5 Steps to Maximize Your Home Sale

There are five steps you can follow that will all but ensure that your home sells for top dollar in today's market.

Selling your home? Get a free home valuation

Buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

When you sell your house, there are a few certain steps you can take to maximize your sale.

We spend a lot of time helping homeowners prepare for the market. A lot of people think this starts way later in the process, when in reality, they should spend a lot of time preparing their home to get the most money in their pocket. You want the house to look its best to buyers and get maximum exposure.

“

Pre-inspections help you avoid unpleasant surprises during the escrow process.

”

There are five key steps you should take when listing your home:

1. Prepare your home to get on the market. First impressions are everything, so we make sure to schedule a home staging consultation where a professional stager and interior designer will give you tips to prepare your home for the market.
2. Pre-inspections. For most homeowners, a pre-inspection is important because it removes potential unknowns that you want to avoid during the escrow process. We can set this up for you, as well.
3. Put the advice of the home inspector and the stager to work. This will ensure you're clear of all issues, and you might even want to bring out a contractor or a painter to take care of anything big.
4. Home evaluation. We'll give you a free home valuation through a market analysis and set up where your home should be positioned in the market. Or, you can have a professional appraiser come out for a full appraisal.
5. Interview an agent. You want to make sure they have the highest quality marketing plan. There's a big difference in how much different agents invest into marketing your home to sell. We, for example, provide professional photography, aerial drone videos, and even 3-D home walkthrough technology to make a potential buyer feel like they're walking through the house even if they're 500 miles away. Then, we'll get your home on the best websites like Zillow, Trulia, and of course, our website.

These steps will put you on the right path to finding the right buyer. Just last week, we sold a home with our marketing plan and received offers within 48 hours. The best part about today's market is that with the right marketing, you can achieve amazing results.

If you have any other questions we can answer, don't hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’d be honored to help you.

What Will the Market Look Like in 2017?

2016 was a great year for real estate, but it’s time to see what the 2017 market will look like.

Selling your home? Get a free home valuation

Buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

Happy New Year!

Before I get started with the new year market update, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for working with us in the past. We look forward to helping you in any way we can in 2017.

2016 was a very exciting year for real estate, and all signs point to last year’s trends continuing into 2017.

Over the next few years, we should see a consistent appreciation. We won’t see the high peaks that we’ve seen in the past, and economists are predicting a steady appreciation of maybe 3% or 4%. This means the market will continue to grow and stay healthy.

One of the biggest problems we are facing right now is low inventory. If you are looking to sell your home, don’t wait until spring to put your home on the market. Consult with us over the next 30 days and let us get you prepped to get your home sold before the competition rises in the spring.

A hot topic in the real estate world right now is the rise in interest rates. They just went up to barely over 4%. However, historically speaking, interest rates are still very low. Now is a great time to take advantage of the market if you’re a buyer, as your house payment could still be less than the cost of renting a home.

“

Interest rates are still historically low.

”

Many people believe they have to have a large down payment to purchase a home, and that’s simply not true. There are options for buyers that you may not even be aware of, such as zero money down and 3% down options. It’s very likely that a house payment will be the same or less than a rent payment, so it’s smart to buy and build your equity instead of building your landlord’s.

If you have any other questions, please give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to helping you with any real estate needs.

What’s Happening in the Northern California Market?

We’d like to break down what’s happening in the Northern California market and give you a few helpful buyer and seller tips in this market update.

Selling your home? Get a free home valuation

Buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

What are the current conditions of the Northern California real estate market?

Home sales are always a little bit slow around this time of year going into the winter, and this year is no exception. With fall in full swing, is it a good idea for home sellers to wait until spring to list their homes on the market? Here are a few reasons why I think that right now is a great time to sell your home and take advantage of our strong market:

1.  Interest rates are still low. The Fed is talking about meeting in December to talk about raising mortgage interest rates, but it’s important to note that they have had this same meeting multiple times and did not end up changing anything. These low rates are keeping homes affordable for home buyers right now.

2. Buyer demand is still high. My office alone has a huge list of buyers that we’re in contact with who are all looking for homes right now.

3. Inventory is low. We need homes to sell, and fewer homes on the market means less competition for you if you decide to list now.

4. Home sale prices are up.

I’d also like to answer a quick question from one of our viewers who asked, “Does installing solar panels help increase the sale price of your house?”

“

It’s a great time to take advantage of our strong market.

”

In my experience, I have never seen any buyers pay over the comparable market value on a home just because it utilizes solar technology. I think that solar power is great for the homeowners, but if you’re thinking about selling your house at all in the near future, I would hold off on installing this.

In terms of value, I’d compare solar panels to pools: some appraisers may add $10,000 or $15,000 in extra value when coming up with a price for the home, but the addition will probably cost around $35,000 or more. This is not a great return on investment, especially if you’re thinking about selling in the near future.

One other thing I’d like to mention about the real estate world is about a service that we provide to buyers which most agents don’t. The low inventory levels can leave home buyers frustrated right now, especially when they know exactly the kind of home they want in a specific neighborhood but can’t track it down.

To help people in this situation, we will set up a consultation with these buyers and determine exactly what they are looking for in their next home. Once we nail down all of the specifics, we’ll actually go out and find the home that they’re looking for, whether we have to go door-knocking on houses in the neighborhood or send out mailers. This gives our buyers the option to go out and look at homes that are not yet on the market and make an offer on a property without having to compete with other buyers.

If you have any other questions about our market or you’re looking to buy or sell a Northern California home in the near future, give us a call or send us an email. We’d be happy to help you!