3 Key Tips to Selling Your Home in the Fall

Keep your house looking neat and seasonal to make an impression on a potential buyer.

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

Today, let’s talk about three key tips to selling your home in the fall.

1. Keep up the curb appeal. With the fall comes tricky weather and falling leaves, so just make sure that you keep everything in tip-top shape. Curb appeal is important because if someone doesn’t like the exterior of a house, they may not want to look at the interior. Keep your lawn clean, pick up leaves, and clear your walkways. Something else I like to do for every listing is to get a brand-new doormat. A clean, new one brings freshness to your porch, where an old one might not.

2. Lighting is key in the fall. The fall has shorter days and more shadows, so be sure to open the blinds and shutters to keep light coming in. You might also add some new light bulbs, making sure that all of them work, as well as bring light to the darker areas of your home. This could help a lot during showings by displaying any improvements you’ve made to the house.

“

Curb appeal is important because if someone doesn’t like the exterior of a house, they may not want to look at the interior.

”

3. The fall decor. Add touches like pumpkins or wreaths to freshen up that fall taste. Just make sure that you don’t go too far with it. Don’t leave your porch looking like a farmers market. Show just enough to look seasonal, but not so much that it detracts from the house itself.

If you have questions or would like information about anything else, please feel free to reach out anytime. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

How to Pick the Best Offer for Your Home

If you sell your house and price it right in our market, there's a good chance you'll receive more than one offer. Here's how to decide which one to pick.

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

If your home is for sale and it's priced right, you can expect multiple offers. The key to handling multiple offers is knowing how to engage with those buyers.

The first thing you want is for your agent to reach out to the buyers' agents and ask for their clients' highest and best offers. You want to let them know that it might be their final chance to put their best foot forward.

“

Cash is king, but it's not always your best option.

”

Then, you want to carefully consider the terms offered by the buyer. Inventory is tight in our market, and most people who sell their house have to turn around and buy another. A buyer offering the term where you don't have to move out of your house immediately after closing or allowing you to sell your house contingent on finding a new home would be very important factors to consider. We want to look at all the terms, not just the highest price. 

The next big thing to consider is the buyer's earnest money deposit, or how much they're going to put into escrow. This money goes toward the down payment, but it's also at risk if something goes wrong with the transaction and the buyer doesn't perform according to the agreement. A $10,000 earnest money deposit is much more powerful than a $100 earnest money deposit. 

Finally, you'll want to consider how well the buyer has their finances in order. Cash is always king as a buyer, but a cash buyer can back out of a deal just as easily as a financed buyer can. Similarly, just because a buyer is using FHA or VA financing doesn't mean they're not capable of submitting the best offer in terms of price and terms.

If you have any other questions about how to handle multiple offers when selling your home, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

How Does a Comparative Market Analysis Help Home Sellers?

A comparative market analysis plays an important part in a home sale because it gives agents an idea of how to position your home on the market.

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

What role does a comparative market analysis play in a home sale?

A comparative market analysis (CMA) is important to determine the value of your home before placing it on the market. The way we agents determine a CMA is by comparing your home with the value of other homes in the neighborhood that have either sold, are pending, or are still on the market. 

Of those three categories—active listings, pending listings, and sold listings—sold listings are the most important because they give us a true picture of what homes are selling for. We use pending and active listings to determine other factors. The goal is to pull at least three to five homes that are similar to yours in size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and any type of amenities and make adjustments based on that criteria to determine where to price your home. 

“

A CMA gives agents a good idea how to position your home in the market.

”

Ultimately, the buyer is the one who will determine the value of your home, and you can price your home according to your specific situation. If you’re not in a rush for it to sell, you can price it on the higher side. If you need to sell your house contingent on finding a replacement property, then you may price it more aggressively to generate multiple offers. 

Pending data tells us where the market is currently at. If a home has been on the market for only five days and is in escrow already, we can assume that it sold pretty close to asking price. Depending on how many properties are active on the market, that will tell us the inventory level and if there is a lot of competition that could affect your pricing. 

If you have any questions or have any other real estate needs, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon! 

5 Keys to Position Your Home Sale for Success

Positioning your home from a marketing perspective is the best way to sell for top dollar. These five things are the keys to positioning your home to maximize your exposure.

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

When you sell your home, it's important to position it well from a marketing perspective if you want to get top dollar and sell as quickly as possible. There are five main points to focus on to do this:

1. Pricing. You want to price it as close to fair market value as possible because this will give you maximum exposure from all qualified buyers in the market. Pricing too high, like many sellers tend to do, will give you less traction and less access to qualified buyers. You want to try to get multiple buyers who want to write an offer on your house.
2. Bring in a staging consultant to see if there's anything that needs to be done to the property. When you went on your first date with your spouse or partner, you spent some time to look sharp and get ready to impress them—we want to do the same thing with your house. How you live in a home is not how you sell a home. Some of my clients have simply removed some furniture and excess clutter while others have spent $5,000 staging the home professionally. Each home has different needs.
3. Use professional photography, videography, and maybe even drone video. These days, 97% of buyers will actually start their search for a home online. If your home isn't positioned well visually on the Internet and buyers aren't drawn to the pictures, they probably won't see it in person. Photos are the number one thing we have to do to be sure your home shows well online to all those buyers.
4. Market syndication. This means your listing is pushed out not just to one website, but to hundreds or even thousands of real estate websites. There are many buyers who could come from many places, so you want to put your home in front of as many qualified buyers as possible on a myriad of real estate websites.
5. Make sure you have the back end operations to capture all that lead data. You want to be sure the agent and team you hire have the operations in place to make sure they're converting on the activity your home is seeing from the marketing; it should be proactive, not passive.

“

You want to expose your home to as many qualified buyers as possible.

”

With these five keys in place, you'll be in the best position to sell your home quickly for top dollar. If you have any other questions, always feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help!

3 Reasons to Sell Your Sacramento Home This Fall

Should you put your home on the market this fall? The answer is absolutely yes, and there are three main advantages to listing now rather than waiting for spring.

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

This time of year, I get the same question from a number of potential sellers: “Should I sell my home in the fall?”

My answer is absolutely yes. Fall is a great time to sell, and there are three main reasons why you should put your home on the market now.

1. You will face less competition as a seller in the fall. Why? Most people think that spring is a great time to sell your home, and it is. Still, when your home is on the market and five neighboring homes are on the market, there is more supply and less demand. If there are only two buyers looking in your neighborhood, then only two of those five homes might sell. In the fall, you might be the only one on the market in your neighborhood, so you only need to find one buyer to make that transaction happen.

2. Buyers are more serious in the fall. These buyers have come out of the summer market without finding a home and most of them are looking to get into a new home before the holidays. These buyers are highly motivated people who want to get settled as soon as possible.

3. Interest rates are still phenomenally low this fall. Low interest rates mean buyers still have a lot of purchasing power. We don’t know what will happen with interest rates after the election, so most buyers will want to take advantage of those rates now, which is good news for home sellers.

“

Buyers are more serious about getting into a home in the fall.

”

As you can see, putting your home on the market in the fall comes with many advantages. If you have any other questions about selling your home this fall or are interested in exploring other real estate topics, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

How Making Small Improvements Before Listing Can Net a Large Return

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

A lot of my clients wonder what improvements they can make to their house to get top dollar in the best amount of time with the least amount hassle. I have a system and a process in place where I bring in a staging consultant and we create a punch list on how we can position the property without having our client - the seller - spend a lot of money on things that are not necessary.

Our goal is to position that house on the market so that it appeals to the buyers. The staging consultant on our team works really closely with us to determine simple things like doing interior paint or switching out light fixtures. It doesn’t have to be a full-blown kitchen remodel or countertop replacement. Just a few small updates can go a long way!

“

Making small improvement before listing can yield a huge return.

”

For example, I once came across a property that had sat on the market for 145 days under the direction of the agent before me. It was a smaller home listed at $189,000. I decided to get in contact with the seller after it came off the market, and they decided to put me to work. We then went through the property using our previously mentioned system and decided that only a few small things were needed: a one-room paint job and a professional staging of that room. Most buyers view your house online first so you want it to make a good first impression and stand out with staging and professional photography.

After that $1,700 investment, they were able to list the house for $11,000 more. Not only that, but the very first day it was back on the market, we got an offer above listing price and sold for $202,500. Just by doing these simple things, the seller invested a minimal amount of money and got a huge return.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out by phone or email. I’m looking forward to continuing to be your resource and answer any questions that you may have.

The Inaccuracies of Zillow Can Ruin Your Home Sale

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

We see a lot of misinformation in this industry and lately, a lot of it has been coming from Zillow. Zillow’s “Zestimate” sounds sexy, but more often than not it fails us by getting sellers’ hopes up about the value of their property by providing inaccurate information.

The Zestimate is found using an algorithm that doesn’t take into account many of the things that give your home value. Nuances like the school district, location, and upgrades that control the behaviors of a buyer are not taken into account by Zillow.

To demonstrate just how inaccurate a Zestimate can be, we have a great example to share with you today. We have a Zestimate for the house of the CEO of Zillow, which was put on the market in July 2015. The Zestimate for his home at that time was $1,491,000.

When the home eventually got listed on the market, it was priced at $1,295,000. That’s already a $200,000 deduction on what his own website said the home was worth! Over time, the market sent the message that the home was still overpriced, and priced reductions followed. By the time the home sold, it was eight months later. The home ended up selling for just $1,050,000. That doesn’t sound like a success story to us, and shows that basing your value off a Zestimate is probably not going to help you get top dollar.

“

Basing your value off a Zestimate is probably not going to help you get top dollar.

”

Other problems we’ve seen on Zillow include inaccurate or outdated listing information. A lot of times I’ll get a call from a buyer looking at a property on Zillow, and that property will either be sold or not even on the market yet. Our proprietary website solves this problem, as it pulls data directly from the MLS, which is updated in real-time. We want our clients to be able to see every property that hits the market, not just the ones that people choose to post or not post on Zillow.

If you have any questions for us or any suggestions for future video topics, give us a call or send us an email. We are always looking for ways to help you become more knowledgeable in the market so when it comes time for you to buy or sell, you’re ready.

Can You Buy Another Home If You Still Need to Sell Your Current One?

 Thinking of selling? Get a free home valuation

 Thinking of buying a home? Search all homes for sale on the MLS

How can you get your offer accepted when it’s contingent on the sale of your current home? My team and I have done this a million times, and we have a proven system to get the job done.

First, you need to understand your finances. Make sure your loan is squared away. Work with a quality lender who will make sure your pre-approval is good to go. You can even get that pre-approval underwritten ahead of time so that you have an actual approved loan. That will make your offer appear incredibly strong in the eyes of the seller.

Next, prepare your home for the market. Have a staging consultation, do all the light painting and touch-ups you may need, and declutter the property. Make sure your home is ready to go on the market whenever your offer is accepted. That will make your life a lot easier because you won’t have to scramble to prepare your home for the market.

“

Make sure your home is all ready to hit the market.

”

Make sure you write a strong offer. Don’t just offer a good price. Pay attention to terms as well. For example, the seller may need some sort of rent-back, or they may ask you to pay the closing costs. Understand what the seller wants and write the offer according to what’s important to them.

Finally, you want to work with the right agent who has your best interests at heart. My team and I can make sure you get into your new home even if you have to sell your current one.

If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!