Once all repairs are completed, give the home a deep cleaning. This should ideally be done the day before or the morning of the photography appointment.

Your home needs to be sparkling clean, especially the kitchen and bathrooms, as nothing turns a buyer off more than a dirty home.

If you don’t want to personally clean, see the Service Providers We Trust list. Once the deep cleaning is done, please do your very best to keep the home clean going forward.

An idea of the difference between General Cleaning vs Deep Cleaning

We’re so close to getting your home on the market! The last step is professional photography.

I’ll notify you of the appointment a few days in advance. Photo sessions take between 1 – 2 hours for condos and 2 – 4 hours for single-family homes/townhouses, depending on the size.

You do not need to be home for the appointment.

Remember, I pay for the photography; there is no cost to you.

Here are our pro tips for ensuring great photos:

• Remove any cats or dogs from the home or put them in a crate during the photography appointment.
• Hide any pet beds, bowls, children’s toys, etc.
• Make the beds.
• Put all dishes away.
• Turn on all lights and make sure all light bulbs, especially those in lamps, are working.
• The day before the professional photo shoot, take your own snapshots of your home. If a room still looks too cluttered in your photos, declutter it even more.

During the photographs, we will likely move a lot of things in your home. We do our very best to put things back where they were but don’t be surprised if you come home to find a few things out of place. We apologize in advance, but we want your photos to look the absolute best they can, and this often involves moving items to get the best shots.

If your home is a condo, we often photograph amenities in the building, such as exercise rooms or parking garages. For single-family homes, we photograph nearby neighborhood features, like parks or playgrounds.  If there is anything in particular you want us to photograph, just let us know!

It usually takes 48 hours to get the photos back.

While the professional photos are being edited, we’ll market your home to other Realtors before it’s even on the market (it’s what’s called a pocket listing) by executing the strategies below. We’ll discuss which tactics make the most sense for your property and situation:

• Advertise your home via Century 21 email and Facebook groups for pocket listings. This is a great way to expose your home to top Realtors before it goes on the market.

• Send ‘just listed’ postcards to nearby homes in the community (who better to help us market your home than a neighbor wanting a friend, family member, or co-worker to live close by?)

• Conduct a broker open house (optional)

• Schedule and advertise your first open house to take place on Sunday after your listing goes live in the BLC

• Create and print professional brochures

• Install a For Sale sign in front of your building or in your yard

• Hang professional flyers outside your property which passersby can take for additional information

• Put a lockbox on your property for showings

Generally, the above takes 48-72 hours. During this time, I will also send you a copy of the listing sheet to review. Please read it carefully and let me know of any errors. If you didn’t like how I phrased something, or feel we left out an important point, let me know that as well. Remember, we’re a team, and we want to get your house sold just as much as you do!

Syndicating Your Listing.

Once your property goes live in the BLC, I will syndicate your home to the rest of the real estate websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor, etc.

This process takes 24 – 48 hours depending on the site, so be patient.

Congratulations, your home is now on the market!

All the hard work you’ve put in thus far should start paying off soon! So far, you’ve done a lot of prep work to get your home market-ready.

Going forward, each Monday morning we will send you a report showing how many people have viewed your home on the syndicated websites as well as in the BLC and marked it as either ‘Interested’, ‘Maybe’ or ‘Not Interested’.

Now What?

Generally, it takes 36 – 72 hours before we get our first showing request.  The Showing Time system will text you with showing requests. As much as we’d like to ask for 24 hours’ notice, we will miss a lot of showing opportunities if we do. Most of the time we will get showing requests in the morning for that afternoon or evening. Therefore, when you leave each day, plan to have showings even if we don’t have one on the calendar.

If that is an issue, let me know, and I can require 24 hours’ notice.

Once a showing request comes in, you can approve it, deny it, or ask for a different day or time. Remember, the faster we can get buyers into your place and the fewer showings we have to decline or reschedule, the faster we can get your place under contract. The buyer shouldn’t have to work around our schedule. We want to get buyers in as quickly as possible and, to do that, we need to work around their schedule.

Once your property goes live in the BLC, I will syndicate your home to the rest of the real estate websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor, etc.

This process takes 24 – 48 hours depending on the site, so be patient.

Going forward, each Monday morning we will send you a report showing how many people have viewed your home on the syndicated real estate websites (Zillow, Trulia, etc.) as well as how many people viewed your home in the BLC and marked it as either ‘Interested’, ‘Maybe’ or ‘Not Interested’.

Fabulous news! We have our first showing request!!

Here are a few things to keep in mind before every showing:

• Have your home look just like it did for the photographs (clean, dishes put away, beds made, pet bowls and kid’s toys put away, etc.)

• Put all toilet lids down.

• Open all curtains/blinds.

• Turn on all lights.

• Hide any valuables such as jewelry, prescription meds, etc., or better yet, take them with you.

• Hide all mail with your name on it, as we don’t want potential buyers to know who you are.

• Turn off alarm systems and unlock all doors. Take pets with you or place them in crates.

How Do Showings Work?

The buyer’s Realtor will use the lockbox key to enter/exit if I’m not accompanying them and will turn off all lights and lock the door when she/he leaves.

• Showings usually last 15 – 30 minutes. However, in case clients come early, I like to have you out 15 minutes before the showing is scheduled to start and stay out for at least 45 minutes in case the buyer is running late or the showing goes long (that’s a good thing and usually means they like your home!). Therefore, plan to be gone for 45 minutes to 1 hour for each showing.

• Once the brochures/BLC listing sheets arrive, please leave them on your foyer or dining table for showings.

• After the showing, the buyer’s Realtor will automatically get an email asking for feedback. Generally, only about 30% of Realtors fill it out. If we receive feedback, I will immediately forward it to you via email to review. Don’t be surprised when we don’t get feedback but don’t be offended by feedback either.

We’re looking for that ONE buyer who loves your home. For most, your house won’t be the right fit for various reasons, but we only need to find one. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Now…let’s get your home sold.

The first week your home is on the market, there are two fundamental metrics that we keep a close eye on:

Number of Showings

Our goal is to have 5 – 10 showings the first week your home is on the market. If we don’t have at least 5 showings, we have a problem. Either the marketing/photography is wrong, or the home isn’t priced correctly.

If this happens, we need to have an honest discussion about what needs to be done. After the first week, our goal is to have 3 – 4 showings per week. Depending on the feedback we’re receiving at showings and the number of them, we may need to talk about reducing the price if we don’t have an offer after the first 2 weeks.

The Marketing Stats

The other metric we keep a close eye on is the marketing stats. We will send you these on Monday mornings. Our goal is to have at least 350 people view your listing. This means your home matches the search criteria they are looking for in a property. Anything less than 350 means not very many people are looking for a home like yours, and the potential buyer pool is small.

If this is the case, we need to figure out how we can expand the number of people who might be interested in your home. Most searches are based on seven main criteria and each one can be a deal-breaker:

• location

• number of bedrooms

• number of bathrooms

• square footage

• whether the property has a basement

• lot size

• price

For instance, if your home doesn’t have the square footage, is there a way we can utilize spaces more creatively and accentuate that in our photography and descriptions?

In addition to looking at the number of people viewing your property, we also look at the number of people who have marked your property as ‘Interested’ or ‘Maybe’. Our goal is to have 20 Interested and 20 Maybe’s at the end of the first week.

Generally, that’s a good indication that your property will sell in the first 30 days it’s on the market.

So what happens if the metrics on my home are less than desirable?

First, don’t get discouraged. Remember our discussion about the average days on the market in your area. This process doesn’t happen overnight, but eventually, we will find the right buyer for your house.

Second, keep your house clean and tidy and approve as many showing requests as possible when they do come in. The more showings we have, the better the potential of getting an offer.

Third, we need to take a hard look at what we can do to improve the chances of your property selling. There are four essential factors that figure into the selling process:

• location of the property,

• the condition of the property,

• the marketing/photography, and finally and most importantly,

• the price.

1. We know we can’t change the property location.

2. Try looking at your home from the perspective of a buyer and ask yourself if there is anything else you can do to improve the condition/staging of the house to make it more attractive. Go back to your pre-marketing inspection findings again. Would replacing gutters or upgrading kitchen flooring and painting some of the rooms a more contemporary color leave a better impression with a buyer? If the condition is as good as it can possibly be, then we need to look at marketing/photography.

3. How do the photos look? Is there anything we can improve in the description of your home? Was there a great feature(s) we didn’t emphasize enough the first time around?

4. If the above three factors are as good as they can possibly be, then the only thing we can change is the price. Remember, buyers, tend to search in $10K increments so to hit the next large group of buyers we need to be below the next $10K threshold. Therefore, if your home is listed at $485,000, we should drop the price to $475,000. $2,000 and $3,000 price reductions aren’t enough. Price reductions need to be substantial (at least $5K to $10K) to make any difference.

Finally, would you consider a monetary incentive to encourage buyers to put an offer on your house? Perhaps a closing cost credit if the property is under contract by a specific date? Or let us offer an incentive bonus to the buyer’s agent if the property is under contract by a certain date? Even if an added financial outlay isn’t what you initially envisioned to get your home to sell, these techniques really do work.

Fabulous! We’ve got our first offer.

We’ll review it carefully together. There are a few main points we want you to pay particular attention to in the offer.

Offer price

What price did you want for your home? What is the least amount you’d be willing to take? How does this offer compare?

Closing timeframe

Typically, in Indianapolis, closing takes place 30-45 days after contract acceptance. If a buyer is paying 100% cash, we can usually close faster than 30 days, but 30 days is generally the required minimum if the buyer is using a mortgage to buy the property.

Sometimes buyers will ask for a later closing date if they are doing a special loan program, need to give their landlord a longer notice, need to sell their current home, etc. Can you work with this?

Earnest money

Earnest money is essentially a good faith payment showing the buyer is serious about moving forward.  How much earnest money is the buyer putting down? The typical amount is 1%. If the buyer is putting down less than that amount, it could mean that the buyer is doing a special loan program that requires a down payment of 0% – 5%, such as a VA loan or FHA loan. Or it could mean the buyer is a bit shaky financially. Ideally, we like to see buyers put down at least 1% in earnest money.

Down payment

Depending on the buyer’s particular loan program the down payment could be anywhere from 0% up. Personally, I like to see the buyer put down at least 5% (20% is ideal) unless they are doing a special loan program like a VA or FHA loan. The more they are putting down, the higher the chance that their loan receives approval.

Closing cost credits

Does the buyer want you to pay a portion of their closing costs? If so, how much? Please note the amount they are asking for comes off your net proceeds. So, if a buyer is offering $500,000 for your home, but wants a $10,000 closing cost credit that means the offer is only $490,000.

Home warranty

Did the buyer ask you to provide a home warranty? Depending on your home, this can cost you anywhere from $400 – $1000 and comes out of your net proceeds at closing.

Personal property

Did the buyer ask for any of your personal property to be included in the contract such as that great lamp in the living room or the bar stools in your kitchen? You do NOT have to include these items, but if you’re not that attached to them, it’s a small way to create good will with the buyer that might help with other contract negotiation points. (Keep in mind that anything that’s attached is typically expected to stay with the house).

Contingencies

Are there any contingencies the buyer has placed on the contract such as needing to sell their own home before they can close? Are there any additional riders or addendums on the contract? How will those affect you?

Click to see a blank Purchase Agreement.

Once an offer comes in, we’ll discuss all of the above, and then you can decide whether you want to accept the offer. I will prepare a Seller’s Net Sheet that shows you the bottom ‘financial line’. We can then accept the offer, counter the offer, or walk away from the offer. If we decide to counter, realize that some negotiations move fast, and others move slowly. We’ve had some negotiations take 2 hours while others have taken two weeks. It just depends on how quickly each party makes decisions, how fast the buyer’s Realtor relays that information, if everyone is available and easily reachable, etc.

Try to be patient.

Congratulations, I’m so happy for you!

Now What?

Once we’ve signed all the documents, we have an Accepted Purchase Agreement or an executed contract.  We’ll send a copy of the executed contract to the buyer’s lender and the inspection period can officially begin the next day.

You will receive a Next Steps Letter from my office, and it will contain all the essential details of the Agreement. Read it carefully and take note of the important dates stated in it. Several PDF documents will be attached. These need to be completely filled out so that the closing team (the lender, title company officer, my office management team, and the buyer’s agent) can do their job and get us to that ‘Sold’ sign.

In the meantime, the buyer is required to send the earnest money to my office within the contract period. The earnest money will be credited towards the buyer’s down payment at closing.  Our office holds onto the payment because we can act as an unbiased third party should a dispute come up between the buyer and seller and the buyer asks for the earnest money to be returned.

Once the earnest money is received, we will mark the property as PENDING in the BLC, cancel any future showings and cancel any upcoming open houses (unless you would like to continue to show for back up offers).

We are then officially in our inspection period, which usually takes between 5 and 15 business days (the Purchase Agreement states the exact number of days).