Dec 7, 2009
Home Selling Process – What To Expect?
If you have been planning to sell your house I am sure you must have come across plenty of articles based on home selling tips and guides. There is a plethora of advice available on the net and otherwise, so much so that by now you must be quite confused as to where exactly you must start. Infact even the big picture gets so blurred that most of you start wondering as to exactly how the process will progress and how you are supposed to cope with it.
The actual process may differ depending on the area; there are a few general steps that will work well for everyone.
You need to start with some basic preliminary planning. This may not sound like much but this is the first stepping stone that will lead through to the rest of the process. You need to be mentally prepared to hand over your home to another person; similarly you will need to make sure that your home is prepared to be handed over to a new owner. If you want to sell your home because you want to move into a new one, then I hope you know that you don’t have to wait to buy a new home, unless the older one is sold. You can very well buy another house before your current residence is sold.
When you are completely prepared to sell your home, the time has come to appoint a good realtor who will be with you through out this process. You can look around your neighborhood for a good agent or you could look for more experienced agents who have been quite successful in their field. You can meet a few of them before you decide to appoint one of them as your agent. You will need to ask about their marketing strategies and also about the various commissions that are on offer. Make sure that you are really comfortable with this person, as you will have to go through a lot together before the deal cracks through.
You now need to finalize the listing arrangements. There is a lot to choose from, but it is the best to choose a combination where your part is limited to the amount of work you would like to do during the process. Also you may have to think about what each kind of listing will cost you.
Whatever you decide on, remember that the cost of listing is integral to the cost of selling the house and should thus be incorporated in the asking price of the house. Be extra cautious when you decide the price of your house so that you can fix an ideal price. Anything too less or too much, soils the reputation of the deal in the eyes of the buyers. Use a rough analysis to get the value of your home, do not forget to add the expenses incurred during the process.
If the price set is good then before long you will have potential buyers contacting you or your agent for house showings. Incase you are going through an agent, make yourself scarce when the potential buyer comes for a house showing. Incase you are selling the house on your own, then go through the sundry advantages of your home and do not forget to point them out. Think carefully about what you are going to say.
If every thing goes well, you can expect the buyer to make an offer. You may involve an estate attorney here so that everything is smoothened out. Be very sure about what ,the buyer thinks, comes with the house and what is not part of the deal. You may or may not accept the offer or you may like to make a few changes to it.
If the whole thing is acceptable to both the parties, then viola the deal falls through and you are now very much at the end of the process of selling your home.
Help answer the question about home selling
Selling home in 1 year, how do you calculate tax penalty?
I have purchased a foreclosed home for $80,000. I would like to sale it for 110,000. Would I have any tax penalty if I sell it in 1 year? I live in the state of Wisconsin.
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Learn more about home selling advice as well as download our free home selling checklist when you visit http://www.stepsinsellinghome.com, the premier internet resources on tips for selling your home
There are a lot of considerations, including your asking price, the housing market where you live, condition of the home and the aggressiveness of your Realtor. A GOOD Realtor should be able to provide you with guidance based on your specific situation and market.
Anything that is attached to the structure is considered to be a fixture and is part of the real estate that is being sold.
If you have something that is attached to the Real Estate that you really want to take with you, I think the bast way to handle that is to remove the object prior to putting the property on the market.
That way potential purchasers will not see the fixture and it will no longer be part of the Real Estate.
However in most cases holes are drilled when an alarm system is installed so you will have some holes that need to be filled, patched and painted before you put the property on the market.
Sometimes the cost of removing the fixture and repairing the structure where the fixture was attached makes the cost of removing the fixture not worth it to you to remove the fixture.
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This is not the greatest time to be selling your home, the housing market is really in a slump I'm afraid. If your home is priced to sell and it is in impeccable shape, your Realtor should be advertising, introducing it to the market place, that process is about l mo. Start packing your personnel things, brick brack, book, dishes, rid the house of clutter, paint, touch up. Make sure it smells nice at all times, there are deodorant machines on the market in case your gone in the day it can dispense an air cleaner.. Take all family portraits off the walls and shelves, pack in box and mark. Selling a home is not just up to the Real Estate Company, you have to work to if you want top dollar. I had a Real Estate Business for 30 years and this works. Hang in there with your Realtor, if she does not call you every other day call her. If she or he does not like it then write the brokerage a letter and tell them to get a new Realtor for you. Good Luck
She would need to file a partition action in order to force the sale, and that would take a lot longer than your refinancing will. It will also cost her quite a bit of money.
To the above poster: Just signing a quitclaim deed will NOT absolve her of her obligation to repay the mortgage. All it will do is take her off title. Signing a quitclaim without getting her cash out will mean that she is responsible for a mortgage on a property that she no longer owns. She will need to sign a quitclaim at the time of the refinancing so that she is no longer in title. The old mortgage will be paid off at the refinancing, and will be a moot point.
Contact your lender and ask for a loan modification into a low fixed rate.
That low teaser rate is only 1/2 of whats being charged on your loan – your also have to consider the margin plus the index to get your fully amortized rate. Your teaser index might be a rate of 4%, adding the margin at 5% = a full rater of 9%.. Doesn't look to good….
Unless your buyers are paying cash you can not sell over the appraisal, no bank will finance a house for more then it is worth.
Usually the closing is within 45 days. You'll want to put the exact number of days in the contract. In Kentucky our Realtor contracts say "Closing of this transaction shall occur no sooner than ___ calander days nor later than ___ calander days from the date of acceptance of this contract (acceptance date not included)." 45 days give the buyers time to schedule an apprasail, home inspection, and any other inspections they need to complete. It also gives the lender plenty of time to turn the appraisal and all other paper work in to the underwriters so everything can be completed and ready to go prior to your closing date.
Also, in your contract make sure you state how many days the buyer has to complete their inspections and what kind of response times you'll have. For example, our contracts here in Kentucky say "Within ___ calander days of acceptance of this contract (acceptance date not included) Buyer and/or Buyer's Representatives may inspect the property for any purpose at resonable times at Buyer's expense. If Buyer requests Seller to make repairs, corrections, or or replacements, Seller shall respond to Buyer's request within ___ calander days from Buyer's written notification to Seller. If Buyer and Seller cannot agree on which items should be repair, corrected, or replaced, or on payment of same, Buyer has ___ calander days following the Seller's last response to notify the Seller in writing that Buyer either accepts the property "as is" or that Buyer voids this Contract."
This is a lot of technichal info but it's important to have this in your contract. I'd be happy to forward you a copy of our contract we use here in Kentucky. It was written by the Kentucky Real Estate Commission and it's really good. It covers everything to protect the sellers and the buyers. Just send me an e-mail (BandHomes@yahoo.com) if you want me to forward that to you.
Good Luck!!!
In this market I would NEVER advise my clients to buy another home before their home was sold.
You can try and buy another home
"Contingent Upon the Successful Close of Your Current Home" once you get a contract on the home you currently live in but the seller may balk.
If you want to possibly get stuck with two house payments, then go ahead and buy the 2nd home.
In this market I would advise against that strategy however.
Terry S.
http://www.Welcome2Arizona.com
As an onwner they have a higher perceived value of their own property. Remember some of them also got caught making a second mortgage or refinancing with lower rates to get their equity out and now their houses are worth less than they owe on them after this market downward spiral.
So it is up to you to bring them back down to earth. The way to do this is to visit their house and look at every little detail of the house and the property.
Then make a list of what was wrong and how much it will take to repair. Then also do a market analysis of the area and get comparables sold and for sale.
Put all of this information together with your offer and if your dealing with an agent gift all the information to him to give to the owner or write all this information on an addendum to turn in with your offer.
This way your offers are more justifiable and more offers will be accepted than rejected.
Good Luck