Sellers Timeline

Selling A House—Common Steps & Timeline

Selling a house involves many processes you will be unfamiliar with as the legal documents and disclosures to sell a property change frequently. Plus, you need to have a really good marketing strategy. We can’t stress enough that picking the right team of professionals to weave all of the details together will make a huge difference in your selling experience. You should select a professional real estate agent that you know and trust or one that comes highly recommended. If you need a recommendation we hope that you will not hesitate to ask us. We work with hundreds of real estate agents a year and with that experience we can help you find one that is perfect for your needs.

Once you establish a working relationship with your agent, your home is put on the market and marketed to potential buyers. Once a buyer makes an offer on your home you have three options: accept the offer, counter the offer, or reject the offer. After you accept an offer you can expect to do the following:

Select your real estate professional             

  • Interview agents that you know or who have been personally recommended to you
  • Review and sign a listing agreement

Prepare your property for sale

  • Have a yard sale
  • Clean up, fix up and donate items
  • Ask your agent about staging your home so it shows best
  • Be out of the property at the time of all showings

Negotiate Contract of Sale

  • Receive an offer called a Contract of Sale
  • Negotiation of terms and conditions; accept, counter or reject
  • Buyers choice to select the escrow agent and the settlement company
  • Agreement is reached by all parties, the contract is now “ratified” and delivered to all

Title Process with Settlement Ink

  • Buyer selects the settlement company to handle the title process
  • Escrow is opened and buyer deposits “earnest money” with escrow agent
    • Note: escrow agent may or may not be the settlement agent
  • Settlement Ink schedules date/time of settlement with all parties
  • Settlement Ink provides a “Seller Information Sheet” to seller to complete that provides the information needed to clear title (LINK TO SELLER INFO SHEET)
  • Sellers payoffs are obtained for all outstanding mortgages or other liens of record

Contingency Periods (contemporaneously with the title process)

  • Buyer is going through their contingencies in the contract such as: home inspection, financing and appraisal
  • Seller may also have a contingency in the contract

Moving Out

  • Vacate the property prior to closing. Unless you have made arrangements for a “post settlement rent back” you will vacate the property prior to closing. The property is to be left in “broom clean” condition. It goes a long way to leave a move in clean property for the buyer.
  • Final Walk through prior to closing

Closing!

  • You attend closing with your agent and the buyer and their agent
  • You will sign the settlement sheet, deed, transfer forms and various title affidavits and acknowledgments (LINK)
  • Funds will be confirmed to be in escrow
  • If you would like a wire of proceeds have wire instructions ready
  • Disbursement of proceeds will occur in accordance with applicable laws and best business practices
    • NOTE: In Virginia funds are never disbursed until the deed has been recorded
  • Keys to the property are provided to the buyer

Post Closing

  • Call utility companies and provide them with your forwarding address for the final bills
    • NOTE: The final water bill is generally sent to Settlement Ink for payment from funds escrowed for this purpose; as applicable
  • Cancel any automatic debit of loan payments

Note: The above is a general timeline. Your situation may differ.

What Clients Say

Jeff W

Dear  Crew, Thank You! For all of your help w/ Beth & David’s closing. That lender was a nightmare & you really went far above & beyond the call of duty to keep us all informed & to get it done. You’re the best! Yours, Jeff

Rich

Fatou, Thank you so much for your help along the path to buying my first home. You made things so easy for me and it barely felt like I did anything, you really made me feel at ease the entire way. You were a lovely person to work with and I’ll be telling my friends and colleagues about you all!I hope you have a great summer and thank you again! Best, Rich

Carolyn

I can’t say enough about Settlement Ink and the wonderful job they did on my recent transaction. They provided amazing service, they always are accessible whenever I had questions and they were a pleasure to work with. Most importantly, for everyone at the settlement table, I was made to feel like a friend. We all had a good time and everything went off without a hitch. Thanks for a memorable time Carolyn

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