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 listing price. 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 me so we 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 professional real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. Being an agent with experience, I can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and guide you to the correct, current market value of your home.

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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 powerful marketing strategy perfect for advertising your home. The Coldwell Banker brand is one of the world's largest, most recognizable names in the real estate industry. Marketing your home will involve listing the home and then driving the right people to it. I can do this through MLS (Multiple Listing Service), social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, direct print & email marketing, open houses & broker tours, amd media relations. 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. You can accept the offer, reject the offer, or counter the offer. In any case, I will be there to negotiate on your behalf. I am here as your fiduciary, to protect and serve your best interests.

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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 for signature of all parties.

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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, ensure each action item paid for by the correct party, and facilitate task lists to make sure everything is in order by the closing date. 

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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. You will meet with the escrow company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork. 

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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Alexander James Ambrosi

It was great working with Erin. Not only was the process fun, she knew when to encourage, when to hold fast and when to make a move to meet the goals we had. It was a great win all around and I would recommend her without hesit...
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Lindsay K

Erin makes home buying simple! She is such an incredible resource with a wealth of knowledge about Marin real estate. You can count on her to listen to your needs and exceed your expectations. When my husband and I were looking...
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Fiona D.

Erin was an extraordinary helpful in the purchase of our new home. She was so professional and fastidious that we really felt we were taken care of. From making sure all the documents were in order to introducing us around the ...
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Mary & Scott

We highly recommend Erin! We were looking for a home and were fortunate enough to meet her at an open house. The market was very competitive, but she was able to show us homes that were not yet on the MLS and alerted us immed...
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Stephen & Hannah

Erin represented us as we sought to buy our first home in Marin. Her depth of knowledge of the area and proactivity were immeasurably helpful in finding opportunities that met our needs and budget. She did a great job showing u...
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Ray & Mardi

Erin was a pure joy to work with as our listing agent. She was a great communicator and her suggestions of improvements to get our place ready to sell were spot on. Her knowledge of the local market and current trends helped us...
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Nicole V.

Erin Farber made everything so easy for myself as a first-time home buyer. Erin listened to all of my wants and got me the best place. She helped me get pre-approved and found me a few lenders to choose from. I was very happy ...
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Mark Vallee & The Vallee Family Trust

Erin Farber was essential to the success of my siblings and I selling our beloved family home after our parents passed away. It was a trustee sale which none of us had experience with, and Erin immediately knew what to do in al...
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Sherri K.

Erin helped us buy our new home in Novato in December 2024, and she has been terrific helping us with every detail of the transaction, including by negotiating a great deal. In fact, she is still my go-to for insider knowledge ...
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Erin B.

Working with Erin has been an absolute pleasure. Erin combines honesty with a work ethic that’s second to none. She takes the time to understand your needs, always offering trustworthy advice and guidance, which made me feel su...
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Lisa P.

Erin is a fantastic real estate agent. She’s incredibly knowledgeable, honest, friendly and she really cares about her clients’ needs. She is our go to person for questions about real estate, home improvement, and equity. If yo...
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Tom & Joy Jow

We cannot express how grateful we are for the outstanding service provided by Erin. From the very first interaction, it was clear that we were in expert hands. Erin went above and beyond to make my real estate experience seamle...
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Work With Erin

Erin's primary objective in being a real estate sales associate is to conduct business with the highest level of integrity. As with teaching, in her real estate practice Erin continues to uphold a fiduciary duty to her clients, putting their goals, dreams, and needs above all else.

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