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 REALTORS® 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 REALTORS® 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

See why our clients love working with us.

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Seller of 3310 Maxim Drive

“ Our first home buying process was probably not your typical process. Our realtor Melissa was a total rockstar throughout it all though. She sold our house in less than a day for the listed price. On top of that, she worked wi...
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Bradley Gough

“I just wanted to take a minute to thank you (Kelly) and Lynn for helping Stephanie and I find our Dream Villa in Herron Preserve. My Family and I have done numerous transactions with you and your Team and you have always looke...
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Rich and Kathi Honig

“We engaged Lynn Reecer and her team at Encore Sotheby’s International Realty as a “Buyer’s Agent” to find a home to meet our current needs. We wanted to downsize (slightly), simplify our lives (villa), move to a more convenien...
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Mike Kubacki

Lynn really nailed it. She and her team understand the market dynamics of the lake scene very well. We got the right price. The whole process went very smoothly, and in only a few weeks. Very pleasant and professional.
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Peter and Karen McMahon

“ We have now purchased two homes from Lynn, and could not feel any more fortunate to have met her. She is outstanding! I think she’s more like a “match maker”; she knew what we wanted in a lake house and when she got a new lis...
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A. McCanna

Their team has been involved with our group’s recruitment of physicians to the Fort Wayne area and we have been very satisfied with their assistance. They have an outstanding knowledge of the local real estate market. Many of m...
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D. Amen

When we first moved to Fort Wayne, Lynn gave us a tour of the city, introducing us to different neighborhoods. We have seen a variety of different homes with them, and they have demonstrated a unique ability to connect us with ...
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L. Keys

After working with Lynn Reecer for five years at Aboite New Trails, Inc, I have the utmost confidence in her ability to see goals through and get the job done. Her sales ability, passion, and positive attitude are unsurpassed. ...
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Joe and J. Malfait

They were always willing to go the extra step to get our lake house sold, and also to help us in our negotiations to purchase a new home. They were always available, either by phone, text, or email. We would highly recommend th...
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B. Zielke

I would recommend Lynn Reecer, without any reservation whatsoever to handle your real estate needs...whether buying or selling. With 40 years of experience in business and not for profits, I have become convinced that things ge...
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S. Fisher

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for all that you have done to secure the selling and closing of our home in a very short time. You went above and beyond our expectations and gave us a peace of mind I have not expe...
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C. Tower

We presented Reecer Properties with an impossible task. Finding the perfect home to accommodate a blending family with many children in several schools. They showed us a few beautiful properties that were ideal and then present...
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Wally and Beth

We began working with Reecer Properties because we were interested in pursuing the idea of buying a home or purchasing a property. They showed us several homes in an area we were interested in and none of these homes were liste...
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Seller

I just had to send a letter to you and your marvelous team on the outstanding service and care they provided in listing my home. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and all the helpful advice they delivered as real estate agents....
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Doug and M. Copley

We can’t thank Reecer Properties enough for doing such a great job of selling our Lake Wawasee condo. We had multiple showings and got multiple offers! When we first decided to sell the condo, we realized that it looked ‘old an...
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F. Moore

When my wife passed away recently, I was left to sell a property that she owned in Fort Wayne. Living a thousand miles away in Boulder, CO, I had no idea how I could arrange for all the upgrades, listings, legal filings, find t...
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M. Post and M. Nelaborige

Michael and I often talk about how grateful we are for everyone at Reecer Properties for the great job you did of selling our home. We appreciate so many things about our experience with your company: the research is done in pr...
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Tom and M. Michael

We noticed Reecer Properties first on TV during a home show. We also have been to the cottage/office at Lake Wawasee, which is really cute. My husband Tom and I enjoyed working with Jeana as she was helpful, pleasant and gave u...
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Jane and Dr. G. Schmitt

We couldn’t have been more pleased with the job done. Their combined talents result in a well- organized and efficient team. Communication was always prompt and accurate, they used state of the art marketing media and were exce...
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Vicki and J. Brubaker

We liked the team atmosphere, everyone works together to get it done. We were ready to give a testimonial the first week out. We cannot think of anything they could do any better. How many realtors want to find their clients a ...
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