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Seller's Guide

Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.

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

Katherine A.

Katherine A.

I feel so lucky to have had Aurora representing me as a first-time home buyer in 2021. She is extremely knowledgeable of the Westchester housing market. She provided valuable feedback on houses that we were interested in (often...
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Jan

Jan

Aurora Banaszek is far and away the best real estate broker I worked with during my home search in an extremely challenging market. She knows the Westchester market extremely well. She is amiable, hardworking, knowledgeable and...
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Danielle W

Danielle W

Aurora was incredible to work with throughout our home buying process. We are first time home buyers and heavily relied on her knowledge of different neighborhoods, home care, red flags to look out for and just general guidance...
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Brandon E.

Brandon E.

Words can't describe how incredible our experience has been working with Aurora. My wife and I began the search for our first and forever home during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. After nearly one year of searching, 75-1...
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Katie S.

Katie S.

We spent a lot of time with Aurora looking at properties in upstate NY. We found Aurora to be so knowledgeable and helpful in navigating a particularly confusing time in the market. Her guidance and expertise were hugely apprec...
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Buyer

Buyer

I’ve been involved in nearly a dozen real estate transactions over the years - purchases, sales, and rentals by me and by others. Even though I’ve been generally satisfied with each of these, I have never encountered a better r...
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Seller

Seller

When it came time to sell our first house after over 40 years we knew we would need to find not only an experienced but a very patient realtor®. Upon checking Houlihan and Lawrence’s website I came across Aurora Banaszek, the w...
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Jessicalyn

Jessicalyn

Aurora went above and beyond to help us purchase our first home in Chappaqua, NY. Her insight and guidance were amazing. We looked at many houses in the area and Aurora was always available to accommodate our busy schedules and...
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Mark S.

Mark S.

Aurora is fantastic. As first-time homebuyers, Aurora absolutely put us at ease during the process. She is extremely patient, flexible, and responsive. Aurora possesses expert knowledge of the neighborhoods we visited. Her expe...
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Rahuld D.

Rahuld D.

We spent a lot of time with a number of brokers and Aurora stands out as our clear favorite. Not only does she know the community very well, she really takes time to get to know her clients and make sure she is showing them hom...
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Claire G.

Claire G.

Working with Aurora to purchase our first home in Armonk, NY was a wonderful experience, and I would highly, highly recommend her to anyone looking to buy or sell in Westchester. She went above and beyond, accommodating and fac...
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Claudia R.

Claudia R.

Aurora is the rare kind of person who can transform one of life’s stressful moments into something much more calm and enjoyable! She makes everyone feel at ease and that relaxed vibe sets the tone for all to go smoothly. My hus...
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L. D. Casper

L. D. Casper

We recently sold our home in Armonk and can wholeheartedly recommend Aurora. Unlike some other local brokers who dabble part-time, Aurora does real estate full time and is truly a professional. To say she has her finger on the ...
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 Antonella L.

Antonella L.

When it came time to start house hunting, a colleague of my husband referred Aurora to us. I’m so happy he did; on top of being friendly and easy to talk to, she is also very experienced and knowledgeable in the field. It took ...
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Seller

Seller

Anyone looking to buy or sell could not find a better real estate professional than Aurora Banaszek. Aurora is the ultimate professional (extremely knowledgeable, respectful, prompt, reliable), while at the same time being a tr...
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Rj O.

Rj O.

Besides selling our previous home very quickly, Aurora spent months showing us many houses in middle and upper Westchester county NY. Her patience and flexibility were truly appreciated. Once we decided on a home, her extensive...
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Ann Marie L.

Ann Marie L.

Aurora was extraordinarily patient and insightful in helping our family search for a home outside of the city. She listened carefully to what we were looking for and helped us find the right area. She provided timely informatio...
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Buyer

Buyer

Aurora is exceptionally knowledgeable and patient and identified a variety of houses in various communities in Westchester that met our needs. She was always responsive when we requested to view listings. Her persistence and ne...
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Buyer

Buyer

Aurora was extremely thorough and patient when helping us look for our new home. We were very particular with what we wanted and in the end, helped us to get the home we so much love. When looking at houses she was “hands-on”, ...
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Buyer

Buyer

Aurora knows the market inside and out, has grown up in the community, and knows where everything trades, where there is value, and all the ins and outs of an area that you need to know and more. She is also very knowledgeable ...
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