How You Can Prepare To Sell Your Home

By Frank Valente

Associate Broker at eXp realty of California. Active agent and broker since 2003 in the Sacramento Region. Retired from the Navy in 2002 after 24 years as a Commander. Former Surface Warfare Officer.

How can you prepare to sell your home? This is the first post in a series about getting ready to sell your home. Today I want to cover a few key points.

The first is your family’s motivation to sell. Most people don’t wake up and decide they need to sell their house. By now, you need to be mentally prepared and motivated to sell your home.

The next important point is your budget. You may have to deal with some repair issues, and you’ll need to account for the actual cost of moving. If you haven’t decided already, you’ll need to consider what your replacement property will be. Will you be moving into a new home or a rental? As part of this, you might need to get pre-qualified.

“I love putting together a CARFAX-like report on your home.”

I’ve had clients who have sold their homes, quit their jobs, and moved in with their parents. They wanted to move out of state, but they didn’t have employment, and that became an issue. Just because you haven’t missed a mortgage payment doesn’t mean the next lender will approve you.

The third point is that you want to “carfax” your home. If you’ve bought a used car in the last few years, you might’ve gotten a CARFAX report. I think they’re pretty cool; they have definitely made me feel more comfortable about buying a used car. That’s why I like to do the same thing for sellers’ properties. I’ll go in and coordinate some inspections, look for unresolved permit issues, collect any other documentation, and open up a preliminary title report.

If you have any questions about these three points or real estate in general, feel free to call or email me. I would love to help you.