What I Learned From Selling My First Home

As of the writing of this blog post, I am a few months removed from the experience of selling my home. The house I sold was the first one I ever bought or owned. It was a new build house so everything in it I picked out myself. The reason I sold it was I got a new job in another state and there was no reason for me to hold onto the house. Plus, it was a seller's market and I didn’t want to miss out on that.

Just like buying my house, selling my house was a bit of an experience. There are a few things I learned from the process that I’ll remember should I ever sell another house but that I also wanted to share with you should you ever find yourself selling your home.

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Interview real estate agents

Don’t just pick the first real estate agent you stumble across or that your friend or neighbor recommends. You’ll want to interview this person to see if you click and you feel you can trust them with selling your biggest asset.

When interviewing a real estate agent it’s helpful to have an idea of what you’re looking for so you can ask questions related to those things.

Related read: How To Find The Best Realtor For You 

I interviewed several real estate agents and I’m glad I did. One that I interviewed was recommended by a neighbor. Right off the bat, I could tell he was not the right fit, and working with him would be difficult. My neighbor loved him but based on our brief interaction I wasn’t impressed.

Research the home selling process

While you can't expect to become an expert, become as knowledgeable as you can be about the selling process. One of the things that sold me on my real estate agent was that she said they would help walk me through the selling process since it was my first time. That didn’t happen. I had to keep asking questions and doing my own research to know what questions to ask.

Do your own homework

Even though it’s the real estate agent’s job to help you understand what the market looks like, you should have a general idea yourself of what’s sold in your area that’s comparable to your house and some general market trends.

I spent a little bit of time on home search websites to get an idea of the competition, how long homes were sitting on the market, and what homes in my area were selling for. This was helpful because a few of the real estate agents I met with suggested listing prices well above what I was seeing in the market for similar homes which made me decide not to select them.

Related read on my financial blog: How I Decided I Was Ready To Buy A House

Schedule check-ins with your real estate agent

If you’re in a seller's market like I was this probably isn’t necessary because things will happen so fast. But if it’s a buyer's market or somewhere in-between, having pre-scheduled check-ins with the real estate agent is helpful to make sure you’re aware of the current status of your home sale and get prompt feedback after showings.

Set a schedule for showings

When I sold my house I was working from home so I couldn’t have showings happening randomly throughout the day. Because no time frame was created for when showings could happen, I ended up declining or rescheduling a lot of them because they didn’t work with my work schedule.

In hindsight, I should have insisted that we only have showings during certain time periods each day the house was on the market.

Related read: Tips For Making Packing And Moving Easier

Put all decisions in writing

Of course, things like the listing agreement and offers will be in writing but I’m talking about things you and your real estate agent discuss and you make a decision on whether or not to have a stager, will there be an open house or not, will there be a lockbox on the door?

There were so many miscommunications with my real estate agent and her team where they claimed I agreed to certain things which I know I didn’t. Some of the times I had written proof that I didn’t agree with what they said I did but other times I didn’t because it was a verbal conversation or something we didn’t discuss.