I want to list my home for sale—now what?

Key Insights

• Find a REALTOR® you can trust to help you sell your home quickly and for top dollar.
• Your agent will help you determine what work needs to be done to showcase your home at its best state, including staging, making repairs or updates and taking photos.
• Talk to your REALTOR about how you’ll want to handle showings, offers and other details.
• A good REALTOR will walk you through the listing process and market your property for maximum exposure and offers.

Ready to list your home for sale, but not sure how? Don’t worry, many home sellers find themselves in this boat. Keep reading to discover insights you can use as you learn how to prep your home and list it for sale.

Pre-listing steps

First things first, you’ll want to hire a REALTOR^® to help you sell your home. When picking a REALTOR, choose someone with market expertise, who you feel is a good communicator. Remember, this person will be tasked with representing you in what will likely be the biggest financial transaction of your life — so pick someone you trust unequivocally.

After choosing a REALTOR, you’ll fill out some paperwork, which could contain an agreement to work with your REALTOR and disclosure forms. You’ll go over any questions you might have about selling and formulate a plan to get your home ready (your REALTOR will let you know what repairs or updates you might want to make) and market it.

In addition to hiring a REALTOR, you might have other professionals assist you in the process of listing your home for sale, including:

• Home stagers, who stage (or neutralize) the home so it appeals to a greater number of buyers. Some agents may provide this service within the cost of their commission, while others may ask you to pay for it.
• Professional landscapers, who can help you boost the curb appeal of your home. Typically, sellers pays for exterior upkeep.
• Photographer, who will take high-quality home photos to entice online buyers. Many agents have a preferred photographer they hire, while other agents may ask the seller to pay for this service.

If you won’t be hiring any of these professionals, be sure to get the important work done yourself. You’ll want to stage your home by doing away with knick-knacks and personal clutter — everything from family photos to kitschy fridge magnets should be removed. Mow and weed your lawn if it’s summer and shovel and salt the walkways in the winter.

Set your selling parameters

After the prep work is done and you’re ready to sell your home, work with your agent to determine a fair listing price. Even in a hot sellers’ market, it’s important not to list the home too high.

Your agent will help you firm up the details in the listing process. You might discuss:

• What date you want to put the home on the market. If you expect a lot of showing requests in the first few days, consider listing, followed shortly by an open house, to accommodate the “looky-loos.”
• What times are best for you to host showings on weekdays and weeknights. Consider what you’ll do with pets, how you’ll handle last-minute showings and how to keep your home clean even when weather is less than ideal. Remember, the more available your home is, the more potential buyers can view it.
• If you plan to begin accepting offers right away after the home is listed, some sellers prefer to have the home available for an open house and showings for a few days, and then review offers all at once. This can help them ensure they accept the best offer, and not just the first one.

Listing your home for sale

On the listing date, your agent will begin uploading listing photos of the interior and exterior of your home to the multiple listing service (MLS). They will also include the following property elements of your home:

• List price
• Bedrooms and bathrooms
• Square footage
• Year built
• Total number of rooms on each level
• Other pertinent details, including pools, additional unfinished square footage, garage stalls, etc.

So, what is the MLS, anyway? The MLS is a shared online database used by real estate agents to publish active property listings. Thanks to the MLS, interested agents and potential buyers can find your house online whether they live in Maple Grove, Mahtomedi or across the globe in Milan.

After the home is listed for sale on the market, prepare yourself for showings, open houses and offers!

Key points and next steps

Are you considering or all-out ready to list your home for sale? Reach out to Edina Realty’s customer care team to get matched with a local market expert today.

Additional resources to consider:

The ultimate guide to selling your home
Five things buyers and sellers should know as we head into open house season
Four home seller myths, exposed
Home listing tips
Reasons to sell your home with the help of an agent