Step 2 To Selling a Home: You've Hired a REALTOR - Now What?

You’ve picked a Realtor (us!). Yeah! Now what? Now we need to get your home ready for the market.

First things first: the paperwork.

Our Seller Homework

Selling your home involves a lot of paperwork, but most of that is completed in the very beginning. Click here to download our listing packet of items you need to complete and return to me. Below is a detailed description of what this packet contains.

• Top 10 List. The reasons you fell in love with your home (and the reasons you love it now) will likely be the same reasons the next owner falls in love with it, too. We ask that you write a top ten list of reasons you love living in your home. We don’t want these reasons to be things the buyers can easily see for themselves such as your gorgeous kitchen (unless it is a knock-your-socks-off, one-of-a-kind kitchen, of course!). Instead, we want you to think about the intangibles that only you know, for example that you have great neighbors and gatherings in the cul-de-sac, that you can walk to the farmer's market down the street every Saturday morning, or that you love to sit on your porch and drink your coffee and listen to the birds sing on the weekends. Click here for an example of a fantastic Top 10 List. We then use this list in our marketing of your home.
• Utilities Information. Not only will the buyer need a list of your utilities companies, so that they can transfer them into their name for closing day, but some buyers are going to wonder what it costs to live in your home -- not just what their mortgage will be but the electric, gas, and water service costs, as well. We ask that you give us a 12-month "snapshot" of your utilities by filling in the monthly costs on the form we provide.
• Personal Information Sheet. Our personal information sheet will contain all of your contact information (for internal use only), as well as birthdays, anniversaries, kids' and pets' names and birthdays (optional, of course), and favorite things, like restaurants, flowers, sports teams, etc.
  PLEASE NOTE: We do not share your contact information or any information contained on the Personal Information Sheet with any other parties. We do not sell your information to any third parties. All information provided is for our use, to keep in touch with you and (hopefully) brighten your day occasionally with special greetings.

Official Listing Paperwork

We will go over all of the official listing paperwork when we meet with you initially, and much of it can be filled out and/or signed online. This will include:

• Exclusive Seller Listing Agreement. This is the official listing contract containing the dates of the listing, listing price, and all other information pertinent to the representation contract between us as your listing agents and you as the seller. For a sample copy of the Georgia REALTORS Exclusive Seller Brokerage Engagement Agreement, please click here.
• Seller's Property Disclosure Statement. This is basically everything that you know about the home from the time that you bought it until now. You will answer a series of yes-or-no questions, and then provide an longer, written explanation for any questions to which you answer "yes." Buyers appreciate transparency, especially with regard to repairs done to the home and the age of the home's systems, so we encourage you to be as specific and detailed as possible; it's a way for us to establish trust with the potential buyer of your home. Click here to read a sample of the Seller's Property Disclosure Statement. (NOTE: if you are selling a condo, there will be a slightly different disclosure statement. Click here to read the Seller's Property Disclosure Statement -- Condominium.)
• Community Association Disclosure. If you live in a neighborhood or complex with a mandatory or voluntary homeowner's association or condominium association, you will need to fill out this form. We will send you an email to copy-and-paste to your HOA management company or HOA President to make sure we get all of the information accurate on the form. If we disclose them accurately, many of the fees are the buyer's responsibility at closing; however, if we do not disclose correctly, the fees become your cost at closing. Click here to read a sample of the Community Association Disclosure. 
• Lead-Based Paint Disclosure. For homes built before 1978, this disclosure regarding lead-based paint is required. We attach it to all of our listings and contracts, just to be on the safe side. If you've ever had a piece of antique furniture or an antique fixture, it may have had lead paint, so we'd rather over-disclose than under. Click here to read the Lead-Based Paint Disclosure.

A Few Final Items

Let us know what date you want your home to go live in the MLS. Once we've decided on a listing date, we can work backward from that date to get all of the pre-listing and marketing activities scheduled. At minimum, we will need 4 to 5 business days to get your home listing, if you're in a big hurry. However, in a perfect world, we will have a week or two, in order to help you to declutter and stage your home, fix any items that need to be fixed, and give you time to either clean it or have your home professionally cleaned, and then get the photos, video, floorplan, etc. scheduled.

Change the privacy settings on your Facebook page so only friends can see your posts. What you post on social media can actually harm your home sale. We don’t want potential buyers Googling you, finding your Facebook or Instagram account, and learning that you just got a big promotion at work, are moving across the country, or are buying a new house because you’re having a baby. All of this information can potentially hurt our negotiation position; therefore, it’s crucial that you change your privacy/security settings to make your posts and photos private to strangers. And while you can mention on your Facebook page that you’re selling your home, don’t say why.

Feel free to post a link to your home for sale -- on your own page and in neighborhood groups, if they allow it (they are more likely to allow you to post a link to your own home's listing than for us as your REALTORS® to post it) and even to ask friends and family to share it. However, please don't post about your listing or sale progress, talk about receiving an offer or multiple offers, etc. Remember, we have more than just the initial negotiation to get through (for example, the inspection and repairs negotiation), so we want to make sure you maintain a fair negotiation position right up until the closing table. After that: feel free to post away!

Once you’ve completed the above, we'll be ready to move on to the next steps and be on the way to getting your home listed. Have questions? Email us at Maura(at)BuySellLiveAtlanta(dot)com or call 404-994-2181.