Kemper Dumay Home Selling Process

1. Hiring a Seller's Agent
Selling real estate can be a major transaction that involves many details. The benefit of an experienced Real Estate Agent to guide you through the process is priceless. Rest assured, when you hire a Kemper Dumay Seller's Agent he/she will dedicate themselves with the highest level of personal and professional service in the industry. You will sign a listing agreement, which will set expectations of the services to be performed, the fiduciary duties, the length of the agreement and the listing price.

2. Determining the Asking Price
Your Kemper Dumay Sellers Agent will prepare a "Comparative Market Analysis" report and share it with you in your first meeting. This comprehensive report will show you houses similar to yours in your area that have recently sold or are currently on the market. In the report, you will see what the similar houses sold for and the average number of days they were on the market. The price you decide to list your house for will strongly influence the amount of time your house will be on the market. Approximately 80% of your showings will take place in the first 3 weeks your house is on the market. You do not want to scare those prospective buyers away by pricing it too high.
Pricing your house should be based on the following criteria:

• Current overall market conditions
• The competition
• Recent comparable sales
• Your motivation

The seller sets the price of the house and the buyer ultimately determines the value.

3. Preparing and Staging your house
To ensure success in selling your house we must prepare your house to be viewed by prospective buyers. Your Kemper Dumay Selling Agent will perform a walk through and make a list of repairs or suggestions that will improve your house for showing. These suggestions may be as little as rearranging furniture and cleaning out the garage. It is very important to make the repairs or changes and to keep emotion out of it. The goal is to make the house look like the buyer's prospective home, not yours.

4. Marketing your Property
Now that your house is priced appropriately and looking its best, it is time to bring in the buyers. Kemper Dumay Real Estate will be doing most of the marketing. We will market to other brokers and directly to buyers. We will utilize the Heartland Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to give the house access to all Realtors in the area. MLS provides access to your house to all potential buyers currently working with other Realtors. We will also analyze the market specifically for your house and devise the best marketing plan that will sell your house the quickest. This may include newspaper ads, open houses, flyers, real estate magazines, e-mail and use of the Internet.

5. Negotiating
Before long, you will receive a call from your Kemper Dumay Agent informing you that you have a contract on your property. Your agent will carefully review all the details of the contract with you. The key here is to keep your goals in mind and keep emotions out of it. After you understand all the details of the contract you will have three choices. You can accept the offer, reject the offer or make a counter offer. It is important to remember that a counter offer is technically a rejected offer and the buyer will have no obligations to the contract once any minor changes have been made. Although the price is usually the main focal point of the offer, you need to review every detail closely. Your Kemper Dumay Agent will explain the offer to you in detail so you know whether you are making a good decision. Other factors that you will review are down payment, earnest deposit, possession date, loan details, inspections, home warranty plan and personal property items such as a refrigerator.

6. Inspections
Once you and the buyer have agreed to the terms and conditions pertaining to the purchase of your house you will begin the inspection period. This is usually a ten day period, during which the buyers have the option of conducting an inspection on the house. Once the inspection is complete the buyer has three options. They may continue with the purchase, they may terminate the contract or they may ask for repairs to be completed or request compensation for the condition of the house.

7. Closing
Once the closing date is set, the excitement really begins to grow. Most of the work is on the buyer's side, but as the seller you will need to go to the closing prepared. Your Kemper Dumay Agent will accompany you to the closing and will give you all the information you may need ahead of time so you come prepared. Once the closing is complete you will no longer have possession of the house.