The seller guide

1. Get a real valuation

Automated estimates cannot see your remodel, your lot, or that the comparable sale down the street was a distressed transaction. Get a valuation built from comparable sales, with the reasoning shown, so you can argue with it if you disagree.

2. Decide your sequence

If you are buying as well as selling, the order and the contingency structure need to be planned before you list. Working this out mid-escrow is how people end up accepting terms they would not otherwise accept.

3. Prepare deliberately

Repairs, then paint, then deep clean, then declutter and stage. Cleaning and decluttering return more per dollar than anything else. Large pre-sale remodels usually do not return their cost.

4. Photograph after the work, not during

Those photos are your listing for its entire life, and the first impression happens on a phone screen. Shooting before preparation is finished is the most expensive sequencing error in the process.

5. Price on evidence

Overpricing does not leave room to negotiate. It buys you two weeks of no activity, and then the price reduction that follows tells every buyer you were wrong. The first two weeks are when your most motivated audience is watching.

6. Read offers whole

Financing strength, contingency periods, deposit, closing timeline and any request for a rent-back all matter. The highest price attached to a fragile loan is not the best offer, and a shaky loan is the most common reason a strong-looking deal collapses in week three.

7. Expect a repair request

Buyers inspect and buyers ask. Decide in advance what you will and will not do, and treat it as a negotiation rather than an insult.

8. Confirm the buyer's loan before you commit

Do not schedule movers around a signing date. Schedule around loan approval being genuinely clear and funding being confirmed.