Posting Season Is Coming — Your Home-Selling Checklist
Military Relocation · 2025-02-10 · 6 min read
APS season moves fast. Here is the month-by-month checklist I give military sellers so the house is ready before the message lands.
Posting season has a rhythm, and the families who come through it calmly are the ones who started before the message arrived. If there is any chance you are moving this cycle, here is the checklist I give my military sellers.
Before the message — the quiet work
Get a realistic value. Not a guess, not a website estimate. Know what your home would actually sell for in today's market so you can plan around a real number.
Do the deferred maintenance. The small list you have been ignoring — the caulking, the loose railing, the basement window, the trim that needs paint. These are cheap now and expensive under time pressure.
Gather your paperwork. Survey or location certificate, septic pump-out records, well test results, furnace or heat pump servicing, oil tank age and any warranty, permits for finished space, and property tax bills. Buyers ask for all of it, and having it ready keeps a deal moving.
Start decluttering. You are packing anyway. Every box you clear now is a box you do not pay a mover to handle, and the house shows better empty of clutter.
When the message lands
Call me the same week. Not to list — to plan. We will map out your timeline backwards from your report-for-duty date and figure out when the sign needs to go up.
Confirm what your relocation entitlements cover. Inspection, legal fees, and certain selling costs may be reimbursable depending on your file. Confirm with your relocation contact and keep every receipt.
Book your house-hunting trip. And if you are buying at the destination, get pre-approved before you fly.
Getting the house market-ready
Photos come last, not first. We stage, tidy the yard, and finish the touch-ups, and then we shoot. Those photos are your first showing.
Plan showings around the family. Deployments, kids, pets, and a spouse working shift work all make short-notice showings hard. Tell me the constraints up front and I will build the schedule around them rather than apologizing later.
Decide your bottom line before the first offer. Know your number and your must-have dates while you are calm.
Closing and the move
Choose your lawyer early — a real estate lawyer of your choice, booked before you need them, not during move week.
Line up the movers as soon as your dates firm up. Everyone in the Valley is booking the same weeks.
Keep the utilities and insurance in place until the day the deed transfers. More than one family has cancelled a week early and created a problem on closing day.
What I handle so you do not have to
I have been a military spouse in this community for thirty-five years, and I have sold homes for families who were already at the destination, already deployed, or handling a move alone. Weekly updates in writing, showings scheduled around your reality, and a straight answer whenever you ask where things stand.
If your posting is even a possibility this cycle, let's talk now. The best-run military sales start months before the message.
Written by Karen Mofford, REALTOR® with Royal LePage Atlantic in Greenwood, Nova Scotia. Get in touch or book a Move Strategy Session.