Seller's Guide

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.​​​​​​​

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Seller | Wayne & Dawn W.

Seller | Wayne & Dawn W.

A real pleasure to work with! Appreciated the team approach to selling our home. Each person along the way was at the top of their game and we felt like the top priority every day (despite the reality of many other happy client...
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Seller | Joanne & Mike S.

Seller | Joanne & Mike S.

Leigh Ehrlich Schiff & the entire Schiff Real Estate Team exceeded every expectation we had about selling our beloved home where we started our family. From the moment we met Leigh, she provided us with an in-depth overview of ...
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Buyer | Jacqueline B.

Buyer | Jacqueline B.

We got to know Michael last fall when we started to look into buying our first home. Things to know about Michael. He is arguably the most responsive human to all forms of communication that exist - text, email, call, anything ...
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Buyer | Justin M.

Buyer | Justin M.

Michael and his team are awesome! We were moving from out of state and Michael was able to help us narrow our focus to an area that checked all the boxes for us. During our second trip, he helped us secure the house of our drea...
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Buyer

Buyer

As first-time homebuyers, my wife and I couldn't have been more satisfied with Michael as our agent. From the moment we first reached out, to all the questions and vendor recommendations we asked in between (and following closi...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

The Schiff Real Estate Team took the time to understand my situation, my priorities, and various comfort level with home sale-related issues. They knew my geographic area and price range and did an excellent job of marketing my...
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Buyer

Buyer

Michael helped us buy a new home and Leigh helped us sell our current one. Doing both at the same time was crazy and hectic, but they made it as smooth and easy as possible. Leigh's marketing strategy, thoughtfulness, and excel...
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Buyer & Seller

Buyer & Seller

I have spoken to and consulted over 50,000 real estate agents in the last 7 years. I know real estate and I know real estate agents. Working with Michael and Leigh Schiff has been an absolute pleasure. Michael handles the buyer...
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Buyer & Seller

Buyer & Seller

Michael helped us buy the lot and Leigh helped us sell the home. Working together, they saw the opportunity to build in a great neighborhood on a pristine lot. Leigh's marketing strategy, thoughtfulness, and excellent negotiati...
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Seller

Seller

Leigh and her team are amazing. Leigh had our home under contract in less than a week after being on the market with another agent. Her ability to market, list, and sell our home quickly and for the best market price was invalu...
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David P.

David P.

100% recommend the Schiff Real Estate Team. They did a fantastic job when it came to selling our home and purchasing the next dream home. We recently closed on the new home and we honestly could not have done it without the sup...
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Seller

Seller

Leigh and her team were very professional and helpful in marketing and selling the home we lived in for 38 years. The marketing plan was noteworthy in deciding on the pricing strategy and developing an exceptional brochure to a...
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Buyer | Seller - David K.

Buyer | Seller - David K.

Michael and Leigh have helped us with three home purchases or sales since moving to Atlanta. They are extremely professional and very responsive. They have a great understanding of the market and were a huge help in selling our...
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Seller | Diara S.

Seller | Diara S.

Leigh and the whole Schiff team are wonderful and exceed expectations! They are honest and caring and super responsive. Their #1 priority is their client's happiness and they work with you until the job is done. They sold our r...
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Seller

Seller

We can't say enough about the Schiff Real Estate team! Leigh and her team were efficient and thought about every detail. They were responsive to all our questions, emails, and calls. They made the process of selling our home st...
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Seller

Seller

Leigh and her team were a pleasure to work with. They always put their client's interests first. They are extremely knowledgeable about Atlanta real estate and are so responsive to their client's needs. I highly recommend them ...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

I was just telling my wife we should move if only to be able to use Schiff Real Estate! I cannot recommend enough Michael, Leigh and their entire team. No other team knows the Atlanta marketplace with this depth of knowledge an...
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Seller

Seller

Hands down the best experience I have ever had when buying or selling a home. Couldn’t have asked for better or more communication throughout the entire process! The whole team was involved and made it a very simple process fro...
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Ali L.

Ali L.

We cannot say enough amazing things about the Schiff Team! They moved very fast, were super knowledgeable, and sold our house in one day! They are efficient, communicative, and the best! Thank you so much for making the selling...
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Seller

Seller

I cannot recommend Leigh highly enough. She is personable, professional, and extremely knowledgeable. She sold our difficult-to-sell house in record time!
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