Sell Your Home in Bend - Expert Advice

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 offer. 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 your REALTOR once you choose one so he or she can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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 real estate agent is the best way to determine the right selling price for your home. An agent with experience can determine what other comparable homes are selling for, evaluate the current market, and may even suggest a home appraisal.

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.

Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

I will develop a marketing strategy that is perfect for advertising your home. This involves listing the home and then driving the right people to that listing through social media campaigns, agent-to-agent referrals, traditional media, or SEO advertising. 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.

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. If the offer is too low, you can make a counter-offer or offer other ways to bridge the gap, such as covering some or all of the closing costs, making repairs, adjusting the move-in date, or leaving some appliances or fixtures for the new buyer.

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 by your agent.

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, get each action item paid for by the correct party, and make sure everything is in order by the closing date. A few days before the closing date, we will call the company closing the transaction to make sure everything is ready to go. If you haven’t done so already, you also need to make arrangements to move out of the home so the new buyer can take possession.

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. We will meet with the company closing the transaction to sign the final paperwork and go over any issues that have not yet been taken care of. During this time, you can also make plans with your REALTOR to handle final details such as canceling utilities, cable, and lawn or trash services, changing the name on accounts that the new owner is retaining and ensuring the new owner has instructions for all appliances that will remain in the home.

Proof of Success

Sue

Kenzie's attention to detail, competitive strategy, communication and expertise were evident at every stage that I worked with her (which was especially important being from out-of-town). When Kenzie called me about a property,...

Lauren

Kenzie was AMAZING! She was very helpful in narrowing down what i was looking for. She listened to my concerns and appropriately gave constructive feedback while also validating my feelings/concerns. Her knowledge of the area w...

Craig & Heather

Kenzie is a true professional. She went above and beyond to find us our perfect spot and then get it across the line. No small feat. We couldn't be happier. All emails, texts, and calls were responded to promptly. She clearly h...

Teri

Kenzie is an amazing REALTOR that goes above and beyond every step of the way. To get my home ready to market she took care of getting the house and windows cleaned, staging, and the photography along with minor repairs and pai...

Eric & Rachael

Kenzie was an absolute dream to work with. She was extremely responsive anytime we found a place we were interested in, she would get us in to look at it in less than 48 hours sometimes even the same day! Had it not been for he...

Jessica & Pete

We hired Kenzie, through a referral, to sell our home in OR. We had bought and sold houses without representation before and contemplated an FSBO sale again. I'm so glad (understatement) we decided against that and made the cal...

Marlo N.

We were considering selling our home by ourselves, but then we met Kenzie. We had asked her to come to look at our property to give us a home value estimate and by the end of her visit, we were surprised that we were changing o...

Brianna L.

Kenzie was simply amazing, she was patient with us and helped guide us through purchasing our first home. She took the time to answer all of our questions, which there were plenty of, she ensured that we knew all of our options...

Wren D.

Kenzie found me my dream home! She not only found the home but- even in the midst of the 2021 real estate craze- negotiated an amazing price and terms for me. Kenzie made what should have been a stressful process into a fun adv...

Michelle B.

Kenzie is an absolute joy to work with. She is energetic, enthusiastic, positive, professional, and extremely responsive. Being from the Columbia Gorge originally, she knows the area and the market inside and out. Because of th...

Ben K.

Kenzie is the best REALTOR you could ask for. She is very motivated, hardworking, and quick to respond to any inquiries or issues. She knows the area and the market extremely well and has many contacts that can be of assistance...

Bryan M.

I must start with Kenzie being a rock star at her craft. My girlfriend and I found her via Instagram and we were quickly able to establish a great connection with her. We gave her what our needs were in a home and showed us ove...

Molly A.

Kenzie was absolutely fantastic, very professional, extremely knowledgeable, detail-oriented, and very quick in following up and closing even the smallest of details or questions. She helped me get this house with a very creati...

Becky B.

Kenzie is very aware of the Gorge area and helped guide us through our vacant land purchase. She was able to connect us with people in the planning office to get us to answer our questions. She helped us think through our appro...

Julie G.

Dealing with Kenzie was the best! My husband and I have been involved in dozens of real estate transactions and Kenzie was one of the most professional, courteous, responsive, and knowledgeable REALTORS with whom we've done bus...

Anna T.

Kenzie is a knowledgeable, professional, bundle of joy. Her personality and smile will illuminate any room and she will surely make you feel comfortable and confident in your home-buying decisions. Not to mention she is incredi...

Work With Kenzie

Kenzie is known to be obsessed with this industry. She possesses both the emotional intelligence and the professional poise that is critical to be successful in this field. Her constant communication sets her apart as well as her drive to continually go above and beyond.

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Selling with Kenzie

A Step-by-Step First Time Seller's Guide