Real Estate Sales Process Walkthrough: The Essential Guide
“Planning to start my own real estate agent career.”
“ You know the ins and outs, right?”
“Of course, This is my first toast list, and all I have to do is simply click pictures, videos, description, agreement, and— Voila!”
“Slow Down. It’s not as simple as it seems!”
“Well! Then, let’s discuss it in detail!”
The majority of us believe exactly the same that — listing a real estate sales process is quite an easy and simple task. However, it involves certain stages, complexity, uncertainties, and much more.
The real estate sales process is a complicated and difficult field to master. You cannot simply expect things to go smoothly as you want. It includes crucial steps and each step requires enormous effort and patience.
We have composed this guide so that you can dominate the world of the real estate sales process by following each aspect from listing to closing. We’ll cover 5 major steps associated with the real estate sales process:
- Step 1: Building a Sales Listing
- Segment 1: Seller Requirements
- Segment 2: Staging Property
- Segment 3: Promotion
- Step 2: Price the Property
- Step 3: Conducting Property Viewing
- Step 4: Negotiation Round
- Negotiation Segment 1: Qualify the possible buyer
- Negotiation Segment 2: Conduct the appraisal with your seller
- Step 5: Closing the Sale
- Element 1: The Final Evaluation
- Element 2: Final Round of Negotiation
- Element 3: Completing the Paperwork
Step 1: Building a Sales Listing
Building a sales listing would become feasible if you break down the real estate sales process into three segments. It includes — Seller Requirement, Staging Property, and Promotion.
The organization plays an important factor when you start preparing for the building process. It is obvious because you have to deal with numerous clients, requirements, processes, properties, and so on. Mixing them up would be catastrophic. Therefore, make sure to adopt a constructive way to organize all the information.
Pro tip: Make use of CRM tools that offer you the ability to organize, manage, and track your process stages. In simple words, it would help you to streamline the entire process such as tracking emails, saving your time, mapping out procedures, and much more.
Now, let’s discuss those three segments in detail:
Segment 1: Seller Requirement
The first and foremost responsibility of you as a realtor includes— Research. Furthermore, research is directly proportional to desired outcomes. In other words, if your research on your seller is stronger, you would definitely have a higher chance of success to close the deal.
When you meet your seller, make sure to ask the following questions:
- Why are you selling the property?
- Time on Market Length?
- Previous Selling Costs?
- Which elements are included in the sale?
- About the Neighborhood?
- Natural Hazards and lead paint?
- Previous or Existing Issues with Property Conditions?
- Components Ages?
- Renovations or Major/Minor Repairs?
- Best Part of the Property?
- Financial Expectations?
- Records such as taxes, insurance, licenses, unpaid taxes… and so on.
Furthermore, all this information would work for you when you meet your buyer. You have to make sure that you can answer all concerns or questions of buyers and therefore clear all your concepts with the seller beforehand.
Not only, it will help you to strengthen your bond with the seller, but also help you to obtain a sense of urgency and expectations around the sale process.
Moreover, you have to know about any pending disputes over property, title disputes, and other disputes related to property. Clearing them up at the initial stage would keep your record on the strong point before handing it over to the buyer.
Once you resolve all these concerns, you are ready to move ahead to the next step that includes paperwork, and finally, hand over the keys to buyers.
Remember to always keep a copy of all the documents submitted by the seller to avoid any uncertainties. Also, it will help you to keep track of the entire selling process.
Segment 2: Staging Property
“Homes that are staged spend 90% less time on the market than those that aren't.”
You must make your seller's property appealing to potential purchasers after you have established a good relationship with them. Moreover, the simplest way to accomplish this is to encourage them to arrange their home properly.
You'll need to persuade your seller to act as a real estate agent. If they refuse to stage their home, tell them how much it will cost them financially if they do not.
Once you've reached an agreement with the seller, you may concentrate on preparing the home for sale. Just as you polished and clarified your understanding with the seller, the same must be done with the house. The staging procedure includes making the house more appealing to potential purchasers.
For instance, if a home in the real estate sales process requires some furniture repair, electrical work, or replacement, additional equipment, house painting, cleaning, and set up before potential buyers may see it. Then, this step is crucial since you can't expect buyers to fall in love with a house that is in chaos.
This method normally costs the seller money, but it also guarantees good purchasers with high expectations and a growing list of frequent buyers.
Segment 3: Promotion
“According to the National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, buyers search for their new home across many channels, but online sources are the most popular.”
Once you've set the property and have all of the necessary images and videos, you're ready to go. The following step is to market the property. When promoting a property, you must take advantage of all online platforms as well as your offline contacts. Because demand can come from anyplace, such as a new or referred contact or someone who has heard about your firm, this is required.
Now, promoting a property on an online platform has its own set of rules for how to define the property, its requirements, and its price approach.
As a realtor, you should use digital platforms to promote your seller's property. To list the property, you should go to the Multiple Listing Service first (MLS).
The MLS listing should also be the foundation of your marketing plan. The next stage will be to promote the property on your agency's website, followed by word-of-mouth through social media.
Here's a quick rundown of promotional activities to consider:
- Local Multiple Listings Service (MLS).
- Your website: If you have one, it should be the first location where you market the property and get it to the top of the search results.
- Company or Agency blog: If you have a blog, you may use it to promote the property, which will benefit you as well as keep your blog updated. Fittings, photos, videos, and your contact information are all options.
- Social media: Using social media to post your property on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, and other platforms is one of the finest ways to share property news to a wider audience.
- The traditional approaches: the traditional techniques are still important since you may share your knowledge by sending emails or meeting with people who can assist you promote the property.
Step 2: Price the Property
After you've completed your listing, the most important item is determining how much to price the property. You can't merely go by the seller's price expectations when determining the property's price.
Any good real estate sales process agent knows that at this point, they must avoid satisfying your seller. You must draw on your own experience, training, knowledge of the market, and understanding of how sales are conducted in the current situation.
Any agent knows that they don't have to accept the seller's asking price; instead, they must negotiate and supply them with all the information they need to sell the home. If the price of a house is maintained low, the property will not sell for a high price since it is assumed that if the price is low, there will be some issues or worries with the property, and purchasers will not be interested.
When a home is overpriced, the seller not only loses money, but the public may view it as a sign that the property is in need of repair. This can have a big impact on how interested people are in buying a house.
A home that is overvalued, on the other hand, will put off buyers who just cannot afford it. Although, you can determine the accurate pricing of the property through comparative market analysis.
Take a look at a few procedures that will assist you in determining a proper price:
- Consider the price of comparable properties in the same neighborhood, as well as the price of a recently sold property with similar attributes to the one you wish to sell.
- The seller's improvements to the property.
- External elements such as a swimming pool, a large yard, and more than one parking place, among others, must be examined.
- What are the prices of other houses per square foot?
- What is the situation of the market where you are selling the home right now?
These techniques will provide you with an overview and assist you in getting closer to a basic price list.
However, you will need to examine a few more aspects from the real estate sales process listing history, such as the ones listed below, to establish an exact price for the property:
Active Listings: | This category includes properties that are now on the market to be sold. It's important to remember that you keep the purchasers who are also interested in your seller's property. However, there is an exception because the properties mentioned have not yet been sold and their prices may fluctuate depending on market conditions. |
Pending listings: | This category includes properties that are on the verge of being closed but have yet to be closed. You cannot have a superior level of understanding in this area, but you can perform a calculative analysis. |
Sold Listings: | This is where the genuine costing begins for the properties that have been sold. You might look at properties that have been sold in the last 3-6 months to see what is available. |
Withdrawn properties | It contains homes that have been withdrawn from the top of the market by the seller and are no longer on the market's top listing. This is due to high-cost difficulties. |
Here are some suggestions for making things easier:
Similar-sized properties: | This is calculated per square foot. Please note that the value of a larger home per square foot is lower than the value of a smaller property. When it comes to this issue, less is more. Allow only a ten to fifteen percent difference between comparable sales and the property your seller is selling; otherwise, the figures could be incorrect. |
Same Age-related properties: | This one necessitates considerable investigation. However, check to see if the property is the same age as your seller's. Similar sales should have occurred within a few years of your seller's property, ideally. |
Similar characteristics Properties: | Determine whether or not it has been remodeled as a suitable point of reference when examining characteristics. A refurbished home is more valuable than a fixer-upper, just as a home with one bath is less valuable than one with two. Remind your seller that taking care of any maintenance issues before listing their home for sale will frequently result in a higher sale price. |
Location: | Make sure to take a complete and realistic look at the location of your seller's property. |
You won't be able to generate a report for your seller unless you've done all of the necessary research on the property.
Your report doesn't have to have a certain size (it might be a handful of pages or a 50-page document). The more information you provide, though, the more likely you are to persuade your client that your price is the best alternative.
Step 3: Conducting Property Viewings
You'll need to start marketing the house after you've agreed on a price with the seller. There are a few methods you can use to inform potential purchasers that the property is for sale.
Moreover, you could already have a buyer in your network. It could be new or current leads, as well as new or existing clients who are ready to move forward. A real estate sales process CRM application is a terrific method to organize your contact list.
For example, you can go through your CRM list and tag your contacts. Use these labels to classify your leads as warm or cold.
Place a banner or advertisement in the newspaper announcing the property's availability, along with your contact information, as another way to promote it.
Interestingly, as you prepare to begin selling the real estate sales process property, your imagination and abilities will come in handy. You might have a party or an open house to give users a tour of the facility. You could also have an open house and list the buyers who are interested before contacting them privately, or you could utilize some web tools to promote the sale of your home.
Step 4: Negotiation Round
This is the most important step and challenging task for a real estate sales process agent as it includes— Negotiation.
The real estate sales process agent's job begins once both parties have agreed on their terms and conditions. You'll need to familiarize yourself with their terms and conditions, as well as any other requests they've made, and bring them to the seller's attention once you've found a suitable buyer.
It is vital to first negotiate with the buyer and learn what they are searching for in a home before setting up a meeting between the buyer and the seller. By shifting from a proposed contract to a negotiation agreement, you can better your game.
All of the information must be examined, which may cause you tension and strain, as well as entail more conversations and meetings between you and the buyer.
You must strengthen a buyer's trust by offering all of the details he may require, as well as any further support he may wish, such as loan procedures, repairs, equipment, and fittings, among other things.
After the buyer has made his decision, he may visit the property more regularly to discuss his requirements or any other ideas that come to mind before the sale is finalized.
Make sure a potential buyer is qualified before evaluating them as the ideal individual to take over your seller's property.
Negotiation Segment 1: Qualify the possible buyer.
It's important to distinguish between wanting to buy a house and being qualified to do so.
Before moving further with a possible buyer, make sure they have a mortgage pre-approval. A buyer's credit record, employment, and income will only be evaluated during the pre-approval stage.
If a potential buyer only brings pre-approval paperwork to the table, you should be wary of discussing their offer with your seller. If you only consider buyers who have completed the paperwork and signed the contract, the sales process will be significantly speedier for you and your seller.
A pre-approval provides vital information such as the loan length, the maximum loan amount a potential buyer is eligible for, and the down payment amounts.
Furthermore, by inputting each piece of paper into your CRM system, you can stay on top of things. To rapidly access this information while negotiating with a seller on the go, look up your client's profile in your mobile CRM.
Negotiation Segment 2: Conduct the appraisal with your seller.
Following that, you should always visit a house appraisal of your seller's property.
You must be present to answer any questions the appraiser may have because he or she will not be as familiar with the property as you or your seller are.
You must be there to advise the appraiser of any upgrades or enhancements done by the seller that may affect the property's ultimate price.
Step 5: Closing the Sale
Closing the deal is the most crucial step for any real estate sales process agent. Although, it’s the last stage but holds the most significant part of the process. Your success primarily depends on this last section itself. It is because many deals reach up to step 4 but are unable to successfully complete step 5 or close the sale.
Furthermore, many important tasks are associated in step 5 that include documentation, the final examination of the house, agreement process, turning keys, and much more.
Below we have discussed the three significant elements included in step 5. Let’s go through them:
Element 1: The Final Evaluation
In this section, the inspector may have to inform the buyer if there any fixtures are required on the property in the next 4-5 years. However, it could lead the buyer to misunderstand that fixtures are instantly required.
Consequently, you must handle the problem and ensure that the client understands. A final inspection is always required to ensure that both the buyer and the seller are aware of the changes.
Element 2: Final Round of Negotiation
As the sale is being concluded, the last inspection can cause price adjustments, necessitating a final negotiation agreement, and if there are any other aspects that need to be added, they are done as part of the process.
Element 3: Completing the Paperwork
The documentation falls under this phase because the contract is about to complete and the pricing and negotiation have been finalized. The agent must supply the essential government paperwork and assist them in signing them.
They must primarily examine the following documents:
1. | The Property Deed |
2. | Title Certificate/ Title Insurance Policy: As a real estate sales process agent, you should have re-check policies and titles. It will further help you to avoid any uncertainties. Also, make sure to resolve issues such as assessments, unpaid taxes, and more. It needs to be done before handing over the property to the buyer. The title insurance policy on the property protects the buyer from potential damages stemming from property ownership disputes. Both the new buyer and their lender should receive a copy of these documents. |
3. | Readings: Your seller is responsible for taking final readings on all the electric meters and gas in the property and presenting them to both their service provider and the new buyer. |
4. | Seller’s Insurance Policy: Your seller will need to verify that the property is insured preceding the final deal closing. |
5. | Tax Bills and other sewerage concerns: If your seller's property is connected to municipal sewerage and water. Then, you'll need documentation that states that everything is paid up before the closing. Furthermore, the same stands for the property taxes. |
6. | Survey and Plot plan: For the transaction, the buyer will require a copy of an up-to-date survey. However, if your seller has misplaced these documents, then you need to obtain duplicates for a reasonable charge. |
7. | Any warranties or service records: Your seller should pass over any warranties or service records for any maintenance or appliances performed on the property. |
Important Note:
As a real estate realtor, the last step for you is to remove the property from the market once all of the documents have been given over and all of the paperwork has been signed.
Also, make sure to remove the listings and documents from the Multiple Listing Service, your website, and any social media ads you've been operating. This is an important part of this process that should not be ignored.
How Deskera Can Assist You?
Whether you are a traveling salesman, running your own business or working on your own, there are tons of duties and responsibilities that you have to fulfill. Using the Deskera CRM system, you can manage your contacts, leads and sales deals. You can use the CRM system to manage all customer data and manage your leads and deals.
Doing so will help you to save the time taken in transferring customer data between the different systems. It will also assist you with real-time updates about your business like cash flow status, customer satisfaction, inventory management, sales, purchases, purchase orders, customer tickets, customer satisfaction, managing leads, revenues, profit, and loss statements, and balance sheets.
Moreover, it would also help in integrating sales methodology across different platforms onto one system so that you have a consolidated list for email campaigns, leads management, and sales pipeline to mention a few.
It will also help you to sync between your orders, payments, taxes, refunds, product variants, sending out invoices and reminders, facilitating invoice management, and even undertaking follow-ups and advertisement campaigns.
Such a consolidated platform will help you to improve your sales through building effective sales compensation plans and also facilitate faster and well-informed decision-making. It will help you in strengthening your opportunities and being braced for the threats.
Deskera books and Deskera CRM will also be able to ensure the highest customer satisfaction and thereby an increase in net revenues and net profits.
Final Takeaways
Finally, we have touched down the final section of this detailed guide. Lastly, we have summarised the important points for your reference. Let’s have a look:
- Building a sales listing would become feasible if you break down this real estate sales process into three segments. It includes — Seller Requirement, Staging Property, and Promotion.
- You must draw on your own experience, training, knowledge of the market, and understanding of how sales are conducted in the current situation.
- You can go through your CRM list and tag your contacts. Use these labels to classify your leads as warm or cold.
- You must strengthen a buyer's trust by offering all of the details he may require, as well as any further support he may wish, such as loan procedures, repairs, equipment, and fittings, among other things.
- If a potential buyer only brings pre-approval paperwork to the table, you should be wary of discussing their offer with your seller.
- Make sure to remove the listings and documents from the Multiple Listing Service, your website, and any social media ads you've been operating.
- Many important tasks are associated in step 5 that include documentation, the final examination of the house, agreement process, turning keys, and much more.