Seller's Guide

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 Agents 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 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.

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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.

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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

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Abby B

Abby B

AK was a blessing when we had to quickly sell our house and move across the country with two toddlers! She helped get the word out with mailers and brochures, got our house ready for showings in under a week (this included clea...
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Pauline E

Pauline E

I first worked with AK in 2017 with the purchase of my home. She was fantastic then, helping me find the perfect place. She was extremely knowledgeable about the Denver Metro area and always willing to answer questions and prov...
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Tori O

Tori O

AK was an incredible support in helping my husband and me find our perfect home in Denver, CO. Moving from out of state, we were initially concerned about finding a home in an area we would love, especially with limited time to...
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Sharon P

Sharon P

We have worked with AK Riley on both selling our home and buying our new home. In both cases, she made the process go very smoothly for us. In selling our home, she coached us on improvements (both ones to make and some we coul...
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Terry H

Terry H

AK Riley and her team have been my Realtor of choice for several transactions both personal and business. I have always appreciated how quickly and professionally that have completed the process. How they keep me in the loop, H...
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Bridget P

Bridget P

AK was an exceptional real estate agent and helped us find our dream home. We moved from out of state so a lot of our interaction was via phone, text and FaceTime. She was patient with us and I felt like she understood exactly ...
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Jen B

Jen B

I had the absolute pleasure of working with The AK Riley Group, specifically AK Riley and Susie Warta, and I couldn’t be more impressed. From start to finish, their friendly and approachable demeanor made every interaction enjo...
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Molly G

Molly G

I would recommend AK Riley to ANYONE looking to buy a house in Colorado. Not only is AK a wonderful human, she is quite possibly the hardest worker I have ever partnered with. She worked with us over the course of 2-3 years to ...
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Arin I

Arin I

After the amazing job that AK and her well orchestrated team performed amazing feats selling our last home, I could think of no one better to help buy a new one. AK and Susie repeatedly went above and beyond reasonable expectat...
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Ron P

Ron P

I would highly recommend AK Riley as a qualified, knowledgeable and experienced realtor. These traits aren't why we would hire AK to sell our home again. Certain people just have that caring and compassionate WOW factor, AK has...
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Julie C

Julie C

AK is by far the best realtor we have ever worked with. She is INCREDIBLY responsive, friendly, talented, knows the market VERY well and is an expert at pricing for purchase or for sale. Always has her clients best interest in ...
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Doug C

Doug C

Susie Warta represented my wife's and my interests in the purchase of our new home in Denver — we could not have been more pleased. Susie was very responsive to our needs and made sure we found the right property and expertly g...
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Paula C

Paula C

Susie & AK are an excellent team. They were able to get our property sold with a fast turnaround time. They made the process easy and were always responsive when we needed them! I highly recommend!
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Buyer

Buyer

There are honestly no words to describe how thankful I am for AK and Susie. This was my first time buying a home, and I was terrified since my parents don’t live in Colorado (yes, I’m 33 and still need my parents 😉). AK and Su...
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Buyer

Buyer

We recently had the pleasure of working with Susie Warta and the AK Riley Group while searching for our new home in Sterling Ranch, Colorado, and we couldn't be happier with the experience. From our very first meeting, Susie im...
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Seller

Seller

Susie Warta is a fantastic relator, she not only sold my home during a difficult divorce it never hit the market and sold over asking price. She took the time over quite a few months to help me narrow down and figure out what...
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Seller

Seller

We are so grateful to have had AK Riley represent us for the recent purchase and sale of our family’s homes. Even though it was a tough market, with high interest rates, AK worked hard, remained positive and used creative metho...
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Seller

Seller

Working with Susie gave us the confidence to make informed financial decisions in a competitive real estate market. We had not bought/sold a house in 20 years, so we relied on Susie's expertise to navigate the market today. We ...
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Seller

Seller

AK was a huge help in selling my home in Homestead. She was extremely responsive and always willing to help. Her professional expertise is vast and her knowledge extensive.
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Buyer/Seller

Buyer/Seller

We have worked with AK several times and would not consider any other Realtor® she is unbelievably responsive, knowledgeable, and really cares about her clients. Her integrity is unmatched!
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