How Do I Sell My House? Top Methods, Main Steps, and a Checklist

Option 2: FSBO (For sale by owner)

Some sellers prefer selling without a real estate agent’s assistance and list their home as for sale by owner (FSBO). Most FSBO sellers already have a buyer in mind such as a friend, neighbor, or relative, and therefore may not need the full-service support of a real estate agent.

But keep in mind that if you go the DIY route, you could be leaving money on the table: the median selling price for FSBO homes in 2023 was $380,000, significantly lower than for homes sold with the assistance of an agent at $430,000.

If you haven’t found a buyer, you’ll be responsible for the tasks an agent would normally handle. These include but are not limited to:

• Pricing your home accurately
• Scheduling and hosting tours
• Taking calls from prospective buyers
• Staging and taking photos
• Posting your property details to FSBO-friendly real estate sites
• Creating and posting signs
• Sharing your property information on social media
• Fielding offers and navigating negotiations with buyers

30% of all FSBO sellers did not want to pay a commission fee. If you’re taking this DIY approach, be aware that you still need to pay non-commission closing costs, including settlement fees, transfer taxes, and attorney fees.

Under the new commission structure, buyers are expected to negotiate Realtor fees directly with their agent. However, they may still request that you cover all or part of the agent’s commission.

Option 3: Request a cash offer

Selling a house the traditional way — even if you hire an agent — is a ton of work. If you’re in a hurry to sell due to a new job, financial hardship, or any other reason, you could request a cash offer online through an iBuyer (a company that purchases homes in cash, mostly or entirely online).

When you sell to an iBuyer, you skip staging and showings and will likely close faster due to the lack of lender involvement.

Consider starting with HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform — we provide cash offers for homes in almost any condition and allow sellers to close in as little as 10 days. The process is fast and straightforward: fill out a questionnaire to tell us a bit about your home and how soon you plan to sell. We’ll provide you with a cash offer within 24 hours. If you choose to accept it, you can pick your move-out date with some flexibility.

Follow these 11 steps to sell your home

Once you’ve decided how to approach selling your home, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and dive in! While every seller’s journey is unique, you can generally expect to follow these key steps from start to finish:

1. Run some back-of-the-napkin math

Before you put your home up for sale, crunch a few numbers. A free home value calculator, such as HomeLight’s Home Value Estimator, can help you estimate its worth.

You’ll also want to calculate your equity, the value of your home minus the total principal owed on your mortgage, if applicable. From there, you can use the HomeLight Net Proceeds calculator to get a rough idea of how much you’ll earn from the sale after expenses and closing costs.

2. Hire an amazing real estate agent

Begin the search for an agent about three months before you plan to put your house on the market.

Three months is the sweet spot for most sellers. It leaves you enough time to consult with your agent about any pre-sale home improvements but is still a short enough window to reflect current market conditions (which can change quickly).

There are millions of agents out there, but an agent-matching platform such as HomeLight can help you choose the best one for your needs.

To see whether an agent is the right fit, look at their:

• Years of experience: Has this agent navigated the ups and downs of different markets? Do they bring a high level of expertise to the sale?
• Special designations: NAR lists dozens of specialty designations and certifications. Depending on your needs, you may want to look for an agent who is a Seller Representative Specialist (SRS), Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES ®), or has earned a Digital Marketing: Social Media certification, just to name a few examples.
• Familiarity with your property type: Do they typically sell single-family homes, townhomes, or condos?
• Average days on market (DOM): How fast an agent sells homes compared to the area average and to their peers is an indication of how quickly they’re able to find buyers and how effective their marketing strategies are.
• Average sale-to-list price ratio: This statistic is expressed as a percentage and represents how much the agent’s listings sell for on average compared to their list price. The higher the sale-to-list price ratio, the better.
• Local knowledge: Look for an agent who’s sold a lot of homes in your neighborhood.

When you go through HomeLight to meet your real estate agent, you’ll be able to see their number of transactions isolated by year. In addition, our transaction heat map drills down into the number of transactions at the neighborhood level. To get even more granular, you can do a search for your location using the “Transactions Near You” feature.

Working with a top agent matters: according to HomeLight transaction data, the top 5% of agents sell homes for as much as 10% more than the average agent.

3. Order a home inspection

Get your home inspected prior to listing the home — especially if your house is on the older side. An inspection can uncover serious defects in the house that would cause a buyer to back out of the deal. In addition, it gives you the opportunity to make any needed minor repairs before listing the home, which could save you time and money later on.

4. Use a market analysis to set a price

A real estate agent will provide a comparative market analysis (CMA) based on recent sales in your area to help determine a competitive asking price for your home. Other factors that go into pricing a home include the condition of the house, the current level of supply and demand in the market, and the home’s specific features and amenities.

5. Declutter your home

When you show your home to prospective buyers, you don’t want them to feel like they’re walking into someone else’s house. Decluttering is important. A good rule of thumb when sorting through your belongings is to part with anything you haven’t used in the past two years. Chances are, you won’t need it in your next home.

Pack up items you’re ready to move and clear them out before showing your home. Work with a moving and storage company that will provide reusable containers, pick stuff up after you’ve packed them, and store them until you’re ready to move into your new home.

6. Deep clean each room

Go through and do a deep clean. Beyond the typical dust, mop, and scrub routine, be sure to wipe down baseboards, clean ceiling fans, and purge old food from the fridge and pantry. If you’re strapped for time (or really hate to clean), hiring a professional cleaning service can be a worthwhile investment.

7. Paint interior walls a neutral color

You want a buyer to see your home as a blank canvas waiting to be transformed into their perfect living space. But that can be a challenge if you painted the dining room walls maroon or stenciled pastel rocking horses in one of the bedrooms. Choose a neutral color, like Pure White from Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter, and give your interior walls a fresh coat of paint.

8. Kick your curb appeal up a notch

To dazzle buyers the moment they lay eyes on your home, work on maximizing curb appeal. From quick and easy tasks like putting down a new welcome mat to bigger projects like mulching and landscaping, make a home stand out before the prospective buyer walks in.

Your work is likely to pay off. Nearly half of top agents (48%) say that improved curb appeal is among the strongest selling points in their market. So you boost your chances of selling fast and for top dollar when you invest in curb appeal.

9. List your home and show it off

After your home is cleaned up and cleared of clutter, your agent will bring in a photographer to take photographs with the right angles and lighting to make your house look gorgeous online.  While your agent puts the listing on all the major websites, you’ll need to stay in touch about showing requests and be ready to do quick clean-ups at the home before viewings.

10. Evaluate, negotiate, and accept an offer

Hopefully, it’s within a few days or weeks that you will see one or or multiple offers come through. Before accepting the highest offer you receive, be sure to weigh all the factors that contribute to the strength of the contract.

For example, a buyer who’s paying cash eliminates the risk of the financing contingency delaying the closing. But a buyer with financing may pay a little more. The closing date is another detail to review with careful consideration. Accepting an offer from a buyer who wants to close before you’re ready to move out may create added stress.

11. Close the deal

Once you’ve accepted a buyer’s offer, your home will need to pass inspection in order to complete the sale. If you ordered a home inspection before you listed the house, you shouldn’t have to worry about any surprises now.

But if the inspection uncovers issues like water damage, electrical problems, or pest infestations, you’ll have to address them before closing. If your buyer is using financing to purchase the home, there will also be a home appraisal.

Once the inspection, appraisal, and other paperwork are complete, all that’s left to do is move out before closing. Congratulations — you just sold your house!

Avoid these common mistakes when selling your home

While it’s not unusual to encounter a hiccup or two during the selling process, you’ll want to avoid these common (and in some cases, costly) mistakes:

• Overpricing: Don’t let your attachment to the home compromise your objectivity about its value. Yes, you may have Italian marble in the bathroom, but buyers won’t necessarily pay a fortune for it. Setting too high an asking price can result in fewer offers, make your house sit on the market longer than it should, and cause it to sell for less down the line.
• Over-renovating: While certain home improvements can make a big difference to buyers, others are less likely to pay off. Improvised kitchens and bathrooms, for instance, are appealing, whereas installing all new windows throughout the home may not. Avoid making expensive improvements that won’t yield a solid return on your investment.
• Leaving up fixtures you plan to take: Remove home accessories you’re taking to your new home before showing the house. Otherwise, buyers may get attached to fixtures you weren’t planning to leave behind, creating a conflict you could have easily avoided.

Use this checklist to get started right away

Now that you can visualize the steps to sell your home, use this checklist of pre-sale tasks you can tackle right now to start making progress:

Selling a house is rarely easy. But the financial reward is almost always worth it, and you can ease the burden by hiring a great real estate agent.

In addition, there’s always the option to request a cash offer and skip staging and repairs. If you take it one step at a time and avoid some common mistakes, soon you’ll be ready to sign the final paperwork, hand over the keys, and move on to your next adventure.

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