Guide to Selling a Home in Sioux Falls

The home selling process can be critically important for you and your family, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Our complete guide to selling a home in the Sioux Falls real estate market simplifies the process to just seven steps. Done right, your experience as a home seller can be efficient, stress-free, and rewarding.

The Right Real Estate Agent

Whether you want to sell your home quickly, for the most amount of money, or with as few headaches as possible, it all starts with choosing the right real estate agent. The top-producing, tech-savvy team of 17 innovative real estate professionals at the Tyler Goff Group is a great place to start. Our agents are members of the National Association of REALTORS, and with our in-depth knowledge of current Sioux Falls market conditions, we know what makes your home sell for top dollar. Furthermore, our home selling system is tailored to your needs and goals.

Max Convenience Instant Offer Program

No headaches? No problem. Our Max Convenience program involves no home prep, no showings, no financial issues, a flexible closing date, upfront terms, no comprehensive home inspections, and no contingencies to worry about. This program is great for sellers who want to stay in their home while they shop for their next home.

Max Profit Listing Program

Sell your home faster and for more money with our Max Profit Listing Program, which often provides a 10% higher return than the market average. This program combines high-power marketing for maximum exposure with market-leading selling strategies.

Max Flexibility Off-Market Selling Program

For those who are not quite ready to list or are open to sell for the right price, our Max Flexibility program can attract a prospective buyer while maintaining privacy. This program can also give soon-to-be sellers a head start if they’re building a new home or have a future moving date already set.

The Right Preparation

Selling a house can be a months-long process, but we’ll walk you through the steps so there are no surprises or unnecessary delays along the way.

Start with a quick online estimate of your current home value, then let us help you assess your personal finance situation and home equity. We’ll get to know you and your home-selling goals, and we’ll help you set a target listing date. Real estate listings perform differently based on seasonal trends, and one of the best times to sell a house is early May.

Next up is to determine whether there are any necessary repairs or opportunities to maximize your curb appeal. This may require a pre-sale home inspection and repairs, so it’s best to get going on this phase of the process two or three months before listing. Our agents are very experienced with what buyers expect and are attracted to, so we’ll help you navigate what projects make the most sense. Generally, kitchen and bathroom upgrades yield the highest return on your investment.

About a month before listing, the focus will turn to decluttering, deep cleaning, and staging your home for the professional photos and videography we take for your listing and virtual tour. We employ drones for aerial imagery and 3D technology that lets a potential buyer feel like they’re inside your home.

The Right Listing

We develop the right listing for you based on the local real estate market, the condition of your house, and the timing of the listing. We’ll conduct an expert comparative market analysis to help determine your asking price, and we’ll craft a strategic marketing and advertising plan focused on online appeal and targeted online exposure, marketing to other top agents, international marketing, and traditional marketing like for-sale yard signs and print advertising.

Our comprehensive online marketing efforts get your home on the multiple listing service (MLS), on email campaigns to interested buyers, and in top Internet advertising placements on our website, home search portals, search engines, and social media sites.

We’ll also put together a game plan for showings and open houses.

The Right Price

Pricing a home for sale is one of the most important aspects of the whole process. Overpriced listings can turn off potential buyers, who may never take a second look at your property, while multiple price reductions can give the impression that something is wrong with the house. Additionally, too much time on market can also be detrimental to a home sale.

That’s why we’ve developed a proven system to get your sale price right from the very start. We call it the 5-5-5 Method, as it factors in accurate MLS data from 5 active listings, 5 pending listings, and 5 sold properties that are all comparable to yours.

The Right Communication

Selling real estate is likely one of the most significant transactions of your life, so we don’t expect you to just “trust us” as your listing agent without knowing what’s going on for days or weeks on end. We believe in transparency and constant communication, so we give you access to Brivity, our online communication tool.

You’ll have 24/7 access to all our marketing activities involving your home, including where we're marketing your property, who has shown your home, and any feedback from a prospective home buyer. We’ll also send you emails at each major task and for each new advertisement.

Best of all, Brivity links you with the entire team so we can provide a personal touch and answer any questions you may have along the way.

The Right Negotiation

Depending on local housing market conditions, negotiation has the potential to get quite complicated if there are multiple offers and counteroffers. But whatever situation arises, we’ve got the expertise and experience to help you navigate the negotiation process and any special requests the interested buyer may make.

One of the biggest factors is whether you receive a cash offer or one that involves financing, because there are huge differences between a home buyer being just prequalified versus preapproved for financing. And if a mortgage lender is part of the equation, they may need to appraise the property. If the buyer hasn’t sold their current home, they may place contingencies on being able to obtain financing or selling their old home. These contingencies can complicate and even delay a real estate deal.

Other factors that can come into play are the down payment amount, the proposed closing date, a bridge loan and a request for seller concessions. Buyers might ask the seller to cover some closing costs or provide allowances for updates or repairs.

The Right Closing

Selling a home isn’t a done deal until the papers are signed at closing, so getting the closing details and closing costs right is the final hurdle. We’ll let you know what you may need to provide ahead of time or bring to closing (like a state ID, proof of homeowner’s insurance, home inspection report, tax records, mortgage documents or original purchase contract, etc.), but our team will take care of the rest. You should also be prepared to explain any issues or defects with the home in the seller’s Property Condition Disclosure Statement, which is required by South Dakota law. Also mandatory is a Lead-Based Paint Disclosure for homes built before 1978 if there is any known presence of lead-based paint and hazards. It's important to have a plan for what to do with the sale proceeds. If you’ll incur moving expenses as part of your home sale, you’ll want to factor that in too.

We’ll take care of transferring the property deed; making sure there’s a clear title; preparing the settlement statement with the recording fees, escrow fees, remaining HOA fees, any attorney fees, and the agent commission, often 5%-6% split between the listing agent and the buyers agent; and figuring out any income or property taxes due. Generally if you own and live in your home for at least 2 of the last 5 years, the sale is tax-free up to $250,000 (or $500,000 for married couples). Otherwise it’s considered a capital gain.

At that point, all that’s left is to hand over all keys and forward your mail to your new temporary or permanent address.