Even if you've never given much thought to selling your home, the continuing surge in home values may have you rethinking your tune. After all, if you have some decent equity in your home, you could stand to make a nice amount of profit just by being willing to move. With all the benefits that come with selling, though, especially in this market, there are some important questions that you should ask yourself before you take the plunge.

1. Do I Know What I Want In A Home?
When you sell your home, you should be prepared for it to sell quickly. While it may linger on the market for a while, it could also sell much faster than you expect. Therefore, before you list your home, it's important that you already have a pretty good idea of the types of homes you'd like to pursue. If you wait until your home is on the market to begin thinking about your future home wish list, you could find that you're way behind in the process if your home sells quickly.

2. Do I Know Where I'll Stay?
On the topic of a fast home sale, another question you should ask yourself when selling your home is if you have a place to stay if your current home sells before you can move into a new home. Do you have some relatives you can stay with? If so, do you know how long it will take before your welcome is worn out? You could, of course, choose to stay in a hotel, but that will quickly eat up the profits of your home sale, which makes it less worthwhile. While you may not need to worry about this contingency, it's important to think about it just in case.

3. Why Am I Selling?
While this question is a bit more philosophical, it's still among the 7 questions to ask when selling. After all, you want to be sure that your motivation for selling is something that will help motivate you to make solid financial decisions. If you're selling to relocate or to make a profit, it's more likely that you'll make wise financial moves throughout the process than if you simply want to move to upgrade to a larger home.

4. Do I Have Enough Funds?
Selling a home can be fairly expensive. Although you get to enjoy the profits of the sale, there are plenty of expenses involved that will eat into those profits. For example, you'll need to pay to get your home ready to sell, which could cost several thousand dollars depending on the condition of your home.

You'll also need to have money for any concerns that pop up during the home inspection, plus any concessions that the buyers ask for in the contract. Considering that you may not see the profits from the sale immediately, it's important to have enough money on hand to be able to cover these costs without putting yourself in financial peril.

5. Am I Truly Ready?
For some people, especially those who move fairly frequently, a home is nothing more than walls, floors, and ceilings. For other people, though, a home is the manifestation of the memories that they've made within those walls. If you find yourself leaning toward that latter mindset, it's important to ask yourself if you're truly ready to leave your home.

Without a doubt, homes are places where special events happen. Therefore, it's important to separate yourself from the excitement over moving to ensure that you're truly ready to leave behind the place where those events occurred.

6. How Will I Sell My Home?
There's no doubt that the idea of selling your home yourself is appealing. Since a realtor is paid from the proceeds of the home sale, it can be tempting to want to keep the entire pie for yourself instead of sharing it with someone else. However, if you plan to sell your home yourself, it's vital that you understand the complexities of real estate law and home contracts that you'll be dealing with without help. In many cases, once people understand these complexities, they opt to use a realtor, instead.

7. How Fast Can I Move Out?
After your home sells, you may only have a few days before closing to pack-up your home and move out. Therefore, you need to make sure everything is organized so that the packing process can be completed quickly and efficiently. After all, you don't want to lose out on more profits because you have to pay a moving company simply because you didn't adequately prepare for moving day. If you think you'll need extra time, you can see if the buyers are willing to agree to give you additional days before they move in.