People sell their homes for all kinds of different reasons.

Some do it because they’ve outgrown their homes and need to find larger ones. Others do it because their homes are too large, and they need to downsize.

Whatever your reason, you should still follow the same steps to selling a house if you decide to put your home up on the market.

As long as you follow the right steps, you’ll increase your chances of selling your home quickly.

You’ll also reduce a lot of the stress that comes along with selling a home.

Check out the different steps to selling a house below and keep them in mind when you decide to put a “For Sale” sign in your front yard.

Step 1: Decide Why You Want to Sell Your Home

One of the first steps to selling a house will be to decide that you actually want to sell it.

You should sit down and think about why you want to sell it and how motivated you are to move it. Your reason for selling will determine how much of a rush you’re in to get it sold.

If you have time and aren’t in any hurry, you can speak with local real estate agents about whether now is the right time to list it.

If you don’t have any time and are in a hurry, you can learn more about how you can list it as quickly as possible.

Either way, you should come up with your clear reason for selling and let it guide you through the remainder of the steps.

The last thing you want to do is make a big effort to sell your home and then decide it’s not actually what you want to do. So think long and hard before moving beyond this step.

Step 2: Evaluate Your Home and Consider Making Improvements

Once you’ve decided that you’re committed to selling your home, you should evaluate the condition of it. See what you might need to do to it before putting it up for sale.

Ideally, you want to make sure your home is in great condition before you attempt to sell it.

You should put together a list of home improvements you want to make before putting it on the market. That list might look something like this:

• Paint the walls in all the rooms
• Update the outdated electrical system
• Remodel the kitchen and bathrooms
• Rip out the old carpeting and replace it with hardwood flooring
• Power wash the front porch and driveway
• Install new landscaping features in the front yard and backyard

It may not make financial sense for you to make each one of these home improvements. But at the very least, you should consider doing what you can to improve every aspect of your home.

This will increase your chances of selling it later.

Step 3: Come Up With the Right Price for Your Home

After you have gone through the first two steps of selling a house, it will be time for you to price your home.

If you choose to work with a real estate agent, you should make sure they’re in the mix at this point and providing you with guidance along the way.

You can price a home properly by:

• Doing your research on the local real estate market and seeing how much homes are selling for
• Taking your recent home improvements into account when pricing your home
• Checking the listing price for homes in your immediate neighborhood at the moment

The key to pricing a home right is grabbing people’s attention with it. You’ll still want to make an effort to bring in enough money to make the sale worth your while.

It’s a good idea to work with someone who knows the ins and outs of the market. They’ll provide you with an unbiased opinion on what your home is worth.

You might also want to consider selling your home to someone willing to pay cash for it at this point if they make you a strong enough offer. Learn more about this option and how it can benefit you.

Step 4: Prepare Your Home to Go Up on the Market

After you’ve established the price at which you want to list your home, it’ll almost be time for you to put it on the market.

However, before you take that step, you should make sure your home is ready for all of the open houses and showings that are in its future.

You can do this by decluttering your home and getting rid of anything that you don’t want or need anymore. You can also do it by deep cleaning your home and making it look its absolute best.

You might even want to consider staging your home with furniture. This allows others to dream about all the things they could do with the space if they moved in. A staging company can help you outfit your home with the right kind of furniture so that you can encourage others to envision themselves living in your home

Step 5: List Your Home and Begin Marketing It

Your home is organized. Your home is clean. Your home is even staged.

It’s officially ready to go up on the market!

Whether you’re selling your home on your own or listing it with the help of a real estate agent or a listing website (read more here), you will need to list it at this point.

You will also need to put a marketing plan into place so that everyone knows it’s for sale. You can do this by:

• Putting a “For Sale” sign outside of your home
• Hanging up flyers about your home sale around your neighborhood
• Using the internet to promote the sale of your home online
• Linking to your home sale listing on your social media accounts
• Asking friends, family members, and neighbors to help you spread the word

Your goal should be to let as many people as possible know about your home going up on the market. You can do this on your own or count on your real estate agent to get the ball rolling.

Step 6: Negotiate the Asking Price With Potential Home Buyers

If you’ve followed the steps to selling a house so far, then you should have offers for your homecoming in left and right by the time you take this step.

Some of those offers will be strong; others, not so much!

You should weed through them and see which offers sound the best to you. You should then begin the negotiation process and send counteroffers back to the most serious sellers.

Negotiating the sale of a home can be a long and tedious process, especially if you end up working with buyers who want to play hardball. They may be unwilling to budge on their price, and you might have to walk away from the negotiating table if this is the case.

The key is to prepare for this and to be willing to walk away if you don’t like a deal that’s proposed to you.

Eventually, you’ll get an offer that you like and that you feel comfortable accepting.

Step 7: Accept the Best Offer on Your Home and Close the Deal

At some point, you’ll find a buyer willing to give you the money you want for your home.

Congratulations will be in order!

But you aren’t finished with the home-selling process yet. There will still be a few more things you’ll need to do before closing on your property.

The first thing will be a home inspection. Most smart home buyers will request an inspection and have a home inspector take a look at your home for any signs of trouble. The buyer might then come back to you and ask for several repairs to your home before closing.

The second thing will be a home appraisal. A buyer’s lender will likely require an appraisal on your home before agreeing to give the buyer the money needed to purchase your property.

There will also be a slew of legal documents that need signing. It’s not a bad idea to bring in a lawyer to handle this part of the sale since it can get to be very complicated.

Finally, you’ll contact your own lender to pay off your existing mortgage before making arrangements to move to your new home. You will attend the closing on your current home before leaving it once and for all.  To save yourself a headache when moving you could also opt to hire a moving company like Express Movers located in Seattle WA.  They will take care of your possessions as if it were their own.

Follow These Steps to Selling a House to Get Top Dollar for Your Home

As you can see, there are a lot of steps to selling a house that you need to follow before moving out.

However, you shouldn’t let those steps scare you off. As long as you’re willing to take one step at a time, selling a home won’t be as stressful as you think it will be. You will have a successful experience and walk away feeling like a winner.

Read our blog for more tips on buying and selling real estate.