A Detailed Look at the Home Selling Process - The Mark Deering Team

Simplifying the Home Selling Process for You!

You’ve identified that you need to move, now what? The selling process can be daunting. Our team has been selling real estate since 1997, and over the years we have found giving you bite size pieces of each step of the process keeps you well informed but not overwhelmed. Let’s get into the details of the listing process so you can understand what we do to get your home sold.

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What to Expect at Our First Meeting

We’ve already been communicating by text, phone, or email about your desire to move. The first thing that I want to do is set up a meeting with you and go through your home. This will help us get to know each other more and for me to evaluate your home. Here’s what you can expect at our first meeting.

A discussion of your moving goals.
A brief rundown of the home selling process.
A walkthrough of your home.
A presentation of a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) for your home and neighborhood. (mostly prepared and presented after the initial home tour)
A conversation about our listing fees.

A lot of people have questions about the walkthrough. One of the biggest misconceptions is that the home needs to be show-ready. Let me ease your mind. It doesn’t! I’ll be assessing the house for the number of rooms, bathrooms, square footage, and other important features that can help determine the home’s value. I can look past the lived-in look and see the value of the home. When we get ready for actual public showings, we want the home to sparkle!

After Meeting Follow Up

After our meeting, I’ll connect you with my transaction coordinator Jessica, and one of our buyer’s agents if you are buying a home too. Also at this stage I will connect you with our interior designer. This is an important step I review in person. Our team uses group chats to make sure everyone is on the same page and has the same information. We have found it is an effective form of communication. Jessica will be the point person for all paperwork and she’ll be sending you messages and emails along the way with where we are in the selling process and what we need you to do. She’s awesome and highly organized. You’ll love working with her as part of our team.

How We Determine a Price

So, how much is your home worth? It’s one of the main questions everyone has after I meet with them. There’s a reason for that. You want to know how much money you may have to buy your next home or pay something else off. This is one of my top priorities after meeting with you as well as getting you started on our listing marketing path. Several factors can go into your home value. Some of the main ones are:

Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
Finished square footage
Location
Sale prices in the neighborhood
Land
Updates in the home and condition of the home

You might see home value estimations through Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, or Trulia. Those are usually not accurate. They can vary by over 15% either under or over your home’s actual value. They usually only take into account stats that your home had when it was last sold and your property taxes. Your home could have a new addition, more bedrooms, or a nicer location in a neighborhood compared to other homes nearby which can determine your home’s value. You will see in my report actual sold prices vs Zillow Zestimates where the percentage differences can sometimes be very interesting.

Our Marketing Strategy

While I’m coming up with a price, we’ll be working on all of our marketing to get your home top dollar on the market. Jessica will be reaching out to you to get multiple things scheduled that are part of our marketing strategy. Our marketing strategy is a two-way street. The more you trust us and put the work into the process, the better the results. This is especially important in the first part of the process-Home staging.

1. Home Staging. We’ve been able to credit thousands of dollars in increased home value of past listings to home staging. Karen Wells is an awesome home stager who we enjoy partnering with. She gives great advice and every time she has staged a home for us, it looks amazing in photos! Many people comment that they didn’t think their home could look so good! She’ll come and consult with you and give you a list of things to do that will help make your home shine. It could be anything from painting a room to decluttering a space. Our advice is to do as much of the list she gives you as possible! She’s a pro and her advice is gold! You’ll be amazed when you see all of your hard work in the professional photos!

2. Professional Photography. Once your home is staged, we’ll schedule the professional photos. We usually schedule them on a Tuesday so we can list your home on a Wednesday. Professional photos are another one of the top tools (blog) we use for each listing. It is another marketing tool that has been shown to increase buyer interest, higher offers, and quicker sales. We’ve been working with Harr Creative for over a decade, and they always deliver amazing photos!

3. Video Tour. One of the major advantages of using our team is that we have a marketing manager, Katy, who is very talented with video. I have decided we want all of our marketing, which includes your home, to be best in town. Because of this we are one of the few teams in town with a dedicated full-time marketing manager. With her talents, we have been implementing narrated video tours of listings into our marketing strategy. It’s another way for buyers to view the layout of your home and add other commentary that we may be limited to include in the listing comments. We are also able to showcase the area around your home too, whether it's a great park nearby, downtown area, beach, or more. Each video is unique to your home. We also publish reels of your home too so that we are utilizing multiple social media platforms.

4. Social Media, YouTube, Website, and Brokerage. Most agents just post your listing on the MLS and let it get dispersed from there, however, there are many other marketing strategies that we deploy to increase exposure.

- We always post your listing to our social media channels-Facebook and Instagram. Between our team of 7 we have a reach of over 10,000 people on Facebook alone! We will create multiple posts to advertise your home until it is sold, whether it is a blog, video, link, or photo post.
- Our team is part of one of the largest brokerages in Grand Rapids with dozens of agents with whom we share your listing and can even broadcast to them before it hits the market if you’re interested!
- We have one of the most robust real estate YouTube channels in the area, and our videos get in front of thousands of eyes. We encourage you to look around our YouTube channel and website to see the type of content we create.

Listing Agreement and Seller's Disclosure

Our typical timeline for listing a home is to put it live on a Wednesday. From there we have a few options for Open Houses. We have found that hosting an open house within 24 hours is pretty beneficial. Many people will see your home right away and an open house shortly after it is listed can help garner more interest in the property. Prospective buyers may choose to go to the open house if there is one shortly after listing rather than booking a private showing. At the open house there is the potential for buyers to rub shoulders with other buyers which may create a sense of urgency in creating an offer. We have also found that the optimal length of time for an open house is between 1-2 hours to help facilitate that sense of urgency. We can also host open houses on weekends as well if it is more convenient or you desire it.

Showings and open houses are on your schedule. So if there are times that don’t work for you, please let us know so we can block those times off. If your home is likely to be very popular, we may suggest leaving for a day or two to make showings easier to book and to reduce stress on yourself. Some guidelines we have suggest regarding showings:

To schedule showings we use an app called Showingtime! This app helps us stay very organized and safe with who tours your home. Showingtime will text you and ask if for everyone showing if you want to accept or decline. Of course, we encourage you to decline as few as possible. We love using this app because it makes it easy to schedule dozens of showings and keep the calendar organized. For your safety, an electronic lockbox is put on your door to which only the licensed real estate agent conducting the showing has access. Safety, ease of use, and keeping you informed is our goal!

See Sample Listing Agreement

See Sample Seller's Disclosure

Open Houses and Showings

Keep your home show ready. It will be much easier if a last minute showing happens if your home is already well maintained. We understand that this can be harder to do the longer your home is on the market, but it will be easier for you and present your home in excellent fashion to prospective buyers.
Take any pets that are easily transportable out of the home. Obviously there are some pets (like fish) that may be a little hard to remove from the premises, but for most pets we suggest removing them. Barking dogs, cats, or some other furry critters may be turn offs for buyers. We also recommend removing as much evidence of animals as possible. Taking out or hiding away cat trees, kennels, litter boxes, food bowls and other accessories can help buyers see past the fact that there are pets in the home to be able to envision themselves in the home. We are pet lovers and know they are family but not everyone shopping for a home loves them.
Clean entry ways. You might not think about it, but keeping the front door clean and clear goes a long way in the first impression department. If listing your home in winter, we ask that the driveway, sidewalks, and front door remain clear at all times as well as salted so there isn’t any danger or liability issues that could arise. But even in the other seasons, knocking down cobwebs, sweeping away leaves, and cleaning windows give an immediate sense of “pride of ownership” that is noticed!
Reduce Odor. Take out all the trash to help reduce odor. Removing odorous items can help give you home the appeal you’re looking for to potential buyers. While air fresheners might seem like a nice touch, some people can assume that they are masking something or might be allergic to the harsh scents.
Give ample time on each side of your showing. We suggest leaving 5-10 minutes before the showing or open house starts so that you don’t accidentally bump into the potential buyers if they show up early. Same on the back end. Give some space and wait maybe 5+ minutes before arriving home. If you still see a car in your driveway, wait! This is usually a good thing and the buyers are very interested in your home! Drive around the block a few times until they leave.
Leave lights on-for non-vacant homes. We suggest leaving all the lights on to create a welcoming atmosphere and to show off your home well. It helps the agent spend less time searching for light switches and more time showing off your home! 98% of agents will turn the lights off when they leave, and if they don’t it is still worth it for the first impression.

Evaluating Offers and Offer Deadlines

The exciting part! Hopefully, shortly after our first batch of showings we are receiving an offer, and in some cases, multiple offers. Depending on the style of property, we will talk about when we should be reviewing our first offer. Our expansive market research gives us pretty good indicators of what to expect. For some properties we will evaluate offers as they come in, for others we may post an offer deadline (highest and best) and review all offers after that point. I will review the offers and present them to you starting with the strongest one. Below are a few of the criteria I evaluate to ensure you’re getting the strongest offer.

Offer amount
Strength of buyers financing, 3,5,10,or 20 percent down payment,
Are the buyers pre-approved, strength of lender and approval letter
Contingent on buyer selling their current home or non contingent
What appliances are included in sale
How are the property taxes being divided at close
Inspections that are included in offer (if any)
Concessions or agreements to longer possession times
EMD amount
Communication with buyers' agents and confidence in them.

After we decide which offer to pursue, there will be an opportunity to present them with a counter offer if we would like, otherwise we’ll accept the offer and your property is officially under contract!

Inspections and Appraisal!

There are two big things that happen on our way to the closing table-inspections and the appraisal. Inspections happen first and usually within 3-10 days of an accepted offer. The buyer is responsible for choosing and paying a qualified inspector. The inspector will go over all aspects of your home to find problems. Problems could be anything from a leaky faucet to a bad foundation. The inspector will generate a report of his findings and the buyer will go over the report with their agent. From there they may accept the home as is or come back to us to negotiate repairs. This could be in the form of actual repairs or price adjustments to cover repair costs. In rare cases, the buyer may back out of the property entirely. We’ll handle each of these situations as they arrive.

After inspections comes the appraisal. An appraisal is when the buyer's bank sends out an appraiser to assess the property and create a value for the property based on many of the factors that I use to come up with a price. It’s something a bank or mortgage office has to do to make sure the property is worth what they are loaning out. We usually don’t see many hiccups during this procedure, but if any arise, rest assured we can handle it!

Closing!

Hooray! We’ve made it to the closing table! We’ll meet you at the title office for your closing. If you have any remaining questions, we’ll be there to answer them along with a special gift for working with our team! We will still keep in touch with you even after closing day. We love spoiling those who have trusted us with the biggest transaction of their lives! You’ll see emails and notifications for anniversaries and events we have coming up. You’re officially part of the Deering Team family!

Compensation

Our fee for listing your home is 3% of the sales price. Adding in a buyer’s fee beyond that is up to you. A buyer’s fee can range from 0-3% and is completely negotiable how much we add. This is a great topic to talk about in person, with the pros and cons of offering buyer agent compensation.

Working with me and my team, you get my decades of expertise, access to my assistant Jessica, full-time marketing manager, Katy, and Kevin, Wyatt, and Brittany as buyers agents all working on your behalf! Compare that to a solo agent or even a team without the experience and full time staff members. Do you want the best team in West Michigan with over 25 years experience or a solo agent in the business for 5 years for a 3% fee? You decide!