Step 1
Home Consultation
With over 20 years of experience in Real Estate and over 1,000 properties sold, I have found that my sellers have many more questions than just “What is my home worth”. Penny & I pride ourselves in not just being able to answer the valuation question, but to really dig down to a clients real needs. Our consultations follows the needs of our clients. If you just need a letter of valuation for estate purposes, we can provide that, but most times the consultation revolves around your families changing needs.
Are you considering adding on, but not sure if buying a home already done makes more sense? Are you considering purchasing an investment property? Do you have to sell your parents home, but are a little overwhelmed with the prospect of making any repairs? Are you looking to trade up but not sure yif you want to keep and rent out your current home? These are all examples of the different direction the consultation process takes.
Over 60% of our business comes from past client and referrals, because our clients know that we put their needs first. The knowledge and answers that we provide always put your needs and financial interest first.
For a Free No Cost or Obligation Consultation, click this link.
Step 2
Develop & Implement Home Preparation Strategy
Perception is everything, and this is certainly true when selling a home. I have read that buyers make up their mind about a home in 3 minutes or less. “Staging” and proper home preparation are a vital part of the home sales process, that most agents leave untapped. We provide our home sellers with professionally trained home “Stagers”, along vast experience of remodeling, fixing up and staging homes. We can lead you through the process of home preparation which will result in more timely sale, and significantly more funds in your pocket.
We encourage you to follow this link to more articles and videos on the home preparation process to learn more.
Step 3
Listing the Property
You are the boss. It is simply our job to provide the best service, expertise and execution for us to help you reach your goals. With this in mind all of our listing contracts include a “100% Guarantee”. Should you not be satisfied for any reason, the listing can be canceled at anytime with no cost or obligation. We do this because we want our clients to know that it is their needs that come first, and we back this up in writing.
This no stress approach eliminates what is typically can be an adversarial role between a home seller and the listing broker. Did you know that if you wanted to take your home off the market, without this clause, you would be liable for the commission. We make sure you are protected and that your needs come first.
Step 4
Marketing the Property
The primary function of the Listing Agent you select should be to Leverage your home’s exposure through every medium available. As students of the Real Estate industry, we understand what creates and generates a buzz about your property. From making sure your property looks great in print and on the web with professional level photography, to local broker/ agent tours and an extensive print publication distribution, we have all of the bases covered.
Step 5
Feedback – Assessing market reaction
Anybody can pick a list price, but what good is a list price too high to generate offers, but one too low to cost you money? The answer is no good. The only number that is important is the final negotiated sales price. It is feedback which provide the essential tool to fine tune the price point. We provide our sellers with the technology to know what agents and buyers are saying about your property. Every agent showing the property will be emailed a quick questionnaire asking the right leading questions, to provide us with the insight to know that we are on track or whether changes need to be made.
It is this “Reading of the Tea Leaves” so to speak that helps us properly advise our clients as to the highest sales price that the market will offer.
Step 6
Negotiating Offers & the Contract
Price isn’t the only objective in negotiating an offer, and accepting an offer is just the beginning of the escrow process. Through our years of experience and fierce protection of our sellers, we have the knowledge to guide our sellers through what is important in the contract. We have the local knowledge to advise our clients which buyers, buyer’s agents and lenders are preferred on the other end of the transaction.
We have extensive experience with lending underwriting guidelines which helps in selecting the offer which is most likely to close. We don’t just take the buyers agent and the lender’s word regarding the buyers ability to perform. We dig behind the details of a simple prequal letter, and investigate, credit scores, quality of income, source of funds to make sure that we accept an offer and take a home off the market, that it will close.
Finally, ever detail of the offer is covered with our sellers, to point out the pros and cons of each negotiated item, to make sure our the offer meets our clients needs.
Step 7
Satisfying Contingencies
While there are many contingencies in the sale of a home the three most important contingencies would be:
1) The buyers investigations regarding property condition, 2) The buyers loan and appraisal contingency, and 3) A contingent purchase if our sellers agreed.
The buyers investigations consists largely of the buyers physical inspection. By default homes sell in an “As Is” Condition, subject to the buyers right to ask for repairs based upon the inspection. But the seller is under now obligation to perform any repairs. This is where you as a seller need a strong Listing Agent. Through hundreds of negotiations, we have learned that in MOST instances, a buyers repair request if simply a request, not a demand, and for the most part the buyer will not back out. How your agent handles these contingencies directly affects your bottom line.
Step 8
The Closing
If your agent has done his job up until this point the closing is simple. The only difficult situation becomes when there are multiple parties closing around the same time with overlapping occupancy schedules. These details can always be anticipated in advance and worked around. While moving is never a fun project. Our experience and follow through will ensure that the structure of the transaction creates a fluid move.
Keep in mind that it is our long term goal to produce happy satisfied clients that want to refer friends and family. So even if the transaction is complete, the transaction isn’t over until all of our clients needs are addresses.