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Kramer Realty GroupHome Se l ler ’s Gu ide

kramerrealtygroup.com/sellHome Seller’s Guide

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Table of ContentsPhase 1: Before You List................................................3

Which Comes First: Buying or Selling?..........................4

Documents Needed During the Selling Process............5

Steps for Selling..........................................................6-7 For additional resources, visit: kramerrealtygroup.com/sell/phase-one/

Phase 2: On the Market..................................................8

On The Market..................................................................9

Unique Features to Highlight..........................................10

Common Mistakes When Selling a Home.........................11 For additional resources, visit: kramerrealtygroup.com/sell/phase-two/

Phase 3: Closing Time..................................................12

Closing..............................................................................13

What Stays Behind...........................................................14

Handing Over The Keys...............................................15

Moving Out Checklist...................................................16 For additional resources, visit: kramerrealtygroup.com/sell/phase-three/

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Phase 1:

Before You ListIn this section, you will find everything you need to consider before you put your home on the market. Consider this the research section where you figure out what you want out of the selling process and envision the next decade or so of your life.

kramerrealtygroup.com/sell/phase-one/Home Seller’s Guide

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Selling Before BuyingPRO: Once you establish that you are going to get an interim house to stay in between houses, you are in less of a time crunch to find the perfect house.

PRO: This choice requires you to take out less loans because you are working more with the money you get from selling your old house to buy your new house.

CON: Since you need to be out of your house so the new owners can move in, you will need to find somewhere to live temporarily, i.e. an interim house.

CON: You’d have to move everything twice (from old house to interim house and from interim house to new house).

Which Comes First BUYING OR SELLING?

One big decision to make is whether you plan to sell your

house before buying another, or whether you want to buy

another house before selling your current house.

The KRG DifferenceWhen clients are buying and selling at the same time, the KRG team helps get the house ready and takes pictures of it so they can ask potential buyers for selling points.

Buying Before SellingPRO: This choice means you only have to go through the process of moving all the belongings in your house one time (from the old house to new house).

PRO: This choice is convenient, because when your current house sells, you can immediately move into your new home.

PRO: Since you won’t still be living in the house for sale, the buyers can move in almost immediately.

CON: This choice requires you to take out more loans because you don’t have the money yet from selling your house, and you still need to put money into the new house and move, too.

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Since moving is a complicated process, we want to help make it as simple as possible.

Below is a list of all of the documents you will probably need during the selling process.

Documents Needed DURING THE SELLING PROCESS

MovingDrivers license

Passport Birth certificate

Social security cardMedical record for the family

Vet records for petsChecks

Vehicle registration Copies of lease

Copies of homeowner’s insurance

ClosingSales contract (signed by buyers and sellers)

TitleTitle insurance

Copy of driver’s license/photo IDDeed

HUD-1 statementSurvey

Proof of home insurance (if required by lender)Proof of required repairs

Checks

SellingSurvey that shows property boundariesReceipts and warranties for appliancesPlans and permits for all additions Certificates of occupancyLoan documentsLatest utility billLatest property tax billTitleSurveyConstruction and occupation permitsProof of homeowner's insuranceUtility billsHomeowners’ Association covenants and agreementsSpecialty documents, such as proof of landmark statusFloor plan or blueprints, if availableFinal purchase and sale agreementDeedProperty tax information

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Establish a market. Are there more sellers than buyers or more buyers than sellers? Are you in a recession? In the last year, what is the average time for a home to be on the market? All of these are important questions to consider before deciding to put your house on the market.

Hire professionals. This includes a real estate agent, lawyer or any other professionals you’ll need in this process. While it is possible to sell your home without a real estate agent, it adds a lot more to your plate. Real estate agents are experts at selling houses, so they can help get you more money and make the process as efficient as possible.

Set a price. Once you’ve decided that you are going to sell your house and you’ve hired a professional to help you go through the lengthy process, you have to set a price to list your home as. This price can change and may be negotiated and lowered, so a safe bet is to price it a little higher than what you want at first.

Stage and prepare the home. This is one step of the home selling process that is overlooked but is a game changer for giving people good first impressions of your home. You only get one chance to make a first impression to buyers and get them to feel that your home could actually be their home, so make it count. Make the house look livable, but still like a blank canvas on which they can create their lives.

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Steps for Selling

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Fill out paperwork. If your house was built before 1978, you must disclose all information about the content of lead-based paint in your home. You must also disclose toxic chemicals or materials in the home, such as radon, abestos, urea formaldehyde and stachybotrys (toxic black mold) and any water damage.

Put it on the market. Get your home listed on open house sites and the MLS website. Host open houses and show off your home. This is how house hunters will find your house, so making sure the listing has as much information as possible is best.

Review offers received. Assuming your house gets offers, which most houses eventually do, you need to accept or counteroffer. If you get many offers, go through them and pick the one you want to pursue. The highest offer is usually preferred, but a seller can just as easily pick the lowest or first offer if they’d like.

Close the deal. This includes allowing an inspection, doing what repairs the buyer requests in the contract and moving out. This is when the home officially isn’t yours and you need to make it ready for the new residents (recent buyers) to move in, because it is now legally their house.

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Phase 2:

On The MarketIn this section, you will learn about the process of selling a home. We will be here to help you jump through every hoop. With our expertise, we want to ensure your home selling process is a pleasant one.

kramerrealtygroup.com/sell/phase-two/Home Seller’s Guide

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Now that your house is ready to list, we will walk you through the next steps. The following stages will help make people more aware of (and interested in) your home.

List it: Putting your house on the market can become significantly easier when you enlist the help of a realtor. Listing your house on the MLS website officially puts it on the market, but it’s also important to make sure it’s listed on hot house-hunting sites like Zillow and Trulia.

Show it: After your house is ready for viewing and officially on the market, you’ll need to be ready for open houses. These are usually on Sundays for a few hours and give potential homebuyers a chance to see your house in person. Planning to have open houses at least once a month is a great way to make sure your house is being seen by a variety of people, but it’s important to not look desperate by having open houses every weekend.

Share it: Between you and your agent, there should be extensive marketing going out to show off your home. One of the newest buzzes is virtual touring, where you can hire a company to put together a virutal walkthrough online.

Talk about it: One of the best ways to get audiences of all demographics is to make sure you aren’t just sharing on socials, but are reaching every platform of communication. One hit is through radio talk shows such as Real Estate Radio. This St. Louis-based radio show highlights hot open houses in the area every week and you can submit your listing to be covered as well.

Support your agent’s efforts: While your agent works to get your home seen and sold, it’s important that you do whatever you can to help in their success, because it helps you in the long run. You want to have a smooth and effortless selling process, so make sure you are thinking outside of the box and working together.

On the Market

How does marketing vary based on audiences?Depending on who you are targeting to buy your house, your marketing techniques will vary. If you’re selling a more expensive house, you will want to target mostly people 50 years and older and well established in their careers, so Instagram wouldn’t be an effective way to reach them, but a newspaper or the radio would be better.

Instagram and Facebook would be a more effective way to sell young adults on houses that are more affordable and better for people trying to purchase their first house.

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Spiral staircase (visual): While there isn’t much functional value to a spiral staircase, they are very aesthetically pleasing and can really sway a person’s vote on which house they prefer.

Water well (visual and functional): Water wells can be both visual and functional, depending on where you live and what access you have to water. For towns without access to city water, water wells allow homeowners in more rural areas to get water. For city homes with access to city water, water wells provide a way to self-source and give a homey feel to the property.

Solar panels (functional): Solar panels can save a homeowner tons of money on electricity, but usually aren’t a common feature unless they are already installed in the home because of the pricey installation cost. However, it’s a win-win if the house you buy already has them. Save money without breaking the bank installing them.

Main-floor laundry (functional): For people with troublesome knees, legs or with difficulty walking, stairs can be impossible, making houses with basement laundry rooms out of the question. Especially if a buyer is considering retirement, has a disability or can’t get around the best, having a main-floor laundry and access to everything needed to live independently on the main floor is crucial.

Abudance of outlets (functional): As electronics become more and more integrated into everyday life, the house needs to adapt to that as well. Having lots of outlets, especially for chargers, is a huge plus in a living environment.

Finished basement (functional): Finished basements are one of the most used spaces of the house for entertainment functions. From TV nights to hosting a party, a finished basement adds the perfect ambiance for entertaining guests.

Unique FeaturesTO HIGHLIGHT

The KRG Difference

Have an element of your house that you think makes it an exceptional sell, but it’s not listed above? Give us a call and we will tell you what it’s worth in regards to the home’s value!

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Keeping shedding pets around the house all the time.Obviously you can’t get rid of your dogs and cats for a few months while selling your house, but make sure if you are considering getting another pet, hold off until you move. Also, keep shedding pets off of furniture and invest in a carpet cleaner to get a lot of the pet grime out of the carpet.

Keeping family pictures around the house. If potential buyers see that it’s your house, it is harder for them to picture themselves living in it. You want it to seem like a blank canvas for them to turn into their home.

Emptying the house. Potential buyers want to see that the house has potential to be a home still. Not only that, but houses look smaller when they are completely empty. Seeing a house with the bare minimum furniture and some decor can help them envision how they might want to arrange their belongings in that house.

Selling your home as-is. Even if it doesn’t have major issues or repairs needed, a home listed as-is makes buyers more hesitant to pursue. Unless the house has a large amount of issues that seem completely unfixable, it’s worth it to just get them fixed so the home can be listed without the as-is tag. You will attract more potential buyers without labeling the house listing as-is.

Overpricing at first. Everyday your house is on the market makes it a little bit harder to sell. If a house has been listed for 53 days, people begin to question what is wrong with it and why it hasn’t sold yet. Start at a reasonable price that’s not lowballing, but also not insanely highballing.

Taking low-resolution photos. Taking blurry or low-quality photos makes your house look less appealing than it is. You want to use the best device possible to take the photos to ensure the smallest details that make your house unique are visible. Also, low-quality photos make your sale seem cheaper and you can come across as not being a motivated seller.

Common MistakesWHEN SELLING A HOME

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Phase 3:

Closing TimeIn this section, we’ll help walk you through the final steps of selling your home. We’ll guide you through what you have to do to finalize this process and what needs to stay behind with the new homeowners.

kramerrealtygroup.com/sell/phase-three/Home Seller’s Guide

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Accepting an offer: Putting your house on the market can become significantly easier when you enlist the help of a realtor. Listing your house on the MLS website officially puts it on the market, but it’s also important to make sure it’s listed on hot house-hunting sites like Zillow and Trulia.

Closing paperwork: This is the day you transfer the property to the buyer. With the money you make from the sale, you will also pay off all loans you still carry on the house and pay everyone you hired in the selling process. This is also usually how the realtors make their money, so some predecided percentage of this money is owed to them at closing.

Agreeing on repairs after the inspection: The buyer is reponsibly for seeing to it that inspections are done and will usually bargain about what repairs they demand be covered by you. This is negotiated and should be completed before closing.

Marketing your listing: Between you and your agent, there should be extensive marketing going out to show off your home. One of the newest buzzes is virtual touring, where you can hire a company to put together a virutal walkthrough online. The opportunities are limitless when it comes to marketing, but the more the merrier. Make people aware your house is for sale.

Release of mortgage: After receiving the full payment of your outstanding mortgage loan, your lender will give you a release of mortgage.

Payments made at closing: The money made in the sale pays for agents commissions, remaining balance of your home loan, prorated mortgage insurance, property taxes, title fees, escrow or attorney fees, utlity bills, HOA dues, etc.

When to be moved out: Typically, you should have everything moved out of the house prior to closing so the day of closing, you can hand over the keys and the new owners can move in that day if they want.

Closing

What do you need to bring to closing?Photo ID of all sellers on the home contract, any questions you may have, the house deed, keys for your house and documents proving repairs were completed as agreed upon with the buyers after the inspection.

Closing, also known as the settlement, is the transactional process of selling your house and transferring home ownership to the new buyer.

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Items Attached to the Ground: If it’s attached to the ground or the structure of the house, it stays with the house. If it’s something that had to be bolted into the wall, ground or yard, it’d be more of a hassle to move than leave behind. Cut your losses and leave that new fan behind.

Hard-to-Move Items: If you have items that are bulky, heavy or too costly to move but aren’t an attached piece of the house, you can offer that in the sale of the house at a lower price. Such is common with solid wood kitchen islands.

Anything With a Custom Fit: For example, for custom shelves that are particular sizes for the kitchen cabinets, shutters or blinds, removing them could take away from the value of the home and the odds that the custom pieces will fit your new home are less than promising.

Appliances: Unless you already agreed to take them and make the sale excluding them, most large appliances can stay with the house. If you leave them behind, make sure to leave behind any owner manuals so the new owners can access that information.

Leftover Paint: Half-used and opened cans of paint can stay put. If you already painted your kitchen a specific shade of periwinkle, you might as well leave the used paint cans behind so the owners can have that exact color for touch-ups and color names in the future. Odds are you won’t paint the rooms of your new house the exact same color, and if you do, you will need to buy fresh, full cans anyway. Plus, it’s a considerate gesture for the new homeowners.

What Stays Behind _ mailbox

_ fire pit

_ ceiling fans

_ yard lights

_ bird houses

_ alarm systems

_ sprinkler systems

_ wall mounts

_ shower heads

KRG Pro TipWhile not necessary, it would be a nice gesture to leave the new owner directions to the little quirks of the home. If some doors don’t click shut and lock without being pushed harder at a certain pressure point, let the owners know that as an act of good faith.

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HANDING OVER

The KeysWe hope you love your new home! To make life easier for you, here are all the

keys/information you will need to get settled properly!

Keys:Keys to top and bottom locks to front door, garage, bedroom doors, etc.

Key fobs to community centers, lobby doors, gym & pool access.

Garage door opener(s)

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Access Codes:Alarm system code(s) and provider contact information: _______________________

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Garage code:_____________________________________________________________

Shed lock or keypad code:_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Other:_________________________________________________________________________

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This checklist is brought to you by Kramer Realty Group. If you have any questions, don’t

hesitate to give us a call: 636.229.8633 or visit our website at kramerrealtygroup.com

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Moving ChecklistWe hope you love your new home! To make life easier for you, here are all the

keys/information you will need to get settled properly!

A Month Before the Move:Book elevators and trucks to be parked in front of both locations for up to 4 hours.

File quotes, receipts, and other paperwork related to the move.

Get change of address cards from a local post office or change address online.

Begin cleaning out closets, garage and attic.

Arrange to transfer school records.

A Few Weeks Before the Move:Get rid of unwanted items.

Go through each room of the house. Also think about items that will need special packaging.

Make a list of people and businesses to notify about your address change.

Get packing supplies (boxes, tape, paper/bubble wrap)

Insure your items. High-value items will need verified values in advance of a move.

Label items as you pack (Room it belongs in & contents)

Check your furniture for any scratches or dents.

Drain all fluids from hoses, lawn mowers, propane tanks, etc.

Use up items that won’t be moved.

Take measurements of doorways in new home to ensure large pieces of furniture will fit.

Request time off work for moving day.

Set up trash and recycle services for the new home and cancel current ones.

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Kramer Realty Group is an Equal Housing Lender. For more resources, visit: kramerrealtygroup.com/sell

or give us a call at 636.229.8633