What to Do When: A Timeline for Selling Your Home

Selling your home isn’t something you should do in a rush, or something you should do when you’re not sure what the process entails. Managing a home sale involves plenty of planning, preparation, and patience. If you aren’t sure exactly where to start, we’ve created a timeline to get you oriented. And don’t forget that if you have questions, your real estate agent is your best resource (our seller guide is a close second, though!).

• What to do now
• Two months before listing
• Six weeks before listing
• One month before listing
• Two to three weeks before listing
• One week before listing
• Listing day and beyond

Now

1. Pick a date

Listing at the right time of year can have a huge impact on how much your home will sell for. Assuming you don’t need to move cross-country as soon as possible, you should first decide when you want to sell. Zillow is constantly doing research on this by analyzing data from home sales all over the country, and the best month to sell right now is in the spring — March through May. Homes that were sold in late May typically sold for 1.6% more.

Pro tip: Discover when you should list your home based on where you live.

Two months before listing

2. Figure out your home’s value

It’s a good idea to have a realistic estimate of how much you can sell your home for before you list it online, as well as how long it might take. There are a few ways you can do this. The simplest approach is to get your Zestimate from Zillow to get an idea of how much your home is worth, then you can use that info to price your home. Keep in mind, the Zestimate is not an appraisal and it should be used as a starting point when speaking with an agent.

Another option is to research how much homes similar to yours sold for by coming to Zillow and looking at “Sold” homes under the “For Sale” tab at the top of the page. You can filter for local houses that have similar square footage, the same amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, and even similar features to yours. These listings will also tell you how many days they were on the market. Then you can use that data to set an estimate of how much you’d ideally like to sell for. 

Six weeks before listing

3. Hire an agent

Eighty-nine percent of sellers in 2024 hired a real estate agent, according to Zillow research. An agent can help you in many ways, from telling you if you’re in a buyer’s or seller’s market, to helping to price your home competitively, and strategically marketing your listing.

If you do want some professional assistance, start interviewing candidates now. You can search for listing agents and check their reviews on Zillow, or you could ask friends and family for recommendations. There are various qualities that make for a good real estate agent, like encouraging you to list your home on a multiple listing service (also called the MLS), or using Zillow Showcase to make your home stand out.

So interview a few agents, ask them the right questions, and go with whoever fits what you’re looking for. If you’d rather handle the entirety of your home sale yourself, we have tips on how to list for sale by owner. 

4. Start sprucing up your home

If you want to attract the most offers possible, you’ll need to clean, and potentially make updates and repairs. It’s important that you be honest with yourself about upgrades or fixes you’ve been putting off. If you’re working with an agent, they can offer advice on improvements that will add value in your market. This part of the process could involve painting (or at least washing) interior walls, or fixing any cosmetic or functional issues. This probably isn’t the time to do an extensive kitchen remodel, but if you have cabinets that don’t close, or you have a bright yellow kitchen, consider addressing that.

One month before listing

5. Start moving out

If you can, get a storage pod or unit and start packing up, a little at a time. Not only will this help you when you actually do have to vacate the home, but a house that isn’t overloaded with furniture and personal items can be more appealing to buyers. Here’s a week-by-week moving schedule to help you stay on track.

Two to three weeks before listing

6: Check your financial picture

Fifty-four percent of seller-buyers (those who are selling a home and buying a home) said they sold their current home first, then bought their next one, according to Zillow’s 2024 Consumer Housing Trends Report. Fourteen percent said they did both at the same time. Whichever approach you’re taking, it’s a good idea to know how much money you’ll have after you close so you can estimate what your sales proceeds will be — or if you’ll be doing a “short sale,” where your sale price likely won’t cover your remaining debt.

Figure out your remaining balance on your mortgage by getting your loan payout information from your lender. Once you know how much money you’ll have when you close, you can start looking for your next home.

7: Start staging your home

If you are using an agent, they will probably have advice on staging. If not, remember you want it to look as much like a model home as possible. Depersonalization is key when staging your home for sale. Remove personal items. Make sure furniture makes sense for the space; you don’t want potential buyers looking at a room and trying to figure out a function for it.

One week before listing

8: Take photos and create a virtual tour

Once you’ve got your house looking its best, it’s time for pictures — and maybe even a virtual tour. Your listing photos are often your home’s first impression, especially considering that 94% of buyers in 2024 used at least one online resource to look for a home, according to Zillow research. So make sure your digital curb appeal is, well, appealing. 

If you have an agent, they’ll either take pictures themselves, or hire a photographer to do it. And if your agent has a Listing Showcase subscription, your home can be presented in an immersive and interactive way online. Zillow’s Showcase feature offers a virtual tour so buyers can have a point-of-view walkthrough, giving them a more realistic view of your home compared to traditional photos. 

Pro tip: Don’t use Photoshop to cover up cosmetic issues; fix them instead, or let them show. A serious buyer will probably see them in person and they might lose interest because you weren’t forthcoming. 

9. (Help your agent) write your listing description

Writing your home’s listing description is one of your agent’s responsibilities. They should come up with an engaging, accurate, and upbeat description of your home. If you want to help them out, think about what made you fall in love (or at least in like) with your home when you bought it. If you’ve made any updates to the home, especially updates that buyers are particularly interested in right now, make sure your agent mentions them. 

Listing day and beyond

10: Go live — publicly

Make sure your home gets listed publicly on the local multiple listing service (or MLS), and websites like Zillow. If you receive suggestions to list your home privately, know that sellers who listed off the MLS lost out on more than $1 billion over the last two years. And sellers in communities of color sold for an average of $6,000 less than similar homes that were listed publicly.

11: Live in a perpetual state of clean

There are high and low seasons for selling a home: May is typically high and December is low. Zillow data found that in May 2024, it took about 19 days for a home to go under “pending.” And it took 43 days in December of that same year. 

In that time between listing and closing, you need to be ready to leave your home with a few hours’ notice, or even a few minutes. That’s the nature of selling; you need to be ready for potential buyers to tour your property at any given time.

Be ready to clear out fast, leaving a sparkling home. Every bed must be made every morning. Your dirty dishes have to be out of sight. Even if you don’t have a showing scheduled, it’s best to assume a buyer will come by any day, any time (within reason).

12: (Hopefully) watch the offers roll in

If you’re working with an agent, you should get feedback after every showing on what buyers liked and what they didn’t. If you aren’t getting many offers in the time you thought you would, consider changing things up, like making an early price adjustment. Remember, in any market, the sooner you sell, the higher the price you’re likely to get. So in these early days, you want to be responsive to what the market has to say.

13. Review your offers, negotiate, and accept

Once you do start receiving offers, it’s up to you (and your agent) to decide what to accept, what concessions to offer, and how low you’re willing to go. If you’re lucky, you may get a bidding war where multiple buyers are willing to go over your asking price. Your agent is your best ally at this point, as they’ve likely negotiated deals like yours before. Lean on them, and remember what your priorities are so you can accept the best offer for you. If you don’t love the offers you’re getting, think of ways you can negotiate.

When you accept an offer that you’re (at least somewhat) happy with, there’s a whole lot to do before closing day.

14. Brace yourself for repair requests

In the days that your home is pending, the buyer will schedule an inspection and an appraisal. Depending on various factors like the age of your home, the inspection might find some things that need to be fixed like a leaky faucet or a door that doesn’t close right. It’s up to you and your agent whether you want to address those repairs, offer a concession, or even pull out of the deal. But the inspection may also go great and not find any significant problems, or any at all.

15. Pack up and move out

If everything goes smoothly with the inspection and appraisal, it’s time to move out and say goodbye to your home. You’ve hopefully found a place to store your things and a place to live while you find your new home. Or maybe you’ve already found it. Either way, all your things should be out of the house by closing day so you can hand your keys over to the home’s new owner and they can move in that same day.

16. Close

This is the big day! Closing is a fairly involved process that takes at least a couple of hours. Read up on the various documents you need to sign and bring to prepare. 

And that’s it! After that, you can focus on your new home and the next chapter of your life. If you want to be extra prepared (or need a refresher), you can read up on real estate terms to know before you start the selling process. If you want some extra support early on, we have resources to help you sell with confidence.