Seller's Guide

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 realtor once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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 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.

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.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

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.

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.

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 agent.

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. 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, 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.

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 realtor 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.

Testimonials

See why our clients love working with me.

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TIA C.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Natalie Costello over the last three years – I cannot speak highly enough about her expertise, professionalism, and knowledge of the real estate industry. Natalie is by far top of her class...

KRISTINA M.

My wife and I were desperate for more space for our growing family. We came across a listing the day they posted it, reached out to Natalie and the team, and that evening was doing our first walk-through. She obviously knows th...

RYAN S.

We hired Natalie Costello to help us purchase a detached house in Toronto during the hottest market on record! Our wishlist was lengthy and specific, but Natalie ensured us that she would work day and night to make it happen. I...

JOE C.

Amazing service and attention to detail. Natalie Costello’s professional approach made the difference in both purchasing our new property and timing the sale of our home. Natalie’s expert knowledge and a broad range of Real Est...

BAILEY W.

I had a fantastic experience purchasing my new loft and leasing my current condo with Natalie Costello - both done deals under 12 days flat! Her professionalism, understanding, listening, and delivery of my many needs with both...

MADISON C.

My partner and I had a wonderful experience with Natalie Costello. She has helped us over the last few years find beautiful places to rent and just recently guided us through the process of buying our first home! She is lovely,...

ANDI M.

My partner and I had the pleasure of working with Natalie Costello to sell our home, and purchase the next. Nat was incredibly responsive, knowledgeable and patient with us as we worked through a very tricky market. On top of b...

AMANDA C.

I first connected with Natalie Costello to discuss my goals for buying an investment property. She took the time to understand my life, my needs, and my goals. Together, we created a strategy but her market knowledge, due dilig...

DANIEL C.

Working with Natalie, as always, is an absolute treat. Her professionalism and huge efforts to get the best deal possible are the best in the business. Not only that but going above and beyond after the purchase is made to ensu...

TOM A.

Nat took the time to understand what features were important, work within our desired location, and quickly able to understand what would work and not work for the buying journey. Open to questions and someone for guidance. No ...

CAM M.

We had an amazing experience with Natalie Costello and her team. They helped us navigate a challenging real estate market, and were very patient with our lengthy search. It ended up in securing our dream home. Five star service...

GAR & DEB S.

Thank you Natalie for helping us achieve our goal in this crazy market. Thanks to Natalie, we hung on tight and got our home sold without giving it away. Thank you for the great strategy and constant attention to our listing.

GRACE S.

If you are looking to buy or sell or even invest, you won't be disappointed with Natalie. She will guide you the right way with no pressure and is very professional. Thanks, Natalie for everything!

MARK F.

Had a great experience with Natalie as my REALTOR. Great through the search, gave honest opinions on properties considering the future and market dynamics. Thanks again, Nat!

SUZIE & JASON

Thank you Natalie for helping us get into our dream home and for the delicious pizza dinner.

Pat M.

"Navigating both the sale of our previous home and the purchase of our new residence with the Natalie Costello Real Estate Team was a seamless and stress-free process. Their strategic marketing approach and analysis ensured our...