From Listing to Closing—What Really Happens

April 30, 2026

Some Denver homeowners have not sold a home in years, so everything about selling a home feels new to them and potentially overwhelming. It is great to have a refresher regarding the selling process, so this article will give you an overview of what is involved when selling your Denver area home. To make it easier, I will break the selling process into stages.

Stage 1.  The Pre-Listing Phase

In this phase, you will meet with your TK Homes REALTOR® at a listing appointment. We will schedule a time to come over to your Denver home to tour your home to see any updates you may have made and to look at the finishes in your home (in the kitchen, in the bathroom, at your flooring, etc.). The basic idea is for us to get a good idea of the condition of your home. We will also answer any questions you have, discuss your timeline, briefly review the contracts, discuss the current market and ask questions about your house, such as the age of your appliances, your roof, etc. Then, we will talk to you about preparing your home for sale and the things you should do: declutter, depersonalize, discuss any things you can do to get more bang for your buck, have the HVAC system serviced and potentially the roof checked. If it would be useful to have a stager come to the home, that will be scheduled as well.

After this, we will go back and look at comparable homes that are actively listed, under contract and just sold. Then, we will determine price. Next, we will schedule a time to discuss our findings with you and also finalize the contracts and send them to you for signatures. Then, photos (as well as the 3-D tour and floor plans) will be scheduled. In conjunction, we will be preparing your MLS listing, and once it is complete, we will send it to you to review. We will also get a key from you and put a lockbox on the door. We will finalize everything in the MLS, ask about when you would prefer to do showings, put a sign in the yard and then go live! We are on our way!

Stage 2.  The Post-Listing Phase

Now the excitement begins! You will get to see the showings that are requested come through on your phone or in your email. They are fun to see! If you are living in your home, you will need to leave for showings, so that buyers and their agents have privacy to discuss things during their showings. Once a buyer decides that they love your home, they will write an offer. After the offer is received, you will work with your TK Homes agent to decide if it is a good offer and if it is worth countering and working with. It is only in rare cases that an offer would be accepted as is. Usually, we write a document titled a Counterproposal that states the things we would like to change about the offer. Getting under contract is a big deal and very monumental! We like to celebrate that part with you! There is still work to be done though.

Stage 3.   The Under-Contract Phase

Once under contract, the work begins! There are certain things we need to do on our side like order title and order HOA documents, if necessary. The buyer will need to deposit their earnest money showing they are serious about buying your home as well as schedule their first inspections. Both sides will have deadlines they need to adhere to. We will explain what each of these deadlines means to you and what they mean for the buyer. The buyer will have time to review the Title Commitment, the HOA documents and to perform inspections during the inspection period. Once they have had their inspection, they will typically ask for things to be repaired or replaced based on what the inspector has found. You will work with your agent to decide what is reasonable and what isn’t. This is all a negotiation. Once past inspection, in most cases, there will be an appraisal. If the appraisal comes in at value or above, there are no issues. If it comes in below list value, there will need to be negotiations. In most cases, sellers don’t actually hear what the value is—we usually only hear there is no issue, or there is a problem.

Once through appraisal, we will wait to get clear to close from the lender, meaning the loan has been approved. It is almost time to celebrate! We will schedule the closing day and will go over the settlement statement with you to make sure your net proceeds are accurate.

Then, it’s closing day! We will meet you at the title company to sign all the documents. It typically takes a half hour for a seller. We will wait until the buyer signs all of the documents and the title company receives the funds, then transaction is officially closed, and it is time to celebrate!

As you can see, there is a lot involved in getting your home sold. The great news is that you don’t need to be concerned because your TK Homes agent is a full-time, well-experienced agent who understands the market and the selling process well. So, contact a TK Homes agent today and let us make your real estate goals a reality!

~ Written by TK Homes REALTOR®, Mary Smith