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Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.
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 agent 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.
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 real estate agent once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.
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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.
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.
I 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. My 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 doesn’t mean the journey is over. I 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.
Once I deem the offer is acceptable, I 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 agent.
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. I 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, I 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.
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. I 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 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.
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.
Stamford offers an exceptional network of premium service providers to complement your luxury lifestyle. Staci Zampa personally recommends these distinguished professionals:
Prior to listing our home with Compass, we vetted more than a half dozen real estate professionals. Staci Zampa's team and Compass Real Estate brought the technical interface, sales experience, analytics, and insight to navigat...
I met Staci in 2007 when she sold me my first apartment at the Riverview Club, and maintained a relationship with her for several years thereafter, when she helped me sell it, and buy a new one when I needed to expand with the ...
Staci listed and sold our house over the summer. She was able to get us close to asking and within our (very rushed!) timeframe. She was available for calls anytime and went above and beyond to make sure that we were comfortabl...
My husband and I can't thank Staci Zampa enough for all the hard work, dedication, and time she spent in helping us find our first and second homes, so quickly. She's now helping us rent out our first place! Staci is the kind o...
Through her vast network, she was able to get our home sold in less than 2 weeks at just about full asking price. For our purchase, we were dealing with a complicated and at times difficult transaction and she was relentless in...
We met Staci because she was the listing agent on the house we wanted to purchase. Despite the inherent difficulties in being a "dual agent", Staci did a great job of representing our interests and getting the deal done in a ve...
Excellent real estate agent. Able to close the deal and able to resolve conflicts before they begin. I have known her and worked with her for five years and would highly recommend her.
Staci Zampa has rented my apartment twice in the last two years to great tenants. She did an excellent job showing the apartment, screening potential tenants, and negotiating the rent all while keeping in constant communication...
Staci Zampa Team is fantastic! My wife and I recently sold our condo in a luxury building in Stamford through Staci and her team's efforts. We cannot say enough about how she thoughtfully considered our home and what it had to ...
I can't say enough positive things about our experience with Staci and Bob. They have extensive knowledge and expertise regarding the real estate market, and were able to walk us through the process as first time home buyers an...
We had an amazing experience working with Staci and Bob! They understood what we wanted for our next home and helped us smoothly navigate the local market. We highly recommend working with them!
Staci Zampa absolutely surpassed our expectations when it came to selling our house. She is professional, knows the market inside and out, and brought her “A” game each and every day! Her team is on point as well. Shout out to ...
I could not have had a better experience than I did with Staci selling my home. She was on it from the minute I decided to put my house on the market and got everything done that she said would get done. She had the right ideas...
We loved working with Staci and Bob Zampa. As listing agent, they understood our home. The strong points and the type of buyers that would recognize and be drawn to these aspects of our home. They were also able to quickly find...
I just wanted to let you know what a fantastic job Andrew did with helping us find our new home… We first started talking to Andrew just before the lockdown started and we weren’t actually able to actively see any apartments be...
Andrew Kallmeyer is a wonderful real estate agent. As a first-time home buyer, we had a lot of questions and he listened to and answered them all. We had a unique situation; we are buying a house with my parents so Andrew had t...
Andrew helped us find our first home in an extremely tough market. He was knowledgeable of the area we were looking in and always found the answers to our many questions. He went above and beyond guiding us through the very str...
Andrew Kallmeyer is a wonderful real estate agent. As a first-time home buyer, we had a lot of questions and he listened to and answered them all. We had a unique situation; we were buying a house with my parents so Andrew had ...
Andrew Kallmeyer is an outstanding real estate agent. He made the process of buying a house out of state simple for us. He was highly responsive and available and provided us with all the needed information to make an informed ...
As first-time homeowners (co-op), we wanted to be sure we'd be collaborating with a realtor we could trust--someone who was open, honest, and easy to connect with and who could provide crucial guidance and navigate us through t...
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