If you were going to sell your house in the Bay Area, how would you go about doing it? First, most would find a real estate agent. How do most sellers find a real estate agent? See article. A good real estate agent (or one of their designers) will give you a list of improvements to your house that will either give you a return on your improvements or make the house much easier to sell. This could be anywhere from needing a new coat of paint, new carpets, or refinishing wood floors to a kitchen remodel or addition of a bathroom. At that point, you can determine what level of money and amount of time you want to put in to be able to sell your place. You might determine it would make sense to do some basic improvements but not worry about the kitchen remodel or addition of a bathroom because a buyer would want their own kitchen design or may be single and doesn’t need an additional bathroom. Remember, it also doesn’t make sense to spend $100,000 just to obtain an additional $100,000 on your sales price. Once you’ve made the improvements, make a plan and schedule together with your real estate agent and sign the listing agreement.
Get the house cleaned and windows cleaned regardless of whether you plan to stay in your house during the sale or move out and stage it. If you want to receive the highest price for your property, it is important to move out and stage it, even though it might not be convenient. Most people who live in their homes can’t always keep it immaculate, they have a lot of family pictures, and some of their furniture is dated. Prospective buyers want to come into a house without the awkwardness of someone living there and that is beautifully staged. That’s why staging is so important – it gives people the framework of how the house is setup and it also makes the house look SO much better. With family pictures, it feels like someone else’s house to a prospective buyer. If moving out is not an option while you sell it, at least declutter your house by placing all non-essential items in a POD and take family pictures off of the wall. Talk to your agent and a stager about doing a partial stage to replace some of the dated furniture to make the house appear more staged.
If it is a hot market, you’ll want to list the house around a Thursday, have the first open house that weekend, a broker’s tour the following Tuesday, an additional open house the following weekend and offers due shortly after that. Some agents like to do only one weekend open houses and some like to do two. In a hot market, with a well-priced, attractive property, generally, you should expect your house to be in escrow within 12 days. If it’s a softer market, expect the house to sit on the market longer than that.
If you have any questions about the process, timing, or questions in general, send me an email.