Sell Your HouseA plain-English guide to selling your home, with or without an agent
Two-story suburban house with a lit porch and double garage at dusk, the kind of home people learn to sell on their own

How to Sell Your House, Step by Step

The nine steps every home sale follows, whoever does the work.

How to Price It
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Whether you hire an agent or decide to sell your house on your own, the steps are the same. What changes is who does each one. Here is the full sequence, with what to watch at every stage.

Step 1: Set Your Goals and Timeline

Write down when you need to be out, what you need to walk away with after paying off your loans and costs, and how much disruption you can live with. A seller who must move in six weeks makes different choices from one who can wait for the right buyer.

Step 2: Learn What You Owe and What It’s Worth

Get a payoff statement from your lender, then research recent sales of similar homes nearby. Our pricing guide explains comparable sales and appraisals.

Step 3: Choose Your Route

Interview at least two or three agents, or decide to sell by owner, or request instant offers if speed matters most. You can change course later, but settle this before you spend money on prep.

Step 4: Prepare the House

Fix things buyers and inspectors will notice, clean thoroughly, declutter and depersonalize. Consider a pre-listing inspection so problems surface on your schedule rather than the buyer’s. See prep and staging.

Step 5: Market It

Good photos, an accurate description, a sign, and a listing where buyers search. Agents use the local multiple listing service (MLS); by-owner sellers can often buy a flat-fee MLS listing or use by-owner websites.

Hands taping a moving box labeled Winter Clothes
Packing away what you won’t need is the easiest way to declutter.

Step 6: Show the Home

  • Keep it show-ready: beds made, counters clear, lights on, pets and valuables out of the way.
  • Schedule showings and open houses at times buyers can actually come.
  • Lock away medications, documents and small valuables before strangers walk through.
  • If you sell on your own, verify that visitors are real buyers — ask for an agent’s name or a lender pre-approval before private showings.

Step 7: Review and Negotiate Offers

Compare offers on more than price: the type of financing, the size of the earnest-money deposit, the contingencies (inspection, appraisal, financing, sale of the buyer’s home) and the closing date. A slightly lower offer with fewer conditions can be the stronger one.

Step 8: Get From Contract to Closing

  • Deliver required disclosures if you haven’t already.
  • Allow the buyer’s inspection, then negotiate any repair requests or credits.
  • Allow access for the buyer’s appraisal if they are financing.
  • Work with the title company, escrow agent or attorney handling the closing.
  • Keep paying your mortgage, insurance and utilities until closing.

Step 9: Close and Hand Over the Keys

At closing you sign the deed and other documents, your loans are paid off from the proceeds, and you hand over the keys at the agreed time. Keep copies of everything for your tax records. Our disclosures and closing page covers this in more detail.

Not legal or financial advice. Real-estate law, disclosure rules, taxes and closing customs differ by state and sometimes by county. This guide explains how home sales generally work; check your state’s rules and talk to a real-estate attorney or other licensed professional before you sign anything.

Thinking of Doing It Yourself?

See what selling by owner really involves, and the middle-ground options between full-service agents and going it alone.

Agent vs. By Owner