Selling · Hub

Selling a home

The full seller journey — from the question of whether to sell through the tax implications of the year you do.

Selling a home is often presented as a four-month transaction, but the consequential decisions begin earlier (whether to sell at all, whether to make repairs, when to list) and continue later (capital-gains treatment, basis tracking). The articles below cover the seller journey in roughly the order it unfolds.

The seller journey, in order

Seven stages from first thinking about selling to closing day and beyond. Each stage has its own page on the selling hub.

01
Should you sell
How to think about timing, equity, the tax implications, and what selling actually nets.
02
Preparing
What to fix, what to skip, and how listing-side work translates (or doesn't) into price.
03
Listing
How agents price homes, how the post-NAR-settlement commission landscape works, and how listings are marketed.
04
Offers
What an offer actually contains beyond price, and how to read terms that matter as much as the number.
05
Under contract
How inspections, appraisals, and title work feed into the closing timeline — and where deals commonly stall.
06
Closing
The seller's side of closing, the settlement statement, and the proceeds calculation.
07
After
Capital gains, the primary-residence exclusion, and what to track for next year's taxes.

Get ready

Checklist

Seller preparedness checklist

Documents and items to gather before listing through closing — grouped by audience: your listing agent, the state-required disclosure, your CPA, the closing professional.

Useful tools for this journey

Tool
Seller net proceeds
What sellers actually walk away with after commissions, costs, and tax.
Tool
Closing costs
A state-aware estimator for the costs at the closing table.

Start here, cornerstone articles

Selling your home, the seven stages and what each one actually involves
Selling is shorter than buying but every stage carries higher dollar consequences. Knowing what to do before listing, what the offer-evaluation work actually involves, and where the post-2024 commission rules changed materially makes the difference between a clean sale and an avoidable mistake.
Pricing strategy for a home sale, and why the first weekend matters most
The list price determines who walks through the door, how aggressively they offer, and how long the home sits on the market. Setting it right is the single most consequential pre-listing decision, and the math behind it is more nuanced than picking a comp.
How listing agreements work, after the 2024 NAR settlement
A listing agreement is the contract between a seller and a real estate brokerage. The 2024 NAR settlement changed how buyer-side commission gets handled (separating it from the listing agreement entirely) and that's the most material shift in residential brokerage in decades.
Capital gains on a home sale, the § 121 exclusion and what it actually covers
The IRS lets single filers exclude up to $250,000 of gain on the sale of a primary residence, $500,000 for married joint filers. Above the exclusion, the gain is taxable. The mechanics determine whether a sale produces a six-figure tax bill or no tax at all.