The Ultimate Checklist For Selling Your House
Updated: Feb 9, 2021
Ah yes, you’ve decided to sell your house and move somewhere new.
Whatever your reason may be for deciding to sell, here’s the ultimate checklist for selling your house and preparing for the inevitable move to your new home.
Decide How You Want To Sell Your House (Or Rent it)
First and foremost, decide how you want to sell the property. You have a few options to choose from.
So take some time to consider which makes the most sense for you.
For Sale By Owner (FSBO)
Selling For Sale By Owner is less traditional but can save you 6% on real estate commissions if you’re able to pull it off.
Be aware, going the FSBO route will put all the work on your shoulders. Everything from:
Preparing the house for sale
Staging and cleaning
Properly pricing the property
Handling showings
Juggling offers
And managing closing
We don’t recommend selling FSBO, but if you opt to sell this way, you’ll want to read our in-depth guide about the process.
Real Estate Agent
Hiring a real estate agent is by far the most common way to sell your house.
Agents may come with a hefty price, but they bring:
Market knowledge
Experience with negotiating
Industry connections
And, of course, your realtor will handle all the work necessary to list and sell your property. At least they should if they’re any good.
If you chose to list with an agent, be sure to read our guide to working with real estate agents to make sure you find the right one.
iBuyer
iBuyers are a relatively new way to sell your property.
iBuyers are often companies, sometimes individuals, who can make you a direct offer to purchase your property with ease and convenience.
Direct home buying companies often:
Often cash for the property
Can close quickly
And buy as-is
Choosing an iBuyer may be the right option for you if you want to sell your house quickly without all the hassle, but you are okay with taking a lower offer.
You guessed it! We also have a guide to selling your house to an iBuyer.
For Rent By Owner
Instead of selling the property, you can also consider keeping the house and turning it into a rental property.
If you can get the property to cash flow every month, you may be able to turn it into an asset that puts money in the bank.
Consider this, though. If you’re moving long-distance, it can be challenging to manage a property from afar, and it’s often expensive to hire a professional property management company.
Organize And Tidy Up The Property
Now that you know how you want to sell (or rent) the property, it’s time to start preparing for the sale and the move.
Organization is key here, as it will allow for everything to flow nice and smoothly.
Start planning out how you’re going to pack everything and tidy up your house, so everything is in its place.
It’s much easier to pack in an orderly way when your house is already in order.
Determine Your Property’s Value and Asking Price
Before you can list the house for sale, you have to know how much you can list it for. You can do this in a few simple ways.
Review comps
First, pull up a website like Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com and look at what similar properties in your area have sold for.
This is what’s known as “Pulling comps.”
You’ll want to make sure:
Bedroom count is the same
Bathroom count is the same
General style is the same
Same or similar state of repair
Same or similar amenities
And the square footage is within 300 sqft of your property.
Unless you live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood, it might be hard to find a perfect, exact match.
Find at least three of the closest matches you can, add the values up, then get the average price per square foot each one sold for.
Then you can multiply the average price per square foot of the comps sold for by your property’s square footage, and you’ll have a good idea of what your home can sell for.
Hire an appraiser
If you want the most accurate valuation for your property, you can go straight to an appraiser.
Appraisers follow a standard process for valuing properties. And banks will always use the valuation an appraiser came up with vs. your own or a real estate agent’s.
You’ll have to cough up a few hundred dollars to do this, though.
Get a BPO or CMA
Last but not least, you can ask your realtor for a BPO (Broker’s price opinion) or a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis).
As long as the real estate agent doing the analysis is skilled and knows the market, this should also give you an accurate representation of your home’s value.
Determine How You’ll Handle Your Move
Now the heavy lifting begins.
Decide if you want to do all the moving yourself or if you want to hire movers.
If you want to hire movers, your part of the process will be super easy.
Head to Google
Type in “Movers near me”
Then call up your favorite options and hire someone
If you go the DIY route, you’ll want to move on to the next step below.
Start Packing, And Store Boxes Out of The Main House
Next up, it’s time to start packing your boxes. Where can I get boxes, you ask?
Lots of places! You may even be able to get all your boxes for free if you’re willing to put in a little leg work.
Go to your local office supply store, or any store that gets regular shipments, and ask if you can take the boxes they will throw away anyway.
Ask around enough, and you may not have to pay a cent for boxes.
Make sure you have plenty of packing materials such as tape and insulating materials to keep fragile items safe.
You’ll want to leave your hoard of boxes outside of the main house to keep them out of view of potential buyers.
The garage seconds as a great box storage facility!
Secure Your New Residence
If you haven’t done so already, you probably should make sure you have a place to move to after you’ve sold your house.
Where do you want to go?
Buying a new house?
Moving into a rental?
Moving in with family?
Whatever it is, make sure your living situation post-closing is solid, so you have a smooth move.
Schedule A Deep Cleaning
To you, your house may be spotless. A haven of pristine cleanliness, and maybe it is.
But, the most likely scenario is your house could use a professional deep cleaning. You’ll need more than a spritz of Clorox and a wipe down.
Hire a professional cleaner to give your house a once over.
Make sure those walls don’t have fingerprints.
Get those windows squeaky clean.
And good god, make sure any animal hair is cleaned up.
Luckily, when you hire a cleaner, you won’t be the one scrubbing like your life depends on it.
Interested buyers want to see a clean home they can imagine themselves living in.
They don’t want to see a jungle gym of spots, stains, and streaks.
Find And Hire A Professional Stager
After you’ve had the property deep cleaned, it’s time to stage your property.
Yes, it’ll cost you a few thousand dollars, but staging is likely to help your house sell for a higher price.
Believe it or not, staged homes sell for more than their non staged counterparts.
Spruce Up Your Curb Appeal
Think of curb appeal like exterior staging. Curb appeal is what makes you stop and say:
Wow! Look at that house! I’d love to live there.
Go the extra mile to make sure your front yard looks like it came out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
Don’t leave old cars sitting in the driveway
Remove any junk or toys that may be in the yard