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 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

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. 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. 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, 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

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Ryan B.

Allison and Heather’s guidance led to getting our full asking price and a 21 day escrow!
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Lu & David A.

Todd was very responsive. He almost always personally answered our phone calls. We were able to close escrow for our new home on schedule. When it comes to Costa Mesa, Todd really knows and understands the market. Thanks Todd!
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Bob & Norma T.

Allison Panetta and Heather Proud did a fantastic job selling our Newport Beach home. They were easy to work with, attentive to all our needs and work tirelessly to find a buyer and close the deal. We would highly recommend Pan...
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Kate & JP C.

Todd was the best agent. He saw our vision, knew exactly what we wanted and helped us to attain it. He was patient when we were being picky and helped us do everything it took to the secure the house of our dreams when we found...
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Chris & Whitney S.

Todd knows his stuff. He helped us buy a house through a small home builder. The price was set so we did not get to see his negotiation skills, but everything we did see was great. And he patiently worked with our lender, and w...
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Tami & Mark S.

Todd was fantastic in helping us to buy our house. He is very knowledgeable about the area and really puts forth an extra effort for his clients. He not only was willing to show us many houses, but he smoothly negotiated our tr...
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Izzy H.

Heather and Allison handled the sale of my investment property from beginning to end, including improvement recommendations, obtaining bids for work, hiring the contractors, overseeing the work, and more. They kept me informed ...
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Sean & Denise M.

After Allison and Heather helped us purchase a home, we were so pleased with their professionalism, expertise, and tireless efforts on our behalf that we used their services again, three times. They served as our real estate ag...
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Matt W. & Zabeth S.

Todd Bousman, President of bouHAUS was our Broker for our Midtown (www.midtown10.com) project of 10 new homes located in Westside Costa Mesa. Todd possesses an assorted wealth of both professional experience and personal passio...
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Jen & Mike A.

Todd came through for us and we are now in our dream home. We couldn’t be happier with the end result. He thought outside of the box and was able to negotiate a very unique contract with the listing agent. We got a great deal o...
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Mark S.

I’ve known Todd for many years and know him to be a great guy and a determined, passionate broker. He is a savvy marketer which recently helped net us a great result on the sale of a investment property. On the buy side, Todd a...
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Marjanovic Family

We are truly blessed to find Todd as our real estate agent in helping us purchase our new home. He was patient, good humored,responsive, professional, and accommodating to our schedule, needs and interests. We simply loved his ...
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Alyssa & Todd C.

Todd was a true professional to work with. My wife and I sold our home as a pocket listing, and to our surprise, it sold quickly. This meant that the two of us, along with our one year old daughter, had to act fast. Todd helped...
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Margaret & Irwin M.

Margaret and I are so impressed with the experience we had selling our home. Allison gave us professional representation like we never imagined possible! Your marketing of every sort was unparalleled in our opinion, week after ...
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Steve & Stephanie L.

We are extremely fortunate to have recently worked with Todd Bousman on not only selling a home in 2009, but also in purchasing a home in 2010. Todd and the entire Tim Carr Group treated us with the upmost respect and care. We ...
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Chris & Jennifer C.

Todd was a part of my first purchase experience which started back in Feb. of this year. The Condo complex was a new construction and it was the builders first project. Todd was very professional and quick to respond to our eve...
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Erik A.

The usual descriptives do not adequately address the outstanding service Heather Proud provided. She immersed herself in the all aspects of our home sale process. From preparation of the home, to securing contractors, to market...
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Steve T.

I’ve known Todd and we have been great friends for many years. We also worked together in the real estate industry several years back. Todd was the obvious choice to represent us to sell our income property in Newport Beach. Ev...
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Kim Z.

I want to share my distinctively unique experience with Todd Bousman as a realtor, and a professional. I have known Todd since he was a young boy, and he was just as delightful then as he is now. Many years went by without seei...
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Sarah

My husband and I recently decided to buy our first home together in the rapidly escalating, highly competitive Eastside Costa Mesa real estate market. With a budget well below a million dollars, finding an affordable home that ...
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Are you planning on buying or selling a home in the area? bouHAUS properties is here to help you navigate coastal Orange County's exciting real estate market. Specializing in mid-century modern and modern eclectic homes, the team's success in built on their passion for rare,one-of-a-kind properties that exemplify the best that the OC has to offer.

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