Even though you spend your valuable time readying your house for a sale, the selling itself is the job of your broker. He or she will take responsibility for marketing the house to appropriate audiences and bringing in buyers to view the home. A lot of this marketing is done through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Your home’s profile is entered in a home database available to all brokers in the MLS membership. Interested brokers may tour the home to become familiar with it. Other informal advertising comes when your listing broker plants a company sign in your yard to announce the availability of your home.

After all the advertising and marketing activity, your listing broker and other selling brokers will begin bringing prospects to visit the house. You’ll be notified in advance, and the visits will usually be made by appointment. Use the notice to tidy up and make available the property profile you’ve prepared. It’s a good idea to accept every visitor appointment possible — you never know which prospect will want to make an offer on your house.

While you’re understandably anxious and eager to know what a potential buyer thinks of your home, experienced brokers will tell you that the best situation for a buyer is to view a home without the present owner in it. You don’t want the buyer to feel like an intruder, so find an excuse to leave the house or, if that’s not realistic, greet the prospect but then keep yourself in the yard or part of the home where you’ll be out of the way. Keep your TV or radio off, clear the pets out of the house, and leave questions and answers to the selling broker unless you’re asked a specific question. And by all means, leave price and other such negotiations to the broker; that’s their job.

If a prospect calls you or visits unexpectedly, get their name and phone number. It’s in your interest to refer buyers to your broker for an appropriate tour and sales information. If you get the feeling from a prospect that they truly want to buy your home, continue to accept appointments for viewing. Homes are either available or sold — there’s no such thing as a “probably sold” home. Once a buyer makes an offer that you accept, there may be contingencies that would allow it to fall through. Invite back-up contracts during this time, but make it clear that an offer already exists on the house.

When an offer does come in, you’ll receive a written and signed contract from the selling broker, who will make a presentation of terms to you. The presentation will include the date, name, and address of the buyer, as well as the sales price that the buyer has offered and the amount of earnest money they’ve offered. The offer will also include financing terms, proposed closing date and occupancy date, plus contingencies on which the offer is conditional.

You will have three options at the offer presentation. You may accept the offer as written, make a counter offer that alters the proposed price, terms or contingencies. Either one of these options will result in sending the contract back to the buyer, either as is or with amendments. You may also choose to reject outright the proposal. However, an offer of any kind is an opportunity to sell the house, and you should think about a counter offer before making any outright rejection. It’s normal to hear a first offer and wonder if you can get more for the sale, especially if you’ve priced your home fairly and received offers early in the viewing period. Consult your broker for professional advice on offers.

Multiple offers will be presented to you in the order registered with the broker. Read each offer through and ask questions. You don’t need to take action on any one offer before you receive and review all active offers. If you choose to accept or amend any offer, also rule on the other offers, denoting them as backup offers in the order you prefer them.

Another possibility when receiving offers is that one of them will be for a price higher than you’ve asked. Some buyers choose to make their offer stand out above others buy bidding up the property. If this is the case, feel free to accept or amend the offer, but to remove any questions, be sure to include a separate statement that requires the buyers to acknowledge that they’ve offered more than the asking price, and possibly asking the reasons for the higher offer.

If your property doesn’t receive offers or doesn’t sell during the sales period, analyze the reasons. Perhaps you need to reprice the home or alter your conveyances. If so, relist the home after adjusting your listing. If you determine the market is not conducive to a sale at this time, withdraw the listing from the market and relist it when the selling atmosphere has improved. In cases where you must leave the home regardless of its sale, consider offering the home for rent, or keep it on the market while you rent it, so you can realize some income while you occupy another residence.