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Seller's Guide

Everything you need to know about putting your home on the market, accepting an offer, and closing on your home.

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

Putting your home on the market can be a stressful process, especially when you don’t know what to expect. Fortunately, with the help of an experienced team of real estate agents and this easy to follow guide, you can smoothly complete the process. Following these steps will help you prepare so you can get organized and sell your home for the best price possible.​​​​​​​

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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 team of real estate agents once you choose one so they can adjust your selling price accordingly.

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

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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.

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Step 4: Develop a Marketing Strategy

We 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. Our 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.

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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.

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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 team of real estate agents.

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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. We 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.

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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 team of real estate agents 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.

Congratulations!

Once you have sold your home, you’re free to take the next step on your journey. Whether this is relocating to a new city, moving into a larger home, or downsizing and enjoying your life as empty-nesters, knowing all your selling responsibilities have been taken care of will help you achieve peace of mind for your new path.

Our Testimonials

See why our clients love working with us.
Buyer | Seller

Buyer | Seller

Totally personable with absolute professionalism, demonstrating great care and interest, along with sensitivity for my needs and interests involving a search for new housing. I appreciate her immediate response to my initial re...
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Jim P.

Jim P.

Our experience with Kit was exceptional. His market knowledge and attention to detail is impressive. He maintains a high level of communication throughout the listing and sales process. I would work with Kit again and recommend...
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Buyer

Buyer

We could not be more pleased with our experience. Shelly helped us enormously in tackling the difficult real estate market that existed in Hawaii at the time of our purchase. In addition, her willingness to do much of the legwo...
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Buyer

Buyer

I did not really want to meet a Real Estate, I just wanted to look at a property. Kit showed up and we liked his demeanor right away. He was full of local insight and asked us the right questions to figure us out as buyers. Alw...
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Buyer

Buyer

Shelley is amazing! She worked out very well for us and our unique situation. She went traveling a few miles across the island to show us homes via FaceTime. She was always quick to answer questions by phone or text and was alw...
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Buyer

Buyer

Kit was awesome. He was in communication throughout the process and available 24/7. He has helped us find the perfect property that we love. He has made the process clear and easier to understand. Kit looked out for our best in...
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Anna P.

Anna P.

Shelley is very friendly, professional, and responsive; all questions were promptly addressed, and good advice and guidance were offered at every step. Overall, a pleasant and stress-free experience, very happy, many thanks. No...
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Aaron C.

Aaron C.

Very professional, attention to details, open communication. I never had to wonder if there was anything more she could do. My home was listed, had an open house, and sold for above the asking price within a week. What more cou...
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Buyer

Buyer

Shelley was very helpful throughout the whole process and was great at making sure we understood what was happening and kept us in the ‘loop’ the whole time. Mahalo nui Shelley!
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Vicki B.

Vicki B.

Kit was beyond great! Knowledgeable in not only all the areas on the Island but also the regulations that could impact my purchase. He was recommended by a Family member whom he had previously helped with a home. I was over for...
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Tanya & Ivan Yusenko (May, 2025)

Tanya & Ivan Yusenko (May, 2025)

Irina is an incredible real estate agent. She helped us sell our home. She was always available to answer all the little questions and the more in depth questions we had. She is very knowledgeable and reliable. We highly recomm...
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Stewart & Delaney Kerr (May, 2023)

Stewart & Delaney Kerr (May, 2023)

Irina is simply the best! She and her husband went out of their way on several occasions to research property and provide us a virtual tour. This was very important as we didn't, (yet), live in Hawaii. She is very bright and do...
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Graceland Heruska (March, 2022)

Graceland Heruska (March, 2022)

Working with Irina was an absolute pleasure. She is very professional, caring, and thorough. I would highly recommend her to anyone. She paid extra attention to the small details to look out for us. Her experience and education...
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Darlene Parker & Kurt Miller (March, 2021)

Darlene Parker & Kurt Miller (March, 2021)

This is to inform anyone in the market looking to hire an outstanding realtor, that we recommend Irina Koroleva. I contacted Irina when we decided to sell our home in Naalehu, HI. We were amazed at her honesty, knowledge and ke...
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David A. Jessup (March, 2021) Wildlife Veterinarian

David A. Jessup (March, 2021) Wildlife Veterinarian

Irina Koroleva is a dynamite real estate agent and a really fine person too. Within a month of starting discussion about selling my home in Kau she had looked the place over and given me good advice as to how best market it and...
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David Garrett (January, 2021)

David Garrett (January, 2021)

I found Irina very professional and dedicated to get the job done in a timely way. Even when the work got tricky and complicated she continued to find ways to move ahead with the transaction. Also, she will give advice in a fri...
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John Shane (July, 2020)

John Shane (July, 2020)

Irina Koroleva was awesome. She made a difficult, international transaction easy. I have already recommended Irina to friends. Irina did everything perfectly. There was nothing for her to improve upon.
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Olavi Tupamaki (June, 2020)

Olavi Tupamaki (June, 2020)

I received the excellent service during my transaction. I live abroad and had to sell my property not being physically present in the US. The transaction was complicated because of the pandemic situation. I had a lot of questio...
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James Thomas (August, 2019)

James Thomas (August, 2019)

Following a change in plans, I put a half acre lot in Mark Twain Estates up for sale. The market was down, and I knew it wouldn't sell overnight. This created a problem because Mark Twain Estates enjoys a fair amount of rain, s...
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Kimberly B Beckwith (February, 2019)

Kimberly B Beckwith (February, 2019)

Irina went above and beyond to make sure this transaction closed, she was wonderful to work with when a large document needed to go to my buyer Irina delivered it by hand to me... I enjoyed working with her, and look forward to...
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