Selling Your Home
Selling Your Home
If you are selling a home you still live in, you are not running one transaction. You are running two, and they have to line up. The house has to sell, the next one has to be available, and the gap between those two dates is where the stress lives.
That is the part most listing conversations skip. You get a price, you get a sign, and the question of where you actually go next is treated as somebody else's problem. It is not a separate problem. It is the same one.
So before we talk about listing your home, we work out whether the whole move adds up. What the house is likely to net after everything comes out of it, what you can carry on the next one, roughly how long each side takes in this market, and the order that gives you the least exposure.
Selling Your Home
Most sellers are really planning two moves at once
What the East Valley market is actually doing
Pricing well starts with current numbers rather than what a neighbor got last spring. These come from ARMLS, filtered to each city, pulled 2026-10-01 with data through September 2026.
- Chandler. Median sale price $524,950 in August 2026, down 6.7% from a year earlier. About 3.03 months of supply, which has tightened roughly 17% year over year. Half of homes went under contract inside 48 days.
- Gilbert. Median sale price $578,000, up 3.8% year over year, the only one of the three core cities still appreciating. About 3.54 months of supply. Median days on market 64.
- Scottsdale. Median sale price $950,000, up 11.4% year over year. A different price tier, and a different move-up calculation because of it.
Read together: inventory is tight in Chandler and Gilbert, which helps you, but buyers are not paying over asking to get in. Across the metro, homes sold at about 97.9% of list and 94.8% of original list. The gap between those two numbers is what overpricing costs, and it is measurable.
These figures move every month. Ask me for the current pull rather than trusting a number on a web page, including this one.
Worth knowing
If I think your number is too high, I will say so before we list, not after two price reductions.
What the East Valley market is actually doing
Pricing, honestly
An automated estimate has never been inside your house. It does not know about your addition, your roof, the remodel you did in 2021, or the arterial road behind the back fence. It is a starting point and it is often wrong in both directions.
What you get instead is a comparative market analysis: recent comparable sales, what is currently competing with you, what did not sell and why, and an honest read on where your home sits in that set. If I think your number is too high, I will say so before we list rather than after two price reductions.
I do not guarantee a sale price or a timeline, and you should be careful with anyone who does. What I will give you is the reasoning behind the number, so you can decide with the same information I have.
Marketing is the part most listings skip
Putting a home on the MLS and waiting is not marketing. It is distribution. The homes that do best are the ones shown to the right buyers, in the places those buyers actually look, before the sign goes in the yard.
- Professional photography, and video where the home earns it.
- Copy written for the buyer this house suits, not a list of adjectives.
- Targeted digital promotion rather than a boosted post to nobody in particular.
- A single property page built for the address, so the listing has a home of its own.
The established teams here compete on reputation and referrals, and most are not evolving their marketing. That gap is real, and your listing is where it pays off.
Marketing is the part most listings skip
How the sale and the purchase get sequenced
There are three honest versions of this, and which one fits depends on your equity, your financing and how much disruption you can tolerate.
- Sell first. Strongest position as a buyer, because your offer is not contingent. The trade is a gap to bridge, often with a rent-back from your own buyer.
- Buy first. No gap and no double move. Requires the financing to carry both for a period, which is a real conversation with a lender before it is a strategy.
- Coordinate both. Contingencies and matched closing dates. More moving parts, and the one that needs the most active management.
We pick one with your actual numbers in front of us, not as a preference in the abstract. That is the Home-First Move-Up Plan, and it happens before anything is listed.
How the sale and the purchase get sequenced
What working together looks like
You get straight answers, including when the answer is one you would rather not hear. You get to know what is happening with your own listing without chasing me for it. Transaction coordination runs through Transactly, so deadlines and paperwork are handled by someone whose whole job is deadlines and paperwork, while I stay on strategy, negotiation and you.
I work in English, Spanish and French, and that means your documents get walked through in the language you actually think in, by me, not by a third party added to the middle of your deal.
Questions
- Should I sell my current home before I buy the next one?
- It depends on your equity and your financing, not on a general rule. Selling first makes your next offer stronger because it is not contingent, but it leaves a gap to cover. Buying first removes the gap and needs the financing to carry both for a period. We work out which one your numbers actually support before anything is listed.
- How long will it take to sell my house in Chandler?
- In August 2026, half of Chandler homes went under contract within 48 days, with an average closer to 67 days (ARMLS, pulled 2026-10-01). Your home is not the median, though. Condition, price and how well it is marketed move that number in both directions, and I will not promise you a date.
- Isn't a Zillow estimate basically the same as your CMA?
- No. An automated estimate works from public records and patterns. It has not seen your kitchen, your roof, or what is behind your back fence. A comparative market analysis uses recent comparable sales, what is competing with you right now, and what failed to sell and why. The two often differ by a lot.
- What do you charge, and is it negotiable?
- Commission is agreed between us in writing before we start, and it is not set by any standard or custom. I am happy to walk through exactly what is included and what it covers so you can judge the value rather than just the number.
Work with Stephanie
Local expertise · Modern marketing · English, Spanish and French
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