Selling your house can be a long and complicated venture. At the beginning of the process, you may feel like the end will never be in sight. You have to prepare your house, find a realtor, evaluate offers, negotiate with buyers, prepare for closing, and more.
The timeline for selling a home may feel daunting, but breaking it down month by month or week by week can help. Here’s the ultimate timeline for what you should expect from the beginning to the end of the process:
2-3 Months Before Listing: Begin Repairs and Upgrades
It’s never too early to start preparing your home for the real estate market. Most sellers start actively preparing their property two to three months before they list it. However, if your house needs a lot of work, you might need more time to make repairs and upgrades.
Here are some projects that you might decide to take on to get ready to list your house:
- Interior painting
- Patch the walls
- Power-wash the driveway
- Upgrade lighting fixtures or hardware
- Fix chipped bathroom or kitchen tiles
- Recaulk the bathtub
- Replace torn window screens
1-2 Months Before Listing: Hire a Real Estate Agent
You can start looking for a real estate agent as soon as you decide you want to sell your house. If you’re not sure which repairs or upgrades you should make to your home, you should start working with an agent as soon as possible so that they can offer you advice.
If you don’t feel like you need much support preparing your home for the market, you can wait a little longer. However, you should be partnered with an agent no less than three or four weeks before listing your house.
Finding the right agent can take a few weeks, so you should start researching agents in your area no less than five or six weeks before you plan for your home to hit the market. Contact at least three agents so you can compare their approaches and choose the agent that best suits your needs.
1-2 Weeks Before Listing: Stage and Take Photos
A couple weeks before listing, your house should be mostly ready for the market. All of your home improvement projects should be done, and you should be in regular contact with your real estate agent.
Now, it’s time to stage your house and take marketing photos. Staging might involve decluttering, deep cleaning, and switching out some of your home decor. You may need to rent a storage unit to keep some of your belongings and furniture while your home is staged.
Your agent might partner with a professional photographer to take pictures and videos of your house, or they may take the photos themselves. Either way, you should have high-quality listing photos that show off all your home has to offer.
1-4 Weeks After Listing: Hold Showings
Most sellers hold an open house the first weekend after listing their homes. You could hold only one open house, or you could have additional ones if you haven’t received any offers.
Your agent will also schedule private showings for interested buyers. During open houses and showings, you’ll need to ensure your house is in perfect condition and then vacate the property.
1 to 2 Months After Listing: Accept an Offer
The timeline for receiving offers varies widely. In hot markets, sellers might receive a dozen offers after the first open house. In a buyer’s market, you might wait weeks or months before you receive any offers.
In 2025, the average home stays on the market for one to two months before going under contract. However, some areas are still extremely competitive and have a much shorter timeline from listing to closing.
You and your agent might decide to lower the asking price if you don’t receive any offers in the first month. You could also take new photos, change the listing description, or make other adjustments to your marketing strategy.
Offer Accepted
Once you’ve accepted an offer on your home, the countdown to closing begins. The purchase agreement will set a closing date, but keep in mind that the closing could get postponed. There are many tasks that various parties need to complete before closing, and any delays on these tasks could result in closing being pushed back.
1 Week After Accepting an Offer: Prepare for the Home Inspection
The home inspection usually occurs within a week of the property going under contract. The buyer and buyer’s agent will schedule the inspection, so you don’t need to do anything but wait at this point.
Based on the results of the inspection, the buyer will either proceed with the sale as planned or renegotiate the deal. Your agent will work with the buyer’s agent to come to an agreement that satisfies everyone.
2 to 3 Weeks After Accepting an Offer: Complete the Appraisal
The home appraisal is ordered by the buyer’s mortgage lender and paid for by the buyer. Just like with the inspection, all you have to do at this time is wait.
Once the lender orders the appraisal, the appraiser will contact you to schedule a visit. They’ll observe the exterior and interior of your home to assess its value, which usually takes less than an hour. Then, they’ll complete their analysis and create an appraisal report within about two weeks.
If your house is appraised for less than the buyer’s mortgage amount, you’ll have to renegotiate with the buyer. You could challenge the appraisal, lower the sale price, or ask the buyer to make a larger down payment to reduce their loan amount. Unfortunately, these negotiations can delay your closing date significantly.
1 to 2 Days Before Closing: Final Walk-Through
The final walk-through usually happens one or two days before closing. Sometimes, buyers schedule the walk-through on closing day.
Sellers don’t usually attend the final walk-through. However, if you feel a need to be there, you could request to attend or request that your agent be present.
Closing Day
On closing day, your home selling journey has finally come to an end! You’ll meet with your agent, the buyer, the buyer’s agent, and an attorney to sign all of the documents for the sale. There can be hundreds of pages of paperwork, so the meeting can take one to two hours or even longer.
At this time, you’ll hand over the keys to the buyer and receive your sale proceeds. The buyer officially becomes the owner of the property, and you get to move on to the next chapter of your life.
From preparing your house for the market to closing, the selling process takes around three months at minimum. In some cases, it can take a year or longer for everything to come together. Flexibility and perseverance are key when selling your home. Do everything in your power to keep the timeline on track, and try to let go of the things you can’t control.