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.​​​​​​​

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

We 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. Our 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.

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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.

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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.

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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. We 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.

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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

Carmen & Kent

Carmen & Kent

Mark and Susan are simply wonderful. They are exactly what you want in a Realtor® helpful, tasteful, honest, good people, and trustworthy. We love them!
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Melissa

Melissa

Two for the price of one! Susan and Mark will go above and beyond to take care of your real estate needs and then become your friends for life. Highly recommended.
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David

David

Two of the most sincere and trustworthy people I have ever known. So eager to go above and beyond, making sure they over-deliver every time. Just wonderful people.
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Sarah & Adrian

Sarah & Adrian

Mark and Susan are not only two of the kindest people we know but they are also the most professional team I have ever worked with. They helped my family find and buy our first home. We would recommend them to anyone.
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Mary

Mary

Mark and Susan were a pleasure to work with and helped us to sell property in Santa Rosa Beach. They were available, responsive, kind, and knowledgeable. We highly recommend them for your real estate needs and would work with t...
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Sandy

Sandy

Susan thought of what I needed even before I knew it! She was always professional while still being kind and available. In my opinion, Susan goes above and beyond what her clients need. However, she was never pushy while trying...
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Jenna & Ryan

Jenna & Ryan

Mark and Susan are the best around for real estate. They are wildly knowledgeable with the area and have an absolute passion for working with people. You cannot go wrong working with them as their dedication and commitment will...
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Debbie & Keith

Debbie & Keith

Highly recommend Mark and Susan. They are everything you want a real estate agent to be, transparent, proactive, quick to respond and follow up and provide good advice. We had a last-minute issue pop up, and Mark and Susan were...
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Yolanda & Kevin

Yolanda & Kevin

Susan and Mark were outstanding with our recent purchase of a beachfront condo in the Sandestin/Miramar Beach area. Their attention to detail and a long list of contacts made this experience seamless for us. Our permanent resid...
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June & Jason

June & Jason

Mark and Susan were simply amazing throughout the process of searching for a vacation home on 30A. They were incredibly patient, understanding, quick with advice or things to consider, and pretty much everything else you could ...
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Brittany & Daniel

Brittany & Daniel

Mark & Susan are exceptional!! They exceeded all our expectations during the home buying process. Not only are they kind and generous people - they are also knowledgeable, work quickly, and will do everything they can to get yo...
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Brenda & Don

Brenda & Don

Mark and Susan Bremer are THE best real estate team! Don and I have purchased several homes from them. Their expertise in the area is like none other. Mark and Susan are very knowledgeable about all aspects of the buying and se...
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Barb & Bob

Barb & Bob

We just sold our vacation rental home in Santa Rosa Beach, Fl. at an unprecedented high price, in an incredibly short period of time, without even being there and it was entirely because of Susan and Mark Bremer. How and why? B...
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Heather & Blair

Heather & Blair

Mark and Susan were our agents for the sale of our home and the purchase of our new dream home on the water in Bluewater Bay. They’re very hands on, extremely knowledgeable and guided us through the entire process with ease. Th...
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Patrick

Patrick

Mark and his wife Susan were fantastic. They constantly kept me up to date on activity and when we received offers Mark was a great coach to guide me through the process. He also went above and beyond to make sure the house loo...
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Don & Brenda

Don & Brenda

Mark (and his wife Susan) are such a pleasure to work with. The two of them make an exceptional team and their skillsets are extremely complimentary to one another. We met them several years ago when searching for investment pr...
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Cindy & Steve

Cindy & Steve

If you simply want the best in service and selling these two REALTORS® are for you. Great advice from the beginning of the process and quick, on target responses to all our questions. Sold our home and closed in a little over a...
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