Tips for first-time home sellers: What to do, in order

Written by Samantha SheltonNMLS 1647301Updated October 2026

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.

Work your first sale in this order: run the net-proceeds math, get your disclosures right, prepare the house, price it from recent comparable sales, then list. The largest number in that math is usually one you don’t owe: if you owned the home and lived in it as your main home for at least 24 months out of the 5 years before the sale, you can generally exclude up to $250,000 of gain from your income, or up to $500,000 on a joint return.

The costs you can predict to the dollar are written into statute. In Michigan, state and county real estate transfer tax runs $8.60 per $1,000 of sale price and the seller is liable for it, and a register of deeds charges $30 per document. The one line you can’t predict, the commission, has no standard rate: since August 17, 2024, listing agreements must carry a conspicuous disclosure that compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable.

Learn the tips for first-time home sellers that change the outcome: hiring a listing agent, pricing from comps, disclosing what you know, surviving the appraisal, and financing the house you buy next. Start with our Selling A Home guide.

Key takeaways:

• Disclosure is law, not preference: Michigan’s seller disclosure act covers transfers of 1 to 4 residential dwelling units, and a buyer who receives your statement after signing can terminate the purchase agreement within 72 hours of hand delivery.
• Two seller costs are fixed, the largest one is not: Michigan transfer tax runs $8.60 per $1,000 of sale price and recording is $30 per document, while commission has no set rate and is negotiable by law.
• Plan the tax and the next mortgage together: the home sale gain exclusion is up to $250,000 single and $500,000 filing jointly after 24 months of ownership and use, and what’s left after payoff and costs becomes your next down payment.

How should a first-time seller sequence the sale?

Do the paperwork before the photography. Michigan attaches a hard consequence to getting that backwards: if your seller’s disclosure statement reaches the buyer after you’ve both signed a binding purchase agreement, the buyer may terminate it in writing within 72 hours of receiving it in person, or 120 hours by registered mail.

Most of the selling timeline is elastic. These deadlines are not:

• Before the purchase agreement is signed: your written disclosure statement must reach the buyer or the buyer’s agent. Deliver it late and you hand the buyer an exit.
• 10 days for a lead-based paint inspection: if the home was built before 1978, federal law requires you to give the buyer a 10-day opportunity to conduct a paint inspection or risk assessment, unless you agree in writing to a different period.
• 3 business days before closing: a financed buyer must receive their Closing Disclosure. A corrected disclosure does not automatically move your closing date. Only three changes restart the three-day clock: the APR becomes inaccurate, the loan product changes, or a prepayment penalty is added.
• 90 days after the home stops being your principal residence: Michigan owners must file a rescission with the local tax collecting unit, or, where the home is unoccupied, for sale, not leased, and not used commercially, a conditional rescission that keeps the exemption in place while it sits on the market.

Everything else fits around those. Our selling process walkthrough lays out the sequence, and a complete guide to selling your house covers each stage.

How do you choose a listing agent, and what does commission cost now?

Interview three, and make each one put the fee in writing, because there is no going rate. Commission is negotiated between you and the brokerage you hire, and since the National Association of REALTORS’ settlement practice changes took effect on August 17, 2024, your listing agreement must say so in a conspicuous disclosure. Anyone quoting “the standard commission” is describing their own pricing, not a rule.

Two other changes hit sellers directly. Offers of compensation to a buyer’s agent can no longer be published on the MLS, though you may still offer it and negotiate through other channels. And agents must have a written agreement with a buyer before touring a home.

What to screen for:

• Closed sales in your price band and school district: ask for addresses and closing dates, not a career total.
• A written comparative market analysis before you sign: the agent should show the comps behind their number, not name a price and defend it later.
• The full fee picture: listing fee, any buyer-agent compensation you offer, marketing and administrative charges, and the agreement’s length.

Hiring on rapport alone is a costly rookie error; see common seller mistakes to avoid for the rest.

What does it cost to sell a home?

There’s no honest single percentage, because the largest line has no fixed rate. Separate the costs set by law from those set by negotiation, and price the first group exactly.

Run it on a round number. On a $300,000 Michigan sale, transfer tax is $2,250 to the state and $330 to the county, $2,580 combined, plus $30 per recorded document.¹ Every percentage point of commission on that same sale is $3,000, which tells you where the leverage is. Add your payoff, prorations, and any buyer credit for your net. Our breakdown of seller’s closing costs itemizes each line.

What does the current market tell a first-time seller?

Buyers are active, but most are not paying over list. NAR surveys its members monthly about market conditions and their recent deals, and its September 2026 REALTORS® Confidence Index, from a survey that ran October 1 to 9, 2026 and drew 1,701 respondents, reported these national figures:

Source: National Association of REALTORS®, September 2026 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, national figures. NAR notes that days on market is estimated from the survey and MLS data.

Read the price line the other way: NAR reported that 16% of homes sold above list in September 2026, down from 21% a year earlier, so about 84% closed at or below list. Overpricing is unlikely to be rescued by competing bids. With 7% of contracts terminated and 16% delayed in the three months before the survey, build slack into your move-out date. If several offers arrive, our guide to handling multiple offers covers counteroffers and escalation terms.

Supply is the other half. The Census Bureau’s quarterly vacancy and homeownership release of July 28, 2026 put the national homeowner vacancy rate at 1.2 percent in the second quarter of 2026, not statistically different from 1.1 percent a year earlier.

How should a first-time seller price a home?

Price from sales closed in the last 90 days, not from active listings and not from what you need to net. Active listings show what sellers hope for; closed sales show what buyers paid. Ask which adjustments your agent made for square footage, condition, lot, and date of sale.

Then read the first two weeks as a diagnostic:

• High online views, few showings: the photos or the price bracket are wrong.
• Steady showings, no offers: buyers are comparing you to others at the same price and choosing those. Price is the faster lever.
• Almost no activity at all: unambiguous overpricing. Waiting rarely fixes it; the listing just accumulates days on market that buyers later read as a defect.

Overpricing costs more than time: by the time you correct, you’re negotiating from weakness. Go deeper in pricing a home for sale.

What do you have to disclose to a buyer?

Everything you know that the form asks about. Michigan’s seller disclosure act applies to transfers of not less than 1 and not more than 4 residential dwelling units. Every disclosure must be made in good faith, which the statute defines as honesty in fact in the conduct of the transaction.

The form asks directly about what sellers are tempted to leave out: settling, flooding, drainage, structural or grading problems; major damage from fire, wind, or floods; underground storage tanks; and environmental hazards including asbestos, radon gas, formaldehyde, lead-based paint, and contaminated soil.

• “As-is” does not switch off the duty: the act’s exemptions describe types of transfer (court-ordered, foreclosure, nonoccupant fiduciary, or transfers to a spouse, parent, grandparent, child, or grandchild) not contract language you and the buyer agree to.
• Pre-1978 homes carry a separate federal duty: disclose known lead-based paint and hazards, hand over any records you have, provide the EPA and HUD pamphlet “Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home,” attach a Lead Warning Statement, and allow the 10-day inspection opportunity.
• You disclose what you know, not what an expert would find: it isn’t a violation to miss something discoverable only by inspecting inaccessible portions of the property, or only by someone with expertise beyond yours.

A pre-listing inspection converts unknowns into knowns on your own schedule. Weigh it in the benefits of a pre-listing inspection.

How do you prepare the home without overspending?

Spend on cleanliness, light, and repair of the obvious, in that order, and be skeptical of renovation-return claims. Percentage-return figures for staging and remodeling circulate with no traceable measurement behind them, and the sourced ones are usually agent opinion surveys, recording what practitioners believe rather than what a home sold for. Treat them as sentiment, not math.

What holds up without a statistic: buyers discount hard for anything that reads as deferred maintenance, because they price the repair plus the hassle plus a risk premium.

• Declutter and depersonalize first: it costs nothing, rooms photograph larger, and buyers picture their furniture instead of yours.
• Fix the visible small stuff: sticking doors, dripping faucets, cracked switch plates, torn screens. Trivial alone; together they say the house wasn’t cared for.
• Neutral paint over bold paint: a low-cost change per square foot, and it removes an objection.
• Set a hard prep budget first: this money leaves your pocket and isn’t guaranteed back at closing.

Keep receipts for capital improvements, which add to your basis; routine painting doesn’t. Our guide to preparing your home for sale goes room by room.

How do you compare offers when price isn’t the only term?

List what each offer asks of you, not only what it pays. NAR’s consumer guide to the settlement says sellers can still offer buyer concessions on an MLS, such as help with a buyer’s closing costs, so a higher price that asks for a credit can net less than a lower offer that asks for nothing.

Then read the contingencies. According to NAR’s September 2026 Confidence Index, 20% of buyers waived the inspection contingency and 18% waived the appraisal contingency, so most offers you see will keep both. An appraisal contingency can reopen price if the value comes in short; see how to appeal a low appraisal. The same survey found 2% of sellers represented by REALTORS® sold to an iBuyer; our guide to selling to a cash buyer weighs that route.

One rule can change a financed buyer’s costs: FEMA’s flood insurance page states that homes in high-risk flood areas with mortgages from government-backed lenders are required to have flood insurance, a cost a financed buyer adds to the budget.

What happens if the buyer’s appraisal comes in low?

It’s a financing problem before it’s a price problem. On a purchase, the lender bases the loan-to-value ratio on the lower of the sales price or the current appraised value, so a low appraisal doesn’t cut what your buyer agreed to pay. It cuts what their lender will lend against, and the gap gets closed by the buyer’s cash, a renegotiated price, or a successful challenge.

You are not a party to that appraisal. The appraiser is engaged by the buyer’s lender, and the federal valuation-independence rule bars a covered person (the creditor and the settlement service providers around it, real estate agents included) from attempting to influence the value assigned. You have no standing to contact the appraiser at all, and your agent is barred from calling to argue the number. What you can do is arm your agent beforehand with permitted improvements, dates, and supporting comps; the reconsideration-of-value request runs through the buyer’s lender. See the options in how to sell a home with a low appraisal.

Will you owe taxes, and what will you have left to buy with?

Most first-time sellers owe nothing on the gain. Meet the ownership and use tests. You owned the home at least 24 months and lived in it as your main home at least 24 months during the 5 years before the sale, and you can generally exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or up to $500,000 filing jointly. The 24 months needn’t be consecutive. You’re not eligible if you already excluded gain from another sale in the prior two years, and rental or vacation properties don’t qualify on their own. Talk with a tax professional about your specific situation before you plan around the exclusion.²

Keep your purchase settlement statement, receipts for improvements that add value or prolong the home’s life, and your selling expenses, since commissions, advertising, and legal fees reduce the amount you realized. If you receive a Form 1099-S, report the sale even when the gain is fully excludable. The calculation is in IRS Publication 523 on the home sale gain exclusion, and our overview of capital gains tax exemptions covers the edge cases.

Then the part sellers underestimate: your proceeds are your next down payment, and a lender wants them documented and sourced. Get preapproved on the purchase side before your listing goes live, so you know your buying power across several net-proceeds outcomes. If the closings won’t line up, bridge loans exist for that gap, and the CFPB explainer on reading your closing disclosure makes the buy side less stressful.

How much gain will you actually have?

Less than the gap between purchase and sale price. IRS Publication 523 says to subtract the adjusted basis from the amount realized to get your gain or loss, and the basis grows with certain settlement costs from your purchase: abstract fees, recording fees, survey fees, transfer or stamp taxes and owner’s title insurance.

Gains have had years to build. NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reported that sellers had owned their home for a median of 11 years before selling. Over the five years to the second quarter of 2026, Michigan home prices rose 38.80% on FHFA’s purchase-only House Price Index, against 33.41% for the United States, and 3.80% in the past year, against 2.13%, according to the FHFA House Price Index report for 2026Q2. At that five-year pace, a $200,000 Michigan home would be worth about $277,600; an index tracks the market, not your street.

Hypothetical example, not an offer. Method from IRS Publication 523, Selling Your Home, for use in preparing 2025 returns; the figures are illustrations, not Michigan averages, and your own tax professional should run your numbers.

The last line funds your next move. Our guide to the finances of selling covers each deduction, and the seller net sheet calculator itemizes your own figures, Michigan transfer tax included.

Can you buy your next home before this one closes?

Yes, but the lender may count both housing payments until your sale is far enough along. For loans sold to Fannie Mae, Selling Guide B3-6-06 says that when the home you are leaving will not close before the new purchase, both the current and proposed payments are used to qualify you, unless the lender has the executed sales contract on your current home and confirmation that financing contingencies have been cleared.

The cash side has its own rule. If proceeds from your sale are going toward the purchase, Selling Guide B3-4.3-10 has the lender verify them with the settlement statement from your sale, received before or at the same time as the closing on the new home. If the home is listed but has no sales price yet, the guide estimates proceeds at 90% of the listing price minus all liens, a factor the lender must adjust for market conditions. Hypothetical example, not an offer: on a $280,000 listing with a $160,000 payoff, that estimate is $92,000.

Guard the money while it moves. The FBI’s 2025 IC3 Annual Report describes an August 2025 complaint from people closing on a home who received an email impersonating their attorneys and wired more than $449,000 to a fraudulent account; after the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team requested a freeze, the recipient bank reported the full amount still on hold. Before you send or accept a wire for your proceeds or your next down payment, confirm the instructions by calling your title company at a number you already have.

Samantha Shelton, Align’s broker owner, puts the trap this way: “The biggest mistake is thinking this is just another purchase. It isn’t. You’re coordinating two houses, two transactions and one family trying to move between them.” If your offer on the next home depends on this sale, our guide to contingencies in home offers explains how a sale contingency is written.

What Michigan sellers should know

Michigan’s seller-side costs and filings are statutory, so they are a part of the sale you can get exactly right.³

• Transfer tax is $8.60 per $1,000 and it’s yours: $3.75 per $500 of value to the state, 55 cents per $500 to the county. The statute makes the seller or grantor liable, and it’s due to the county treasurer within 15 days after the deed is delivered.
• One exemption is written for owner-occupants: the state tax may be exempt where the seller claimed the principal residence exemption and the property’s state equalized value at sale is equal to or less than its SEV at acquisition, in an arm’s-length sale. If already paid, a refund can be requested from Treasury.
• The disclosure form is prescribed by statute: you don’t write your own. It warns that failure to provide a signed disclosure statement enables the purchaser to terminate an otherwise binding purchase agreement.
• Rescind your principal residence exemption within 90 days, or file the conditional version: file the Treasury rescission form with your local tax collecting unit within 90 days after the property stops being your principal residence. If you’ve moved out but the home is still unoccupied, for sale, not leased, and not used for business, a conditional rescission can retain the exemption for up to 3 tax years, with an annual December 31 verification. Failing to file carries a penalty of $5.00 per day for each separate failure after the 90 days elapse, capped at $200.

What happens with Michigan property records and taxes after you sell?

The next filing is your buyer’s. MCL 211.27b sets a penalty when the buyer fails to notify the local assessing office within 45 days after the transfer of ownership; for property owned and occupied as a principal residence, it is $5.00 per day after the 45 days, up to $200.00.

That transfer then changes the tax bill. In Michigan, a home’s taxable value is capped while one owner holds it. The year after it sells, that cap comes off and taxable value resets to the state equalized value, which is half of the assessor’s estimate of market value, not automatically half of what you paid. Treasury explains the rule on its change of ownership and uncapping page. So the tax line on your listing is your capped bill, not your buyer’s. Samantha Shelton puts it this way: “I’d much rather somebody ask me, ‘Why are your taxes higher than what I’m seeing online?’ than have them build a housing budget around the wrong assumption.” Buyers can run the address through the Michigan property tax calculator.

Check your county’s records before you list. BridgeDetroit reported on June 28, 2024 that the Wayne County Register of Deeds’ fraud unit had opened 2,300 cases since 2005, with 347 convictions, and that owners may not learn of a fraudulent transfer until they try to sell. Oakland County’s register of deeds offers a free Property Records Notification service that shows whether unauthorized documents have been recorded against a property. An alert matters most for a home that sits empty while for sale.

FAQ: Tips for first-time home sellers

Here are answers to common questions about selling your first home.

How much does it cost to sell a house?

It depends mostly on the commission you negotiate, since that has no set rate. The costs you can fix in advance are the government ones: in Michigan, $8.60 per $1,000 of sale price in transfer tax plus $30 per recorded document. Title fees, prorated taxes, concessions, and your payoff come out of proceeds; repairs and photography are paid up front. See seller’s closing costs for the line-by-line version.

Should I get a home inspection before I list?

Usually yes, for a first-time seller. It surfaces problems while you still control the timeline and choose the contractor, instead of during the buyer’s inspection contingency when every finding becomes a price negotiation. Expect to pay roughly what a buyer’s inspection costs locally. Our writeup of the benefits of a pre-listing inspection covers when it isn’t worth it.

How do I know if I priced my home correctly?

Watch the first two weeks. Strong view counts with few showings usually means the photos or price bracket are off. Steady showings with no offers means buyers see better value elsewhere. Almost no activity is a clear overpricing signal. Ask for a written market analysis built on sales closed in the last 90 days, then read pricing a home for sale before you set the number.

Will I owe taxes when I sell my home?

Often no. If you owned and lived in the home as your main home for at least 24 months out of the 5 years before the sale, you can generally exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 filing jointly. Gain above that is taxable, the exclusion is unavailable if you claimed it within the prior two years, and rentals don’t qualify. Confirm your situation with a tax professional, and see capital gains tax exemptions.

Can I still exclude gain if I sell before living there two years?

Possibly, in part. Publication 523 allows a partial exclusion when the main reason for the sale was a change in workplace location, a health issue, or an unforeseeable event, under section 121(c) of the tax code. The $250,000 or $500,000 limit is reduced by how long you owned and lived in the home compared with the 730-day standard, using the publication’s Worksheet 1. A tax professional can confirm which reason fits your move.

Do I avoid capital gains tax by buying another house?

No. Buying a replacement home does not shelter the gain on its own. The IRS instructions for Form 8824 say a like-kind exchange does not apply when the property you gave up was used solely as your personal residence, and Publication 523 adds that a main home isn’t available for exchange. The protection most owners rely on is the home sale exclusion, which has no requirement to buy again.

Should I sell my house without a real estate agent?

Most sellers do not. According to NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 91% of sellers used a real estate agent or broker, for-sale-by-owner sales fell to 5% of sellers, and 60% of those owners already knew their buyer. Going it alone still leaves you every Michigan and federal disclosure duty, so read our guide to selling without a realtor before you decide.

Does the lead paint disclosure apply to every home built before 1978?

Nearly every one. Under 40 CFR part 745, target housing excludes housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities and 0-bedroom dwellings, unless a child under 6 lives or is expected to live there. A buyer may waive the inspection opportunity in writing, and you and any agent must keep the signed disclosure attachment for at least 3 years after the sale. See handling seller disclosures.

The bottom line on selling your first home

Sequence beats hustle. Deliver the seller’s disclosure before the purchase agreement is signed, because a late one gives your buyer 72 hours to walk. Price from sales closed in the last 90 days, then let the first two weeks of traffic tell you whether you were right. Budget the costs you can’t negotiate ($8.60 per $1,000 in Michigan transfer tax, $30 per recorded document) and negotiate hard on the one you can, since every point of commission on a $300,000 sale is $3,000. Then plan the tax and the next mortgage together: with up to $250,000 of gain excludable single or $500,000 jointly, what’s left after payoff is your next down payment.

If you’re selling your first home and buying your next one, talk to Align Lending. We’ll shop your purchase across our lender network and show you what each net-proceeds scenario actually buys, side by side, before your listing goes live. Call 248-506-5727 or start online.

Footnotes:

1. Example figures in this article are hypothetical and for educational purposes only; they do not constitute an advertisement of credit terms or a rate quote under federal or state lending laws. Your actual selling costs depend on your sale price, county, title provider, closing date, negotiated commission, and contract terms, and will be itemized on your settlement statement. Return to text.

2. This is general information, not tax advice. Whether you qualify for the home sale gain exclusion, and how much gain is excludable, depends on your individual circumstances. Consult a qualified tax professional about your situation. Return to text.

3. This section summarizes Michigan statutes for general information only and is not legal advice. Statutory requirements, exemptions, and penalties change, and how they apply depends on your specific transfer. Consult a qualified Michigan real estate attorney about your situation. Return to text.

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