Start

The process starts with your phone call, Email or walking through the door at our Port Orchard offices.  Our goal is to make the sale of real property as simple and trouble free as we can.

Initial Interview

The first thing we'll do is sit down and discuss your objectives.  It's important for me to understand your goals, needs, wants, resources and schedule.  At the same time you will become familiar with the current market, including an initial look at what comparable houses are selling for, and an analysis of recent market trends.

Market Analysis

A thorough Market Analysis is the key to a successful sale.  My professional Comparative Market Analysis will let you set, with confidence, the selling price that will get your home sold quickly and at the best possible price.  We will look at homes that have recently sold and compare the individual features in detail.  In addition, we will look at the current competition to include homes that are pending sale or under contract; as well as expired or cancelled listings.  Since history is only part of the story, we will also make adjustments for current market trends, supply and demand, and predictions.

Listing Agreement

I will also provide you with a detail Marketing Plan, and my "Home Seller's Survival Guide".  When you hire me to sell your house for you, we will sign a listing agreement.  The agreement will launch a flurry of activity, starting with puting your home on the Multiple Listing System.

Prepare Home for Sale

Using time-tested guidlines we will now work together to "Stage" your home for a quick sale.  There are numerous adjustments you can make to the appearance of your house that cost little, but will enhance your home's appeal.

Marketing Campaign

The marketing plan that was outlined for you in the initial presentation now begins in earnest.  Using the "Marketing Plan" as a guide, I will make your house known "far and wide" to include:  Internet exposure, print media (both short and long term), reader board, open houses (public, Brokers, and office), direct targeted mailings, flyers, and showings to my waiting buyers.

Receive Offer

When a buyer decides they want your house, they will write an offer.  They will normally use NWMLS Forms to submit a Purchase and Sale Agreement.  We will then carefully consider the offer and structure a response that will give you the best chance of getting the price, terms and conditions you want.  The response will be prepared carefully, and shouldn't be rushed.

Negotiate Offer

The offer has no effect until both Buyer and Seller agree to it.  There are three basic responses available to you:  either accept the offer, refuse the offer, or make a Counter Offer.  This begins a negotiation process that can involve any aspect of the agreement.

Contract Acceptance

If both parties agree, the Purchase and Sale Agreement is said to be "Signed Around.".  At that point the agreement becomes an enforceable contract.

Earnest Money

On contract acceptance the agreed to Earnest Money becomes due, and is processed in accordance with the agreement.  This money is held in Escrow until closing, at which time it is returned to the Buyer.  If the Buyer withdraws from the agreement without "legal excuse" the Earnest Money is paid to the Seller.  We will discuss what constitutes a "legal excuse."

Refer to point B on the graphic.  At this point, two branches of the flow chart are initiated simultaneously.

Inspection

When the Purchase and Sale Agreement is "signed around" one of The buyer's first actions will be to arrange an inspection.  During the inspection, the status shown on the MLS becomes STI (Subject To Inspection), and remains in that status until all discrepancies are resolved.  The buyer will inform you of the results of the inspection, and if there are discrepancies that require correction.

Negotiate Work Orders

Discrepancies that are identified during the inspection as requiring corrective action become “work orders” that must be completed to the satisfaction of both parties.  Who does the work and who pays become items of negotiation between Buyer and Seller.  In some cases, the lender may have input into this process because they may require certain repairs to be made.  NWMLS Form 35A or 35B is used for this purpose.

Work Completed

Work should be monitored to insure completion prior to signing.

Re-inspect

In some cases the work will need to be inspected again by the inspector to insure proper completion.  In other cases, the Buyer may inspect to insure satisfaction, or the Licensed Contractor may certify the work.  After the re-inspection, the Inspection Contingency is waived and the status of the sale becomes “Pending”.

Appraisal

An important part of the loan approval process is validation of the house value.  The lender will hire a professional appraiser, of their choosing, to conduct a formal appraisal of the property.  A low appraisal can cause adjustments to be made in the agreement, or a second appraisal may be warranted.

Loan Approval

The process may vary, but ultimately the lender will approve the loan, forward the loan documents, and issue instructions to the Escrow Company to proceed to closing.

Title Search

The loan approval also encompasses verification of Title to insure that the property is not encumbered.  The listing office will provide “Preliminary Title”, but the seller will share in the cost of hiring a Title Company, obtaining an appropriate title search, and paying for the title insurance.

Escrow Company

The Title and Escrow Company is typically a Buyers option; although, it’s not unusual for the Seller to ask a title company for preliminary title and then request that Buyers use the same company.  The title company may also serve as the Escrow Agent, because it’s often easier than using a separate company.

Assemble Papers

The Escrow Agent assembles the documents related to the agreement and manages the signing, closing and recording of the sale.

Signing - Closing

In Washington, signing takes place 24 to 48 hours prior to closing.  Following signing of documents by both parties, the lender grants final approval, the documents are recorded, and the deal is closed.

Moving Day

Once the deal is closed, the new owner may take possession unless some other arrangement has been made.  Possession usually entails the transfer of the keys and the arrival of moving vans.  In every case there is a degree of relief that the process has been successfully concluded.  Hopefully there is also great happiness and eagerness to move on to a new situation.

Here's an interesting article extracted from Realtor Magazine. While it's aimed at Realtors, it provides useful insight to you the homeowner that will help you prepare your home for sale. Whether you have a Real Estate Professional helping you, or you choose to go it alone, these principles apply to you.

TWO HOURS…

THREE ROOMS…

$250 BUDGET…

THREE REALTORS…

GO!

STAGE

THIS ROOM!

THE EXPERTS  Kale Callahan, left, founder and president, Addressed to Sell, Wilmette, Ill., www.addressedto sell.com. Staging professionally for three and a half years, "but I've been doing it all my life for friends and family." Lori Matzke, right, founder and president, Center Stage Home, Minneapolis, www.centerstage­home.com. Staging since 1999. Author of Home Staging, Creating Buyer-Friendly Rooms to Sell Your House (Center Stage Home, 2004).

 

BY CHRISTINA HOFFMANN SPIRA

Could you walk into a room and, in two hours, working mainly with what's there, make it more attractive to buyers? Taking a cue from "Iron Chef," REALTOR® Magazine posed this test to three practitioners earlier this year. In the pages that follow, you'll see just how our stagers rose to the challenge. In February we dispatched each one, along with a camera crew, two professional stagers (who provided only commen­tary), and some helping hands, to a Chicago-area home. The prac­titioners staged a home office, a bedroom, and a living room, respectively. Each had a $250 budget and one opportunity to see the room before the big day. Our stagers demonstrated how creativity combined with a few accessories, a little reorganiza­tion, and ruthless paring can make a property stand out in today's slower markets.

That's important not just at showings but also on the Inter­net, where buyers increasingly rely on photos to narrow their choices, says salesperson Mark Jak, ABR', of Coldwell Banker Res­idential Brokerage in Chicago.

Even in a fast-paced market, staging can pay off. A survey of 2,000 practitioners conducted by HomeGain in 2003, at the height of the boom, found that staging could increase the sales price by $2,275 to $2,841. Clean­ing and decluttering could add $2,093 to $2,378 to the final price. Likewise, a 2004-2005 survey of owners by training company StagedHomes.com found that staged homes sold for 6.9 percent more than homes that weren't staged.

Such statistics have led to a dra­matic uptick in practitioner inter­est in staging. StagedHomes.com says enrollment in its Accredited Staging Professional designation courses has increased 49 percent in the six months ending March 30, 2007, compared with the previous six months.

Small bucks net big rewards As our makeovers show, staging doesn't have to cost a lot or take much time. One of our stagers, Bobbi Williams, re­lied on items she already had. Professional stager and trainer Lori Matzke looks around sellers' homes for staging props and stages only key rooms—the entryway and any room visible from it (first impressions count), the main living area, the kitchen, the master bedroom, and one extra room, such as a den or deck. "Those are what buyers usually base their decision on anyway," she says. She also en­courages sellers to "tuck away anything smaller than a foot­ball. Who wants to pay my fee to pack for them?"

Professional staging costs $500 to $1,000 and up for an average-sized home. The price generally includes paint­ing, carpeting, accessories, and labor, but costs can go higher, depending on the ex­tent of the work.

Many real estate practi­tioners today include staging as part of their marketing ser­vices, either doing the job themselves or hiring and pay­ing for a professional stager. In such cases, sellers pay only the cost of new accessories, furniture rental, paint, or new carpeting. Often the stagers—with some help from the sellers—do the heavy lifting.

Sometimes, convincing sellers that their beloved home needs a makeover takes finesse. To illustrate staging's value, Bobbi Williams of Keller Williams in Chicago tells sellers what she learned from her staging mentor, StagedHomes.com's Barb Schwarz: "A car depreciates the minute you drive it off the lot. But what's the first thing you do if you sell it? Detail it. Your home is an asset, so now it's time to detail it.'

Even getting sellers to rec­ognize the need to declutter isn't always a cinch. "They've been living with clutter for years and just don't see it any­more," says Dede Banks, ABR', CRS', of Renaissance Realty Partners in Lake Forest, Ill. To help home owners see their houses as buyers would, Banks takes photos of rooms. When she shows them to sellers, the problem areas become more apparent.

STAGING'S 4 BIGGEST CHALLENGES

Professional stagers Kala Callahan of Addressed to Sell in Wilmette, Ill., and Lori Matzke of Center Stage Home in Minneapolis share their biggest staging headaches and tell you how to make them go away.

1. Owners don't want to change their decor. "You can't force them to do it. You have to show them the value," Matzke says. To make sellers more open to staging, present it as a service you do for every client. That is, you're not singling them out. "I use myself as an example," Matzke says. "I tell them I'd also have to remove art from my house to sell it so that the listing would appeal to the masses.' Adds Callahan: "Let sellers know you need to protect grandma's antique bureau by putting it in storage so that nothing happens to it.'

2. The listing has languished on the market for months before the owner or salesperson calls a Stager. "Stage the house right before it's listed," Matzke says. Otherwise, it may lose its selling momentum.

3. A confused layout makes the home seem cramped and unlivable. Multifunction rooms (such as those with an eating area, TV hookup, fire­place, and sitting area) are often confusing to buyers, especially when vacant, Calla­han says. "People wonder, `Where is my couch supposed to go?"' Stage those rooms to show buyers the possibilities.

4. A vacant home seems cold and uninviting. It's important to warm up an empty home, Callahan says. You may need to rent some furniture, but don't feel you have to go nuts in terms of expense. "You're selling the home, not the furniture," she says.

RESOURCES

The Art of Interior Placement www.interiorplacements.com Geared to those who want to be interior designers, this source includes curriculum on staging for real estate. Tuition: $500-­$2,950, depending on the program.

Center Stage Home www.centerstagehome.com Offers directory of affiliated stagers, Home Staging Expert designation, a home study course, and workshops (limited locations). Cost: $299-$1,499, depending on training program.

StagedHomes.com Offers Accredited Staging Professional designation and several levels of training, directory of ASPS around the country, home staging tips, and statistics. Cost: $349-$3,450.

REALTOR.org Search "Staging Field Guide" for a field guide to preparing and staging a house for sale.

INVITING HOME OFFICE

PROBLEMS ...

The office was cramped because of the position of the desk and the bookshelf behind it. The small room's space didn't flow, and floor space wasn't maximized.

SOLUTIONS ...

Williams opened up the room and emphasized the French doors leading to the patio, while keeping the room functional for the owner. Her techniques:

n   Angle the desk toward the patio doors and place a bouquet of red roses at the corner of the desk to draw buyers' eyes into the room and toward the patio. "These techniques engage them and point the way," Williams says. "The angle of the desk creates openness and [entices the buyers] to want to see more of the room. Without an angled desk, all they see from the doorway is a wall," she says.

n   Create more floor space by backing up the sofa to the wall and removing the exercise bike.

n   Move the bookshelf from behind the desk to a closet, where the home owner can continue to access her materials. "Always ask the home owner what you can't touch," she says.

n   Add light by replacing the dark abstract wall print over the couch with a mirror.

n   Complement red accents in the room and create balance with two identical red sofa pillows, replacing two mismatched ones.

n   Brighten the black coffee table with a bouquet of white roses.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES ...

"Had it been a different season, I would have added potted plants outside the French doors to draw buyers' attention there," Williams says. In addition, she might have hung a cluster of four red-matted art pieces in a row to make the room appear longer. Professional stagers Kola Callahan and Lori Matzke suggest Williams might have swapped the positions of the desk and couch to downplay the room's utilitarian use. "You want buyers to see a relaxed living space from the doorway," says Matzke, who says she would also have warmed up the paint in the room with an off-white.

REALTOR®, STAGER   Bobbi Williams Keller Williams Lincoln Park Realty and Willben Inc. (her staging company), Chicago, www.bobbiwilliamskwconsultant.com. How long staging: About a year. She's taken the Accredited Staging Professional course offered by StagedHomes.com. Best staging tip: "You want to create a space that breathes and has light so that when you leave the room, you feel ener­gized. After a showing, I always ask buyers, 'How do you feel?' If they don't have a feeling of energy, it's not the house for them." Spent: $0. Williams used materials she already had.

RESTFUL    MASTER BEDROOM

   PROBLEMS ...

Jak immediately saw the main objection that buyers would have with the room: the bright yellow paint. "It's a personal color." The paint seemed even stronger because of brightly patterned bedding and curtains. Jak noted that the room's size (19 feet by 10 feet) wasn't being emphasized. To boot, visitors couldn't see the hardwood floor.

SOLUTIONS ...

Jak neutralized the yellow's effect and opened up the room by softening the color palette. I tried to complement rather than fight against the yellow so that buyers would see other things happening in the room besides the paint color." His techniques:

n Focus on neutral. Add a $30 neutral-colored carpet to help mute the room, $20 white draperies, inexpensive small white lamps, white bedding from IKEA, white accessories in the tower bookcase, and fresh flowers.

n Create flow by reorienting the furniture. Divide up the room by putting the bed in one area and the dressing area opposite to create two defined spaces.

Use found items. Jak filched a print from the owner's home office to hang over the bed and an iron-leaf candleholder from the dining room to hang opposite the windows.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES ...

The professional stagers and Jak agree: With more time and money, they would have repainted the room in a softer color—either a beige or a pale yellow or green—that would appeal to more buyers. Stagers say they would also have patched nail holes and wall cracks. Matzke would have eliminated curtains entirely to maximize the light and show off the view.

R EALTOR, STAGER Mark Jak, ABR® Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Chicago, www.markiak.com, How long staging: Four years. Best staging tip: "Focus on lighting. Move lamps to dark corners and clean all windows so that natural light can flood the room." Spent: $258, but Jak didn't use all the items he had bought.

SPACIOUS LIVING  ROOM

   PROBLEMS ...

"It was important to put the `living' back in this room," Banks says. "There was too much stuff, and there were too many things going on: a music area, a living area,

a dining area, and a play area [for the owners' toddler]."

SOLUTIONS ...

Make the room's purpose clear, Banks says, and emphasize its pluses—in this case, the floor, windows, size, and fireplace. Her techniques:

n   Reorient the main seating area around the fireplace and set up a smaller reading area.

n   Reveal the hardwood floor, hidden under too much stuff, by removing the dining room set and other furnishings. Banks also added an inexpensive white shag rug to make the floor pop.

n   Show off the extensive windows and let in light by taking down the curtains.

n   Make the fireplace a focal point by painting the wall a rich red and cleaning up errant soot on the mantle.

n   Declutter the built-in bookshelves to create openness.

n   Make the neutral walls pop by hanging a large, colorful painting—which had been obstructing a window—on a wall in the newly delineated main living space.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES ...

With more time and money, Banks says, she would have repainted the room to freshen it up. She would also