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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.

Testimonials

See why our clients love working with us.
Christina T.

Christina T.

We loved working with Claire and Sam! They helped us move from our home in Santa Monica to Pacific Palisades and we had the most wonderful experience working with them. We weren't super familiar with the area so they really wen...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

If you're looking to buy or sell reach out to the best, Claire and Sam O'Connor. They took the time to understand what we were looking for and made that a reality. They are incredible negotiators and worked extremely hard to he...
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Solome R.

Solome R.

Sam and Claire were the absolute best! We bought our dream home from out of state and Sam went above and beyond to find us exactly what we were looking for both in terms of the house but also the neighborhood. I highly recommen...
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Robert K.

Robert K.

Claire O’Connor is a true real estate professional! We’ve used her for to buy two homes, one in Venice and one in Santa Monica. She was able to find us what we were looking for and negotiated a fair price. The transaction proce...
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Marney S.

Marney S.

Claire O’Connor is a rockstar real estate agent. She knows Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Santa Monica, and beyond like the back of her hand. She’s both personable and professional and works so hard for her clients. We are so gl...
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Wencke S.

Wencke S.

Claire and Sam O’Connor are the dream team! They worked hard to find me the perfect home in Malibu. It wasn’t an easy task, but they never gave up! Highly recommend using them for your search for a home in Los Angeles! They mad...
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Kevin K.

Kevin K.

We loved working with Claire. She helped us find our home and navigate the whole process. She’s very knowledgeable and professional. Thank you so much, Claire! We highly recommend using her if you’re looking to buy or sell in t...
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Niki S.

Niki S.

We worked with Claire on the sale of our condo and the purchase of our first house, both in the Palisades. She marketed our condo beautifully and worked so hard to find us the perfect home. We know we got the best possible resu...
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Jeff R.

Jeff R.

If you’re looking for a real estate agent on the west side of Los Angeles, Claire is the one. She is so friendly and worked very hard for us. She guided us through our search and got the job done. Thank you, Claire, for all of ...
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Bridget M.

Bridget M.

Claire is amazing. I’ve never trusted a real estate agent like I trust Claire. I know she has my best interest at heart. She educated me on the real estate market on the west side where I’m thinking about buying a home in the n...
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Buyer

Buyer

I cannot say enough positive comments about Claire as my agent. Initially, I was a tenant of the property that I purchased. Claire helped me secure the property as a renter and subsequently as a buyer. Throughout my communicati...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

What a gem to find in the hustle and bustle of LA. Claire has been such a pleasure to work with while looking for our home, taking our must-haves into consideration to show us properties that exceed our expectations. Her knowle...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

Looked at a few homes in the Venice area with Claire who was beyond helpful. Not only about available properties for sale, but filled us in on local bars, great restaurants, nice shopping, and even furniture stores. She could b...
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Alexandrah E.

Alexandrah E.

I’ve purchased and sold a few homes to date, Claire O’Connor is by far the best real estate agent I’ve ever worked with. She was responsive, detailed, and organized. She made herself available 24/7 and is very well informed abo...
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Buyer

Buyer

Claire helped me to buy my condo recently. Throughout this process, she was persistently available and showed very knowledgable of the market in this area. Her negotiation skills for the price were extraordinary. I found her so...
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Chris H.

Chris H.

Claire is always on your side working to make your house purchase as simple and successful as possible. The best part about working with Claire was that she was always more focused on answering our questions, giving us good adv...
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Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

It is always nice to work with someone as knowledgeable as Claire and not just about the homes but the areas as well. Also great at pointing out various layouts of each room or different uses of some rooms and great at helping ...
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Caitlin S.

Caitlin S.

Claire is incredibly knowledgeable of all things real estate and was more than happy to answer all of my relentless questions. She was always patient, kind, and respectful and I couldn't love my new place more. Thank you, Claire.
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With ten years of professional experience, we have mastered the art of negotiation through dealings with high-level bureaucrats and diplomats regarding US foreign investments. We bring that required tenacity to real estate negotiations on behalf of our clients.

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