Seller's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced agent and this easy to follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible.

Step 1: Understand Why You're Selling

What do you want to accomplish with the sale of your home? Do you want to make a certain amount of money that you can put toward a larger or nicer home? Do you need to sell it as soon as possible to facilitate a move to a new city or area? Once you understand your needs, you can better craft your offer. For example, if you need to sell quickly, you might want to price your home lower than if your goal is to make a certain profit margin. Make sure you convey these needs to your REALTOR once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.

Step 2: Determine Selling Price

Knowing how to price your home is one of the most important parts of the selling process. When you set a fair price in the beginning, you’ll get the most interest from other real estate agents and prospective buyers. Overpricing your home could lead to reduced interest, and underpricing leads to receiving less than what your home is worth. Working with a real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

Step 3: Start Preparations

If you’ve kept your home in showroom condition since you’ve lived in it, you’re in the minority of homeowners. Once you price your home, it’s time to start getting it ready to be shown to potential buyers. This includes getting rid of clutter, depersonalizing the space so that buyers can envision themselves in the space, making any small repairs, and doing a deep clean to make sure your home is in pristine condition.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. My team creates a marketing campaign that aims to get the most possible traffic to your listing in the first three weeks after becoming a client.

Step 5: Evaluate Offers

Receiving an offer is an exciting part of the process, but it doesn’t mean the journey is over. We will evaluate each offer and make sure the party making the offer is prequalified or pre-approved by a mortgage lender and that their offer is acceptable to you. If the offer is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other ways to bridge the gap, such as covering some or all of the closing costs, making repairs, adjusting the move-in date, or leaving some appliances or fixtures for the new buyer.

Step 6: Accept an Offer

Once we deem the offer is acceptable, we will review the proposed contract to make sure it’s all in order and includes the necessary components such as deposit amount, down payment, financing, inspection rights and repair allowances, contingencies, settlement date, and a list of fees and who will pay them. When both parties have agreed to the term, a final contract will be prepared by your agent.

Step 7: Get Ready to Close

You have accepted an offer and are now very close to the end of your selling journey. But first, you and the buyer must make a list of what needs to be done before closing. In some cases, your home may need to be formally inspected, surveyed, and appraised. In other cases, major or minor repairs will need to be made before the house can close. I will head up efforts to develop and execute this list, get each action item paid for by the correct party, and make sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before the closing date, we will call the company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession.

Step 8: Close

You’ve reached the last step in the seller’s process. When you close on a home you are selling, you are legally transferring ownership of the property to the new buyer. We will meet with the company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork and go over any issues that have not yet been taken care of. During this time, you can also make plans with your REALTOR to handle final details such as canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances that will remain in the home.

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.

Our Testimonials

Keaton A.

We worked directly with Sarah Michaud, who was absolutely amazing to work with. Kind, sweet, generous, and can help you strike vision in homes where you may want to make some changes. I highly recommend the Pargh Team and hope ...

John G.

We were very pleased with Sarah’s intimate knowledge of the neighborhoods we were interested in looking. We also benefited from Sarah’s discerning eye toward building quality and potential problems with construction techniques ...

Elle

Franklin and Lana Pargh are two of the best people you could ever meet in Middle Tennessee. They are so kind and helpful. I’ve known them for years. They helped me purchase my condo when they were just starting out with Compass...

Mark S.

Joy was an absolute phenomenal agent to work with. Her knowledge of the area, and communication was outstanding. She listened to what we were searching for and was able to find the home of my wife’s dreams. She was available to...

Matt W.

We had a great experience working with Joy Smith and The Pargh Team. Joy is everything you’d want in a real estate agent — knowledgeable, responsive, patient, and truly invested in helping you find the perfect home. She guided ...

Steve S.

The Pargh team at Compass was an amazing. First they set me up with Hilery She is a first class agent that listens to you at every showing and gradually puts all of your comments into finding the right home. She works tirelessl...

Lindsay Y.

I had a great experience working with the Pargh Team. Erin Tunney did a great job putting together a marketing plan for the sale of my home. Given the current market (e.g., high interest rates, suppressed values, and slow marke...

SP

Amy's dedication to her clients is evident in every interaction, and she never cut corners. She was always honest, transparent, and responsive, offering invaluable advice and support. I felt like both her clients and us as the ...

Andrew Q.

We have bought and sold many properties and without a doubt Amy Wyatt is the best realtor we have utilized. We have used Amy for our last 3 buy and sell cycles. She has an exceptional focus on the details of a transaction and i...

Jaclyn L.

Franklin, Lana, and the operations team really know what they're doing and made us feel completely comfortable from day one with the sale of our house. I would recommend them to anyone for buying or selling-- stress free, hones...

Sasha S.

An excellent company of very effective professionals in their field, in my opinion, the best in this market, giving results in the most incredible and difficult conditions, with the most sophisticated and demanding clients. Exc...

Daniel H.

The Pargh Team continued to impress us with how they handled the sale of our home. With expert advice when it came to list timing, pricing, and beyond, we could not be more grateful to have had them handle the sale of our home....

Iain B.

Team Pargh again knocked it out of the park (or out of the Pargh!?). They helped guide us through delicate negotiations regarding appropriate price adjustments for deferred maintenance and flood damage. Thank you. We got it done!

Winston V.

The Pargh Team exceeded expectations on finding my wife and me our ideal property in the Nashville area. The team made the search streamlined and focused, qualities that are important when relocating. Lana, Franklin, Joy and Je...

Goldstein

The Pargh Team is all that and more. From start to finish, our experience working with Lana and Franklin Pargh was excellent. We found the best home for our needs and beat out other offers because of their deep understanding of...

Boris B.

A shout-out to the amazing Pargh Team! Just like a few years ago, when our family dreamt of moving to our favorite neighborhood and they instantly surrounded us with support, knowledge, and ideas and completely exceeded our exp...

Jacob U.

Franklin and Lana Pargh are incredible agents. They can think outside of the box and solve complex issues which can commonly arise when performing real estate transactions. They are also always available, even on nights weekend...

Mary Liza B.

The Pargh Team is quite simply the best real estate team in Nashville! Each of their agents utilizes their unique expertise with every home purchase and sale. For example, with her background in architecture, Lana Pargh can see...

Amy C.

I cannot say enough good things about The Pargh Team. They guided and supported us through every step of selling our old home and purchasing our new one. They explained each step of the process and were available to answer the ...

Alan P.

Over the last 5 years, I've worked with The Pargh Team to buy both home and investment properties. Not only are they highly organized, particularly around all the closing processes, but their team also helped out a ton with arc...

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As a team comprised of many West Nashville natives with decades of experience in real estate, architecture, and design, we are uniquely qualified to help you buy, sell, renovate, and design your home, whether for personal use or investments.