Selling

We understand that selling a home can be an emotional experience and we’ll leverage our experience and market know-how to ease you through the process. We’ll start by exploring your motivations for selling. Being clear about your intentions for selling will make it easier for us to determine the most appropriate game plan for your specific financial, lifestyle and real estate goals.

We’ll also explain the process of selling your home, establish a reasonable timeline and tour your home with you to assess its relative strengths and weaknesses.

We’ll assess your home’s worth to determine its market value, taking into consideration such variables as features, size, location, market demand and recent comparable sales. To that end, we’ll prepare a detailed market analysis (called a Comparative Market Analysis or CMA). The CMA includes not only comparable sales data but also an analysis of the current market inventory so you can see how your home stacks up against the competition and what the buyer pool for your home might look like.

The ultimate goal of this analysis is to help determine a competitive listing price that will attract qualified buyers and drive maximum interest to your property. We’ll help you strategically price your home to get top market value by striking the perfect balance between too aggressive, which may discourage offers, and underpriced, which may produce multiple offers yet leave money on the table.

Home buyers are human too, often moved by their emotions. You are most likely to have a successful sale if your home’s condition helps buyers form a strong emotional connection with it.

So it’s important that the property shine, both inside and out. Prior to putting your home on the market, we will offer suggestions for changes, repairs or improvements that will enhance its marketability. We will connect you to a whole host of professionals from painters and landscapers to home staging experts in order to enhance the pulling power of your property.

It is also important that your home be “de-personalized’ so that potential buyers will be able to better visualize themselves living in your home rather than feeling like intruders in your home. To that end, you should pack away as many personal belongings as possible, such as family photos, as well as any religious or cultural artifacts that may deter others from feeling comfortable in your home.

We’ll put together a customized marketing plan for your home using all the visual and technology tools at our disposal, including:

• Visual
  • Professional high-resolution photography and drone footage
  • Multi-page, high gloss property brochures
  • Video and/or 3D interactive home tours
• Full Internet Exposure - MLS and all major real estate portals
• Print Media - Local exposure
• Social Media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
• Email Marketing - Direct marketing to our 2,500-agent database

As your listing agents, once we receive an offer on your home, we will use all our experience and negotiating skills to ensure every dollar that can be gotten in your favor makes its way to you.

Having said that, it is not necessarily true that the higher the price, the better the offer. There are a number of terms and conditions within the contract that may influence the final agreed-upon price, the major ones being the financing, appraisal and inspection contingencies as well as the length of escrow and whether you need to live in the home for a period of time after escrow closes.

Our years of experience and Mike’s legal background will be invaluable to you as we coach you through the terms, contingencies and buyer financing aspects of the negotiation to arrive at an agreement that meets your needs while achieving the highest price possible.

Once we’ve negotiated the best possible deal for your home, both you and the buyer will execute a Residential Purchase Agreement, which is the California contract of sale for a home.
Now what? The next step is to open escrow.

Escrow exists because you and the buyer have to clear a few hurdles before the sale can be completed, which is why the parties use an independent 3rd party, called an escrow agent or escrow holder, to collect the buyer’s money and release it to the seller when all contractual conditions have been met.

There is a myriad of details that must be addressed throughout escrow. Perhaps the biggest one is the inspection contingency. The buyer will conduct an inspection of the property and that inspection will generate an inspection report as well as, in most cases, a request to fix those items that the inspection revealed to be in need of repair.

This is the stage of the escrow process called the repair negotiation and we always try to manage the buyer expectations upfront in order to limit the extent of their requested repairs since, in most cases, you are not selling a brand new home and some normal wear and tear is to be expected.

But unless the buyer’s offer was to accept the house in its current physical condition (typical of so-called lot sales where the house is going to be torn down), the parties will often agree that the seller will either undertake certain repairs or, in most cases, simply offer a credit to the buyers through escrow. Again, this is where our negotiating skills can ensure that you do not leave money on the table while still keeping your escrow on track to close on schedule.

Perhaps the most important event in the escrow process is the removal of buyer contingencies, which means the buyer is ready to proceed to closing and cannot renege on the purchase offer without risking the forfeiture of their initial deposit to you.

There will still be a final walkthrough, called a Final Verification of Property Condition, where the buyer will visit the property a few days before closing to verify that everything is the same as when the buyer last viewed the property and that there are no loose ends or agreed-upon repairs that are outstanding. However, this walkthrough is not a contingency of the sale.

After the buyer signs final loan documents, the buyer will wire the remaining down payment to escrow and the escrow officer will close the deal by telling the title company to record the deed. Shortly after deed recordation, escrow will have the net sale proceeds wired to your financial institution while we take care of delivering the keys, garage door openers, etc, to the buyer.

Congratulations! You’ve just sold your home!