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 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 real estate agent 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

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.

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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. I 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 I deem the offer is acceptable, I 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. 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, I 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. I 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 real estate agent 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

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Robert M.

I had been looking for the right home in the Addison area for years when I met Brandon and Tiffany. I had noticed their listing at 14631 Winnwood Road had been on the market for quite some time, so I decided to call them, even ...
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Jonathan D.

Words cannot begin to describe how fortunate we were to work with Tiffany and Brandon. Not only did they do so much for us throughout the process, they are agents I would take with me anywhere I ever moved! From our relocation ...
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Elizabeth P.

Tiffany helped us sell our home & then find a great new one. It was our first time to coordinate selling & buying at the same time. Tiffany did a great job walking us through each step & took away a lot of our stress. The whole...
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Marcus B.

I've been performing home inspections for Tiffany and Brandon's clients for several years now and I can say without a doubt that they are among some of the most highly skilled agents that I know. At my end-of-inspection present...
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Anthony T.

Brandon and Tiffany are very hard workers and extremely patient. My wife and I had a specific list of what we wanted in a new house and Brandon and Tiffany did not shy away from trying to accomplish that goal. We spent many day...
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Lane H.

Brandon was instrumental in the purchase of our dream home. He made the whole process stress-free which was such a blessing. We are so thankful for his help & would recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell their home.
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Tom K.

Tiffany was instrumental in ensuring that we secured the absolute highest possible value on the sale of our home. It seemed effortless to be blunt. Purchasing a house in the current market was a daunting challenge. Tiffany’s su...
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Rose A.

Tiffany helped us find our place in Allen, TX! We relocated from Southern California to Dallas and had very limited time to see and find the perfect house to purchase. Tiffany learned our style and our preferences as the two da...
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Kristen C.

Brandon and Tiffany were A+ and top shelf. We had the tightest time frame as I was recruited for a new role in Dallas and we didn't want to be in temporary living for long. They had sent us listings directly at our target, went...
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Ronnie D.

Tiffany sold our home in Plano Texas for us. We hardly did anything because Tiffany took care of everything. No surprises just solid professionalism. She kept us up to date with the sale and this was during Covid restrictions. ...
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Jeffrey M.

My wife and I met Brandon and Tiffany at an Open House in Dallas. We already lived in DFW but were thinking of a move from the suburbs into the city for a change in lifestyle. We explained our situation to them and they helped ...
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Packer B.

Brandon and Tiffany Touchstone Hawkins were the listing agents on our property after unsuccessfully marketing it for two years through other agents without a single offer. They did a tremendous job of placing the property at a ...
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Teri S.

We had the pleasure of working with Tiffany twice and she is by far one of the best realtors we’ve worked with over 10 home sales and purchases. She is extremely knowledgeable, caring, responsive, and makes everything as stres...
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Jimmy W.

Every once in awhile you encounter people with impeccable character. You know they care about your interests and you can totally trust them. That's Brandon & Tiffany Hawkins. My wife and I have used them several times and they ...
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John C.

Tiffany and Brandon made a simple process out of what actually was a detailed, and to some a confusing, procedure replete with several entities to be contacted and provided with information, voluminous documentation and many ho...
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Matt E.

Brandon was very helpful throughout the entire process. Brandon helped locate potential properties, set up tours, explain things, and guide me on offer prices to make. Your interests will always be the first priority with Brand...
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Patrice O.

Tiffany is the best! My husband and I needed a short-term rental home. After living in our home 6 years we discovered it needed major repairs that required us to move. It was a very stressful time but Tiffany’s friendly and ple...
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Franklin M.

First time home buyer and could not have done it without Tiffany and Brandon Hawkins. From start to finish they made this process for us as easy as possible. Tiffany was always available for any questions we had (which were qui...
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Tony T.

The Hawkins group was very patient with us and helped us negotiate a great deal on the sale of our home. They provide quality work, exemplary service and are always available to answer questions. They never place pressure and a...
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Louie S.

Tiffany went above and beyond to help us get into a new home we love. We had sold our other home in 2 weeks and were unprepared with another home to move to. She arranged everything with amazing timing so that we didn't have to...
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Our primary objective is to partner with you to sell your home for the highest price in the shortest amount of time. Through our affiliation with Douglas Elliman and network of collaborative agents, we’re able to find distinctive homes for buyers and create incredible opportunities for sellers to sell their properties before they hit the market.

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