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 Seller's Guide

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, regardless of how many times you've sold a home before. 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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
Heather

Heather

We worked with Kathleen for months to find the perfect place for our family. She was patient, warm, and knowledgeable. She allowed us plenty of space to form our own opinions but was never afraid to tell us her honest thoughts ...
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Kenny & Stafford D.

Kenny & Stafford D.

My husband and I were very impressed with Kathleen, and would proudly endorse her. Kathleen's attentiveness to our needs was far better than any Realtors we've worked with before. She had an uncanny way of making us feel like w...
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Madeline Z.

Madeline Z.

I gave Kathleen the very difficult task of finding me the most amazing "kitchen" ever. This was really my purchase requirement along with a list of about 12 more things. Kathleen was given a very time-consuming task of research...
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Kevin

Kevin

We relied on Kathleen's experience at every step of our recent purchase. We were new to the Santa Cruz area, and she showed us around different neighborhoods and made recommendations for what would suit our taste and lifestyle....
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Tammy

Tammy

My house was a difficult house to sell. That didn't stop Kathleen she jumped right in and gave it her all. This means she kept in contact with me the whole time, you would have thought I was her only client (which I wasn't but ...
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Seller

Seller

Kathleen Zech was an excellent choice for our real estate and property management needs. From the beginning, she was knowledgeable, upfront, and extremely motivated to make it happen for us. She knew the area we were working wi...
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James

James

We meet Kathleen by responding to a few properties on Zillow and other websites for the San Lorenzo area. We immediately made a very good connection and had a great experience. Kathleen showed patience as we explored our list a...
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Tim & Cathy

Tim & Cathy

My husband and I are retiring and considering downsizing but were unsure about exactly how much smaller we want to go. Kathleen listened to all our requirements and then took the time to show us everything from mobile homes to ...
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Joe D.

Joe D.

My wife and I can't recommend Kathleen highly enough. In helping us sell our previous house and buy a new house in 2013, she proved knowledgeable, responsive, and did everything she could to make the process as easy as possible...
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Jennifer

Jennifer

Kathleen provided excellent service throughout our land purchase. She gave us excellent service in all areas of this transaction, had prompt responses to questions, and had a solution for any issue that presented itself to us. ...
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Douglas H.

Douglas H.

We loved the experience we had working with Kathleen and Paul. They were responsive, open, and helpful. We live 1.5 hours away from the property we purchased, and they went the extra mile to take care of things locally that we ...
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Randall

Randall

Thank you for selling the condo. It was easy and very pleasant working with you two. I still remember when I made that first call to you from Logan airport in Boston. Thanks for doing such a good job and being very accessible. ...
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Buyer

Buyer

Kathleen is an amazing Realtor. She is professional, kind, and very easy to work with. Selling and buying a home can be very stressful. Kathleen made us feel at ease and made this a very positive experience.
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Sherilyn & Danny F.

Sherilyn & Danny F.

Thanks to Paul and Kathleen, we are the proud owners of a beautiful, newly constructed home in Gilroy. We would highly recommend the Zech Group professional and easy to work with.
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Jeanne Stewart

Jeanne Stewart

So thankful for the Zech Properties Team. Every aspect of selling my home was communicated upfront with no surprises at closing. And such caring people. Dream Team!
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Local Connections Expert Insights

Our expansive network and white-glove service ensure a bespoke experience for both buyers and sellers. At Team Zech Properties, we carefully curate each property and transaction to ensure that personal touch, every time. Contact Paul or Kathleen today to begin your real estate journey.

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