Experience the MyCastle Way of Selling a Home
1. Get Ready to Sell
- You: Clean up your place
- You: Check out prices
- You: Tour neighborhood listings
2. Prepare Paperwork, Pricing, and Photos
- Together: Prepare the listing paperwork
- Together: Determine the right price
- Together: Fix & stage
- MyCastle: Take photos and virtual tour
3. Market Your House for Sale
- MyCastle: List your house in the MLS and select websites
- MyCastle: Provide yard sign with flyer box
- MyCastle: Provide open house kit
- You: Host your own open houses
- You: Replenish flyers in the flyer box
4. Negotiate & Close
- Together: Handle offers, counters, and contingencies
- Together: Attend your closing and celebrate!
4 Steps to Selling Your House
You're ready to sell . . . Here's the four steps to success.
1) On Your Mark . . . Get Educated
Like it or not, the first step to a successful sale begins with you. Educated consumers get the highest net price for their homes, which means the most money in your pocket when you sell. By visiting our site, you've already taken that first step. You are out hunting for the best value, and we are here to make sure you find it.
No Smoke and Mirrors Here
Sadly, much of the real estate industry hides behind smoke and mirrors. Many agents spend their time and energy on things that have little to do with helping you sell successfully. How many calender magnets do your really need to sell your home? That's why we made it our mission to create a listing service that FOCUSES on doing the things that truly matter when selling your home.
We choose to market homes, not our agent's photographs.
One of the largest costs in selling your home is typically the Broker's commission or fee. And that's where we can save you loads of money. In addtion, we offer flexible payment options for our listing service:
- Traditional Package-- Pay nothing until closing. With our 5% commission option you pay nothing until the successful sale and close of your property.1
- SaversTM Package-- Invest upfront and save more. With our SaversTM Package, you can invest upfront and save overall, with $400 paid at the beginning of the listing, and 4% at the successful sale and close of your property.1
Comparison Shop Around
Check out your local neighborhood real estate market. The best advice we can give you is to look at your home through the eyes of a discriminating buyer. Are buyers some mysterious creature that are hard to understand? No! In fact, you probably make a good buyer yourself. The problem is you see your house everyday and probably don't notice things that someone seeing your house for the first time will notice.
Take a tour of neighborhood listings, then try to look at your house the same way you did the other homes. Chances are you'll see things that look out of place. Most sellers or agents will gladly show you their house or listing, because-- hey-- if you are planning on selling, that probably makes you a buyer, too. This excersize gives you a good idea at what other buyers looking in your neighborhood and price range will see. Let's face it, we as consumers shop by comparison. Whether it is for gas or for homes, we look at what is available in the market, and get the best deal that meets our needs and desires.
While a MyCastle agent will help you determine a listing price for your home, it helps if you already understand the market by looking at "comps," a comparative look at available listings for sale and recently sold properties. You can order online comps for $10 bucks here which help you compare properties for sale and recently sold in your area.
2) Get Set . . . Preparing Your House for Sale
Scrubadubdub
That's right. Break open a can of elbow grease and get busy cleaning and decluttering. Clean and decluttered houses sell more quickly and for more. Plus, it makes moving that much easier when half your stuff is already packed away. If cleaning isn't your thing, then here are a few local cleaning services. For more on cleaning and staging your home, click here.
For properties with a market value over $200,000, we provide up to 3 hours of make-ready handy-man service. In addition, we provide an initial consultation with a home stager/interior designer. Interior design consultants help stage your house to make it look its best while sticking to a minimal budget. If your home doesn't qualify, you can add this service for a reasonable fee.2
Pricing and Paperwork
As we finalize your paperwork, we'll decide on a price that is right for your house. We'll compare "competing" properties and determine where your house fits in your neighborhood's overall pricing scheme.
Keybox
Delivering full access for today's busy homebuyer is very important. Sometimes buyer agents show homes they did not plan on showing a buyer as they learn about their client's preferences during the tour. To achieve convenient access to your property along with security, we provide an advanced keybox that grants access to select REALTORS® with express authorization. MyCastle uses computerized lockboxes that can be programmed to accept a key only during certain hours. Access to your property is logged, including date, time, and responsible party.
Showing Scheduling Service
To make viewing your house a cinch for interested buyers, we have a showing scheduling service that coordinates all showings. When someone wants to privately view your house, we make notifying you easy and painless with a single phone call and email alert that notifies you of the date and time of a scheduled showing. To help potential buyers feel "at home" in their potential new home, we recommend you find someplace else to be while your home is being privately viewed. MyCastle also provides feedback and stats on the number of showings.
3) Go! . . . Market Your House For Sale
MLS
Getting listed in the MLS is the biggest and best step we take in selling your house. In fact, over 90% of homes that sell are listed on the local REALTOR® multiple listing service (MLS). REALTORS® find homes on the MLS, and many websites get their feeds directly from the MLS, including Realtor.com.
Internet Exposure
In addition to coverage on the local REALTORS® MLS and on MyCastle.com, we advertise your house on Google, Criag's list, and other major real estate listing websites.
Yard Sign
Our yard sign is not your ordinary sign; it's a marketing masterpiece, an advanced marketing delivery and feedback tool when combined with our toll-free 24-hour automated hotline and your unique webaddress and webpage. In addition, we include a snazzy flyer box and an initial supply of top-notch marketing flyers.
Toll-free 24-hour Automated Hotline
Our toll-free 24-hour automated hotline gives prospective buyers instant information about your home. It also gives us feedback on calls about your home, and notifies our agents so we can follow up with interested buyers. For the more mobile-savvy folks, callers can receive instant text messages about your house's information. You and your agent are also notified of these requests.
Flyers for Home Tours
Our top notch marketing flyers help guests remember what they love about your house. Our flyers come in two versions. One version can be downloaded and printed on your own printer at home. These are perfect for replenishing the flyer box attached to your yard sign. We also have a flashy full-color version, which we ship an initial supply to you once your property is listed. These are great for guests who are touring inside your home. Additional flyers can be purchased and shipped to you as needed.
Unique Webaddress and Webpage
Our marketing flyers and sign riders will drive interested buyers directly to a unique webpage listing of your house. And it's not just any web address we use. It's your own street address! Example: 123anystreet.com3. When your home sells, we give the new buyer the added perk of using the URL so they can show off their new home to friends and family.
Open House Kit
You can confidently host your own open house with our open house kit, freely provided to you upon request. The kit includes instructions on how to host a successful event, a sign in sheet, a supply of full-color flyers, and free open house signage and banners. Signage must be reserved in advance. We advertise the open house for you on the REALTOR'S® MLS and you can advertise additionaly, if desired, in newspapers or other media.
Email Campaign
We target agents who regularly work in your area and will send emails and incentives to show your house to buyers they work with in your area.
4) The Finish Line . . . Negotiate & Close
Finally! An offer is made on your house. Of course, it doesn't end there. Once an offer comes in, together we work through the closing procedure. MyCastle REALTORS® are trained in effective negotation techniques used by the Harvard Negotiation Project and top real estate attorneys, including contingency periods, allowances, and more. We are well-prepared to properly and professionally manage multiple offer situations to achieve the highest price, while minimizing buyer frustration.
While MyCastle coordinates the process and offers advise, you provide us the ultimate direction we take with all offers, counter offers, and contingencies.
Congratulations on the successful sale of your home. Need a new one?
You are still reading this! Stop reading and Get Started Now!
1 Minimum $1,500 listing commission plus 3% Buyer's Agent Commission, regardless of property price or program.
2 For customers who utilize our handy-man/make-ready service, a fee may be charged if the listing is cancelled within 90 days of initial listing. MyCastle requires that Seller get a property inspection by a licensed professional prior to handy-man/make-ready service. Sellers should realize that just about every buyer is going to use a licensed building inspection firm to analyze the condition of their home. If you disclose upfront the known conditions and defects affecting the home, you will have a much smoother transaction and likely eliminate the chance buyers can use this report to gain further price reductions near the end of escrow.
3 If your unique domain name is unavailable, we will substitute a similar web address, such as .net, .info, etc.