Step 2: You’ve Hired a Realtor. Now What?

You’ve picked ME as your Realtor (Yay!).

Now we need to get your home ready for the market. This involves:

More paperwork

Selling your home involves a lot of paperwork. Review the Listing Agreement and Disclosures for the information you’ll be asked to provide. I know… seems like A LOT, right? But don’t worry, you picked the right agent when you hired me.

dotloop

I will introduce you to a unique solution called dotloop. It is an online workspace that connects everyone and everything needed to complete a real estate transaction in one place. dotloop allows us to edit, complete, sign, and share documents without ever needing to print, fax, or email. It helps us eliminate actual paper and keep your transaction organized. We save all the documents there, and you will be able to see the process in action while I do the work.

You will create an account and will be able to fill out all the forms needed, from the convenience of your phone, tablet, or computer! You can also sign all of them in a secure and verified way.

It will speed up the process of selling your house by giving you instant access to any offer we get, and any document that will need your approval and signature.

Top 10 List

Write a top ten list of reasons you love living in your house. We don’t want these reasons to be things the buyers can easily see for themselves, such as your gorgeous kitchen. Instead, we want them to be intangibles that only you know, such as the beautiful sunsets visible through your living room windows, that you have great neighbors, that there is a farmers market down the street every Tuesday, or that the area is very quiet and gets little traffic. I will use this list in marketing your home, and it will be a good started point for the  Letter to Future Buyer that you will be writing.

Let us know what date you want your home to go live in the BLC

We need about one week’s notice before we can put your property on the market. Before it goes on the market, you will need to declutter your home, fix any items that need to be fixed, and either clean the house (and yard) or have it professionally cleaned.

If your home isn’t going on the market within 48 hours, we need you to fill out the mandatory BLC Exempt Disclosure, saying it’s acceptable for your home to go into the BLC at a later date.

Change the privacy settings on your social media pages so only friends can see your posts

We don’t want potential buyers Googling you to learn that you just got a big promotion at work, are moving across the country, or are buying a new house because you’re having a baby. All these pieces of information can hurt my negotiation position; therefore, it’s imperative that you change your security settings to make your posts and photos unavailable to strangers. And while you can mention that you’re selling your home, don’t say why.