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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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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 Agent 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 agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agent 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.

a house with a well-maintained lawn and flower garden.

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 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.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Olga was extremely helpful in every aspect of the estate sale of my mother's house, she was very knowledgeable and guided us through the whole process.

— Christina C.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Olga helped us through a complicated estate sale. The house would have never sold if she had not been willing to be involved in every step needed. She pursued all the convoluted issues that evolved and kept us up-to-date and on track. We enjoyed working with her positive attitude and her amazing expertise.

— E.F.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Olga and Roman helped me and my family numerous times in my Real Estate transactions. When I listed my COOP apartment with their team, they used their knowledge and skills to find me a most qualified buyer within a short period of time (about 1 week). I did not expect to be in a contract that quick at a price I wanted to get. This allowed me to buy 2 family investment properties, where Olga helped me aga...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Olga is the only person you should consider dealing with. My wife and I have worked with her for both buying and selling an apartment in Queens. She knows the areas she works in amazingly well, both big picture and down to the details of every building. She is an expert on the entire process and will help guide you through everything and make it all as easy as possible (everything from co-op board interv...

— Seller

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Olga Zakinova is the best real estate broker I have ever dealt with. She was the broker when I bought my house five years ago and I was so impressed by her skills that I asked her to be my broker when I sold the house five years later. She knows how to assess a house's advantages and disadvantages and is very knowledgeable about the area and what kind of buyers would be interested. She gave great advice ...

— Ralph

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I retained Olga's services due to her expertise and strong knowledge of the coop market, especially in Queens. She assisted me with the entire process from beginning to end including recommending cosmetic improvements to enhance the "curb appeal" of the unit and list price. She kept me informed of potential buyers and provided her opinion of their seriousness and readiness to buy. Unfortunately, due to t...

— Dy W.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

It was a pleasure working with Olga Zakinaova. She is by far one of the best real estate agents I have ever worked with! She is extremely professional and knowledgeable, and our home purchase under her guidance was seamless! From the day we submitted our offer to closing, Olga was there for us, every step of the way, from start to finish. She helped expedite our board package and got us a board meeting i...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

My experience with Olga goes back approx. 9 years ago she sold me and my wife our apartment and everything I remember about her then holds true today. She is the consummate professional who is accountable and holds herself to a high standard. She is tenacious in the way she works but never forgets the human element of home buying and selling. Her knowledge of every aspect of the sale process is tremendou...

— Seller

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Buying a home is a very stressful process, and selling one at the same time just adds to it. Olga was the agent of the apartment I was buying, and I was so impressed by her professionalism and knowledge that I decided to hire her to sell my apartment as well. Olga made the process extremely smooth. She offered her mortgage bank loan officer, who turned out to be fantastic. She offered an attorney, who tu...

— Buyer

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I have been working with Olga and Roman and their team for a couple of years now. We have been wanting to get an apartment for a couple of years but COVID hit and that plan was put on hold. I was still very apprehensive and nervous to get anything but because Olga was working with me, I knew I was in good hands. Finally, when the time came Olga knew we were searching and found us a few amazing apartments...

— Liliya K.

Work With Us

The Zakinova Team are dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals in each successful transaction. In fact, 90% of our business comes from repeat and referral clients. Contact us now!