Leave a Message

Thank you for your message. We will be in touch with you shortly.

Explore Our Properties

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 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.​​​​​​​

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.

main

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.
Jonathan B.

Jonathan B.

Chris was our home buying savior. Being new to the area, he talked us through the benefits of different neighborhoods and then identified homes to match our family's needs. Ultimately he found us our home that we love, before i...
Read More
Richard B.

Richard B.

Being new to Austin and having no knowledge of who to choose for a realtor, Chris Long was a godsend. My previous experiences with buying or selling a home had been less than pleasant. Chris made the process seamless. He was co...
Read More
Carmine S. & Steve B.

Carmine S. & Steve B.

We know that Chris is a sought after agent, yet he somehow makes you feel like you are his only client! He is attentive, available and data driven in his recommendations while still appreciating the emotion that accompanies any...
Read More
Katherine J.

Katherine J.

My realtor John Richardson was excellent! As a first time homebuyer I had a lot of questions and concerns going into the process. John was very patient with me and answered all my questions along the way so I felt confident and...
Read More
Bill & Susan B.

Bill & Susan B.

We can’t recommend Chris Long highly enough. In addition to being exceptionally knowledgeable about the Austin real estate market, he is a thoughtful listener and a consummate professional. Chris thoroughly researched comparabl...
Read More
Andy L.

Andy L.

We could not have been happier with John Richardson as our agent. As out-of-state buyers, John’s knowledge of the different neighborhoods throughout Austin was invaluable. He was patient, responsive, and insightful, and took th...
Read More
Robin A.

Robin A.

My husband and I recently moved from the West Coast to Austin, TX, and John Richardson helped us find our new single-family home. From the beginning, John went above and beyond to understand exactly the type of home we were loo...
Read More
Emily C.

Emily C.

John will be the Realtor® I return to for any home, condo, or other real estate needs in Austin. He is friendly, pays attention to your wants and opinions, and is knowledgeable about Austin real estate and each property we visi...
Read More
Margaret E.

Margaret E.

John Richardson is great. We value his expertise and professionalism! He is a great person as well, and we are glad to have worked with him on buying land in Fredericksburg. Thank you all for making it a smooth process!
Read More
Mike G.

Mike G.

Working with Chris on the sale of our home turned out to be a fantastic decision. Our property was a bit tricky: a top-notch renovation of a relatively small house for the neighborhood meant we would be asking a price per squar...
Read More
Leslie P.

Leslie P.

It was a pleasure to work with John Richardson for the sale of our rental house. His insights on the Austin market helped us maximize our profit, and his network of contractors and service providers made the whole process easy!
Read More
Danny C. & Mark W.

Danny C. & Mark W.

Your outstanding performance in finding us homes to purchase, as well as your expertise in marketing and selling our finished homes has been outstanding. We truly appreciate all of the effort you have put into working with us. ...
Read More
Paul L.

Paul L.

John was fantastic in helping with the purchase of our new home. His communication and professionalism were awesome the whole way through. I've bought several homes before and this was by far the smoothest transaction. Great ex...
Read More
Cheryl M.

Cheryl M.

I enlisted the services of Chris Long after my condo had an initial unsuccessful and prolonged time on the MLS with a previous agent. Chris put together a marketing plan to immediately introduce it to a large group of agents, h...
Read More
Will B.

Will B.

Working with John was an absolute pleasure. We were first-time homebuyers and John made the experience as smooth as possible. We will be contacting John for any of our future real estate needs and we are happy to refer him to o...
Read More
Michael G.

Michael G.

In a sea of mediocre real estate agents, Chris Long shines like a star. Highly intelligent, Chris knows the Austin real estate market inside and out. He knows where to buy and why and can show you the numbers to prove it. Our m...
Read More
John W.

John W.

John Richardson was brilliant from start to finish. He is extremely knowledgeable from a construction perspective and has costs in the market. He is also not pushy and was an absolute pleasure to work with. I would recommend hi...
Read More
Charles W.

Charles W.

I had been familiar with Chris Long's name for years before we decided to list with him. He does a good job of being a part of the neighborhood fabric. His track record and professionalism can put any nervous seller at ease. I ...
Read More
Don H.

Don H.

I was pleased with John Richardson and his team. Right from the beginning when we were making an offer his advice was spot on. The follow up after the offer was excellent. John and his team made this transaction very smooth. I ...
Read More
Carolyn S.

Carolyn S.

The qualities I found in Chris are critical to the home purchase/sale process. These include -Quality of Character - Chris is true to his clients. It is important to him that the client find the home of their desire and part of...
Read More

How much is your Santa Monica home worth?

  • Instant property valuation
  • Expert advice
  • Sell for more

Work With Us

We offer the highest level of expertise, service, and integrity. Get in contact with us to get started today!

Follow Me on Instagram