Tips for Selling Your Georgia 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 agent 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.

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 real estate agent 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. I 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 I deem the offer is acceptable, I 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, I 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. I 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 real estate agent 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.

Testimonials

Emilie

Chase is in a class all by himself. He is the best realtor in Atlanta.

Diana

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Charles

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Dharti

When an agent makes purchasing a home feel easy, they are clearly amazing at what they do. He’s extremely knowledgeable, addressed all my questions promptly, and went out of his way to make sure the whole price went smoothly. C...

Vickers

We've worked with Chase for two home purchases and one sale, and he's made the process smooth and easy for us. We couldn't be happier with the homes we've found through him, and our place sold in two days with multiple offers. ...

Diane

Chase is one of the most buttoned-up and professional people I have ever met - in any field. He understands the Atlanta market and my goals. He is a trusted advisor. I regularly recommend him to my friends looking to buy or sel...

Teresa

It was a pleasure to work with Chase in the purchase of our home. He is very professional, has a great knowledge of the market, and was able to find exactly what we were looking for. He supported us through the process, providi...

Rob

Chase was extremely professional and made the process seamless and simple for me. Chase treats the profession as a full-time job and is extremely passionate about real estate and looking after his client's needs first. I would ...

Scott

We retained Chase in connection with a relocation from the West Coast. It was our fifth relocation, and I've never been happier with a real estate professional anywhere. First and foremost, he listened carefully to what we were...

Sarah C.

We can't say enough good things about Chase Mizell. First of all, he cares about his clients’ needs listens to what we say we want, and also intuits what we may need. With this combination, he finds the most amazing prospects (...

Stu

Chase was an amazing sales agent. He is incredibly responsive and has just the kind of 'bulldog' personality that gives you confidence he's out there really pushing your property. He was also upfront with me. He told me what I ...

Randy

I knew Chase casually and knew of his excellent reputation, but just assumed that his staff would take care of many details of selling our home. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much Chase personally handled almost everyt...

Kelly

Chase has helped me buy and sell one home and recently helped me buy a great place. He understands his client well and will be the best defender of his client's interests in negotiations. I have worked with several realtors in ...

Terry

After 16+ years in our Midtown Atlanta condominium, we made the difficult decision to sell it and move closer to our grandchildren. Once we made that decision it was easy to select our realtor. There was no question that Chase ...

Jason G.

I have had the pleasure of working with Chase Mizell on several of my home purchases and sales. He is the hardest-working realtor I know. His knowledge of the market, both inventory and value, is unmatchable. All of my transact...

Barbara

When you look for a house, above all in a country that is not yours, it could be really hard. You need to be guided in your choice by someone who is really aware of what he is doing, and he knows really well the home business a...

Kevin C.

Chase is the consummate professional. Chase helped us purchase our townhome. He came to us via a recommendation after we had a bad experience with another agent. We were first-time home buyers and the first thing he did was sit...

The Sandlers

There's just not enough space allotted here to write all the reasons we would HIGHLY recommend Chase Mizell. After a four-year search with numerous realtors, we were lucky enough to meet Chase 4 months ago. Chase consistently i...

Steve S.

I am very particular and very demanding in my business approaches and compliments from me come few and far between. Chase was the listing agent for my home in Ansley Park. Chase sells more than $30,000,000 annually NOT by luck ...

Brian

Simply put, we got our dream house thanks to Chase. We were referred to Chase by close friends who were so pleased with their experience that they almost insisted we work with him. As first-time homebuyers, Chase was instrument...

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Seller's Guide