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 team of real estate agents 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 team of real estate agents once you choose one so they 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 team of real estate agents is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. A team of real estate agents 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 team of real estate agents.

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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 team of real estate agents 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.

Testimonials

Buyer

Buyer

Ryan was beyond attentive at every step - walk through, offer discussion, negotiation, inspection, closing. I really couldn’t recommend him highly enough. His knowledge, accessibility, and genuine nature will keep him as my onl...
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Buyer

Buyer

Ryan was very attentive to our needs and did not stop his search until he found us the PERFECT family home. We are new to Tennessee valley area and his local knowledge helped us tremendously when selecting our home. Ryan was wi...
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Buyer

Buyer

Ryan was an incredible resource to us as we were relocating from out of state and had zero knowledge of the area! He was quick to respond always and negotiated things for us we only hoped to get in the sale! Fantastic guy and f...
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Buyer

Buyer

Being new to the area it was great to have a realtor with an existing knowledge of the city. Ryan guided me to the areas where I would be most comfortable living in long term. Ryan listened to me from day one on what I was look...
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Buyer

Buyer

I cannot express enough how happy I was with my experience with Ryan and his team. Ryan with more than patient with me during my home buying purchase. He was extremely helpful, knowledgeable and very accessible for all of quest...
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Taylor S.

Taylor S.

Real Estate Partners Chattanooga LLC (particularly Allison Hillis and Ryan May) were fantastic in assisting us with purchasing our home in Black Creek! We had a complex moving situation that required a lot of moving parts and a...
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Kelly B.

Kelly B.

We worked with Dillon May as our listing agent. Dillon was incredible to work with. The logistics of listing our house were not the easiest with two small children and busy work schedules, but Dillon helped us work through ever...
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Mia

Mia

I worked with Allison Hillis and Ryan for a few months finding a home in Chattanooga. As locals, they were so helpful in identifying potentially unsafe areas for me, as well as which areas are up and coming. When I found a hous...
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Brad G.

Brad G.

Ryan May exceeded our expectations in every way over the past 5 years. He has always been very professional in representing us. When we relocated to Chattanooga he immediately found us a very nice townhouse in Cameron Harbor on...
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Janie W.

Janie W.

We recently worked with this crew to buy a new home in the Hamilton Place area. They were excellent! We interacted with both Ryan May and Allison Hillis and have nothing but good things to say. They were prompt and efficient in...
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Brice E.

Brice E.

Ryan and his team are too notch. As an out of town buyer looking for a specific condo-type property Ryan’s immense market knowledge and experience really helped guide us. Few listing, no problem for Ryan… he knows just about ev...
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Paul B.

Paul B.

Darlene has been my realtor through several moves. Darlene, Ryan, and Allison we’re extremely helpful with the sale of my home in Ooltewah recently. They professionally and thoroughly dealt with the entire process, keeping me i...
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Danielle H.

Danielle H.

Dillon May and the team went above and beyond to help me sell my home in Highland Park in Chattanooga. Dillon was there every step of the way to explain the process, help me navigate the intricacies of selling a home, and get t...
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Debi W.

Debi W.

I've just completed the purchase of a home in Chattanooga 37402 with Ryan May, Allison Hillis and team facilitating the purchase. I can't express enough how professional, detailed, responsive and anticipatory they were every st...
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Tamra H.

Tamra H.

Five stars for Ryan May and Allison Hillis! They found my dream home and were 10 steps ahead every step of the transaction. I wouldn’t even consider going anywhere else after my experience with them. Thank you, Ryan and Allison!
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Allison A.

Allison A.

Fantastic buyers agents! We relocated to Chattanooga, TN to be closer to family. Ryan and Allison were amazing! Made the whole process from viewing homes, to what to include in the contract, punch lists, closing and so much mor...
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Ryan May brings 15 years of business experience to his family’s real estate team. Specializing in new construction and commercial real estate.

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