Home Seller's Guide | Lori Devore

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 real estate agent once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I 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. My 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.

Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. I 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.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once I deem the offer is acceptable, I 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 agent.

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. I 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, I 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.

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. I 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 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.

Testimonials

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Peter & Sharon D.

2

Steve L.

3

John & Anita S.

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Steve & Laura B.

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Kate N. & Andrew C.

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Mark T. & Amy W.

Peter & Sharon D.

Simply stated, Lori DeVore is the best. After 45 years it was time to sell our beloved home and Lori was with us every step of the way. Her expertise, professional style, knowledge, communication skills, and work ethic were beyond anything we could have imagined. She not only knows the "Ins" and "Outs" of the market, but she brings with her a vast resource of experience, a sincere caring attitude, and a wonderful pleasant disposition. Lori exceeded our expectations and made our real estate sale a positive experience. Needless to say, if anyone asks us whom we would recommend, it would be only Lori DeVore.

Steve L.

Lori DeVore is a very professional and competent sales agent. She is a pleasure to work with and is very knowledgeable about the Puget Sound market. She also brings access to the capabilities of Sotheby's, a leader in marketing real estate. I recommend Lori without any reservation.

John & Anita S.

Lori just helped us buy a house! It's actually the second home that she has helped us buy. She is patient, responsive, and knowledgeable! This market is pretty difficult to navigate. Lori really knows her stuff! She helped us find the perfect property. We recommend all of my friends and family to her! She is an amazing realtor!

Steve & Laura B.

Lori helped our family through months of searching across multiple locations from Tacoma to Beacon Hill. She was always incredibly patient and incredibly prompt to reply to any questions or requests. In the end, she helped us find an amazing home in a location we loved but weren't sure we would be able to find a home in. We will absolutely use Lori for our next home purchase and I can not recommend her highly enough for yours. We left this experience feeling like we gained a friend in addition to a highly capable real estate agent.

Kate N. & Andrew C.

Lori was an absolute delight to work with. She just helped us buy our first home so we are rookie home buyers. She was straightforward and helpful, and patiently explained things along the way. If we had any questions she answered them promptly and clearly. We had a fairly limited budget to work with but she was able to find us some great properties to look at and guided us through the whole process. It truly felt like she had our best interests at heart, and ensured we were comfortable with decisions that we had to make. She was extremely responsive, especially at crucial times like when we made an offer on property, which helped to ease the general stress of buying a home. We definitely recommend Lori's Realtor expertise.

Mark T. & Amy W.

Lori helped us secure a home during a time where there was low inventory and high demand. Her speed was absolutely incredible. I am the type of person who needs an answer/response right away and she was always there. I can't recommend her enough. She was absolutely crucial to our experience as first time home buyers. I'm a little sad that the process is over, but excited to use her for all our real estate needs in the future.

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Seller's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide