SELLING YOUR LOUISVILLE HOME - WHAT TO EXPECT

The process of selling your house can be relatively easy if you know what to expect! We've provided you with a bit more information about the steps for selling your home, and how the team at Louisville Real Estate Pros can help make the process go smoothly.

Selecting an Agent

Using an agent can make the process a lot easier. For Sale By Owner may seem appealing at first but as many soon find out, selling your house is hard work and time consuming! Your Louisville Real Estate Pro will do the majority of the work and will guide you through the steps. When those all too often unexpected issues come up, like buyer financing problems, or negotiations, your agent will represent you to make sure it is handled correctly and efficiently.

Ready to Sell?

Often times an agent will help you get your home ready to sell by offering advice for showing. We call this staging. Clutter, overly full closets, missing window treatments, and minor repair issues are often overlooked by homeowners, but do not go unnoticed by the buyers that are looking at the home. An overly full closet may not be a problem for the homeowner but for the buyer, it may send a message that there isn’t enough storage space in this house. Your Louisville Real Estate Pro will make sure that your house looks the best for showings. View our section on "Dress it Up" in our Marketing Plan to get more staging advice

Listing

You’ve selected a Louisville Real Estate Pro and now comes the first batch of paperwork! Your Louisville Real Estate Pro will fill out a listing sheet specifying things like square footage, the number of beds and baths, neighborhood, etc. Property disclosures are completed, agency forms are signed, and photos will be taken or scheduled for the home.

Marketing/Showing

Your Louisville Real Estate Pro will identify some of the great selling points of your home and decide on some specific advertising words. Your listing will get various types of marketing. To see how we do it here at Louisville Real Estate Pros, view our Marketing Plan. Whether your home is occupied or empty, your Louisville Real Estate Pro will work out the showing style that fits you best. During showings, it’s best to be absent from the home. The tours will be supervised by an agent and the buyers will most likely want to look in closets and discuss the home without having to be aware of your watchful eye.

Offers/Contracts

So, an interested buyer looked at your listing and they liked what they saw; you now have an offer on your house! Your Louisville Real Estate Pro will explain the terms of the offer. Many times buyers will not offer the asking price right off the bat and more than likely, you will receive an offer for less than the asking price. You may also see that they have asked for items to remain, repairs to be made, closing cost to be paid, or specify a longer or shorter length of time to close. Your Louisville Real Estate Pro will answer any questions that you have and will guide you through this negotiation process. While the Pro will offer advice, the ultimate decision is yours to make. Once the offer is accepted and both parties have signed, this becomes your contract of sale.

Inspections

Many contracts are contingent on a good home inspection. These inspections will occur usually within two weeks of the accepted offer. Your home may have a home inspection, appraisal, radon testing, termite inspection, and others as desired by the buyer. The buyer will be given a copy of the inspection report and you both will receive a copy of the appraisal. The buyer may negotiate some repairs depending on the inspection. If the inspections turn up a lot of issues, the buyer may decide not to proceed with the sale. Home inspections are critical - make sure to communicate any concerns with your Louisville Real Estate Pro before you list.

Closing

Closings are timely events. Most contracts have a set number of days until the closing. 30 or 45 days may seem like a long time but it is a very full and busy time! A lot happens in those few days. Often times after an inspection, you may have a list of repairs to make prior to closing. While you are busy packing or finishing up any small detail at the house, the buyer will be finalizing lending. On the big day you will gather with your Louisville Real Estate Pro, the buyer, their agent and the closing attorney to sign the biggest stack of papers you have ever seen. True story, it’s huge! You will leave, maybe a little sad to leave a great home behind, but also knowing you are off to start a new journey in life.

Marketing

We like to think that Louisville Real Estate Pros offer a little more than most agents. Your house is listed on the MLS (Multiple Listing Services site) as a standard. From there, we list on multiple other websites. You house goes up on our site as a listing and we write several blogs which are updated as needed to increase traffic to your home. Another big source of marketing has come from social networking. Blogs and listing information are shared on our various pages through Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest, and Google.

We pride ourselves on making sure that our clients get the most exposure for their listing. The success is evident in our average contract times. In 2016, 60% of our listings sold in under 30 days!

Our Report Card for 2016

  • Number of Deals Closed: 29
  • Number of Listings Sold: 14
  • Sold in Less than 7 Days: 50%
  • Sold in Less than 30 days: 64%
  • Average Days on Market: 27
  • Average Selling Price: $218,313
  • Sold/List Ratio: 98%