Seller's Guide

Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.

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.​​​​​​​

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

Our Testimonials

See why our clients love working with us.
Meylan A.

Meylan A.

Excellent service. Very professional. The first place to go if you are looking to buy is in Oakville, Burlington, or Mississauga.
Read More
Andrea S.

Andrea S.

I just moved to Canada and Debbie Gonin-Baun helped us to find the perfect house for us. She was helpful, and knowledgeable, and didn’t give up until we were 100% happy. Thanks, Debbie.
Read More
Kelly F.

Kelly F.

Lorne Howell 5 stars plus. It is common in this day and age for folks to over-promise and underperforms. Lorne is one of those rare individuals that underpromises and overperforms. I recommend him unreservedly to anyone interes...
Read More
Peter S.

Peter S.

The Invidiata team has been a pleasure to work with, specifically working with Lorne Howell. He has great knowledge of the area, a good read on the market, and the direction prices will go. He is always making himself available...
Read More
John T.

John T.

5 Stars for Lorne Howell. Seems that a number of agents in Oakville profess to be number one. However, having successfully completed 6 transactions over the years with Lorne, I can confidently say that his extensive knowledge o...
Read More
Khurshid A.

Khurshid A.

5 stars for Lorne Howell. We met Lorne six years ago at an open house on our street. Recently, we listed our home with Lorne and it sold two weeks ago for an excellent price, especially in the current market situation and stiff...
Read More
Bill P.

Bill P.

We were very fortunate indeed to have had Lorne Howell of Invidiata Real Estate represent us in the sale of our Oakville home. Due to his thorough knowledge of the local real estate market, his extensive experience, his marketi...
Read More
Afam E.

Afam E.

Though I have had the opportunity to work with real estate agents in the past, my experience with Rimsha Ali this time around was exceptional and indeed a pleasure to behold. Her attention to detail and ability to fashion out a...
Read More
Gwen I.

Gwen I.

We sold our home in three days, above listing in a very challenging market. We couldn’t have achieved this without Lorne Howell. His attention to detail is unbelievable; from staging, photography, the video and even meeting all...
Read More
Brenda M.

Brenda M.

Thank you for taking our listing and for assigning Lorne Howell as our realty sales representative. Lorne was an outstanding professional in every regard. From the very first meeting to the sale of our home he listened and resp...
Read More

P

Paul Primiani

We have purchased and sold 19 homes over the years in both Canada and the USA and can say without any qualms that our overall experience in both the selling and purchasing process was truly hassle free..The service and expertis...
Read More

S

Stella Law

We worked with Donna Gray from Individiata to sell our home and she was wonderful to work with! Not only is Donna an expert in the South Mississauga/Oakville area but she also has a tremendous eye for styling a home. Donna wa...
Read More

E

Eva Klein

Working with Lorne has been a real pleasure. Although we were listed with another agent previously and reasonably pleased, Lorne added a different caliber of professionalism. He gave us a detailed and compelling analysis of wha...
Read More

R

Rameen & Sufyan

I recently worked with Rimsha and sold my house in Milton, Ontario. I live in Alberta and was guided all the way to complete the sale all remote. It was a wonderful and very satisfactory experience. She helped me and went out o...
Read More

S

Sara Fadaee

Rimsha Ali is an amazing agent. She came recommended by a friend, and we are so happy we went with her. As second time home buyers the process can be intimidating, Rimsha made the process seamless, smooth and made sure our need...
Read More

Y

Yuri S.

With over 25 years experience of buying and selling real estate in Canada and internationally my wife and I deal with many real estate agents. Lorne Howell is absolutely extraordinary in the pool of agents we have ever met. Hi...
Read More

N

Nasim Assadian

I am the kind of person who does her own research and doesn't trust anyone, specially real estate agents. I had many bad experiences with different agents, including friends who are in this business. So obviously, when trying t...
Read More

K

Kelvin C.

Excellent! great customer service, high-end and well-experienced
Read More

S

Sean N.

We had high hopes when we hired Invidiata. Chris and Aimee were very impressive in the initial meeting to win our business. Unfortunately, once we signed up, the service became far below average. Some examples would be unreturn...
Read More

C

Carl L.

Had an amazing experience with Jane Chandler - who was patient with us in the search for our perfect home and unbelievably professional in helping us list and sell our home of 20 years. We don't do these transactions often - bu...
Read More

How much is your Santa Monica home worth?

  • Instant property valuation
  • Expert advice
  • Sell for more

Work With Us

Etiam non quam lacus suspendisse faucibus interdum. Orci ac auctor augue mauris augue neque. Bibendum at varius vel pharetra. Viverra orci sagittis eu volutpat. Platea dictumst vestibulum rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper.

Follow Me on Instagram