Q: What repairs or renovations should I consider before listing?

A: Each situation can differ as there are many factors to also consider: budget, moving timeline, age of the home, what's common in the area, plus current market conditions. Even without a large budget for remodeling, a few simple upgrades like new paint and new lighting fixtures can go a long way towards creating a refreshed look. 

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Q: How long does it typically take to sell a home in this market?

A: There are three major components to the process: prep process, active/for sale, and escrow. Combined, these can take anywhere from 2-3 weeks on the quicker end, to 5 months on a slower pace. As an example, a typical home needing some prep time, closing with a non-cash offer might take something like 3 months from start to finish. 

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Q: What are the major costs involved?

A: When selling your home, the bulk of the fees are usually towards commissions paid to the listing agent & buyer agent. By law there is no standard commission fee, but the typical rate nowadays for full service is 5% (2.5% to each side). In California, the Seller is also responsible for paying county transfer tax, which is assessed based on the price ($1.10 per every $1000). Some cities will have a city transfer tax, which around the Bay Area, is usually customary for buyer & seller to split (See the Who Pays What Guide). 

Note the commission rate can vary based on the overall skill, involvement of the agent in the prep process, marketing efforts, ability to front repair/upgrade costs until closing, & etc. 

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Q: What's included with your services? How is your marketing different?

A: Everhome provides us with leading technology that helps us market homes more effectively

and with more reach. Our comprehensive marketing includes professional drone & interior videos with each listing, along with Matterport 3D virtual tours, Youtube video, floorplan drawings, and blasts to local agents and all the major Real Estate property portals. In addition, we have a wide network of local vendor contacts who help us provide value in our projects.

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Q: Do I have to move out of my house?

A: While it's not mandatory to vacate during the listing prep and showing period, it does make things much easier to get done. Especially if we are doing contractor work in the home, there is likely to be a some people visiting, dust in the air, and construction noise. Note if moving to a temporary place is not an option, we can talk about ways to get the prep work done with the least hassle and/or adjust the remodeling strategy. Coordinating showings are sometimes challenging as you can imagine, there is sort of a tradeoff between maintaining some privacy and maximizing the marketing exposure/traffic to the property.

 

Q: Some agents are advertising that they can sell my home 30-50% over the asking price. Does this auction style pricing really work?

A: This type of marketing is very misleading in my opinion, especially for new/first time home buyers. These auction style pricing strategies can work in some cases, but only for certain types of properties with little to no red flags. In this situation, the key is for the home to have a very large buyer pool, otherwise that kind of aggressive pricing can actually backfire. In my opinion, it's usually a more effective strategy to price in line (or near) the available comps and not fight too hard against the trend of the market.

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Q: Worst case scenario, what If I change my mind during the process? What if the offers coming in are not good enough?

A: If you change your mind and decide not to sell, my only requirement is that you reimburse my expenses for marketing the home. Technically you have a right to refuse any offer, you are not obligated to sell if they are not to your liking. Note once an offer is accepted, we would not be able to cancel the agreement without breaching the contract. 
Note in most of those scenarios, continuing efforts to market the property while doing a price reduction usually help regenerate interest in the home.

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Q: What is a "rent back"?

A: "Rent back" allows the seller to stay in the home for an additional period of time after the escrow officially closes. During this rent back period, the buyer acts as the landlord and the seller as the tenant. This rent back period is helpful for sellers in many cases such as: shopping for a replacement home, waiting for a replacement home to close, or waiting for a new construction home to be built.