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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.

Real Stories, Real Results

See why our clients love working with us.
Michael G.

Michael G.

My wife and I have worked with Carly on two occasions. The first was to sell our vacation home, and the second was to buy a new one. Both times we had a great experience. Carly is very knowledgeable, professional, and personabl...
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Luke W.

Luke W.

Carly did a fantastic job selling our home. She is always very responsive and goes out of her way to make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible. As a local of the area since birth, she knows everyone, which pays off big...
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Collen P.

Collen P.

While we could have done without the missing UPS notarized overnighted paperwork (which was completely out of our hands), we would not have changed a single thing. Carly had photos of our home and listed our property within hou...
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Anne H.

Anne H.

I can’t say enough about Carly Sostheim as a Realtor®. She goes all out to find a buyer, then to help you get together whatever the buyer requests once a contract is executed. She does all of the work for you with as little inc...
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Will C.

Will C.

Absolutely wonderful to work with. Excellent communication and hustle throughout the entire buying process. She was very helpful and had resources I didn’t even know I needed! I would love to work with Carly again and highly re...
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Elizabeth H.

Elizabeth H.

Carly was so easy to work with! I was nervous to sell my first home and was full of questions. She answered them all and never made me feel like any question was silly. She was always extremely responsive, no matter the day of ...
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Kelly F.

Kelly F.

We have worked with Carly several times, and she always goes out of her way to make the process as smooth and painless as possible. Whether buying or selling, she answers every question and is proactive to make sure everything ...
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Karen B.

Karen B.

Carly was terrific in helping us sell my Mom's house, so when it was time to put our house on the market, there was no other choice for us! Carly worked with us to make sure we were able to highlight all of the great things tha...
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Chastain L.

Chastain L.

Carly is the best realtor we've ever worked with. She is so knowledgeable not only on real estate but also on the Panama City Area as a whole. She was able to answer every single question we had and was available to us every st...
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Adam P.

Adam P.

Carly is one of the best in the business. She helped us get into our new home and sell our old one. The new home was a complicated buy since it was still under construction when we signed our contract. There were many moving pa...
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Kurt B.

Kurt B.

We have bought two homes in the last two years with the professional, insightful help of Carly! Hands down, she’s the best and a straight shooter!
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Kirra O.

Kirra O.

We have had the pleasure of working with Carly over the last 6 months, and she is nothing short of incredible. She doesn’t stop until she’s found what you’re looking for. She goes above and beyond from start to closing and is t...
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Kelly H.

Kelly H.

Carly is the best of the best! We couldn't have asked for a better experience! She and her team made the entire process of selling our home so easy and seamless from start to finish. Carly is extremely knowledgeable about the a...
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Kim D.

Kim D.

My sister and I had the daunting task of selling our parents' waterfront house of 42 years. Having never lived in Panama City ourselves, we were not familiar with the market or how to price the home in an area without many comp...
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Whether you’re buying or selling, we can assist with determining property value, negotiating deals, drafting contracts, and ensuring a seamless process from start to finish.

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