that they understand your goals and timeframe.
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 attract 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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right list price for your home. An agent with experience can analyze what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and provide either a Broker's Price Opinion or a Comparative Market Analysis to accurately price your home before putting it on the market.
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Lyon Gegenheimer
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If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since moving in, 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. Your Realtor may suggest staging the home so that the use of each space can be seen in the most appealing light. Additionally, you and your Realtor may decide that a remodel project is in order, such as, new landscaping, appliances, lighting or more, to give you the best ROI, return on your investment, and get you the most equity and profit out of your home.
Lyon will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your Austin home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right buyers to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. Lyon's 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.
Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it is only the beginning of your selling journey. Lyon 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 and selling terms are acceptable to you. If the offer is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other creative ways to bridge the gap, such as an interest rate buy-down, 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.
Once we deem an offering price is acceptable and that the buyer is financially capable of closing, Lyon will review the offer to make sure all selling terms are mutual acceptable to both buyer and seller. Those terms will include the earnest money deposit amount, inspection period and option fee amount, timeframe for contingencies, settlement date, and a list of standard fees (and which party will pay each of them). When both parties have agreed to the terms, an executable contract will be drafted and sent for your final approval and signature.
You have accepted and executed an offer and are now headed down the path toward closing. In most cases, the buyer will have your home inspected by licensed inspectors or licensed professionals, surveyed by a land surveyor, and appraised by a bank appraiser in Austin. Major or minor repairs could potentially be negotiated and will need to be complete before the bank is willing to lend and close the transaction. Lyon's team will head up efforts to execute each action item and insure those are paid by the correct party; making sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before closing, your Realtor will call the title company to make sure your escrow agent has correctly itemized your settlement statement, and closing documents are being drafted by the bank. If you haven’t done so already, make arrangements to move out of the home and call in a disconnection of utilities for 1-2 days after closing.
You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on your home, you are legally transferring the title of ownership of the property to the new buyer. During these last few days, you can also make plans with your REALTOR® to handle final details such as hiring a cleaning professional for a make-ready for the new owners, having the lawn trimmed one last time, canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, plus recurring maintenance agreements, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances, plus electronic locks, Nest or Ring thermostats and video doorbells that will remain in the home. Remember that bathroom mirrors, garage remotes, fireplace screens and gas keys, ceiling fan remote controls, pool equipment including pool skimmers, TV wall mounts, speakers fixed to walls, curtains and all window coverings automatically convey with the sale and should be in the home as of the closing date. If you have any doubts ask your Realtor® before removing an item from the house.
Once you have sold your Austin 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.
Lyon Gegenheimer is the lead broker of the Lyon Real Estate Group at Compass based in Austin, Texas. Lyon Real Estate Group’s goals are to provide the highest level of real estate services available. Honesty, Experience, and Integrity are principles and qualities the brokers and agents demonstrate daily with enthusiasm and solid market knowledge.
