Home/Seller Resources
Seller resources
What your home is worth, what you will actually walk away with, and everything that happens between the listing photos and the closing table.
Step one
What is your home worth?
The automated estimates on the big portals do not know that your neighbour's identical floor plan sold with a 20-year-old roof, that your building has a special assessment coming, or that you replaced the impact windows in 2023. They are a starting point, not a valuation.
A proper comparative market analysis takes about 48 hours and looks at what actually closed nearby in the last 90 days, what is currently competing with you, what expired unsold and why, and the condition and permit history of your specific property.
No obligation, genuinely
Plenty of people request a value analysis and decide not to sell for another two years. That is a perfectly good outcome — you now know where you stand.
What goes into the analysis
- Closed comparable sales within the last 90 days
- Active competition — what a buyer sees instead of you
- Expired and withdrawn listings, and what they were asking
- Condition, upgrades and permit history
- Roof age, insurance profile and flood zone
- HOA dues, reserves and any pending assessment
- Current absorption rate for your price band
What you get back
- A recommended list price range, with the reasoning
- An estimated net proceeds sheet at each price
- A short list of prep work that pays for itself — and what does not
- A realistic days-on-market expectation for your area
The number that matters
Net proceeds calculator
Sale price is not what you keep. This works Florida's documentary stamp tax on the deed — including the Miami-Dade rate and its surtax — and the county custom on who pays title.
What you walk away with
Adjust the inputs and watch the bottom line move.
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Estimated net proceeds · of sale price
- Doc stamps on the deed ()—
- Listing side fee—
- Buyer agent compensation—
- Owner's title policy—
- Title search, settlement, recording—
- HOA estoppel fee—
- Property tax proration—
- Repairs & concessions—
- Total selling costs—
- Mortgage payoff—
- Net to you—
An estimate for planning only. Your final figure comes from the closing agent's settlement statement and depends on your exact payoff, proration date and negotiated terms.
Start to finish
The selling timeline
Most South Florida sales run six to ten weeks from listing appointment to closing. Here is where the time actually goes.
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1
Week 1
Listing appointment & pricing
Walk the property, review the comparative market analysis together, and agree a list price and a strategy for the first fourteen days — the window that matters most.
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2
Week 1–2
Prep, repairs & staging
Only the work that returns more than it costs. Usually paint, decluttering, landscaping and light fixtures — rarely a kitchen.
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3
Week 2
Photography & marketing assets
Professional photos, floor plan, drone where it helps, and a video walkthrough. This is what determines whether buyers click.
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4
Week 2–3
Live on the MLS
Syndicated everywhere, plus direct outreach to agents with matching buyers. First open house within the first weekend.
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5
Week 3–5
Showings & feedback
You get real feedback weekly, not reassurance. If traffic is high and offers are not coming, it is condition. If traffic is low, it is price.
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6
Day 0
Offers & negotiation
Price is one variable. Financing type, inspection period length, escrow size, closing date and who pays title all decide which offer actually closes.
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7
Day 1–15
Inspection & repair negotiation
Expect a request. Roof age, electrical panels, polybutylene plumbing and permit history are the usual South Florida sticking points.
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8
Day 5–30
Appraisal & buyer financing
If the appraisal comes in low, the options are renegotiate, the buyer covers the gap, or the deal falls apart. Pricing well up front is what prevents this.
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9
Day 10–40
Title, estoppel & open permits
Title runs the lien search. The association issues the estoppel letter. Any open or expired permit on the property has to be closed out before you can convey clear title — start this early, it delays more closings than anything else.
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10
Day 30–45
Closing
Sign, hand over the keys, and funds are disbursed — usually the same day.
Prep that pays for itself
- Paint — the highest return per dollar, every time.
- Declutter and depersonalise — free, and it makes rooms read larger.
- Landscaping and pressure washing — the photo buyers see first.
- Deep clean, including grout and windows.
- Fix visible small defects — a running toilet signals deferred maintenance.
- Close out open permits before listing, not during escrow.
What rarely pays back: full kitchen remodels, pools, and anything highly personal in taste.
Start with a valuationGet your insurance documents ready
Buyers in South Florida need a wind mitigation report and a four-point inspection to bind coverage. Having a recent roof permit, a wind mitigation certificate and the four-point ready to hand over removes the single biggest source of last-minute deal collapse.
Read up
The complete seller guide
Pricing strategy, the prep list, how offers are actually evaluated, what sellers pay at the closing table in each county, and the tax questions that catch people out — homestead portability, capital gains exclusion and 1031 exchanges.
Print-ready. Open it and choose "Save as PDF" to take it with you.
Pricing
Why the first two weeks decide the whole sale.
Preparation
The short list of work that returns more than it costs.
Marketing
What actually moves a listing beyond the MLS feed.
Closing
Line by line, what comes out of your proceeds.
Seller FAQs
Straight answers
A comparative market analysis. Closed sales in the last 90 days within a tight radius and comparable size, age and condition, adjusted for real differences — a renovated kitchen, a newer roof, a better line in the building, a bigger lot. Then the active competition, because that is what a buyer is choosing between, and the expired listings, because those show where the ceiling is.
Automated portal estimates are a starting point, but they cannot see condition, permits or an upcoming special assessment.
It depends heavily on price band and property type — well-priced single-family homes under the county median move fastest, while older condos with high dues or an assessment can sit for months. Your valuation includes the current absorption rate for your specific area and price band, which is a far better predictor than any countywide average.
The pattern is consistent though: a home priced correctly gets its strongest offers in the first two weeks. After that, showings drop off and buyers start asking what is wrong with it.
Paint, declutter, deep clean, tidy the landscaping, and fix the small visible defects. Gather your documents: survey, roof permit, wind mitigation certificate, four-point inspection, HOA documents and any warranties.
Most importantly, close out any open or expired permits. An open permit from a water heater replacement in 2014 will surface during title and can hold up your closing by weeks.
Yes, and it is not close. Nearly every buyer sees your home as a thumbnail before they see it in person, and that thumbnail decides whether they book a showing. Professional photography, a floor plan and a video walkthrough are included in the listing — you are not billed separately for them.
In Florida the seller customarily pays documentary stamp tax on the deed — $0.70 per $100 of the sale price in most counties, and $0.60 per $100 in Miami-Dade, plus a $0.45 per $100 surtax there on anything that is not a single-family residence.
Add the negotiated brokerage compensation, title search and settlement fees, recording, the HOA estoppel fee (capped by statute), property tax proration through the closing date, and any agreed repairs or concessions. In Broward and Palm Beach the seller usually also pays for the buyer's owner's title policy; in Miami-Dade the buyer typically does. Run your own numbers in the net proceeds calculator.
Fix the cheap and visible things — they cost little and prevent buyers from mentally discounting the whole house. Be more careful with big-ticket items. A failing roof is worth addressing because it directly affects whether a buyer can get insurance and financing at all, which is a South Florida–specific problem. A dated bathroom usually is not; you will not recover a remodel.
Sometimes the right answer is to price for the condition and market it honestly, which attracts buyers who want a project and are not going to renegotiate after inspection.
Yes, and it is common. The usual structures are: close both on the same day (tight but clean), sell first and negotiate a short post-closing occupancy so you are not moving twice, or buy first if you can carry both.
If both properties are in Florida, ask about homestead portability early — you may be able to carry up to $500,000 of Save Our Homes assessment savings to the new home, which can change what you can comfortably afford.