How to start the home-selling process the right way (the first 3 things).

Here's the question every Tampa Bay homeowner asks at the kitchen table: "Where do I even start?" The answer most people get back is some version of "call us," which is a sales pitch dressed as advice. The actual first step has nothing to do with calling anyone. It's homework you do in your own house, on your own time, before you talk to a single buyer or agent.

Skip the homework and you'll either accept the wrong offer or hold out for a number the math won't support. We've watched both happen. So we tell people the same three things every time, in the same order. Here they are.

Thing #1: Pull your numbers (not the house's value, your numbers)

Most sellers start with the wrong number. They want to know what their Pinellas or Hillsborough County home is worth. That's a Zillow question. The number that actually matters is what you owe against it. Get those three numbers in writing before you do anything else:

• Mortgage payoff. Call your lender. Ask for a written payoff statement good for 30 days. It will show principal, accrued interest, prepayment penalty (if any), and the per-diem rate. Free.
• Outstanding liens. Tax liens, mechanic's liens, judgment liens, HOA liens. Any reputable Tampa Bay title company will pull a preliminary lien report for $50-$150. Or check the Hillsborough or Pinellas County clerk's website yourself.
• Property tax balance. Florida property taxes are paid in arrears. If you sell mid-year, you'll owe a prorated portion. Pull last year's bill and prorate to your target close date.

Add those three together. Whatever total you get is your floor. You can't accept any offer below that floor without bringing money to the closing table. Most sellers don't realize their floor exists until the title company shows them the closing disclosure. Don't be that seller.

Thing #2: Get honest about your real timeline

"I'm not in a rush" is the line we hear most often, and it's usually not true. There's almost always a reason a person is talking to us. A relocation, a divorce, a death, a tenant problem, a roof problem, a tax problem, a kid problem. The honest version of "I'm not in a rush" is "I'd like to get the most money possible, and the time to do that is what I'm trying to figure out."

So ask yourself, in plain words: when do I actually need to be out of this house? Not "ideally." Actually. Three answers cover most people:

• Under 30 days. Cash sale, no question. List takes longer than that just to get to contract on average.
• 30-90 days. Either path works. Cash for certainty. List for top dollar (but only if the home is in good condition).
• 90+ days. List, unless one of these applies: the house needs $20K+ in repairs, you can't host showings, or you have a special situation like a tenant or pre-foreclosure.

Tampa Bay's typical days-on-market for a listed home is 45-75 days, plus another 30-45 to close. So a "list" path is realistically 75-120 days from your kitchen table to your wire. That's the right answer for some people. It's the wrong answer for others. The deciding factor is your real timeline, not your wishful one.

Thing #3: Pick the path that matches

Now you have your floor (Thing #1) and your timeline (Thing #2). The decision tree is short.

Cash makes sense if: you need to be out in 30 days or less, your house needs $20K+ in repairs, you have a tenant you can't or won't evict, you inherited it and live out of state, you're behind on taxes or in pre-foreclosure, or you simply don't want to host showings.

List makes sense if: your house is move-in ready, you can wait 90-120 days, you have an agent you trust, and there's no time pressure or special situation. List nets you more money in those cases. We tell people that on the first call when it applies.

If you're still on the fence, the side-by-side breakdown in realtor vs. investor compares both paths line by line. The deeper article on how cash home buyers actually work explains the mechanics of the cash side so you can compare apples to apples.

What you don't need to do (yet)

Most articles on "how to start selling your house" tell you to declutter, repaint, deep clean, stage, and shoot pro photos. None of that applies to a cash sale. We buy houses with hoarder-level clutter every quarter. We've bought homes with active leaks, abandoned cars in the driveway, and an unfinished kitchen renovation from 2017. None of that affects whether we'll buy. It only affects the offer math, and the offer math accounts for it.

You also don't need to get the house appraised. Appraisals cost $400-$600 and take 5-10 days. They produce a number a single appraiser thinks the house is worth, which doesn't bind any buyer to anything. A free written cash offer from a real Tampa Bay buyer gives you the same intelligence in 24 hours, for zero dollars. If you want a second opinion, ask a Brandon or Clearwater agent for a free comparative market analysis (CMA). That's the right way to get a sanity check without spending money on it.

The first call

Once you've done your homework, the first call is short. You give the buyer your address, the condition in honest terms, and your timeline. They pull comps and call you back with a working idea of where the offer will land before they ever set foot in the house. If their working idea is in the same neighborhood as your floor + a reasonable margin, you schedule a walk-through. If it's not, you don't. Either way, you've spent 20 minutes and zero dollars.

That's the whole start. Three pieces of homework, one phone call. The rest, including the math, the negotiation, the title work, and the close, is laid out in the complete Tampa Bay cash sale guide.

Frequently asked questions