Seller guide · Orleans and surrounding parishes
How Do I Sell My Home in New Orleans?
You price it against real closed sales, get it inspection-ready before it lists, and close with a title attorney. We handle the pricing, the marketing, the disclosure paperwork and the negotiation, and this page answers the questions sellers ask us first.
What a home valuation actually is
Three different numbers get called a home value, and confusing them costs sellers money. An automated estimate from a portal is a statistical guess built from public records and prior listing data, and in New Orleans it performs poorly because our housing stock is old, irregular and highly variable block to block. An appraisal is a licensed opinion of value ordered by the buyer’s lender, and it happens after you already have a contract. A comparative market analysis is what we prepare for you before listing, built from closed sales of genuinely comparable properties, adjusted for condition, square footage, elevation, parking and the specific block.
The valuation we give you is the third one, and we show you the comparable sales it rests on rather than just the number. If the comps do not support a price, we would rather tell you that at the kitchen table than watch a listing sit and go stale.
Pricing and the first two weeks
A listing gets its most attention in its first two weeks, when it is new to every buyer with a saved search. Price is the only variable that reliably moves showings in that window. Overpricing to leave negotiating room usually produces the opposite of the intended result: fewer showings, no offers, then a price reduction that signals weakness and invites a lower offer than the correct opening price would have drawn.
What we do instead is set the price to sit inside the range buyers are actually searching, then make the property clearly the best option at that number. Presentation is part of pricing. Photography, decluttering, a pre-list walkthrough on obvious deferred maintenance, and honest attention to smell and light all shift what a buyer will pay.
The disclosure document and what it commits you to
Louisiana requires residential sellers to complete the Louisiana Residential Property Disclosure Document, and it asks direct questions about the condition of the property, prior flooding, insurance claims, structural work, drainage and known defects. It is completed from your actual knowledge, and the standard is what you know, not what you could have discovered.
Our advice is to disclose everything you know, in writing. A known issue disclosed up front becomes a negotiating item. Sellers are not always aware of every problem in a house, and an inspection can turn up something you never knew about. If your property has flooded, or you have made a claim, that goes on the form.
What you pay, and what changed in 2024
Your listing agreement sets our compensation, and it is negotiated between us before your property goes on the market. Since the 2024 changes to National Association of REALTORS® policy, a buyer’s agent must have a written agreement with their buyer, and any compensation a seller chooses to offer a buyer’s broker is negotiable and is no longer advertised in the MLS. You may offer it, you may decline to, and it can be raised as part of negotiating a specific offer. We will walk you through how that decision affects your buyer pool in your price range rather than giving you a blanket rule.
Beyond compensation, expect title and closing charges, recording costs, any payoff and lien release costs, prorated property taxes, and whatever repairs or credits you negotiate. Orleans Parish has its own recording and documentary charges that do not apply in the surrounding parishes, so the closing figure differs by address. We get you a written net sheet with real numbers for your property before you sign anything.
Ready to start? The seller intake form is the fastest way in, or read the selling overview for how we run a listing.
Common questions
Selling in New Orleans, answered
We price the property from closed comparable sales, prepare it and photograph it, put it in front of the buyer pool through the MLS and direct marketing, manage showings and feedback, negotiate the offer and the inspection response, and drive the file through title work to the act of sale. In this market the title and succession side is a real part of the job, not an afterthought.
Ask us for a comparative market analysis. We build it from closed sales of genuinely comparable properties and adjust for condition, size, elevation, parking and block, then show you the comps behind the number. Automated portal estimates are unreliable here because our housing stock is old and varies sharply within a few hundred feet.
An automated estimate is a statistical model run on public records and past listings. It cannot see that your kitchen was redone, that your neighbor’s identical square footage sits two feet lower, or that your block trades at a premium. A comparative market analysis is built by hand from closed sales and adjusted for those things.
Louisiana requires residential sellers to complete the Louisiana Residential Property Disclosure Document, which asks about known defects, prior flooding, insurance claims, structural work and drainage. It is answered from your actual knowledge. We advise disclosing everything you know, because a disclosed issue becomes part of the negotiation. The form covers what you know, so an issue you were not aware of is not a failure to disclose.
It depends on price, condition and neighborhood, and we will give you a realistic range for your specific property rather than a market average. What we can say generally is that title and succession issues, not buyer demand, are the most common reason a New Orleans closing runs long, which is why we start looking for them while the property is still on the market.
It is negotiable and it is your decision. Since the 2024 National Association of REALTORS® policy changes, buyer’s agents work under written agreements with their buyers and seller-offered compensation is no longer advertised in the MLS. Whether offering it helps you depends on your price range and buyer pool, and we will give you our read on that for your property.
A title attorney usually handles the closing, and it almost always takes place at a closing table. The title attorney prepares the act of sale, examines title and records the transfer.
It depends on the repair. Cosmetic work with visible payoff and anything a buyer’s inspector will certainly flag is usually worth doing first. Major systems can go either way, because a credit sometimes nets you more than the repair costs you. We walk the property with you and give you a specific list rather than a rule.
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Let’s find out what your home is worth.
A valuation, the comps behind it, and a straight answer on timing. No obligation to list.