How to Sell a House

Before You Sell Your House

Before you stick that For Sale sign in the yard, get clear on your why. Maybe you’re moving to a better neighborhood, getting closer to family, or chasing that dream job—awesome! If you’re still weighing your options, here are some tips to decide if you should sell your house.

If your only reason for selling is to pay off debt, hold up. That’s a last resort. Selling your house can help you get out of debt—but it’s only a smart move if your mortgage payment is crushing your budget or you were planning to move anyway. In those cases, selling could fast-track your journey to becoming debt-free.

How Should You Sell Your House?

There’s more than one way to sell a house, and the right approach depends on your goals, timeline and budget. Let’s look at your options and what to consider with each one.

• Work with a real estate agent: An experienced full-time agent will help you price and market your home, evaluate offers, and negotiate the contract. This is the route I recommend.
• For sale by owner (FSBO): Skipping an agent means you’ll need to handle pricing, marketing, showings and negotiations yourself. You’ll avoid paying a listing agent, but you’ll take on more work and still have other selling costs. It’s not worth it.

Whether you work with an agent or sell on your own, you’ll also need to decide how much work to put into your home before listing.

• Sell as is: You list your home in its current condition without making any repairs. This can save you time and money when preparing to sell—but expect buyers to make lower offers or request repairs.
• Remodel: Some remodeling projects can increase your home’s value, but not every project pays for itself. Ask your agent which home improvements buyers value in your area before you spend the money.

What’s the Step-by-Step Process to Sell a House?

You can sell a house in 10 steps, from building your timeline to closing the sale:

1. Create a Home-Selling Timeline.
2. Hire a Real Estate Agent You Can Trust.
3. Consider a Prelisting Home Inspection.
4. Stage Your House.
5. Set the Right Price From the Start.
6. List Your House and Do Home Showings.
7. Choose the Right Offer.
8. Negotiate the Contract.
9. Tackle Contingencies.
10. Close and Get Paid!

As I dive deeper into each step, you’ll get the best tips for selling your home quickly and for the most money. It might seem like an elephant-sized task to take on, but like they always say: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

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Let’s get started!

Once your house is in good working order, it’s time to set the stage and show off its best features. That starts with a deep clean. Unless you’re Mr. Clean, that probably doesn’t sound very fun, but a buyer won’t forget their first impression of a grimy or cluttered house. Simple things like scrubbing the counters and door surfaces, freshening up the paint, cleaning the carpet and decluttering are relatively low-cost, easy chores that will make a huge impact on potential buyers’ first impression of your home.

After your home is spick-and-span, you can begin to stage. Keep your decor colors neutral and depersonalize as much as possible. I know those family portraits are super cute, but take them down so buyers can imagine their families enjoying the house. Closets are always important to home buyers, so make space by storing away out-of-season clothing and miscellaneous gear. When in doubt, less is more.

Staging also gets your home ready for professional photos for your home’s online listing (and you should definitely go pro on those). Your agent should help coordinate the photo shoot, so that’s less pressure on you. Here are a few staging tips to get your home prepared for its glamour shot:

• Clear off the counters. Throw your juicer and blender in the kitchen cabinet. The same goes for your bathrooms. Toss those personal products in a drawer to keep them out of sight.
• Add more lighting. Bright rooms make your home look bigger. Open the curtains, pull up the blinds, and let the sunshine in. In spaces that don’t get much natural light, a well-placed lamp can make a big difference!
• Put a lid on it. Your toilet, that is. Keep it classy and private for a nice photo shoot.
• Don’t forget to stage outside too. Tidy your front porch and place nice planters near your entryway. If you have a deck, pressure wash it and add plants to give the space some life.

The best way to determine your home’s value is by asking your real estate agent to run a comparative market analysis. This report compares your house to similar houses in your area that are currently on the market or have sold in recent months. It helps your agent estimate what buyers may be willing to pay so you can set a competitive price based on facts, not feelings.

You may be thinking, But Rachel, in my hot market, homes usually sell way above asking price. Well, that could be true. But even if a buyer is willing to pay more than the asking price, their lender may require an appraisal before approving the mortgage.

An appraisal is a professional opinion of your home’s value that helps the lender assess the property. If the appraisal comes in below the agreed-upon sale price, you and the buyer may need to negotiate or explore other options to keep the sale moving.

Plus, you don’t want to risk setting a price so high that your home ends up waiting on the market for too long. Instead, do everything you can to set a realistic price from the start.

List your house with your agent, who’ll help coordinate professional photos and post the home on multiple platforms. Home showings are hard to juggle whether your home is empty or full of kids. If you’re still living in the home you’re trying to sell, these handy tips can help you stay sane and manage the home-showing phase.

• Make a daily to-do list. Reduce last-minute panic by putting things away as soon as you’re done with them and creating a checklist of simple tasks to knock out every morning.
• Find a place for your pets during showings. Leaving pets at home can get messy, and a vocal dog won’t make the best impression on buyers. Take your pup for a ride around the neighborhood or drop him off at Grandma’s house so buyers can focus on your home.
• Try to be flexible. Give buyers time and space to fall in love with your home by leaving during showings. Make your home available when buyers want to visit so you don’t miss an opportunity.
• Tackle the toys. Paring down the playroom or toy box is a tough task, but it sure does make cleanup a breeze. Ask your kids to choose a few favorite toys to keep in their rooms. Then store the rest in bins.

Do the best you can, but remember, you’re only human. There will be days when you just can’t get everything put away and make it out the door on time. If you get a call for a showing, tell your agent you were running behind so they can prepare the buyer ahead of time. Just don’t miss an opportunity to get your home seen.

The highest offer isn’t always the best one. A buyer might offer your asking price but ask you to cover closing costs or leave behind appliances. Another buyer might offer less but have fewer conditions.

When you review offers, consider:

• Your estimated proceeds: How much would you keep after paying off your mortgage and covering selling costs?
• The buyer’s financing: An all-cash buyer won’t need mortgage approval, which may help the sale close faster.
• Contingencies: What conditions must be addressed, like an inspection, appraisal, financing, or the sale of the buyer’s current home?
• Closing date: Does the proposed date work for your timeline?
• Other requests: Is the buyer asking you to cover closing costs, make repairs, or leave personal property?

An experienced real estate agent who does these deals every day will spot a crappy offer from a mile away (hey, that rhymes!). Your agent can help you choose the best offer if multiple buyers are competing for your home.

Negotiations between you and the buyer start with the buyer’s initial offer. You never have to accept an offer as is. In fact, you could do a little back and forth to sweeten the deal on both sides. Ideally, you and the buyer will walk away feeling like you reached a win-win agreement.

Here’s an example of how that might look: A potential buyer offers to close on the seller’s ideal timeline—but the offer is lower than asking price. The seller agrees to a lower price, but not as low as the buyer’s initial offer. The buyer is willing to agree to the seller’s new price if the seller throws in some appliances like the refrigerator, washer and dryer. The seller was planning on buying all new appliances anyway, so the seller is happy with those terms, and they strike a deal!

Sometimes you may even land in a bidding war with multiple offers on your home. But don’t let that power go to your head. Trust your real estate agent to help you sort through the offers and choose the best one.

Just remember, the contract stage works differently in every state, so your agent should explain those details in terms you understand. Never sign a purchase agreement before you’re clear about what is and is not included in the offer and how it affects you.

Contingencies are conditions in the contract that must be addressed for the sale to move forward. If a condition isn’t met, what happens next depends on the contract and its deadlines. Four important ones to watch for include:

• Buyer’s home inspection
• Appraisal
• Financing
• Sale of the buyer’s current home

If the buyer’s home inspection reveals a major problem, they might ask you to make repairs or lower the price. If the appraisal comes in below the agreed-upon price, you and the buyer may need to negotiate or consider other options. And if the buyer’s financing falls through, the sale could be delayed or canceled.

These things happen, but they don’t always mean the deal is off. A skilled real estate agent can help you understand your options and work toward a solution.

Closing day is notorious for its mountain of paperwork. You’ll have a bunch of dotted lines to sign. Here are some things you may need to bring:

• Photo ID
• Keys to your home
• Garage door openers
• Check for closing costs
• Other documents, depending on your sales agreement
• Your favorite pen

Congrats! After closing day, your house will officially be sold. The company that handles your closing will use the sale funds to pay off your mortgage, selling costs and any other amounts owed. Then you’ll get what’s left—hopefully a big fat check! Use that money wisely, as you may need a good chunk of it to go toward your next home.

How Long Does It Take to Sell a House?

The time it takes to sell a house depends on your home and local market. As a benchmark, homes spent a median of 63 days on the market in October 2026.² Your timeline will also depend on how long you spend preparing your home and whether the sale closes as planned.

If you’re wondering how to sell your house fast, remember that these factors can impact your home-selling timeline:

• The hot (or not) nature of your local housing market: If you live in an area with a hot market, you can typically expect your house to sell faster than in markets where buyer demand is low.
• The season: Spring usually brings more buyers, but also more competition from other sellers. Meanwhile, selling in the winter may mean less competition, but fewer buyers too. Ultimately, the best time to sell your house is when the time is right for you.
• Location, location, location: Details like your home’s school district, neighborhood and distance to restaurants and shopping can affect how long it takes to sell.
• Your home’s price point: Larger, more expensive houses can take longer to sell because the pool of buyers is smaller.
• The time it takes to get your home ready to sell: If you decide to make some updates or repairs to your house before listing, your selling timeline will be longer.
• The closing process: If your buyers are getting a mortgage, the closing date is dependent on their financing. Your closing could also be delayed by home inspection or appraisal issues.

How Much Does It Cost to Sell a House?

The cost to sell a house depends on factors like agent compensation, repairs and the terms you negotiate with the buyer. These expenses eat into your net proceeds—the money left from the sale after you pay off your mortgage and cover selling costs.

Here are some common costs to plan for:

• Real estate agent commission: Agent commission is negotiable, so agree on it in writing with your agent before you list. In some cases, you might want to offer to cover part or even all of what it costs the buyer to work with their agent to sweeten the deal. But every situation is different. So be sure to discuss any specific guidelines related to this with your agent.
• Staging your home: As you’re preparing to list your house, you could spend some money getting your house staged or investing in some new decor to give your space a fresh look.
• Repairs or maintenance: You may decide to take care of some repairs before you list your house. Or if your buyer does a home inspection, they may ask you to do some repairs before closing.
• Closing costs: You may need to pay for expenses like title services, transfer taxes or attorney fees. The amount depends on where you live and the terms of your sale.

Frequently Asked Questions