It's 2024 and you're thinking about selling your home. Perhaps you missed your chance during the frenzied seller's market of 2021, and forced yourself to patiently sit through the real estate lull of 2023 (we're looking at you, crazy interest rates!). But now you're ready to get the most money possible for your house.
Whether you're a first-time seller or a veteran who's just been out of the game for a couple years, you want to brush up on what you can do to guarantee you have the best home-selling experience. Great idea! Every year there are some unique updates and more tools available in real estate -- you need to make sure you've got all the knowledge you need to sell like a pro. We've got you covered.
In this guide we'll take you from start to finish of selling a house in a few minutes. Read on and bookmark this page for later. Trust us, your wallet will thank you.
Understanding Your Selling Options
Nowadays, there are a few different paths to achieve a home sale. While an outlying method may exist, we can generally group sales into three different routes: a traditional (agent-assisted) sale, FSBO, and iBuyer/cash buyer programs.
Traditional Home Sale
This is the tried, trusted, and true method for selling your home. In a conventional sale, the home seller signs an exclusive listing agreement with a real estate agent, who in turn essentially handles the rest of the selling process. The compensation for the listing agent is usually (but not always) anchored to the successful sale of the property. Meaning, they receive a percentage commission of the final sale price. (Usually the seller's agent gets around 2-3%, and the buyer's agent gets an additional 2-3% as well... but this may likely be changing following federal verdicts on industry collusion against the National Association of Realtors and others at the end of 2023).
FSBO
For Sale By Owner is another route that many home sellers choose, although it's far less common than a traditional sale. In this method, the homeowner forgoes the services of a listing agent to negotiate directly with a buyer themselves. The motivation for an FSBO sale is to avoid paying agent fees, and keep a little more of the final sale price in their pocket. While this sounds wise, it usually has the opposite effect for sellers. Because a homeowner has little expertise in their local real estate market (or how to do basic things like take professional photos of their home), they fail to attract a substantial pool of buyers (understandably, what buyer's agent would want to bring their client to an FSBO listing where they stand to make no commission themselves?). Homeowners also don't know how to price and negotiate their sales, due to a lack of experience. The end result is that an FSBO seller usually "takes home" less money than sellers who use a top agent.
Buyer Programs
IBuyers or cash buyer programs are companies that guarantee a cash offer for your property, directly from themselves. If this sounds too good to be true, it may be. The way these companies work, whether they're fully digital or offline, is to buy property for cheap then immediately turn it around to sell for a profit. So their offer to you will always be significantly below fair market value for your home. These companies' operations can feel quite predatory; taking advantage of desperate homeowners who need quick cash for their personal finance needs. Let's face it, nobody should have to get ripped off in order to achieve a rapid home sale.
Proven Ways to Sell Quickly
Luckily, homeowners don't have to slash the asking price of their home just to sell it in a timely fashion. There are a handful of other factors that can expedite the selling process.
Ready Home Condition
If you don't want your home to sit stagnant on the market, then it needs to be in solid condition when it first hits the market. Nothing waves a bigger red flag to potential buyers than a property in dire need of repairs or renovations. Most buyers avoid fixer uppers -- who wants to spend all their time and money on home improvements? -- or they'll lowball you on the price. Better to get in front of this time suck by making all the upgrades, fixes, and remodeling in advance.
Avoid Buyer Financing
For most people, buying a house is the largest purchase they'll ever make. It makes sense then that transactions of hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars can take some logistical legwork. Unfortunately, securing financing requires the buyer to undergo an approval process from a mortgage lender. This can take time. Even if the terms of a sale are agreed, this "financing contingency" could still lead to the sale falling through. If you restrict your consideration to all cash offers (no financing), then you can help avoid another potential time waster.
Avoid Other Contingencies
Financing isn't the only contingency that can slow or halt home sales. A pending home sale can also be contingent on a successful home inspection or appraisal; the sale can also be contingent on the buyer closing the sale of their current house. The buyer's lender may even require them to obtain an insurance policy for the sale to proceed. If you can agree terms without any contingencies, then you're putting yourself on track for a fast sale.
Hire an Experienced Agent with a Great Strategy
Data shows that experienced real estate agents increase the probability of a home selling. This certainly passes the smell test. Real estate professionals who've spent years mastering their craft and learning their local market should be able to assemble a great plan to sell your house -- and fast. Later in this post we'll take a look at how to choose the right real estate agent.
Realistic Price
If you set a list price that is well beyond the fair market value for your property, you're asking for your home to sit on the market for months. Unsurprisingly, given the sentimental value of a primary residence where you've lived and made family memories, most homeowners overestimate what their home is actually worth. But a potential buyer won't hold the same opinion; they deal in facts and what they'd pay for comparable homes. By setting a realistic price, you're giving yourself a great chance at a quick and easy sale.
Calculating an Asking Price
On the topic of list price, many homeowners aren't sure where to start. They know what they paid for their property years ago, and they know that property values in their area have (hopefully) increased. But other than hearing how much a few of their friends sold their homes for, they have little certainty about the market value of their own. There are usually three methods they might use to extrapolate that figure, and one of them is certainly superior!
Online Home Value Estimators
Many owners will run a quick Google query to try to quickly find out how much their house is worth. They will certainly receive quick answers -- quick and wrong! Online calculators from sites like Redfin or Zillow will provide approximate valuations, which may be useful as a rough ballpark, but they're never truly accurate. These calculators use rudimentary formulas based on geography, property type, square footage, and recently sold properties nearby. This sounds reasonable except the data they use isn't 100% accurate. Real estate is hyper local; home values on one side of the street can drastically differ from those on the other -- for reasons a Zestimate cannot appreciate (for example, a view of the ocean is worth a heck of a lot more than a view of the back of another building!). These sites often just have incorrect property data too; try it out for a few properties you know well and see how often it simply gives erroneous information about the number of bathrooms or square footage. While online estimators seem like a great idea, they just aren't that helpful for calculating an asking price.
Appraisal
Another method a homeowner might use is to hire a home appraiser. This is a professional inspector who will come and tour the house and quote what they believe the building is worth. The downside of this method is that the appraised value is mostly based on the physical structure; an appraiser doesn't thoroughly weight their value on the numerous factors of the local real estate market. Also, you'll have to spend money for this service -- you ought to save money and get a better estimate.
Comparative Market Analysis
By far, the best method to generate an asking price for your house is by an expert market analysis. This method uses numerous comparable sales to triangulate what value your home could command on the market. This sounds like what an online estimator does, but there's one crucial difference. A true market analysis requires the skill of an expert agent. Only a human being, with years of experience in their local market, is capable of performing this. A good real estate agent has physically toured the recently sold comps; they know all the little features of a property that makes it more valuable than its neighbors; they know what justifies a home's sale price... What homeowners don't know is that any professional agent is happy to give them a home valuation for free. Top agents understand how taxing the entire process can be for sellers and are happy to perform some preliminary research to demonstrate the value of their services. Also, to put it frankly, the true value of a home is what someone else is willing to pay for it. And there's no one better to project what a house sells for than an actual expert in that practice. If you want to quickly connect with a great local agent to get a valuation, TrueParity is happy to connect you.
How to Get the Most Value for Your Home
One of -- if not THE -- most important things sellers care about is how they can net the most money from their home sales. There are three factors to consider if you want to get as much money into your pockets as you can.
Final Sale Price
The biggest driver of receiving more money from a home sale is the size of purchase price. This sounds like a no-brainer, but bear with us. Too often sellers try to save money and cut costs; but these savings are completely offset by the detrimental impact they have on the home's sale price. For example, saving 2.5% of price by foregoing the services of a listing agent seems smart, until you realize that an agent could have sold your home for hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Don't "trip over dollars to pick up pennies;" make sure that you're doing everything you can to get prospective buyers to pay the highest price possible.
Agent Commission
That said, you certainly don't want to overpay an agent for their services. If the final sale price remains the same, then you'd be a fool not to try to save a half a percent on your agent's compensation. The thing is, oftentimes you get what you pay for. Discount agents provide discount service. The best approach is to negotiate with a handful of agents -- something most sellers have no idea they can do! Talk to agents about their rates and what price they can sell YOUR home for. Then you can do a little napkin math to figure out which option would provide the highest value. Some motivated agents may even offer you a cash bonus just for signing a listing agreement with them!
Closing Costs
A third important way a seller can boost their final take home is by minimizing their closing costs. Talk to an escrow company (or two or three) to find the best rate. A fee of $2 - $3 per every thousand dollars of the sale price is standard. Try asking for a $1 rate or a flat rate, if that works to your advantage. Title insurance is another part of the closing process where you can try to negotiate savings, as long as you make sure you have decent coverage. Unfortunately, you still must pay taxes when you transfer property, so you'll never truly be able to delete all the costs of closing a real estate transaction.
Where to Find a Real Estate Agent
By now, it's hopefully become clear how valuable a top notch real estate agent is to achieving the optimal outcome when you sell your house. The only question mark remaining is where can you find one. Here's how to do it.
Referrals
The most traditional method of finding an agent is by word of mouth. You likely won't need to scour your personal network too long before you can find someone with a real estate license happy to handle your listing. But therein lies the problem. Once you put a feeler out that you're seeking an agent, it's hard to turn down friends or family members. And while you may like that individual on a personal level, it's unlikely they're truly the most qualified person to handle your exact property. So be extremely careful with whom you speak when you're thinking about selling a home.
Cold Search
Another way of finding real estate agents is the same way you'd find just about anything else -- looking randomly online. Most agents are great at self promotion; they'll gladly showcase their accolades and success. The problem here is that it's hard to know what is accurate and what is just online posturing. An agent's social media presence is highly curated to make them seem awesome; you definitely can't take that as gospel. Yelp or online reviews are slightly more trustworthy; however, nowadays agents have figured out how to game them and throw a few dollars to bump up their ratings. Of course, you could also call the agent whose face you see plastered on flyers and bus stops, but there's no way to know if they're any good whatsoever.
TrueParity
We're obviously biased, but we literally built a platform just for home sellers to find the perfect real estate agent to sell their home. We use the latest, objective performance data to identify the top agents in each neighborhood; then we give them (and only these top performers) exclusive access to our platform. So homeowners just need to post a few details about their property and our system instantly signals the top real estate agents to submit proposals for the listing. It's all the best agents in one single place; why would you go anywhere else?
How to Choose a Great Real Estate Agent
Once you've begun to talk to potential agents, it's critical that you choose the best one to sell your house. There are a few things you can do to make sure you're making the right choice.
Validate Their Performance with Data
As part of your due diligence, you should do a little detective work on each agent. Most of them will have online listings so you can get a sense of what type of properties they sell and if they're close in proximity to you. Remember, you're looking for someone with relevant experience. If you have access to your state's MLS (multiple listing service), then check that as well. When in doubt, you can always ask them how many sales they've closed in recent years, and similar questions. Generally, you want to verify their transaction volume, years of experience, and general price points. Industry awards and memberships in trade organizations (like NAR, the National Association of Realtors) used to be a solid endorsement, but in 2024 data is king. Here's a quick reference on what to look for when you're comparing agents.
See What Preliminary Work They'll Do for You
The highest caliber real estate agent embraces the chance to showcase what they'll do for your sale. You just need to ask! An underwhelming agent, whose sole tactic to sell a house is just posting a property online, won't come prepared to a listing appointment. You can spot an amateur a mile away. However, a quality agent will have already done their homework on you and your property. They'll have a portfolio of comparable homes and walk you through what they mean in relation to your home and its unique features. They'll have a target sale price, specific terms, and a clear closing date. They'll outline a winning listing strategy that will entice many home buyers and bring multiple offers. They'll provide references from satisfied clients. Top agents will do all of this in advance, and for free, because they're supremely confident in their ability to execute.
Negotiate
Finally, you should always negotiate with agents before signing a listing agreement. This is important for two reasons. First, you want your real estate agent to put their best foot forward and give you the best service and terms. They understand they're competing against other agents for your listing; you should always remind them you have a hot commodity! Make them compete for the right to sell your house. Second, whoever you choose will inevitably be negotiating against buyer agents. There's no better way to get a feel for their negotiation skills and style than by first testing it yourself.
Does Real Estate Brokerage Matter?
It's rare for an agent to stay with a single brokerage their entire career. Real estate agents are constantly changing brokerages and offices. As they do, so does the type of resources they have at their disposal. The big, national brokerages have the advantages of scale and the use of online tools. What boutique brokerages lack in volume they may make up for with proficiency in a particular niche or brand identity.
Our (mildly?) controversial opinion is that NO, for a seller the brokerage does not matter. The only thing that matters is how effectively an agent leverages their brokerage's resources. The agent is the conduit of everything else supporting them; many homeowners overweight the company name on their business card. Focus on the agent's capability and you'll soon find yourself in the midst of many buyers.
Navigating Your First Open House
If your agent is trying to attract potential buyers, there's a good chance they will host open houses. While the prospect of strangers walking through your home and passing judgment may frighten you, there's nothing to fear. Here's what you can do to make open houses productive for your sale.
Scout Other Open Houses
The first step to make your open house a success is by attending someone else's. Better yet, attend multiple others. The idea is that you get a free preview of what other people do well -- or not so well -- when they're hosting an O.H. Put on your best spy hat and feign interest as if you're a one of the potential buyers; you can ask all sorts of questions that potential new owners would inquire about. You'll be amazed at what you learn from this point of view. Then you'll be well positioned to apply this knowledge to your own open house.
Make Your Home Shine
The second thing you'll want to do is make your house absolutely sparkle for every potential buyer or buyer's agent that walks through your front door. While you have (hopefully) already fixed any major, underlying issues that would get flagged during the eventual pre-sale home inspection, that's only part of it. You need to remove all clutter and stage your home appropriately so that it looks its best. Let in as much natural light as possible; this helps create an organic and healthy aesthetic that all buyers love. You want to remove all personal effects so new owners can visualize themselves actually living there. Your property needs to look clean and inviting in every way; curb appeal is just as important as how your house looks in high quality photos. You may even consider hiring a professional stager -- your real estate agent will advise you on how to do that.
Get Lost!
The final piece of advice for open houses is to pull yourself away. As much as you want it to go well, the best way you can help is by temporarily removing yourself from the property. Your emotional attachment and financial investment makes you a liability. (No one feels comfortable touring a house with the current owner breathing down their neck). Let your agent and their team handle the event. You only need to be gone for a couple hours on just a few days, usually weekends in spring or summer. If you're ever needed, your agent will certainly let you know.
Negotiating Offers
If you've followed this framework, and your agent has done their job, then you should receive multiple offers to buy your home. While the finish line is now in sight, it's important that you enter negotiations with some clear ideas. Your real estate agent will lead the way, but it's helpful for you to have some background knowledge on the core components of a winning negotiation strategy.
Sale Price
You should already have a few numbers in mind for a final sale price. First is your ideal price; the number that would make you say YES immediately. Rarely does this actually happen, but it's good to recognize that if that "godfather offer" does arrive it's likely the best you'll see. The second number is the absolute lowest amount you'd accept; any lower and you simply would walk away from the offer. The goal is obviously to achieve a sale price much higher, but you also want to make sure you aren't being lulled into a lowball offer. The third number is the fair market value that your agent has previously projected. If they're correct, then this is usually the median price of the majority of offers. Again, you'd obviously love to exceed this amount, but having it in your mind already will only help you evaluate offers. (Keep in mind, if you don't own full home equity, you will not be pocketing the entirety of the sale price).
Timeline
Life doesn't always stop so you can sell a house. Your schedule and needs often don't align with the offers you receive for your property. If you cannot get a buyer to budge on the price, then you can often use the timeline as another point of negotiation. You should always attempt to agree to a closing date that's in your best interest; keep in mind, you need to allow time for things like a home inspection or appraisal to occur. Of course, if the buyer counter-negotiates on timeline, it shouldn't spell an instant dealbreaker to your sale. You can always get temporary housing and a storage unit -- sometimes you can get the buyer to pay for that!
Contingencies
Whenever possible, you should prioritize offers without any contingencies. As we've detailed earlier in this guide, those can delay the completion of a deal or even cause it to collapse entirely! When you can't negotiate on price or timeline, contingencies are a third point you can attempt to leverage.
Backup Offers
There's no hard rule that you can only negotiate with a single buyer at once. In fact, until the deal is closed then it's totally fair game to continue to negotiate with other buyers, as long as you're transparent with all parties. By negotiating with multiple buyers, you are forcing them to compete to offer you the best terms. In business terminology, this practice is called "improving your BATNA" (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). Meaning you can play hardball with a buyer if you know your backup offer is solid. Anything that improves your position at the negotiating table is a smart practice.
What Exactly Is Escrow?
If you're a first time seller, then you may be a little hazy on what "escrow" actually means, and why it matters in a property sale. You don't need to be a real estate attorney to understand it.
The Definition of Escrow
Escrow is the process in a property transaction whereby a third party holds the funds from the buyer and ultimately releases them to the seller once all the paperwork has been formally completed. Its purpose is to protect both parties from fraudulent behavior, and act as an intermediary between additional parties related to the transaction. That's the gist of it, but there are a couple more points to consider.
What You Need to Know
There's an important part to remember about escrow that definitely impacts your personal finance -- as the seller, you aren't the sole recipient of the funds held in escrow. Funds in escrow will be used to pay taxes, insurance, and other fees as applicable. (You may already be familiar with escrow companies if you don't have 100% home equity; some mortgages are structured with escrow considerations). Of course, escrow services aren't free. Most companies will charge $2-$3 per every thousand dollars of the sale price; you can shop around to try to find a $1 rate or even a flat fee.
How to Close Like a Champion
When the money is in escrow and you're getting ready to close the books on the deal, there are a few more things to keep in mind. The last thing you want is to get reverse sticker shock when you see receive the final disbursement payment from escrow.
Make Everyone Compete for Your Business
As a property owner, you hold the cards in a real estate sale. You have the asset that makes everything possible: selling, buying, brokering, insurance, taxes, EVERYTHING. Never forget that. That means, there are always options for you to choose from when awarding your business for each part of the deal. From the real estate agent that will represent you, to the escrow company that will pay you -- always make everyone know they're competing against alternatives for the right to work on your sale. You want the best rates and service, so you're always within your rights to foster a little healthy, transparent competition.
Shop Around
Perhaps this is a bit redundant of the previous point, but you should always shop around to find good rates. Make sure you get at least 3 quotes for any person or company you might hire. It may seem like a pain to do this at the end of a long real estate journey, but this is when it's critical. Not every company is created equal, and a better price can always be found if you do a little work.
Use the Latest Tools, Tech, and Data
A smart seller always leverages the latest tools, technology, and data to their advantage. It's hard to stay abreast of every development, that's why we generally recommend finding one source of truth and using it as a hub for everything else. That's exactly why we built TrueParity. We want to empower home sellers to get the best help and information they need. Whether it be digital tools or seasoned human experts, we're on top of everything a seller needs.
Final Thought
Selling property in 2024 doesn't need to be a headache. By arming yourself with the knowledge of this guide, you're actually head-and-shoulders above every other person planning on selling a home this year. If there's anything you feel this guide missed, or that you'd like to learn more about, someone on the TrueParity team will gladly assist you -- 100% free and with zero obligations.
Want more information, help, or assistance? Contact us now.
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