Selling a home is an exciting time, and can be a little confusing. This blog post will walk you through all the steps of selling a home in Illinois, which will hopefully make the process clear for you. If you’d prefer a phone call to talk through the process – please feel free to give me (Tony Anczer) a call/text on my cell phone at 708-608-3000.
Listed below are the 9 steps of selling a home in Illinois. The rest of this article explains these steps in detail.
Having a clear understanding of how the real estate selling process in Illinois works is the first step for people who are considering selling a property. Your real estate agent will do all the heavy lifting, so you don’t need to know all the “ins and outs” of how to sell a house in Illinois, but knowing the overall process will help to make sure that there are no surprises to you.
This guide will provide all the information you need to know to have a clear understanding of the home selling process. Feel free to give me (Tony Anczer) a call/text on my cell at 708-608-3000 if you have any questions that you’d like to talk through. You can also schdule a Zoom meeting with me at TonyAnczerGroup.com/meeting.
When you are getting educated on the home selling process, that is a great time to meet with a top realtor in Illinois. You could reach out to a real estate agent to schedule a call, Zoom meeting, or in person meeting to ask them to educate you on the home selling process. Although this guide should provide all you need to know, meeting with a real estate professional to have them explain the process to you is a great opportunity for you to essentially interview the agent to see if they communicate clearly and to see if you would feel comfortable hiring the Realtor to represent you in your home sale.
From an agent’s perspective, a prospective seller reaching out for a real estate selling consult is great because it is a low time commitment appointment (meaning an agent doesn’t have to spend much time preparing for the meeting), and then usually means that if the seller had a good interaction with you, then they will likely hire you to represent them in their home sale.
This home seller’s guide is written from a real estate seller’s perspective which will teach you all you need to know to understand the home selling process. Reading my guide on the 8 Steps of How To Buy A House In Illinois will also be of value to you, as the home buyer’s guide goes into more detail on things like how the buyer’s financing works.
The two main components of a successful real estate sale (generally defined by accepting an offer within the first two weeks at a market high price point) is great marketing, and proper pricing. On the “great marketing” side of the equation, a well prepared home for your agent to market is critical.
A good real estate agent will walk through your home and provide a “punch list” of items to complete before listing your home. How I prepare a pre-listing punch list is that I use Google Docs on my cell phone, walk through the home and make a description of each item and take a picture of the item so that it is clear as to what the exact item of work is to do. (Sometimes a text description like “secure door hardware” may not be clear as to if the door knob is loose, or if the latch is loose, etc., so a picture of the item will clear up what exactly needs to be done.)
When you are selling your home, if possible, you want it to be “move in ready” and decluttered. In general, when you look at your yard and home, you want to make sure that nothing “catches your eye” as looking off. Things to look for include:
There are 2 main options to sell a house that needs pre-listing work, without the seller completing the work:
Illinois real estate listing paperwork is made of about 7 forms (there can be a couple more documents depending on the details of the property sale.) These forms include:
The listing agreement is the document that allows your real estate agent to work on your behalf to sell your property. The agreement is between the seller and the real estate brokerage, and lists the agent’s name that will be working on your behalf.
View a copy of the Illinois Real Estate Listing Agreement.
The seller is required to disclose to the buyer before submitting an offer any issues with the property that the sellers know about. This form lists all the various components of the home, and the seller has to mark for each component if the component is defective, not defective, or not applicable.
The actual name of this document is the “Residential Real Property Disclosure Report,” however it is usually called the “Seller’s Disclosure. The seller has this filled out, and the buyer receives the disclosure to review, and the buyer is required to sign the disclosure to ensure that the buyer has been informed about any issues the seller has knowledge of.
View a copy of the Illinois Real Estate Sellers Disclosure
Any homes built before 1978 are required to have a lead based point disclosure. The seller fills out this form and is required to disclose if they have any knowledge of lead based paint being in the property. The disclosure generally has 2 boxes where a seller can check, one box states they do know of lead based paint being in the home, and the other box states that the seller does not have knowledge of lead based paint being in the home.
If the seller knows of lead based paint being in the home, then the seller is required to provide any documentation of the lead based paint. (As an FYI on what to expect – these Lead Based Paint Disclosure forms almost always state that the seller has no knowledge of lead based paint being in the home.)
View a copy of the Illinois Real Estate Lead Paint Disclosure
The seller is required to disclose if they have any knowledge of radon in the home.
The disclosure generally has 2 boxes where a seller can check, one box states they do know of elevated radon levels in the home, and the other box states that the seller does not have knowledge of radon in the home. If the seller knows of elevated radon levels in the home, then the seller is required to provide any documentation such as test reports. (As an FYI on what to expect – these Radon Disclosure forms almost always state that the seller has no knowledge of radon in the home.)
The official name of this document is the “Disclosure of Information on Radon Hazards,” but in practice is called the “Radon Disclosure.”
View a copy of the Illinois Real Estate Radon Disclosure.
“Affiliated Business Disclosure”, “Agency Office Policies”, and “Wiring Fraud Advisory Notice” are the buyer brokerage forms we have at eXp Realty. Each brokerage will have slightly different versions of these forms, and may have additional forms than these forms. The Affiliated Business Disclosure form generally states that eXp Realty owns or has interest in other companies in the real estate industry, the Agency Office Policies disclosure addresses the policies of eXp Realty, and the Wiring Fraud Advisory Notice points out that caution is needed when wiring funds and that wiring fraud is real and rampant (ask me about my crazy wiring fraud story!)
View a copy of the:
Now that all the pre-listing work is complete, and the listing paperwork is complete, the next step in selling real estate in Illinois is to enter the property into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and market the property. Once a home is entered into the MLS, that is what puts the home into all the online listing outlets such as Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Homes.com, MLS.com, Remax.com, eXpRealty.com, etc. When agents bring buyers through homes for home tours they should provide the buyers a copy of the MLS report (click the link for an example MLS report).
Your agent should have a specialized plan for marketing your home. Entering your property in the MLS is what most any agent can do, so asking your agent what they offer above entering your property into the MLS is a good question to ask.
Elements of a marketing plan include things like: staging, professional photos, professional videos, property feature sheets, website landing pages, text and/or QR code auto responders, open houses, comparable sale information, pre-listing inspection, contractor quotes for work needed.
For buyers to schedule showing of your home, we use a technology system call “ShowingTime.” A buyer notifies their agent that they want to tour your home and then the buyer’s agent enters the date and time of the requested howing through the online portal called “ShowingTime”. In ShowingTime I setup the seller to receive a text message, phone call, or email, to receive the showing request notification for the seller to approve the showing.
Home tours usually go faster than what you would think. Once inside a home, a home tour usually takes about 10 minutes to tour inside the home and walk the property. When booking showings I plan to spend 15 minutes at each house. Of course if we are touring large homes or farms, property tours take longer.
This section first explains what documents comprise a complete offer to buy real estate in Illinois, and then discusses the offer negotiation process to result in an executed Purchase Contract.
An Illinois real estate offer is made of about 8 forms. These forms include:
When a buyer submits an offer to purchase real estate, the have to show where the funds are going to come from to purchase the property. If the buyer is using a home loan to purchase the property, then the buyer’s mortgage pre-approval showing pre-approval for at least the amount of their offer would be provided with the buyer’s offer. If the buyer is purchasing the property with cash, then a bank statement would be what is submitted with the offer.
The Purchase Contract is a standardized state form we fill out to submit an offer. The Purchase Contract spells out all the terms and conditions of the purchase including: purchase price, closing date, appliances included, other items included in the sale, number of days to complete the inspection, closing date, and many other terms like that.
View a copy of the 3 different purchase contract types:
The disclosures that the seller filled out during the listing paperwork step are attached to the MLS listing (only viewable to the real estate agents), and the buyer’s real estate agent will provide these disclosures to the buyer to review and sign, and these signed disclosures are to be included in the offer. These disclsures need to be included in the offer mainly to prove that the buyer has reviewed the disclosures and to show that the buyer is acceptable to any items noted in the disclosures.
View a copy of the:
When a buyer submits an offer to a seller, the seller has 3 options of response: 1) accept the offer, 2) reject the offer, or 3) counter the offer.
To accept an offer, all a seller has to do is mark the “accepted” box on the offer, sign and date the offer, and send the offer back to the buyer’s agent.
To reject and offer, a seller can check the “rejected” box on the offer, sign and date the offer, and send back to the buyer’s agent (however in practice, a rejected offer usually is conveyed by phone or email from the sellers Realtor to the buyer’s Realtor).
To counter an offer, the seller and the seller’s agent will discuss the exact terms that the seller wants changed in the buyer’s offer, and then the seller’s agent will email those change of terms to the buyer’s agent. The other way of completing a counter offer is that the seller’s agent will mark-up the offer (often called “redlining” the offer) with the proposed changes, then the seller will initial the changes, then the seller’s agent will send the marked-up offer to the buyer’s agent for the buyer to either accept, reject, or counter.
This negotiation process continues until the contract terms are agreeable to both the buyer and seller. In my contracts, after we receive an offer, I find it best to negotaite terms verbally (followed up by email) to save the “contract back and forth” process, and once verbal terms are agreed to, then drafting one clean offer (or original offer with only one set of counter mark-ups) for the buyer and seller to sign.
There’s a lot that goes on during the escrow process, and the escrow process has a number of other names. The escrow process can be called “in escrow,” “under contract,” “offer accepted,” and some other names. A house being “under contract,” or “in escrow,” (or any of the other names) means that there is an accepted offer on a property and that the sale process is moving forward. This section explains all that happens during the escrow process.
The first thing that happens in the escrow process is that your agent will send the Purchase Contract to all the involved parties which usually consists of: the sellers attorney, the buyers attorney, the buyers Realtor, and the buyers lender. All these parties have a role to play.
Earnest money is the buyer’s “skin in the game” to show the seller that the buyer is serious about their offer and is willing to put out money to secure their interest in the home. The Purchase Contract will state how many days after acceptance of the offer the buyer has to submit the earnest money, which is usually 2 or 3 calendar days.
Either the listing agent’s brokerage, the title company, or the seller’s attorney will hold the earnest money. Most all offices will accept earnest money payment in the form of a cashier’s check, some will accept a personal check, and most have an electronic payment option to pay via “electronic funds transfer” (EFT) or by wire.
The earnest money will count towards the buyers down payment, or if the deal falls apart, then the earnest money generally gets returned to the buyer, unless the buyer is in breach of the contract – then the earnest money may be forfeited to the seller. The main risk of the buyer losing their earnest money back is if they fall in breach of contract by missing a deadline in the contract, or by walking away from the sale without a valid reason.
Right after the purchase contract is accepted, both the buyer’s and seller’s attorneys will review the contract and produce a letter called the “attorney review letter.” The attorney review letter lists any changes the attorneys want to make to the contract, and then the attorneys usually always add some standard additions to the contract.
Your attorney will draft their letter and call you to explain the additions and changes they are proposing. When your attorney receives the attorney review letter from the buyers attorney, your attorney will also call you to go over the changes and additions the buyers attorney is proposing and discuss with you their proposed response to the buyers attorney review letter.
Here is a copy of an attorney review letter:
After you accept an offer from a buyer, right away the buyer will schedule the home inspection. The Purchase Contract will state which date the “inspection response” is due.
The Inspection Response is the letter the buyer’s attorney will send to the seller’s attorney that states which work the buyer is requesting to have completed, and is usually due within 10 days after offer acceptance.
There’s often a negotiation of inspection repairs, so sometimes the buyer will ask for a little more than what they really want the seller to do (in terms of the seller making repairs) expecting that the seller will counter the buyer’s inspection request with a lesser scope of work.
The inspector will prepare an inspection report and provide the inspection report to the buyer. The buyer will then confer with their real estate agent and their attorney to prepare a list of items that the buyer wants the seller to repair before closing.
Click Here to view an inspection report from a real estate transaction.
After the inspection is complete, the buyer will provide their attorney a list of items that they want the seller to complete, and the buyers attorney will draft a letter with those requested items of work, and send that letter to the sellers attorney. Much like the process of submitting an offer on a home where it becomes a negotiation, a similar negotiation process often unfolds during the inspection process. From a negotiation standpoint, buyers often request a little more repairs than what their bottom line repair requests are, expecting that the seller will push back against some of the repair requests. Or what often happens is that in lieu of the seller having all or some of the repairs completed, that the seller will offer a credit to the buyer so that the buyer can have the repairs completed after closing. A seller credit (in lieue of the seller completing the work) is often a good solution so that a seller does not have to worry about a buyer not being satisfied with the repairs they have completed (which can become an otherwise interative and frustrating process.)
Note that if you are using USDA, FHA, or VA financing, those agencies will also complete their own inspection and will provide non-negotiable repair demands. So, with these financing types there are essentially 2 separate inspection processes.
The seller will review the buyers Inspection Response letter, confer with their agent and attorney to draft a response to the buyers inspection response, and then the sellers attorney will send a response letter to the buyers Inspection Response letter. The response letter is usually in the form of a mark-up of the buyers Inspection Response letter.
This back-and-forth continues until agreement is reached. If agreement cannot be reached, then a “mutual release” will be circulated for both the buyer and seller to sign to cancel the contract.
Now that the buyer and seller have agreed to the scope of repairs, the seller is responsible for having the repairs completed. The seller is requested to provide receipts and photos of work completed by contractors. At the final walk through (which usually happens the day before or the day of closing), we will check to make sure all the repairs are completed. If the repairs are not completed and it is too close to closing to have time for the remaining repairs to be completed, then the seller can be requested to provide a credit to the buyer to cover the cost of the remaining repairs, or the closing can be pushed back to allow time for the repairs to be completed.
The financing process is mostly the responsibilty of the buyer’s lender, with some assistance from the buyer, some assistance from the buyer’s REALTOR, and coordination with both attorneys and the title company.
When buying a home with financing, your first step in the home buying process is to get a home loan preapproval from a loan officer. A preapproval letter (or proof of funds if using cash) needs to be included in your offer to show that you have financial capacity to purchase the home. The preapproval letter will state how much of a loan you will be getting and also lists the loan term and interest rate. Note that depending on what type of lending institution you are getting a pre-approval from, the title of the Loan Officer may be different such as Mortgage Broker or if lending through a bank their title may be something like “Vice President of Lending” (or many other possible titles).
Our Preferred Vendors webpage has a list of our preferred lenders and instructions on how to get preapproved. The preapproval process generally consists of completing an online or over-the-phone application where you will be asked things like:
An appraisal is when a licensed appraiser visits the home and provides a professional opinion of the value of the home. The appraiser will produce an Appraisal Report that shows in detail how the value of the home was determined.
An appraisal is required by lenders with the purpose of confirming that the value of the home equals or exceeds the purchase price. Lenders usually wait until the inspection negotiations are complete before ordering the appraisal because the appraisal does have a cost that the buyer will usually pay at the time the appraisal is ordered. The reason the appraisal is ordered after the inspection repair negotiations are complete is because sometimes the buyer and seller do not agree on inspection repairs and the deal falls apart – if the deal falls apart after the appraisal was ordered and paid for then that appraisal money is lost as it is non-refundable.
If the appraisal supports the purchase price, then the home sale process continues on. If the appraisal value is less than the contract price, then the seller may need to agree to lower the contract price to the appraisal price, or the buyer may need to increase the down payment amount because the lenders need to have an equity position in the home. For example, if a contract value is $100,000, and the buyer is putting down 10%, then the loan would be $90,000. If the appraisal comes in at $80,000, then the loan amount would be higher than the appraisal amount of which the lender would not have any equity in the home.
The financing underwriting process starts right after the purchase agreement is signed by the buyer and seller. The underwriting process generally consists of the lender’s “underwriting department” reviewing all of your latest financing information which includes: latest pay checks, latest bank statements, contacting the buyers’ employers for verification of employment, and other related checks. This process will be a little bit different depending on the details of the property sale and depending on the details of your financial details (for example – self employed buyers will usually have to generate a year-to-date P&L.)
During the underwriting process the lender is required to provide what’s called the “Closing Disclosure,” which shows all the itemized fees for the loan. The Closing Disclosure is sometimes called the “Loan Estimate.” Click Here to see an example of a Closing Disclosure.
The moment in financing we are all waiting on to be able to schedule the closing is receiving the “Clear To Close” (CTC) from the lender. The lender issues the CTC when all their due diligence and checklists are complete and after they have received the appraisal. Once the CTC is issued then the buyers agent and the listing agent will confer with their buyer and seller to coordinate a closing date and time that works for all parties. The title company will be advised of this date and time and the title company will send out a “closing confirmation” to confirm that the closing has been scheduled.
I find that most home buyers generally think that when you call an inspector to complete a home inspection, that the inspector inspects everything that you would want them to inspect, after all, they are the experts, right? This was my understanding also when we bought our first house. Unfortunately, I was wrong about that, and things I thought would be inspected were not inspected. When a buyer calls an inspector to schedule an inspection, the scope of a general inspection is an inspection of the house structure and components inside and out. There are a number of other things that a buyer may want to have inspected (or may think is already included in an inspection) that is not in the scope of a “regular” inspection. The main types of inspections “add-ons” are:
In Illinois, it is the standard that the buyer’s agent accompanies the inspector at the inspection. The buyers are also allowed to attend. Sometimes the buyer may also have a friend or family attend the inspection. The buyers agent doesn’t always stay the entire length of the inspection, and the buyers themselves may not stay the entire time either.
An inspection takes about 2-4 hours depending on the size of the house.
A handful of pre-closing steps get triggered by the lender issuing the Clear to Close and the closing being scheduled.
The lender and the real estate agents provide the title company all the financial details of the property sale. The title company compiles all this information and provides a “preliminary settlement statement” which shows all the financial debits and credits. This preliminary settlement statement is sent out to the lender, Realtors, buyer, and seller for everyone to review. At closing the finalized settlement statement is provided. Click Here for a sample settlement statement.
Once the title company has received all the needed documents from the lender (if financing is being used) and once the title company has completed the title paperwork and other closing coordination and is ready to close the sale, the title company will then coordinate with the listing agent and the buyers’ agent to set the date and time of closing. Once the closing date and time is set, the title company will then send out a “Closing Confirmation,” which is a document that formally announces the date and time of closing.
Click Here to view a Closing Confirmation document.
When the title company sends out the settlement statement there will be an amount listed called the “buyers cash to close” (and has a few other names), which is the cash amount the buyer needs to bring to the title company for closing. In Indiana, any amount over $10,000 needs to be wired to the title company. To wire funds you contact the title company to request their “wiring instructions” which will be their bank name, address, routing number, and account number – you then take this information to your bank and direct them to wire the funds to the title company. The title company then holds these funds in their escrow account, then at closing these funds will be used for the closing. Title companies will often send wiring instruction via a secure email. When you receive wiring instructions, be sure to call the business you are wiring funds to so that you can verbally confirm that the wiring isntrcution information you received is correct.
Click Here to view wiring instructions from a real estate sale.
Prior to closing the buyer is entitled to walk through the home before closing to confirm that the home is in the same condition it was when the buyer toured the home. If there were no major repairs needed from the inspection process, then this final walkthrough usually happens right before closing. If there were significant repairs needed then it is good to do a walkthrough prior to the final walkthrough to confirm that all the repairs were completed.
ComEd is the electric supplier for the Chicagoland region and NICOR is the natural gas supplier for the Chicagoland area. Once the closing date and time is known, then the buyer can reach out to the utility companies to schedule the utilities to be transferred into the buyer’s names. The seller is responsible to keep utilities on through the day of closing, so when contacting ComEd and NICOR to have the utilities transferred to the buyer you would tell them the date of the closing and have utilities scheduled to be moved into the buyer’s account for the day after closing.
Municipal water and sewer (which usually also means garbage also) – Once the closing date and time is known, then the buyer can reach out to the municipality (eg the Village of Orland Park) for the water account to be transferred into the buyer’s name. The seller is responsible to keep the water account on through the day of closing, so when contacting the municipality to have the water account transferred to the buyer’s name you would tell them the date of the closing and have the water account scheduled to be moved into the buyer’s account for the day after closing. (Note on jargon – when talking about the “water account”, the water account also includes the sewer account and also usually the garbage account – so, when you contact the municipality, all you have to say is that you are buying a home and need to put the water account into your name for the day after closing.)
Many Illinois communities have a pre-sale process to go through. These processes generally consist of all or part of:
Now the exciting day of closing day is here! When closing day has arrived that means all the hard work is completed and there is not much to do on closing day other than attend the closing.
All a buyer needs to bring to closing is a state ID and any funds that have not been wired already.
As a buyer, most of what you will be doing at closing is signing lots of paperwork. The “Escrow Agent” is the title company staff person that facilitates the closing. The escrow agent will guide you through what paperwork to sign and explain what each document is. There are two sets of documents to sign which are the loan paperwork and the title paperwork. The majority of the paperwork to sign is paperwork for the home loan. When buying with cash there is only the title paperwork to sign which is a small amount of documents.
A closing usually takes 30 minutes to an hour. Most of that time is spent waiting for the lender to review the lending paperwork and authorize funding. The closing will start with the escrow agent having the buyer sign all the lending paperwork and then the escrow agent will scan the lending paperwork to the lender for review. Then while we are waiting for the lender to review the lending paperwork the escrow agent will have the buyer and seller sign the title paperwork. Once the lender authorizes funding, then the escrow agent cuts all the checks and completes the needed wires for funds to be disbursed. The buyer will receive the deed to the property and the title company will have the deed recorded at the county recorder’s office along with the mortgage note.
Now that you are the proud owner of your new home, there’s some remaining tasks to take care of to have a smooth transition from your previous home to your new home.
I hope this step-by-step guide to selling a home in Illinois was helpful to you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
I’d love to help with your property buying or selling journey. Give me a call/text on my cell at (708) 608-3000!
Tony Anczer
Illinois & Indiana Realtor
The going rate for an attorney to represent you in the purchase or sale of real estate is right about $650 for a standard real estate sale. The additional attorney fee for a seller is about a $75 fee for preparing the deed. Note that the attorney only gets paid when the sale closes, so the attorney has no costs until the deal closes. If a deal falls through, then the attorney generally does not charge a fee.
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